Page 56 of The Lost Future of Pepperharrow

‘I’ll do it,’ Thaniel murmured. Pringle’s tipi was all heavy pieces of wood, no kindling, and no sawdust.

It was a relief to sit down on the hearth and do something practical. Vaulker leaned against the chimney, the back of his paisley waistcoat crackling where it caught against the brickwork. He gave Thaniel a brief, disapproving look; Thaniel had a feeling that Vaulker thought doing anything useful was a sign of bad breeding. Pringle flopped onto the nearest chair and hunched over, rubbing his hands together.

‘I’ve never been so cold in my life.’

Thaniel bent forward over the grate and blew softly on the little flame he’d just coaxed to life in a new nest of sawdust. It caught and clicked, and then snackled over the kindling. Pringle edged gratefully closer. Thaniel showed him the sawdust bag for later, and the little kindling sticks.

‘Ooh, fire,’ one of the other juniors said from behind the door, and hurried in.

Only a few seconds later, Mrs Nakano’s daughters stopped in the doorway. Thaniel thought at first that they wanted to come and get warm too, but when they started across, they came much too fast. They ran. One of them snatched the tea-towels off the cupboard door handles. The other pushed Thaniel aside hard, and together they plunged their arms into the grate and smothered the little fire.

‘Hey!’ Pringle squeaked, sounding very young in distress.

‘What in God’s name?’ snapped Vaulker at the same time, and then everyone was shouting at once in a blinding salvo of reds and indignant blues, and Thaniel couldn’t make out anything from anyone. Vaulker snatched the older girl’s arm and began to shake her.

‘Tom! Jesus Christ.’ Thaniel caught Vaulker’s wrists to stop him and the look he got for it was hotter than anger. ‘Let her go,’ he said quietly. He put himself between them, which forced Vaulker to step back.

‘What is going on?’ Thaniel asked her in Japanese.

‘We’ve been telling everyone all morning!’ she said, nearly as angry as Vaulker. ‘You can’t have fires! They bring the ghosts! Why do you think we’re leaving the kitchens?’

‘They bring the ghosts how?’

‘How should I know? But the ghosts like fire. Don’t light fires. Tell everyone. It’ll all be worse than ever in this weather.’

‘What’s she saying?’ Vaulker asked.

‘I don’t know.’ Thaniel shook his head once and switched to Japanese again as the butler came in, alarmed. ‘Mr Ueno, I think Miss Nakano needs a cup of tea and …’ He stopped, because Ueno was shaking his head.

‘She’s right, sir. It’s the fires. With this storm, I really don’t think we ought to light any more.’ He swallowed, and looked agonised to be arguing. ‘I had a nasty scare myself this morning. I believe if we want the legation to run smoothly, it would be best … that is to say, if the gentlemen will insist on lighting fires, I’m afraid we must all leave you to it. Even the stable-boys agree.’

While he had been talking, some of the other servants had materialised too. They must have been waiting all morning for this argument. Everyone was nodding. Not a single person looked uncertain.

‘They say they’ll leave if we light fires,’ Thaniel said at last to Vaulker. ‘They say the fires bring the ghosts.’

‘Oh, for—’

‘Just for now,’ Thaniel interrupted. ‘We’ll have to put up with it for now. We can hire new people but not everyone all at once.’ He felt the servants watching him. None of them really spoke English, but they were fluent when it came to tone and posture.

Vaulker studied him and the chisel went down. Thaniel didn’t think he would be picking it up again soon. ‘Very well then,’ he said. ‘No fires. Someone do alert Dr Willis, however; I can see flu and lung disorders hoving in force over the horizon.’ He left, and his office door clicked once as it closed, then again as he locked it.

Pringle and the other juniors looked worried. Ueno the butler had melted away already, and most of the other staff were on their way out too, but the Nakano girls were both still standing in front of Thaniel.

‘Whatever you mean by it, I wish you’d just say,’ he said.

‘Fire brings the ghosts,’ the eldest girl said solidly. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Steepleton, but it does, and I for one can’t bear to see any more of them. Do you know who the last one was? A little boy who had fallen in the oven. I don’t think you would like to see that twice either.’

He sighed. ‘Come and talk to me if you think of anything I can do.’

‘You can keep the fires out,’ she said.

Her sister smiled. ‘We know you’re doing your best,’ she said as the older girl turned away. She was softer-spoken, less like their mother. ‘But your best would be better if you’d listen to us.’

Once they had gone and the argument was over, Thaniel felt how cold it was again and tucked his hands under his coat sleeves to warm them up on the insides of his elbows.

Pringle squeaked. ‘Why is it always me?’

‘Another electric shock,’ one of the juniors explained when Thaniel looked back. Three of them were huddled together on the dead hearth, in a miserable row like winter ducklings.