Page 86 of Infamous

‘Yes,’ said Eddie. ‘Well .?.?. I have seen one being boiled, and I imagine I can replicate the process.’

‘Wonderful, we shall eat the results of your scientific experiments. He really has left us in a fine mess this time. Nostaff? I suppose he thinks he can dally with absolutely anybody who catches his eye, and damn the consequences—’

‘Wait – dally with whom?’

Valentine looked slightly guilty, as if once again they had imparted a little too much information.

‘Where is he now?’

‘Not sure – I saw him going after them, trying to fetch them back, but I don’t imagine he had much success. They seemed quite determined.’

‘Fantastic. I imagine he’s swimming after their boat at this very moment.’

‘He isn’t,’ said Kitty, walking in and striding up to the fire, extending her gloved hands to warm them. She was wearing three furs, heaped on top of one another, which made her look like a very attractive bear. ‘He has gone to shoot things in the long gallery.’

‘Shootthings?’ Eddie said, alarmed. ‘What things?’

‘Well, let’s see,’ said Kitty, cocking her head to listen. They all waited, and after a moment they heard a gunshot, and what sounded like a ceramic extermination. ‘Plates? Yes, I think that was a plate. I suppose it is no matter – we won’t have anything to eat, so why would we need plates?’

‘Yes,’ said Valentine, looking dour, ‘whatarewe going to eat?’

Kitty shrugged. ‘That is the least of our worries. What about warmth? Water? We cannot run this house ourselves. They were struggling enough on a skeleton staff.’

Eddie looked around at their grim faces and attempted enthusiasm.

‘Oh, I don’t know! Perhaps it will be like an expedition.’

‘An Arctic one,’ said Kitty grimly. ‘I will stay until I cannot paint any more, either through starvation or loss of fingers to frostbite, and then I will take my leave.’

‘I shall stay until we run out of wine,’ Valentine said, with an air of immense bravery.

‘Excellent, well, I’ll be back to collect you in the year 1900. I am bringing my painting things in here. Valentine, there’s fresh kindling just outside the kitchen – will you .?.?.?’

‘Ordinarily I would,’ said Valentine. ‘But I was just beginning to thaw.’

Eddie went instead. She encountered the smashed tureen and the splattered food on the floor and edged around it, before realising that ifshedidn’t try to clean it up, nobody would. She managed to arrange the shards into a neatish pile with some gentle kicking, and then dropped a rag onto the mess, and congratulated herself on a job well done.

Inside the kitchen she was delighted to discover food: freshly baked bread, ham that already seemed to be cooked, and something sweet that had obviously been halfway through stewing when its creator had vacated the island.

At least for one night, they would not starve.

*

‘We will not starve at all,’ Nash said later, relatively cheerful, fortified by ham and wine. ‘We have a stocked larder. Plenty to drink. I know how to build a fire.’

‘I can split wood,’ Kitty offered, surprising nobody.

‘There, you see? That vile woman thought she was stranding us, but she wasliberatingus. I could never relax entirely with her beady eyes watching me, judging my every move. I will signal Captain Perkins upon the morrow and ask him to place my advertisement for new help, and in the meantime – let us see this as anopportunity, not a burden. A time for us to let our hair down.’

‘Your hair was never up,’ said Eddie, expecting him to laugh. Instead he just raised his eyebrows at her and waggled his knife in her direction.

‘This is exactly what I’m talking about, Edith. Moralising. Judgement. I shall have none of it. Did you not come here to have fun?’

‘I came here to write a book,’ Eddie reminded him, for what felt like the hundredth time.

‘That you did, and that you shall. Right! Valentine, would you like to learn the ancient art of fire-building?’

‘No,’ said Valentine. ‘But I suppose you’re going to show me anyway.’