Tess sat on her half-made bed, her mind in a muddle. Rebecca had already packed away most of her clothes and books but she’d left Tess’s nightie, her toothbrush and her treasures box untouched. These things now sat around Tess like a fallen army, forgotten, as she stared at the blanket in her hands.
Then the door banged open. Two of her dorm-mates, Priscilla and Proserpina—who weren’t sisters but really should have been—walked in, gabbling away to one another about hockey, as usual. They stopped short and fell silent when they saw Tess, taking in the scene.
“Are you getting adopted?” Prissy came to sit on Tess’s bed, dropping so heavily onto it that Tess bounced a little.
“You simply must tell us all about it,” said Prossy, sitting on the next bed, her face alight with excitement.
“Are they marvelous? Do they have a summer house?” Prissy, who read a lot of books about orphans coming into riches, clutched her chest and closed her eyes. “Do they sail?”
“I—um. Actually, I’m going into quarantine,” Tess said. Prissy immediately clapped one hand over her mouth and nose, rather overdramatically, while Prossy recoiled a bit, looking disgusted.
“What do you have?” she asked, her face screwing up even further.
Tess drew a blank. Miss Ackerbee forgot to tell me what my fake disease is, she thought. Typical. “I—um. I don’t think it’s too contagious.”
“Still,” said Prissy, her words muffled by her fingers. “If they’re sending you away, it must be fairly serious.”
Tess sighed. “If you were going to catch it, you’d have caught it by now.”
Prissy looked suspicious, but she dropped her hand. “Where are you going?” she asked. “Is it far away?” Tess wondered if there was a hopeful note in her voice.
“No idea,” she answered truthfully. “I hope he’ll tell me when he gets here.”
“Who?” Prossy said, frowning at Tess.
“Mr. Cleat,” Tess said, wishing she could bite the words back as soon as they left her mouth. “I mean—I think that’s his name.”
“Is he a doctor?” Prissy asked.
“I hope not,” Tess said fervently.
“Is he some ancient warty beast?” asked Prossy with a shudder.
“Ooh! Maybe he’ll keep you locked in a tower,” said Prissy, getting lost in the drama of the moment. “And you’ll have to fashion tiny paper birds with things like Help me! written on them in your best calligraphy, and send them out the window, hoping some handsome passing prince will find them and come to rescue you.”
“You do talk such nonsense, Priss,” said Prossy. “Where would she get paper, locked in a tower?” Prissy scowled at her.
“Nobody is getting locked anywhere,” said Tess, hoping she was right about that part. “And if I do get locked in a tower, I’ll find my own way out, thank you very much.”
“You’re no fun, either of you,” grumbled Prissy.
“Anyway,” Prossy said, rolling her eyes. “How long will you be away for?”
“I’m not sure,” Tess replied, settling the blanket on her lap. The object was buried within it, and Tess made sure it wasn’t visible. She liked Prissy and Prossy, but not that much.
Prissy wrinkled her nose as she stared at Violet. “And is he letting you bring that?” she said.
“Yes,” Tess answered in an incredulous tone. “At least, I’m bringing her, no matter what he says.”
“Mm,” said Prossy, tossing her thick plait over one shoulder. She crossed her legs, rotating one foot impatiently. “What about all your tubes and bottles and springs and things?”
“My equipment,” Tess answered, “is also coming. I’m this close to a breakthrough.” Prissy simply raised her eyebrows at that.
All three of them jumped as the door to the dorm burst open again and a third-floor girl stuck her head into the room. “There’s a man outside!” she called breathlessly. “And you should see his car!”
Tess felt like someone had doused her in a bucket of icy water. He’s here.
Prossy went to the nearest window and peered out through it; Prissy joined her a heartbeat later. They looked out at Mr. Cleat and then they looked at one another.
“I think this calls for our best dresses,” Prissy said, and Prossy nodded. They pulled themselves away from the window and began to rummage through their wardrobes. Tess ignored them and walked slowly to the window herself, unsure even as she looked out whether she wanted to see.
A man stood beside a long, sleek black car. He held his hat in his hands as he squinted up at the façade of Ackerbee’s Home for Lost and Foundlings. He had a thin mustache, hair slicked back with pomade and a smart suit. He was younger than Tess had expected. As she watched, he approached the house, eventually vanishing from sight.
“Smarmy, isn’t he?” came a voice at her shoulder. Tess didn’t need to turn to know it was Wilf.
“Like a crocodile wearing a human,” Tess agreed.
“You’re not actually going to go, are you?”
Tess looked at her friend. She didn’t even have to ask; of course Rebecca would have told her the truth. Wilf was as reliable as a rock and she never broke her word. “I have to,” she replied, and Wilf’s only answer was to frown.
Tess threw a glance at Prissy and Prossy; they were knee-deep in hand-me-down lemon-yellow organza, the dresses dotted with the stitches of their many previous owners, and were paying her and Wilf no heed. Then Tess looked at Wilf. “Come here,” she whispered, walking back to her bed. She flipped up the blanket to reveal the object, and Wilf stood staring at it for a long moment.
“What is it?” Wilf asked.
Tess shrugged. “I don’t know yet,” she said. “But I know it might help me find out who I am. Where I came from.”
“But you know who you are,” Wilf protested. “And who cares where you came from?”
Tess deflated. “It’s all right for you,” she said. “You know all that stuff. I don’t. I never have and it leaves a hole, you know? It makes me feel like I don’t belong anywhere.”
“Of course you belong. It’s idiotic to think that you don’t,” Wilf scoffed.
Tess took a deep breath, an ache settling inside her chest. “You don’t understand,” she said, folding the blanket back over the small round object.
“What do you mean?” Wilf’s voice was as miserable as her expression. “How can you say I don’t understand?”
Tess bit her lip, flooded with remorse. “Forget I said it,” she replied.
“No, it’s all right,” Wilf said, wrapping her hurt up inside herself. “Don’t worry about it. You just go off and have a jolly old time with your new dad. We’ll be fine here without you.”
“Wilf, please,” Tess began, throwing her hands in the air, but the other girl turned on her heel and strode out of the room. Prissy and Prossy watched her go, their eyes round.
“Trouble in paradise?” Prissy asked.
“Oh, give it a rest,” Tess muttered, turning back to her suitcase. She shoved everything on her bed into it haphazardly and then had second thoughts. She upturned the suitcase, retrieved the object and put it in her pocket, then repacked the suitcase, all through a haze of angry tears.
“Tess?” came a quiet voice. She turned, a fresh apology to Wilf on her lips, but saw Rebecca in the doorway instead. The teacher’s pale face was like a curl of dough, and she looked as though she’d received a lifetime’s worth of bad news all at once. “Could you come down to Miss Ackerbee’s parlor, please. Quick as you can.”
Tess picked up her case and took a step or two into the middle of the floor, while Prissy and Prossy stood awkwardly beside their beds, wearing their best and second-best dresses, respectively. Rebecca glanced at them, which turned into a full-on glare, and the girls immediately began to pull off the fancy taffeta and silk, looking embarrassed.
“He’s here?” Tess said, and Rebecca looked at her.
“Ahead of schedule, yes,” she answered, holding out a hand. “And he’s not in the mood to wait.” Tess walked to Rebecca and took her hand, gripping her suitcase tightly with the other.
“We’ll miss you, you odd little creature,” Prossy said in her making-the-best-of-it voice.
Tess looked at her and tried to smile. “Hope you get a nice new dorm-mate.”
“One without livestock would be my preference,” Prissy muttered. “Not that there’s anything wrong with living with a tarantula as such,” she added as Violet gave her a reproachful stare from her perch atop Tess’s head.
Rebecca squeezed Tess’s hand. “Come on now,” she urged gently. Prissy and Prossy stood at the end of their beds, looking like they didn’t know what to do with their hands. Tess sucked hard on her lower lip, blinking up at them.
“See you later,” she said, and then she was gone.