‘Riveting stuff, I’m sure,’ said Lio. He looked between them and then sighed, pulling up a chair beside Dot. ‘What are we discussing?’
Lio looked at her.Quick,she thought,come up with something clever.
‘Actually,’ said Rupert, ‘I was about to ask Dot if she knew where Theodora had been disappearing off to recently.’
‘No clue,’ said Dot.
‘The staff keep complaining about their pay,’ said Rupert. ‘I mean, she’s late for everything, but it’s getting worse.’
Dot took a breath and forced herself to look at Lio.
‘Was she like that when you used to know her?’
Lio laughed. His face lit up as if recalling a moment both comical and a little horrifying. He opened his mouth to speak, but then halted.
‘Oh, never mind,’ said Lio, ‘I’m not allowed to discuss it.’
‘Go on,’ said Rupert.
‘No,’ said Lio, ‘it’s the one condition of her letting me stay. I’ll not chance it.’
‘You can’t tease us with an expression like that and then not say it,’ cried Rupert. ‘You did that on purpose.’
Dot laughed weakly. Her fatigue compounded with each passing moment and so she shut her eyes and held onto her tea. She listened to the sound of Lio and Rupert joking. Every now and then, theyasked her a question and made a point to include her and, although a distant part of her felt the engineered quality of their kindness, she told herself she didn’t mind. She still felt with the two of them, in the low lamplight of the tea shop, the gentle warmth of belonging.
It was Rupert who finally made Dot contact her family.
‘I told Theodora this already,’ Dot had argued as she crushed whirligig beetles in the basement workshop. ‘Several times. I don’t want to speak to them. It absolutely will not help, and I’m certain they’re angry at me. They probably hate me. I left them in the middle of the night with only a letter to explain why I’d gone. I might not be able to healthis,’ she waved her afflicted hand, ‘but I at least want an explanation for it before I go back.’
‘Dot, you’re dying.’
‘Exactly! So, how couldtheyhelp? The one we need is Grandad.’
‘Your mother or father might know exactly where he is.’
‘If they did know,’ said Dot, ‘that would mean that Grandad had returned home. If he’d returned home, he would have responded to my telegram.’
‘Oh Saints,’ said Rupert, ‘Dot, you don’t knoweverything.’
That was when Theodora looked up from her cauldron.
‘Rupert is right,’ said the witch. ‘If it weren’t for Acanthi, we would have already teleported down there, but I’ll not lead them straight to your family. If we wish to save you, Dorothy, we’ve no other choice.’
‘We need to do something,’ said Rupert.
‘But we don’t even know if Grandad knowsanything,’ said Dot with a frustrated sigh.
‘He knew enough to make that tonic,’ said Theodora.
‘What if your family have gotten word of an outpost he’s at?’ asked Rupert. ‘What if they knew that he was going to be at aspecific island, on a specific day? Theodora could dip in and out, bring him back to the city, and no one would be led anywhere. No link to Seafarthing. No one in danger. That would solve some problems, wouldn’t it?’
Dot had no recourse for this. She said weakly, ‘I don’t want to speak with them.’
‘I’ll do it,’ said Rupert. ‘There’s a public phone on Collins Street. We can go right now.’
And so off they went up Wren Court.
‘Did you see the look on Lio’s face?’ asked Rupert, shoving his hands in his pockets. ‘Like a dog being left behind.’
