Journey to the River Sea

‘Yes, I did,’ said Maia, looking longingly at the piano.

‘Well tomorrow you shall have your turn to practise. I have rather a headache coming on now.’

As she sat at supper, to which Miss Minton was not allowed to come, it occurred to Maia that the twins had not once been out of doors; not for five minutes to look at the river or take a stroll.

How am I going to stand it? thought Maia, shut up like a prisoner.

Back in her room she turned out the lamp and pushed the chair under the window as she had done the night before. She was beginning to make out the people who lived there. In the middle hut lived Furo the boatman, and Tapi, the sullen maid to whom he was married – but it was from there that the singing had come so there had to be other people living there: so sulky a woman could not have sung such a song.

The girl with the baby lived in the hut on the left: she was the wife of the gardener who sprayed Mrs Carter’s gravel and was half Portuguese, which was why her baby sometimes wore nappies instead of running naked as the Indian babies did. The little dog belonged to her. There was a chicken run behind the huts – an old woman with long grey hair came out sometimes to feed them – and she had heard the grunting of a pig, but all the animal noises were quickly hushed – for fear of the Carters she guessed.

The next three days were exactly the same. The sound of squirting and stamping at dawn, Doctor Bullman’s boring lessons, unspeakable meals – tinned fish in a bluish sauce, endless beetroot, and a cornflour ‘shape’ that seemed to quiver with fear as Tapi brought it to the table. The twins, who always looked so clean and fresh in the morning, were flushed and grumpy by the end of the day. Mr Carter scarcely spoke and disappeared into his study, and whenever it was Maia’s turn at the piano, Mrs Carter had a headache.

But Maia could have coped with it all. What really upset her was Miss Minton. Her governess went on ignoring her in lessons, and never let her read or answer questions, while Beatrice and Gwendolyn became more and more smug as they saw Maia being shown up as a fool. I must have made her angry, thought Maia, but try as she would she could not think what she had done.

Then on the fourth night there was a knock at the door and Miss Minton entered.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘Come down off that chair. I think we are ready for the next step.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I am going to see Mrs Carter tomorrow. I shall tell her that you are not able to keep up with the twins in lessons.’

‘But—’

Miss Minton held up her hand. ‘Don’t interrupt, please. I shall tell her that I will set you to work separately because you are holding the twins back. That means I am trusting you to work on your own. I shall of course help you whenever I can but you must keep up the deception.’ She gave one of her tight smiles. ‘I don’t see why we shouldn’t have an interesting time. I have a book about the history of Brazil, and one by Bates, the explorer who first described this part of the Amazon. And another by Humboldt – a very great scientist. The twins may live as though they are still in Littleford-on-Sea, but there is no need for us to do so.’

Maia jumped from the chair. ‘Oh, Minty,’ she said, and threw her arms around her governess. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry . . . I thought—’

‘Well don’t,’ said Miss Minton briskly. And then: ‘Come along, it’s time we opened my trunk.’

Miss Minton had been poor all her life. She had no trinkets, no personal possessions; her employers underpaid her when they paid her at all – but her trunk was an Aladdin’s cave. There were travel books and fairy tales, novels and dictionaries and collections of poetry ...

‘How did you get them all?’ Maia asked wonderingly. ‘How did you manage?’

Miss Minton shrugged.

‘If you want something enough you usually get it. But you have to take what goes with it,’ – and she pointed to her shabby blouse and mended skirt. ‘Now, let’s see – what shall we start with? Ah yes, here is Bates – he must have sailed down this very river not sixty years ago. Look at that drawing of a sloth ...’

Chapter Four

Mrs Carter was delighted to hear that Maia could not keep up with the twins. The first real smile they had seen on her lit up her flabby face and she gave permission readily enough for Maia to work on her own.

‘Of course, Beatrice and Gwendolyn are very intelligent, I’ve always known that.’ She gave Maia quite a kind look. ‘I daresay you’ll catch up soon enough if you apply yourself.’

So each morning Maia was set to work on the veranda at a small wicker table. Miss Minton gave her exercises and projects and occasionally she left Dr Bullman and the twins to see if she needed help, but mostly Maia worked on her own and she loved it.