Page 62 of Valour

Charlotte led her to the bed and they sat down. The ice groaned against the hull outside, and Hester shuddered. The Intrepid. Septimus. The Valour. Fliss. Everything was collapsing.

“It will be alright. What has happened between you and Fliss? Have you had an argument?” Charlotte asked.

But Hester couldn’t tell her the whole reason. She didn’t want anyone else to know about her magic. Fliss and Septimus were the only ones who knew, and both hated her now. “I’ve told you, there’s nothing wrong.”

Charlotte scoffed, though not unkindly. “Come now, you can tell me.”

A half-truth then, she could give her friend that. “I kept something from her, and she kept something from me. And now…now she is married and will have no time or interest in our friendship. She has abandoned me.”

“I don’t think that’s true. I’m sure things will be no different from before. You’ll see. How long have you known Fliss?”

Forever. “Twenty years.”

“You see? Nothing can erase that.”

Hester hung her head. Was she being ridiculous? “I suppose.”

Charlotte took Hester’s hands in hers. “I know I’m no replacement, but you have me.”

Hester leant into Charlotte’s side, tears falling.

21

IN WHICH THERE IS A SILLY GOOSE AND ANOTHER HOLE IN THE ICE

25th June 1915, Weddell Sea

The more time that passed, the more the thought of Septimus sleeping out on the ice made her stomach turn. He had been out there for two nights now. Had not changed his mind and come inside, as she had hoped. And yes, she had told Charlotte that he should sleep with the dogs, but she hadn’t meant it. Not really.

Hester paced the dimly lit cabin. She stopped in front of the knife mark on the wall that he’d made so many months ago. What if he froze to death? Or got frostbitten? And then there was the terrifying thought of a siren out there. She owed Septimus a life debt, and though she was still furious that he’d tried to out her secret in front of everyone, she couldn’t sit idly by and not offer shelter to him. Not any longer, anyway.

She blew out the candle, shrugged her fur-lined coat on and stalked from the cabin.

Hester stood on the ice in front of the canvas tent, the blackness wrapped around her. Snowball had joined her, and she laced her fingers through the dog’s white fur, wondering how to announce herself. She shivered in her coat, the cold creeping into her skin.

The tent flapped open, and Septimus crawled out, then started when he saw her, his eyes darkening. He rose to his feet, towering over her.

“What do you want?” he asked, his voice gravelly. He looked like shit.

“For you to come inside.” And for everything to go back to how it was.

“No. Go away. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to see you ever again.” He said it through his teeth, didn’t even look at her.

“That might be difficult, seeing as I’m one of twenty people down here.”

“I’m not in the mood for your quips. Leave me alone.” Sooty appeared from the tent and pressed herself against Hester’s legs, clearly much more delighted to see her than Septimus.

“If you won’t come inside then I’ll have to stay out here until you change your mind,” Hester said, placing her hands on her hips and returning Septimus’s scowl with one of her own.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” He went back inside his tent, but Sooty remained outside.

Hester sat down in the snow and petted the two dogs. She recalled a time when Fliss had called her as stubborn as a mule, and her lips tugged at the corners, then she scowled again when she remembered that Fliss was barely speaking to her, their friendship in tatters, more interested in Emlyn than her.

Fifteen minutes passed, and Septimus emerged from the tent when Snowball and Sooty started to whine. “What—in all that is Holy—are you still doing here?”

She tried to grin, but her face wouldn’t move. “I told you, if you won’t come inside, I’ll sit here until you change your mind.”

“You’ll freeze. Go inside,” he growled, pointing to the ship. “Now.”