Chapter Six

Dr. Murray looked at me and nodded grimly.

“Well, Papa,” I said with a cheerfulness I did not feel. “We’ll just have to hope that Adam and Mr. Tillyard remember everything you’ve taught them.”

“They’ll do with you there,” he replied, his voice little more than a husky whisper.

I frowned. “Don’t be foolish, Papa. I’m not going.”

“You must, dear girl. You must,” he said, then stopped, interrupted by a sickening bout of the shakes.

It was now ten o’clock in the morning, almost five hours since Papa had woken up feverish and delirious. At first we had both clung to the hope that it was simply a reaction to the excitement of the trip and the renewed interest in the museum, after so long being ignored. But when the tell-tale chills had returned and he grew pale and listless, we had no choice but to call for Dr. Murray once more. He had just confirmed what we already suspected. Papa had succumbed to a second bout of malaria.

“Of course I’m not leaving you like this, Papa,” I said, as I piled more blankets on his bed. “I’ll send Sayeed over to the hotel straight—”

“Kate, you have to go.”

“Rubbish.”

“You have to.” He struggled to sit up in the bed. “Do you think for one minute I’m going to allow those…those parvenus to turn up and claim all the glory after all the work I’ve done! Never! You’re going to dog them every step of the way. You have to go, Kate!” For a moment he’d been strong, but suddenly the fever took its grip again, and he had sunk back on his pillows. “You have to go, Kate,” he repeated in a whisper. “Otherwise…otherwise…”

“Ssh, Papa, ssh. I’ll go. Of course I’ll go, if that’s what you want.”

He nodded, his eyes far too bright, and Dr. Murray and I tiptoed out of the room.

“How long do you think this will last, Doctor?” I asked, as I escorted him to the door. Dr. Murray looked at me with compassion, but his voice was firm.

“I know what you’re thinking, Kate, but it’s no good. He won’t be going with that expedition out to the Valley, unless they’re prepared to postpone it for at least three months. And they won’t do that, will they?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m afraid not.”

“Then your choice is simple, my dear. Either you go with them, or you stay here with him. I’ll be back this evening to see how he is. Good day to you, Kate.”

I spent the rest of the morning in the sickroom, trying to keep Papa calm as I dosed him with the almost useless tonic. When he finally dozed off into a fitful sleep, I sent a message to the Winter Palace, apprising Alice and Adam of Papa’s condition. Then around five o’clock, the door bell rang.

“Sayeed, is Miss Whitaker in?” a voice said. “Please tell her I must speak to her immediately.”

I stared over the banisters. “Is that you, Bella?”

Bella looked up, her face alight with excitement. “Kate, wonderful news! Do come down here! I have to tell someone before I burst.”

I walked slowly down, my hands full with a basin of water and linen flannels. I was absolutely exhausted, but Bella seemed not to notice. I followed her into our drawing room, left the basin on the sideboard and flopped down into an armchair.

“Uncle George has arranged for us to accompany you out to the tombs! Isn’t that marvellous?”

“You’re accompanying us?” I echoed. “Out to the tombs?”

“Yes! You know I told you the other day how Uncle George was always asking me about your trips? Well, last night, we happened to be dining at the Winter Palace, and we met Lady Faulkner and her cousin—who I think is delightful and you still haven’t told me why you were so angry with him—and we talked for absolutely ages about the trip and Uncle George was completely consumed with the idea of going as well. So this morning he met with Lady Faulkner and Mr. Tillyard, and they agreed we could accompany you in exchange for part financing the trip. Isn’t it wonderful?” She ended at last, unpinning her broad-brimmed primrose chapeau and sitting down opposite me.

“Wonderful,” I said faintly. “And how is Lady Faversham taking the news?”

“I think she’s quite glad to be rid of us for a while. She’s already talking about refurnishing the parlour whilst we’re gone,” Bella said, frowning. “I must say, Kate, I thought you’d be more excited about this. Don’t you want me to come with you?”

She sounded so forlorn, that I couldn’t help smiling just a little. “Of course I do, Bella. Forgive me. It’s just that Papa has had another attack of malaria, and I’ve been up since five with him.”

“Oh, darling!” She leapt up, her face contrite as she took my hands in hers. “And here I am, babbling like an idiot. Is there anything I can do? Oh!” Suddenly she gasped. “Does this mean you won’t be coming after all?”

I sat up, and began folding the linen flannels into squares. “I really don’t know. Papa can’t of course, and he’s absolutely adamant that I must go, but I don’t see how I can leave him. I’ve asked Mrs. Holt if she knows of anyone suitable to stay with him, but I have to say I’m not hopeful.”

“Oh dear, how dreadful for you, Kate. And poor Professor Whitaker too; to miss out on this trip after all your hard work.” She stood up. “Let me speak to Aunt Augusta. She knows all the best servants in the English community, and no one will dare deny her. If she can’t get you one, there isn’t one to be had.”

I smiled at the thought of Lady Faversham marching round the expatriate community in Luxor, demanding the use of a nurse until further notice. “Really, Bella, you mustn’t concern yourself—”

“Don’t be ridiculous, darling. What’s the point of having a ferocious harridan of an aunt if she isn’t useful occasionally?” Bella said, pinning her hat back on and preparing to go back out into the heat of the afternoon. “Anyway this is the sort of crisis Aunt Augusta loves. She’ll be in her element. Besides,” she added, honestly. “If you can’t go, she might decide I can’t. And I am absolutely not going to allow that. I’ll be back later.” And she marched out of the house, in a most determined manner.

I stayed where I was, letting my head rest against our ageing antimacassars, intending to rest my eyes for just a few moments, before I went to the kitchen to find something that might tempt Papa’s appetite. To be honest, I did not expect to see Bella again for a couple of days; I certainly didn’t expect her to concern herself with my staffing problems. So I was astonished when the doorbell rang, and I looked up, startled, at the little clock on the mantelpiece. It showed a quarter to eight, and I realised I had been asleep for nearly three hours.

“Miss Katie, you want to see anyone?”

I rubbed my eyes. Sayeed was peering round the door. “Who is it, Sayeed? Is it Dr. Murray?”

“No. It’s Miss Bella. With a fat old woman and a shrivelled servant.”

I stood up. Before I could answer, Lady Faversham sailed into the room, resplendent as ever in grey mousseline-de-soie, a lorgnette in one hand, with Bella and a woman in a maid’s uniform behind her. Not for the first time, I was glad most expats didn’t bother learning Arabic.

“Good evening, my dear,” she said regally, sitting down on the oak settle and drawing a portfolio out of the capacious bag she was carrying. “Isabella tells me your poor papa is ill and you need a good nurse to take care of him whilst you are away. Hmm, you look a little pale yourself. It’s a good job I brought Elliot round with me. She’ll stay here tonight to help you until we can find someone suitable. Now, I have a list here of several women whom I consider would be acceptable for your needs…”

I looked over at Bella. She smiled mischievously at me, winked broadly, then turned her attention back to her formidable aunt once more.

With a mixture of relief and defeat, I did the same.

****

So that was how Bella and I came to be standing on the top deck of the Nile ferry some two weeks later, watching the scene below. Enterprising locals jostled each other, ready to sell their wares at grossly inflated prices to the unsuspecting tourists who flocked out to see the Valley of the Kings. Women in brightly coloured hijabs—long dresses which covered all the body and the hair, but left the face uncovered—offered the Egyptian version of breakfast, made up of cooked ful, fava beans spiced with garlic and lemon juice, and the flat round bread called aysh. There was hummous and babaganoush, made from eggplants, and apricots and figs and pomegranates and to drink, thick, black syrupy coffee. I felt suddenly hungry and bought two apricots and some aysh from the nearest vendor.

Beneath us the Nile flowed, thick with water hyacinth, the beautiful blue flower that grew so fast and was considered such a pest because it clogged up the river. Herons waded along the banks, taking care not to get too close to the crocodiles that slithered in and out of the water.

“Isn’t this exciting!” yelled Bella above the noise. “I can hardly believe I’m here!”

“Neither can I,” I said with feeling. “I do hope Papa will be all right.”

“He’ll be fine.” Bella patted my arm. “Aunt Augusta wouldn’t have recommended Miss Hopkins if she hadn’t approved of her. Besides, she promised to visit every day. He’s in the best possible hands.”

I nodded, knowing this was true. Miss Hopkins, a thin, efficient-looking woman, late of the Ffolkes-Jones household, was now resident in our guest room. She had trained as a nurse at St. Thomas’s in London and was much better than I at getting Papa to eat and rest and take his medicines.

I offered her an apricot, and we walked arm in arm along the deck, letting the heat of the sun warm our faces.

“Oh look,” said Bella suddenly. “There’s Dr. Ellis down there.”

I followed the direction she was pointing in. He was on the lower deck, talking to two boys aged about ten. They were dressed like miniature English gentlemen complete with starched collars and Norfolk jackets.

“Aren’t they the Howard twins?” asked Bella.

“That’s right. After I told their mother I wouldn’t be able to tutor them anymore, she confided in me that they were going to send them back to England soon anyway. Time for them to be educated properly.” I grimaced. “Poor little tykes. I almost feel sorry for them now.”

“I don’t,” said Bella callously. “Anyway, what are they doing here?”

“Their father promised them a trip to the Valley of the Kings before they left, so I suppose this is it. They’re going to be roasted in those clothes.”

Bella turned towards me now, fanning herself with a travel book. “So when are you going to tell me what happened between you and him?”

“There’s nothing to tell. Really,” I insisted as she looked at me disbelievingly. “Nothing you couldn’t guess anyway. He came out here eight years ago to be Papa’s assistant, but it wasn’t until Papa and I went to London last year for my season that I got to know him really well.”

“You had a season?” Bella looked astonished.

“Yes, I had a season,” I said. “We might not have as much money as you, my dear Bella, but we’re not exactly paupers. At least we weren’t then. Anyway, I met Adam at one of the balls.”

“And?”

I shrugged. “We became friends.”

Bella stopped walking and frowned at me. “Kate, you’re impossible. You fell in love, didn’t you? It was love at first sight, hopelessly romantic, and all you can do is say you became friends.”

“It could hardly have been love at first sight since I’d met him seven years previously.”

She frowned, determined not to have her fairy-tale notion of romance ruined by anything as dull as reality. “Very well. It was love at first sight seven years previously. I can just see it,” she continued, waving a hand languidly as though to indicate the scene was unfolding in front of us. “The long hot nights, the heavy scent of jasmine in the air; you, sweet sixteen and struck by cupid’s arrow for the very first time; he, young, handsome and intoxicated by the exotic—what?” she said, frowning, as I began to laugh.

“If you must know, Bella, I was fourteen and obnoxious, and he was an arrogant, condescending bully. I sabotaged his work, taught him bad language in Arabic under the pretence it was polite, drawing-room conversation, and spread rumours among the diggers that he was afraid of the dark.”

Bella looked at me uncertainly for a few moments. “Did you really do all that?”

“Absolutely, but before you start feeling sorry for him, he forced me work in the ship’s laundry for hours on end, got Alice to believe I enjoyed copying out dull passages of Cicero, and made me clean his boots for weeks after the Egyptians had forgiven him for cursing them in Arabic.”

She thought about this, then chuckled. “You really were a very bad little girl, weren’t you, Kate? I thought he was making those stories up back at your house. Why were you so mean to your father’s assistants?”

“Why not? They were all so smug, thinking that they knew everything. Every season I had to watch while they forgot to label their specimens or crushed important pieces of evidence because they couldn’t be bothered to look where they were going. And whenever I tried to point out what they were doing, they’d either ignore me or ask me why I wasn’t with my nanny. It was infuriating. I tell you, Bella, by the time I was ten, I was heartily sick of Papa’s stupid assistants.”

Bella laughed. “But they’re men, my dear. What else do you expect of them?”

“I expect them to have some basic knowledge of their subject when they get out here and the common decency to be able to admit when they’re wrong,” I said, but Bella was unimpressed.

“Good heavens, Kate, what odd ideas you do have.”

“And what cynicism you have for one so young.”

“I’ve been worth ten thousand a year since I was five, darling, and it’s due to go up soon, so the trustees tell me. Believe me, there’s very little nonsense I haven’t already heard. But anyway you were telling me about Dr. Ellis. If he was so awful, how did you become friends in London?”

“I was seven years older by then, Bella,” I said, smiling. “I like to think I’m a little more sophisticated now.”

“Of course.” She put her arm through mine again. “I can just imagine it. After seven long years you finally meet up again, only this time, instead of the gawky tomboy he sees the beautiful young woman and falls madly in love with her.”

“Bella, how can you be so cynical one moment and then so appallingly sentimental the next?”

Bella shrugged. “Very well, Miss Sensible, what was it really like?”

I began to stroll along the deck, feeling the hot sun on my face and neck. I had absolutely no intention of telling Bella or anyone else how I had fallen so desperately in love with Adam that summer. It was still too raw and painful.

“Well, Papa and I were staying with Sir Henry and Lady Faulkner, and he’d got the post of senior archaeologist at the Cavendish Museum and had been intending to meet up with us anyway to discuss Papa’s work with him. And when it was time for us to go back home, the museum decided he should accompany us.”

“The museum decided?” Bella’s tone was sceptical.

“Of course. Papa was convinced he had a good case for them to give us extra funds to search for Khaemwaset’s tomb.” I forbore to mention what a nuisance Papa had made of himself in London. “It was entirely reasonable that the Cavendish send a representative out to verify Papa’s claims.”

“I see,” said Bella, but there was a waspish look in her eye as she studied me. I had no chance to comment further though, because just then the subject himself appeared.

“Good morning, ladies.”

“Dr. Ellis, Kate and I were just talking about you,” said Bella. I could have cheerfully strangled her.

Adam looked at me rather bleakly. We hadn’t spoken since our argument, each of us too busy with our preparations for the trip and, for me, the added concern of Papa’s illness.

“Well,” he said. “That would explain why my ears were burning.”

“Kate was just telling me about her London Season. Tell me, Dr. Ellis—”

“I left some receipts at the hotel for you yesterday, Dr. Ellis,” I interrupted, giving Bella a glare. “Did you receive them?”

“Yes, thank you. You’re as efficient as ever, Kate.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want the museum to think they were wasting any unnecessary resources on us,” I said frostily.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was worthwhile.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. Dr. Ellis is a demon of efficiency too, Bella,” I said, turning to her. “He would never dream of wasting his time on pointless causes. That was another of your opinions on Papa’s theories about the Scarlet Queen, if I remember rightly.”

Adam leaned against the rails of the deck. “You must have written down everything I said that day, Kate,” he said. “I never imagined you hung on my words so devotedly.” Before I could reply, he looked at Bella. “You look very businesslike too, Miss Wyndham-Brown. Those clothes suit you.”

Bella preened, lifting the blue material of her divided skirt bought especially for this trip. Despite her contempt for my wardrobe, she had been amused at the idea of wearing such unladylike clothes and relished the freedom of movement. Meanwhile I scowled at him. Hanging on his every word, indeed! I looked down and noticed the Howard twins rushing along the deck below us, despite the unsuitable clothing they were wearing.

“Oh look,” said Bella, suddenly seeing them too. “It’s those little boys you were talking to. They’re pupils of Kate’s, you know, and they’ve been horrible to her. I hope you weren’t being nice to them.”

He looked down to where she was pointing. “Actually, I met their parents the other day, and Mrs. Howard was telling me they’re going to my old school in Bath. I was just having a chat with them about it.”

“How kind of you,” I said disagreeably, and he looked at me and grinned.

“Well, schooldays are the best days of your life, aren’t they, Kate? Oh wait, I forgot. Not for you they weren’t. Kate ran away from school,” he informed Bella.

“You ran away from school?” She looked at me, astonished.

“Three times,” said the ever helpful Dr. Ellis. “School life apparently didn’t agree with Kate.”

Bella laughed. “Kate! You really are my absolute hero,” she said, putting her arm through mine and hugging me. “I wish I’d had the courage to do that at my school. I loathed every minute there.”

“It really wasn’t courageous at all,” I said. “I just wanted to be back in Egypt.”

“And who wouldn’t, when your life here is so much more exciting? Well, my dear, I can see Uncle George down below looking a little lost. I’d better go and rescue him. I’ll meet you when it’s time to disembark,” she said and disappeared down the stairwell.

I turned and began walking along the deck in the opposite direction, and Adam fell into step beside me.

“I’m sorry about your father. I know he must be disappointed not to be able to come.”

“Thank you. I’ll be sending him daily reports of our findings, so he’ll know exactly what’s happening.”

“That’s nice.” He sounded a bit surprised by this. “You know Tillyard’s brought a couple of secretaries from the museum. They’ll be making daily records of our activities too. I’m sure he’d be happy to let them give you copies.”

“No, thank you, Dr. Ellis. I prefer to write my own reports.”

“For the love of God, Kate, will you stop calling me that? You sound ridiculous.”

“I don’t care. I’d prefer to keep some distance between us. And while we’re on the subject, I’d prefer it if you didn’t call me by my first name. People might get the wrong impression about us.”

“Like what? That we’ve known each other for a long time perhaps and don’t feel that we have to keep up some farcical society charade?”

“No.” I stopped abruptly and he nearly bumped into me. We were very close. “They might think we’re friends, and in case you hadn’t noticed, Adam, we’re not.” I began walking again.

“Kate, I’m sorry about the other day—”

“I’m not. There’s no longer any relationship between us, Dr. Ellis. We are merely colleagues working together on a project that happens to be very important to my father and is therefore very important to me. As you are the secretary of the board and the senior archaeologist on this team, I’m prepared to listen to your views on Khaemwaset and the dig. Beyond that, I’m afraid I have nothing more to say to you.”

I felt rather than saw him stop walking beside me and before I could stop myself, I had stopped and turned round too. He was leaning against the railings again, clapping his hands very slowly. We had stopped in a part of the ferry that was populated almost entirely by native Egyptians and they were all watching us curiously, no doubt entertained by the strange behaviour of the khawagas (foreigners). A light breeze blew across the deck, bringing with it a mixture of citrus fruits and hot ful.

“Well done! Very impressive, Kate. If you didn’t look so angry, I could almost believe you.”

“Believe what you like. I don’t care.”

“Yes, you do. You care so much you can hardly stand it.”

I whirled round to face him. “What I can hardly stand is the fact that I was so childish and stupid as to believe you were ever a good friend. Just because we argued, Adam, there was no reason to take it out on my father.”

“What? Take what out on your father?”

He looked genuinely puzzled at this, but I wasn’t about to be fooled by his act, no matter how good it was.

“Oh well done, very impressive,” I said deliberately imitating him. “If I didn’t know the truth, I could almost believe you had nothing to do with making sure the board refused to give Papa the help he needed.”

“You keep saying that, but I have no idea what you’re talking about. I had nothing to do with any of the decisions the board made after I left Egypt.”

“Oh really?” I was scathing with sarcasm. “The secretary of the board had no say over how the budget was spent? Do you take me for a fool?”

“I’ve only been secretary for the last two months. I know I’m resourceful, Kate, but even I can’t supervise the museum from thousands of miles away.”

“What?”

“I was only made the secretary on Henry’s death. Before that I was still senior field archaeologist. I’ve been in Persia for the last year.”

“What?” I almost fell into one of the white wicker chairs placed on the deck for the passengers. Adam sat down beside me.

“Didn’t you get my letters? I wrote to you half a dozen times.”

“Half a—” I stared at him. “I got one. You said you couldn’t see any point in continuing our relationship since I was obviously determined to be so obstinate.”

“That was the last one I wrote after all the others. When you didn’t reply to any of them, I thought—”

“But I wrote to you hundreds of times! Well, six or seven any way. You were the one who didn’t write back.”

We looked at each other in confusion for a few moments.

“Well, it looks like Tillyard’s not the only one who’s been having problems with the mail,” he said at last, breaking the silence. “I suppose it was inevitable there would be some problems with letters getting to Persia. Although I got most of the ones the museum sent.”

“What were you doing there?”

“In Persia? Snooping around trying to find a back way into Mount Ararat. There’ve been reports over the last few years that remains of a fossilised boat have been found in the mountains and quite a few of the bigger museums have sent people out there.”

“Really? Noah’s Ark?” For a brief moment I forgot I was angry with him and thought instead of how it would be if he found the fabled boat. He smiled rather forlornly.

“Unfortunately the Turks aren’t over-keen to help the West further the cause of archaeology. And the Persian government has little control over their mountain regions. I’ve spent most of my time either in government offices, arguing with minor bureaucrats over which documents I needed for every five yards I wanted to travel.”

I frowned. For over a year I had been harbouring a grudge against this man, sure he was at the bottom of the seemingly personal vendetta the board appeared to have against Papa, and apparently he hadn’t even been in the country at the time. Something wasn’t making any sense, but I couldn’t work out what it was. I got up from the chair and walked towards one of the coffee-sellers.

“Do you want a cup?” I asked Adam and he nodded, following me. As the man handed over two tiny cups of the steaming sweet liquid with its thick pungent smell, he grinned at us. We had obviously been amusing the Egyptians greatly with our argument.

“How long have you been back?” I asked finally.

“About five months. Alice wrote to me and told me about Henry’s last two strokes, and since I wasn’t doing any good in Persia, I thought I’d better return. And do not say anything about Alice snapping her fingers and me coming running, Kate,” he said as I opened my mouth to speak. “I was the senior archaeologist, and Henry’s health was failing. I had to come back, and it had nothing to do with Alice.”

“Well, that makes a change then.”

He sighed. “Kate, do you not think it’s time you gave up this petty-minded jealousy of Alice.”

“Petty! I was Patience personified. And God knows I had enough practice, the amount of times you abandoned me to her.”

“When?” He threw his hands up in irritation. “You were constantly harping on this theme of me abandoning you, but when exactly did I do that?”

I stared at him coldly. “Well, for a start there was that time in London when you promised to take me out to the theatre, and then Alice realised she needed an escort for Henry’s cousin at a dinner party instead. So naturally you cancelled our arrangements—”

“I apologised for that. It was an important dinner.”

“Of course. And that’s what I told myself too. And then when we got to Cairo, you and I were going to take a trip on the Nile, and I had made lots of complicated arrangements to get Professor McNulty and his wife to chaperone us, which was very kind because they really didn’t have the time to spare. Everything was ready, and then you got a telegram from Alice asking if you could go straight to Alexandria because there was a valuable shipment waiting to be sent on—”

“It was valuable! And Henry was asking too!”

“But it was Alice who sent the telegram, Adam. And then twice you promised me—”

“All right!” He frowned as he leaned back on a railing. “Perhaps sometimes I was a little inconsiderate—”

“A little!” I glared at him for a second before walking briskly down the stairs to the passenger lounge. He followed me, but neither of us said anything for a moment.

“You’re right, I was inconsiderate—”

“Thank you.”

“Sometimes,” he added, sharply, then lessening the sting with a smile. “I was a fool, and I didn’t give you the attention you deserved. I apologise for any pain I caused you, and I assure you it was unintentional. Can we be friends again?”

I wanted desperately to believe him on both counts, but there was a tiny voice in the back of my mind telling me not to be so gullible. So avoiding the impulse to let him off the hook, I changed the subject.

“You know, Adam, you say you’ve been in Persia for a year and have had very little contact with the museum, which is all very well, but it still doesn’t explain why the board was so reluctant to fund us. If you weren’t poisoning them against us, why didn’t they help? It makes no sense.”

“Well, it probably had a lot to do with your terrible reports,” he said casually, and I nearly hit him.

“My terrible reports?” I echoed. “What an offensive remark to make. And you want us to be friends again?”

“You want me to be honest, don’t you?” he said. It was on the tip of my tongue to say no, not if you’re going to be mean, but I am nothing if not professional.

“Very well. What do you mean?”

“Your reports were awful. You can’t expect a national institution to take you seriously if you can’t even be bothered to file proper reports, Kate. If it hadn’t been for the article in the Times that one of the board members happened to read a few months ago, I doubt even now we’d be out here.”

Now at the risk of sounding arrogant, I am very proud of my report writing and typing abilities. I know it’s considered a mere woman’s job and people look down on the actual mechanical skills, but I always take a great deal of care over my work, and if I do say so myself, there’s no one faster than me on a keyboard once I get started. I bought a typewriter in London, a little Oliver, and I am a very good typist and documentarian. And here was this arrogant wretch telling me I had been the cause of our problems! I saw red.

“Can’t even be bothered to file proper reports! How dare you! How would you know what my reports are like? You’re supposed to have spent the last year in Persia. My reports have been perfect! They have been clear, concise, detailed, and beyond reproach. Just because your stupid museum refuses to support its most expert, senior, and faithful archaeologist, don’t dare to try to—”

“All right, I’m sorry.” He held his hands up in mock surrender. “Once again I beg your pardon, Kate.” He frowned, doing his best to look grave now, and took my arm as we walked through a small rush-woven door into the first-class passenger lounge. “Look, there’s Alice with the others. Let’s join them and see if everything’s ready for disembarkation, shall we?”

I glared, but before I could say anything else the two little Howard boys appeared in front of me.

“Hello, Miss Whitaker,” they piped in unison, talking as though they were two voices with one brain. I always found it eerie.

“Hello, boys,” I said. Adam walked on ahead.

“We’ve just come to wish you good luck on your expedition, Miss Whitaker,” said Hugh, or it could have been Charles. I was useless at telling them apart.

“That’s very kind of you. And good luck at your new school. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it,” I lied.

“Thank you, Miss Whitaker. We’d also like to say we’re sorry for our bad behaviour during our Latin lessons. We hope you’ll forgive us.”

“Oh…of course.”

I was amazed. They’d never shown any remorse before, and in fact I’d got the distinct impression they’d enjoyed every evil trick they’d played on me. As they walked away, smiling angelically at their good deed, I realised Adam was watching them. Then he turned towards me, and as we looked at one another, his face broke into a smile and he winked.

Something told me the Howard twins’ change of heart wasn’t entirely voluntary.