The Dollmaker / Season 1, Episode 7
Barbora's Silent Restoration
Mira’s fingers trembled as she brushed the soft bristles of her sable-hair brush across the porcelain cheek of the doll named Barbora. The restoration room in the baroque palace was a cavern of silence at this hour, the only sound the faint scratch of her tool against the glazed surface and the occasional groan of the ancient heating pipes beneath the floor. The air was heavy with the scent of linseed oil and the sharp tang of mineral spirits, a familiar cocktail that usually grounded her. But tonight, it did little to steady the pulse hammering in her throat. The doll’s face stared up at her from the workbench, its glass eyes catching the dim amber glow of the desk lamp. They seemed to follow her, unblinking, as if measuring every stroke. She shifted on the stool, the cold of the stone floor seeping through her boots despite the thick wool socks she’d layered on against Prague’s brutal winter. It was past midnight, the palace’s corridors long emptied of the day’s staff, leaving her alone in this vaulted chamber with its peeling frescoes and windows frosted over with ice. She’d promised Karolína she’d finish Barbora’s final touches by morning—retouching the faint blush on the cheeks, sealing the last of the hairline cracks near the temple. But every time she leaned...