Nicola has an especially enlarged Organ of Veneration, doesn't she? I was prepared to go along with it as a child reader in re: Rowan as I was not in re: Giles. As an adult reader I'm interested by the portrait of someone who's rather impulsively hashed her education and social life for Duty, and is just about as pleased about it as you might imagine, with predictable consequences for her general mood and relationships with her siblings. (I like the moment you mention too--but I simply adore Jan Scott, with Miranda-like levels of devotion.)