She ignored him and went on: ‘—and aloof and the coldest person I ever met, but in his own odd way he does care about some people. From everything I’ve heard, he was devoted to Robert, even before that incident. And then when the old man was gone, Marcus left too, for months and months. Some people said he’d gone for good, that he wouldn’t come back. Ollie always told me he would, though, to watch over Theo. And he did. I’m guessing this is the first anyone’s seen of him since she ran away.’

‘Well, I wouldn’t have expected it. He didn’t seem that fond of her, to be honest. Nor she of him.’

‘I don’t know if he’s fond of her, really, but like I said, he was supposedly devoted to Robert, absolutely besotted. He used to follow him everywhere like a pet, Ollie said. I think, ever since Robert … after Robert went, Marcus has seen Theo as sort of his responsibility.’

He looked ahead at Marcus, walking at the head of their little group. He could see the path ahead of them too, the entire lip on their left moving back in to meet it, so the whole path curved to the right in a wide bend.

He turned back to her. ‘This Robert must have been quite a guy.’

‘Oh, he was,’ she said and glanced at him. ‘I met him once, you know. Ollie took me to see him.’

‘Just once?’

‘Yes. But it was enough to know why everyone kept calling him a genius.’

‘Genius, huh?’

‘Oh, absolutely.’

‘Well, Ollie did mention that it was he who came up with those stink-ball things. I thought that was pretty smart.’

‘Oh, you mean the smell signals? Yes, he invented them. And a few other things, too. Although everybody hasn’t always liked all his creations.’

He looked at her questioningly. ‘What’s that mean?’

They had stopped now. Ahead, he could see Colby and the others disappearing around the bend, Theo trailing behind them. Marcus was nowhere in sight.

June glanced at him. ‘Well, let’s just say all his work wasn’t widely appreciated down here. Nobody ever dared say anything to him openly, but he’d receive anonymous threats and his tent was broken into once or twice. Father assigned security to protect him, but even then it didn’t really stop. There were even two or three attempts on his life.’

‘That sounds … trying.’