Prim stopped giggling and looked up. “You have other old friends?”
“Apparently. This one was so old I don’t remember her. Gave me her first name only – Anitra.”
“How terribly indelicate.”
“You’re telling me. Then she handed me that book.”
“Even more indelicate,” agreed Primrose. “Was that the reason you were late back to the ship? What happened to the lioness?”
“Well, that resulted in a different mysterious female. Name of Miss Sekhmet. I followed the cat into a shack, and then a beautiful woman swathed in silk came out, knew who I was, gave me back my parasol, and warned me to stay out of India. Then, when I was walking back to the ship, this Anitra person accosted me in public, also swathed in fabric, said that Goldenrod sent her with that book. And that was it.”
“Pull the other one.”
“If I were going to fib, wouldn’t I come up with a better story?”
Prim considered this and made a show of straightening the bodice of her travelling suit, carefully checking all the buttons. “I suppose so. But what does it mean?”
Rue shrugged. “I’ve absolutely no clue but I think we had better put this slim travel memoir in a safe place.”
“My brother’s library?”
“Good idea. We might have a hard time finding it again but then so would anyone else. He’s up top right now – shall we risk it?”
They made their way out of the stateroom but not before Prim had put a hand on Rue’s arm.
Oh dear, thought Rue, here it comes.
“You thought you were going to get out of it,” said Prim. Rue’s expression was wary.
“Very well, if you must. Go on.”
“Rue, and I mean this most kindly, but perhaps in future you should act with a little bit more prudence.”
“Oh, ha ha, thank you very much. Is that all?”
“And I shall be writing a letter to your mother to post as soon as we land in India on the subject of your choices thus far.”
“You are a very hard-hearted female.”
Prim made a kissy face at her and that was that. No further scolding was needed – twenty years of friendship has its benefits.
The two ladies made their way to Percy’s quarters, one half of which was also the ship’s library. The suite had started out as one of the largest but now looked as if it were the smallest. The arched chamber was a warren of books with stacks and shelves and piles everywhere. The beams supporting the deck above were the only component of the Custard still visible. Somewhere there must be walls but it was difficult to spot any. There was no doubt in either of their minds that Percy had some manner of organisation system in place, but they couldn’t figure it out.
“Yoo-hoo?” called Rue into the stacks in case there was someone else infiltrating.
Footnote appeared, stretched at them in his version of a bow and sniffed their shoes. They stood still, allowing him to do so until, gatekeeper-like, he magnanimously began leading them through the books, tail high.
“Lady Captain?” Virgil appeared, wearing an apron and carrying one of Percy’s boots, obviously in the middle of blacking them.
Footnote sniffed his feet and then flopped over on top of them.
“Ah, Virgil, you wouldn’t clock a tick about Professor Tunstell’s filing system, would you?” asked Rue.
“Not exactly, captain. Of course, you could always ask one of the ladders.”
“Pardon?” said Rue.
Virgil put down the boot. Footnote transferred his affection to this interesting new smell. Virgil approached a ladder which hung from a long top rail that snaked about the perimeter of the room. Clearly the ladder was designed to slide for easier access to the highest shelves. Rue had thought it quite ordinary, except for being metal instead of wood, but Virgil seemed to know otherwise. On one side, down near the first rung, was a dial, and the ladder had a cranking mechanism with a pin reader at the railing above. The railing was perforated at multiple points with patterns of holes so that when the operator set the dial, the ladder would roll along until its pins dropped into the matched holes, stopping the ladder abruptly at a prescribed point.
Rue said, all innocence, “The professor lent me this slim travel memoir and I wanted to return it. To the, erm, the section with travel journals.”
Virgil bent down and clicked the dial over to the number seven. Rue made a mental note. The boy jumped onto the ladder and flattened himself against it, clutching with both hands. He then pressed a button on one side and in a puff of steam, the ladder whooshed off more rapidly than Rue thought possible. With an audible click, it stopped some distance away behind the stacks.
“This way, Lady Captain,” sang out Virgil’s disembodied voice.
Rue and Prim wended through the shelves and piles of books. The ladder was near the only porthole left unblocked in the room. Virgil jumped off.
“Of what type is the travel book, Lady Captain?” he asked.
“Bad?” said Rue cautiously.
The boy grinned. “No, I meant what part of the world, flowery retelling or solid factual detail?”
“Oh. Egypt.”
Primrose added, “And flowery. Definitely flowery.”
Virgil led them around the back of two chairs, both covered in rolls of maps, metal scrolls for aetherographic transmitters, and current charts. He pulled one of the chairs away and pointed down to a shelf near the floor stacked with small, cheaply made, slim travel memoirs. There were an awful lot of them. Fortunately, none of the others was pink. Percy, great collector of the written word though he may be, evidently did not already own a copy of his mother’s infamous work. Rue tucked the volume in among its fellows in as innocuous a location as possible.
She straightened. “Thank you very much for your help, Virgil.”
Prim asked, “Does my brother have anything in a less flowery vein on travelling in India, do you know?”
“Over here.” Virgil pointed up at a higher part of the same shelf. The books there had been disturbed and stuffed with bits of notepaper marking pertinent sections. Percy had obviously been following instructions to read up on their destination.
Prim stood on tip-toe to read the spines. She selected The Complete Indian Housekeeper and Cook by Flora Annie Steel and Grace Gardiner.
“Thank you kindly, young man. I believe this will do nicely.”
They made their farewells to Virgil and Footnote, both young males pleased to have been of assistance but eager to get on with their regular tasks – in Virgil’s case, as boot-black, and in Footnote’s, interfering with the boot-black.