Journey to the River Sea

And out of the pocket of his tunic he took a watch on a long chain which he handed to the Indian.

‘But, sir,’ said Mr Trapwood, who had seen the glint of silver. ‘Should you—’

‘I am a Taverner,’ said Clovis. ‘And no one shall say that I am not grateful to those who have served me. And now, gentlemen, I am ready. I take it you have reserved a first-class cabin for me?’

‘Well,’ began Mr Low.

Mr Trapwood kicked his shin. ‘It shall be arranged, sir,’ he said. ‘Everything will be taken care of.’

‘Good. I should like to go on board immediately.’

‘Yes, sir, of course. If you’ll just come with us.’

Clovis bowed to Miss Minton, then to Maia. His eyes were dry and his dignity was matchless. Then he followed the crows out of the museum.

Chapter Fourteen

‘Come and see her,’ said Finn. ‘Come and see your namesake.’

He got into the canoe beside Maia and Miss Minton, and paddled round to the side of the Arabella, so that Miss Minton could see the name painted on the bows.

Miss Minton put up a bony hand to trace the letters. For a while she was silent. Then she said, ‘It’s a better name for a boat than for a governess. Or a housemaid.’

She sniffed and felt for her handkerchief, the same one with the initial ‘A’ on it that she had lent to Maia in the cab – and once again Maia thought what an idiot she had been not to guess what Finn had guessed so quickly.

‘He said if he got away and got himself a boat he’d call her after me,’ Miss Minton went on. ‘I didn’t help him all that much – he’d have done it anyway – but he never forgot a promise.’

They were in the lagoon. It was the day after Clovis had sailed on the Bishop. The twins and Mrs Carter had gone to church. But when Miss Minton had shown Mrs Carter the mysterious bruises on Maia’s arm, she had got permission to keep her at home – and as soon as they were safely away, Furo had come to fetch them.

Back in the hut, Finn began on the questions.

‘How did you know? How did you know who I was as soon as you saw me come out of the trapdoor in the museum?’

‘You’re so like your father. The eyes, the way your voice is pitched. He wasn’t much older than you are now when he ran away from Westwood. And I knew he’d married an Indian woman and had a son; we kept in touch. So when I saw that the crows had caught you, I realized your plan had gone wrong.’

‘You mean you knew what we were planning?’ said Maia – not at all pleased.

‘More or less. Your acting skills are not very great,’ said Miss Minton. ‘And as a liar you are bottom of the class. I made friends with old Lila and when she realized that I knew Bernard, she told me about this place. But you seemed to know what you were doing so I left you to it.’

‘We did know what we were doing,’ said Finn. ‘But Clovis just went berserk when he got down to the cellar. Some skulls came tumbling out of a packing case and he saw these eye sockets staring at him. Then he fell over a throwing spear and the lamp kept going out. There was a weird moaning noise too – it was only the water pipes – but he got hysterical and said he felt sick and he couldn’t go through with it. I suppose it was a sort of stage fright – he really thought the crows were going to hurt him. I’d promised Maia I wouldn’t let him get too scared so I stayed. I meant to make a dash for it when the crows opened the door and lead them away from him. When the sloth fell over he thought it was a bomb!’

‘Poor Clovis,’ said Maia.

‘She’s always sticking up for him,’ said Finn.

‘Still, he gave a fine performance at the end, you must admit,’ said Miss Minton.

Then they asked her about her time at Westwood.

‘I was just a housemaid,’ she said. ‘No one called me Arabella – the butler wouldn’t permit it. I was always Bella, except to Bernard.’

And she told them what had happened after Bernard left.

‘You can’t imagine the uproar. Everyone was stamping about and shouting – but they were angry, not sad. Then very soon after that the butler found me reading in the library – no one read the books at Westwood; I was meant to be dusting them, not reading them – and I was dismissed. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. I remembered what Bernard had said – that I should go away and get an education. He said there were colleges where you could study at night and earn your keep during the day. So I went to London and I did just that. It took me six years to get a degree, but I did it.’ Miss Minton looked away and permitted herself a smile – for she had got not just a degree but a First, which no one had done in that college before.

‘So then you became a governess,’ said Maia.