Nieve squirmed a little and bit her lip. They were trying to creep her out and coming very close to succeeding. “Tissues,” she said firmly. Not skin. Jeepers! “Made of paper, to blow your nose on, dry your eyes, stuff like that.”

“Ah, I see,” said Ashe. “Bodily excrescences. Tears! Mr. Wormius, I think this young lady needs a little something to cheer her up.”

“Oh indeed she does, Mr. Ashe,” said Wormius. “She’s terribly pale. Trouble at home, a best friend missing . . . why, it’s enough to make anyone weep.”

Nieve narrowed her eyes.

“Have a medicinal candy, my dear,” offered Ashe. He extended a skeletal hand into the gloom and pulled a glass apothecary jar toward him. “A sweet to soothe the aching heart.”

Nieve couldn’t help it. When she saw what was in the jar she gasped. It was those jawbreakers again! They rattled and clinked and shuffled in the jar until the black eyespots were all turned toward her. She made a face, thinking of the bitter taste left in her mouth from the one last night . . . how alive it had been, the explosion, the stink in her room.

Ashe, eyeing her closely, said, “You appear to be ill, my dear. How worrying, especially with no one to look after you. No one at all. But we can help, can’t we Mr. Wormius?”

“We can, most certainly, Mr. Ashe.”

“Why don’t you stick out your tongue for me and say, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.”

Ashe made this sound like he’d fallen down a mine shaft.

Nieve was seriously tempted to stick out her tongue, but not in the manner he intended.

Instead, she said, as haughtily as she could manage, “I don’t require any help thank you.” She then turned and walked back down the aisle, quickly, in case they followed after and tried to grab her. She didn’t glance back to see if they were pursuing her – or to see if they’d completely vanished as the Weed Inspector had done – but kept walking swiftly toward the door, focused solely on getting through it.

“You’ve forgotten your tissue . . . Nieve,” she heard Wormius chuckle.

“Yes, Nieve,” Ashe called after her. “Nieve, dear, whatever will you do without it?”