Page 69 of The Lost Future of Pepperharrow

Christ, and Mori.

There was every chance he was all right. He was under no obligation to look after Thaniel now, after all. Maybe this vanishing was just part of his fight with Kuroda.

Willis’s voice came sharp from the next room. ‘Miss Steepleton – you can’t come in here, you must leave him alone—’

‘He said he would read,’ Six’s voice said, unmoved.

‘For heaven’s sake, girl—’

He straightened up. ‘Willis, let her in.’

‘You shouldn’t pander to this sort of thing,’ Willis said crossly.

Six appeared in the doorway, looking at him like she might drop him in the sea one day.

‘It isn’t pandering—’

‘No, I forbid it. Miss Steepleton, on you go, if you please. This isn’t the place for little girls.’

‘Willis—’

‘Now come along.’ Willis caught her arm and tried to steer her out, back towards the stairs.

Six screamed. It wasn’t how children usually screamed. This was primal, funnelled up from some interior inferno, and it didn’t sound human. Thaniel struggled upright but couldn’t stand. He hadn’t felt it lying down, but Willis had given him something, opium or laudanum, and the room hammocked. Willis yelled as Six banged both fists into his stomach and took a chunk out of his hand with her teeth. He dropped her and she shot into the corner, under a side table on which a potted fern sat.

‘What in God’s name—’

‘Touch her and I’ll break your nose,’ Thaniel managed. ‘Get away from her. Now.’

Willis backed off, bewildered.

‘She’s made differently, you fuckwit, any idiot can see that. Leave her the hell alone.’

For all Willis was a foot taller, he looked frightened. Not quite for the first time, Thaniel felt wearily glad that he looked so much rougher than he was.

‘What on earth is going on?’ Vaulker demanded, halfway down the stairs.

‘I had no idea it was quite like that,’ Willis murmured. ‘She should be in an asylum, Mr Steepleton—’

‘Over my dead body,’ Thaniel said flatly.

‘Steepleton!’ Vaulker snapped.

‘Look at her,’ Thaniel snapped back.

Vaulker looked and faltered. ‘Is she all right?’

‘No.’

Vaulker glanced up at Willis, then back at Thaniel. ‘I see. Well, Mr Steepleton, perhaps you’d agree to not shout obscenities at the good doctor. Dr Willis, I’m entirely convinced that your intentions were excellent as usual, but I don’t believe that any little girl would maintain perfect equanimity should a man of your stature lay hands on her. Might we consider a pax?’

‘Yes, naturally,’ Willis murmured, and then hissed as he poured iodine over the bite.

‘Should she be in an asylum?’ Vaulker asked Thaniel.

‘No! She’s not insane, you know she isn’t.’

‘Contain yourself, please! For the second time!’