“Oh, Jamie, it was dark, and I wanted to die.”
“But you didn’t. And I’ve got you. Come on, now, don’t cry.”
Tao tucks a simple hairpin into his braided beard. “Magic fingers.” I guess finding enlightenment hasn’t dampened the man’s skills.
I find a smile, despite my tears. “Thank you, Uncle. Thank you, too, Strudel.”
The poodle puts her paws on my leg and sniffs me with her narrow snout.
Jamie eases my foot into my second boot while Tao helps me relace my first one with his nimble fingers.
“S-s-skel—”
“We figured. The purser didn’t let us store our money, so we came back and found that slop bucket and his dogs in the room, tearing the place down.” The light glints off Jamie’s sharp-looking teeth as he yanks my laces tight. “Skeleton’s wishing he really was dead. Bo gave him quite a mousing.”
“Tell me the lads didn’t fight.”
“I sent them to find the other Johnnies, but they brought back Mr. Domenic instead.”
“Dina’s father?” An image of the brawny man with his bulging arms and thick neck appears in my mind.
“You should’ve seen him toss those jackasses like sacks of straw. Ming Lai said he used to be a professional wrestler.”
“Where... is Bo?”
“Probably in the stern. We split up to look for you. Bo took Wink and Olly. Ming Lai split off with Fong. Drummer’s been in the boilers.”
“What time is it?”
Jamie’s mouth girdles. “Close to eleven.”
We missed our appointment. “Maybe he’ll still see us. We don’t have his room number, but perhaps—”
“We’ll figure something out, Sis.”
I plod up the stairs after Jamie and Tao, then stop at a drinking fountain. While I quench my sore throat, Jamie stretches his left arm back, wincing.
“What happened?”
“Dislocated my shoulder. It slipped back into place. It’s fine. Smartly, now.”
When we emerge again on E-Deck, still on the first-class side, Strudel bolts down the hall and scratches at a door. It opens. Charlotte, looking like a princess in a green velvet gown and a tiara, scoops Strudel up and presses a kiss into her neck.
“Good girl. Oh, Valora!” She puts Strudel down and embraces me. “We were so worried!” She lets me go, then checks me over, perhaps for injuries.
“Sirs, you aren’t allowed in these corridors.” One of the black-jacketed room stewards who always seem to be hovering around in first class marches up to us.
“Steward,” Charlotte says in a clear voice. “I’m afraid Mr. and Miss Luck have missed Mr. Albert Ankeny Stewart’s valet, who came to fetch them earlier. Would you mind seeing them to his room? I would hate for him to be kept waiting.”
The man’s egg-shaped face cracks a little. “Er, Mr. Stewart?” He crooks one of his large ears toward Charlotte, as if perhaps she has spoken under duress and he’s listening for the real message. She gives him a hard look, and he shakes himself out of his confusion. “If you don’t mind waiting just a moment, I shall check on that.”
Charlotte nods, and the man disappears down the hall.
“They have telephones here,” Charlotte explains.
Jamie, seemingly at a loss for where to put his hands, jams them into his pockets. “Strudel was brilliant.” The electricity running between Charlotte and Jamie could power the whole deck. “Er, this is Tao, our locksmith.”
Tao bows, and Charlotte bows as well. The three make polite conversation, but I cannot think with all the worries sprouting like weeds in my head. The hour is already late, past the lights-out bugle. Mr. Stewart is the kind of man who adheres to a schedule. We’ll have to make up an excuse for our tardiness. I can’t exactly tell him I was locked in a squash closet for stowing away.
