Jacob gave his father two hours alone in his room. Then he decided he had waited long enough. He went across the corridor and knocked at his door.
‘Bored?’ said Steven as he opened the door.
‘Very,’ said Jacob. ‘It’s too late and too dark to go sightseeing.’
‘I believe there’s a ghost tour of the city,’ said his father with a grin. ‘We could try that.’
‘Let me come in,’ said Jacob, ignoring the inane suggestion. ‘It’s you I want to see and I want you to fill in some of the details.’
Steven opened his door wider and Jacob walked in and sat down on the basket chair. Steven stretched out on his bed, sitting up with his hands behind his head. The only light in the room was the table lamp.
‘So what do you want to know?’ he said. ‘Where do I begin?’
Jacob, as usual, was very direct. ‘What were you talking about to the Gwynns? What did you find out? And what did you mean by telling Mrs Gwynn that the possibility was there? What were the directions?’
‘You need to know?’
‘Of course I need to know,’ said Jacob impatiently. ‘You made them an offer, didn’t you? You offered them our spaceship. That’s what it sounded like to me.’
‘And what, my son, leads you to that interesting conclusion?’ said Steven loftily. He was a non-smoker, but for effect he pretended to take from his lips a long cigarette holder and blow non-existent smoke rings.
‘Be serious, Dad,’ said Jacob. ‘When you said that the spaceship could return with other Ormingatriga aboard, I thought you were joking. Now I am not so sure. Did you offer them the spaceship?’
‘Yes,’ said Steven, ‘as a matter of fact I did.’
‘What did they say?’
‘They were stuffy about it, as if butter wouldn’t melt in their mouths. He said it was against all precedents. It had never happened and never should happen. She was only concerned that her daughter should know nothing of it.’
‘So they refused?’
‘They refused,’ said Steven. ‘Though, I have to say, Matthew looked thoughtful, even wistful, for a while. Maybe he’s having second thoughts now.’
‘And if he has?’ said Jacob.
‘Ways and means,’ said his father, tapping the side of his nose. ‘Ways and means.’
‘But it is our spaceship,’ said Jacob. ‘It’s not theirs. They have no right to it.’
‘Yes,’ said Steven, ‘and it might not even let them in.’
‘That would be fair enough,’ said Jacob. ‘It is our spaceship. If we don’t use it, nobody else should.’
After all this time he felt affection for the ship. It was a wonderful part of a secret life and he did not want to lose it.
‘It won’t be our ship after the first of March,’ Steven pointed out. ‘It has never really been ours at all. It belongs to Ormingat. That is where it will return. And, all joking apart, it will return empty.’
‘What if the Gwynns change their mind?’
‘They won’t. I know they won’t,’ said Steven, but his son seemed to detect an uncertainty in his father’s voice.
‘But if they do?’ he said.
‘If they do, they do,’ said Steven quite harshly. ‘I don’t choose to talk about it any more. End of subject. Now let’s go out and find ourselves a meal. Tomorrow we’ll go sightseeing; On Wednesday we’ll visit the computer show at the Race Course. Then it’s off up north to Belthorp to deal with Stella Dalrymple.’
It was a calculated distraction. Jacob was diverted from the Gwynns to this lady who knew too much.
‘Did they tell you anything about her?’ he said. ‘The Gwynns I mean.’
‘She knows everything,’ said Steven. ‘She knows all about Ormingat and the visitors to Earth. She knew even before Nesta went to see her. When that strip of sheepskin found on the wheel of the tanker matched up with the coat on the hospital bed, she realized that the stories Thomas had been telling her for years were true.’
‘Does anyone else know?’
‘To the best of our knowledge, Stella Dalrymple is the only person on Earth who is aware that the planet of Ormingat really exists. So she is a problem I shall have to solve.’
Next day they went to the Railway Museum and sent a postcard to the twins. There were many to choose from. Jacob decided that his sisters would like the interior of Queen Victoria’s carriage, a wonderful, possible Barbie doll scenario!
After looking at all of the trains, old and new, from Rocket to Eurostar, they took a bumpy ride in the little road train back to the Minster. Then, because the day was dry and bright and not too cold, they decided to walk along the promenade beside the Ouse.
‘How will you solve the problem of Stella Dalrymple?’ Jacob asked, going back to the conversation of the day before. He had learnt long ago that the best way to get information from his father was to ask little, and not too often.
They walked down the slope that led to the river. There were benches and tables outside a riverside inn. Despite the time of year, some customers were sitting drinking out in the open air.
‘Sit there,’ said Steven. ‘I’ll fetch you a Coke – that’s if you’d like one?’
‘OK,’ said Jacob. I can be patient, Dad, but I still want the answer.
He sat watching the river. It was not high today – no floods, no heavy rain, no burst banks. It was all very pleasant and peaceful. Steven came back with a Coke for Jacob and a lager for himself.
‘Cheers,’ he said, lifting the glass.
Jacob did not respond.
‘Interesting pub,’ said Steven, deliberately ignoring his son’s silence. ‘Got a measure on the wall showing how high the floods have reached over the years. The Ouse is not always a kindly river.’
But at that moment it looked very kindly and sunlight was glinting on the rippling water. It was not warm, but it was certainly pleasant.
‘So how will you solve the problem?’ said Jacob resolutely, looking absently at the glass of Coke on the table in front of him, not one sip taken out of it yet.
‘Stella Dalrymple?’ said Steven.
‘Who else?’
Steven said nothing but drank some lager.
‘You’ll know eventually,’ he said at length. ‘It’s really too simple to be of any concern to you.’
Jacob glowered at him and drank his Coke.
‘The day’s not as warm as it looks,’ said Steven after a while. ‘I’m beginning to feel quite chilly sitting here. Let’s go and check how we get to the Race Course tomorrow. Then we’ll have dinner at that place we went to last night. It wasn’t too bad, was it?’