Two climbed. One turned a page.
Near the Last Chapter
“She’s turned another one,” Theo said.
Above him, his sister kept one hand on the rope and looked towards the round window. Aunt Iris sat inside the moon, her book open beneath a lamp.
“She might be going backwards,” June said.
“Why would she?”
“To check something.”
Theo considered this as he found the next foothold. He had gone backwards twice himself that morning, looking for the sentence about the missing key.
The book belonged to Iris. She had lent it to them on Sunday, with a ribbon marking the place where she had stopped. They had returned it yesterday, with two bookmarks farther on.
Now she was reading beyond both.
Two Different Endings
June reached the narrow ledge and stood aside while Theo climbed up beside her. The stone felt cold through her trousers when she sat. Beyond her boots, pale towers rose out of the clouds.
“The captain,” Theo said, catching his breath.
“You’ve already said.”
“He had the key.”
“He had a key. It never said it fitted.”
June was certain the quiet woman at the harbour had taken the ship. She had noticed that woman long before Theo had, and had been waiting several chapters for somebody else to notice her too.
Then their mother had called them home. Iris had asked for her book back, and June had surrendered it with a finger between the pages until the very last moment.
She had imagined herself arriving today, hearing the answer, and saying, quite gently, that she had known.
Above them, something clicked against a saucer.
Theo looked up.
“She’s having tea.”
“Then we have time.”
At the Round Door
They climbed the last stretch without discussing the key. June’s palm was warm against the rope now; her legs felt pleasantly heavy as she stepped onto the little landing.
Theo knocked.
“Come in,” Iris called.
Warm air met them at the door, carrying the smell of tea and the faint dusty scent of books. Iris had tucked one finger into hers. An empty cup stood beside the chair.
“Did the captain—” Theo began.
“Don’t tell us,” June said quickly.
He turned towards her.
“You wanted to know.”
“I do.” She looked at the book. “I want to hear it.”
Iris moved her cup to the shelf and closed the book around her finger.
“Together?”
Theo slipped off his backpack. He had prepared several excellent reasons why the captain must be responsible. None seemed particularly useful while Iris was waiting to open the page.
He sat on the rug beside her chair.
June took the cushion near the window.
One Page Back
Iris began halfway through a conversation. Someone was asking where the captain had gone, and somebody else was refusing to answer.
Theo leaned against the chair. June drew her knees up, watching Iris’s face rather than the print. At home she had hurried over this sort of exchange, searching for the next clue. Iris gave each person time to sound suspicious.
Then came a name June recognised.
She sat forwards.
“Wait. What did she say before that?”
Iris lifted her finger from the line.
“Shall I go back a page?”
June nodded. Beside the chair, Theo nodded too.
Iris turned the page backwards.
For once, neither of them minded.
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