“Where . . . is Bo?”

“Probably in the stern. We split up to look for you. Bo took Wink and Olly. Ming Lai split off with Fong. Drummer’s been in the boilers.”

“What time is it?”

Jamie’s mouth girdles. “Close to eleven.”

We missed our appointment. “Maybe he’ll still see us. We don’t have his room number, but perhaps—”

“We’ll figure something out, Sis.”

I plod up the stairs after Jamie and Tao, then stop at a drinking fountain. While I quench my sore throat, Jamie stretches his left arm back, wincing.

“What happened?”

“Dislocated my shoulder. It slipped back into place. It’s fine. Smartly, now.”

When we emerge again on E-Deck, still on the first-class side, Strudel bolts down the hall and scratches at a door. It opens. Charlotte, looking like a princess in a green velvet gown and a tiara, scoops Strudel up and presses a kiss into her neck.

“Good girl. Oh, Valora!” She puts Strudel down and embraces me. “We were so worried!” She lets me go, then checks me over, perhaps for injuries.

“Sirs, you aren’t allowed in these corridors.” One of the black-jacketed room stewards who always seem to be hovering around in first class marches up to us.

“Steward,” Charlotte says in a clear voice. “I’m afraid Mr. and Miss Luck have missed Mr. Albert Ankeny Stewart’s valet, who came to fetch them earlier. Would you mind seeing them to his room? I would hate for him to be kept waiting.”

The man’s egg-shaped face cracks a little. “Er, Mr. Stewart?” He crooks one of his large ears toward Charlotte, as if perhaps she has spoken under duress and he’s listening for the real message. She gives him a hard look, and he shakes himself out of his confusion. “If you don’t mind waiting just a moment, I shall check on that.”

Charlotte nods, and the man disappears down the hall.

“They have telephones here,” Charlotte explains.

Jamie, seemingly at a loss for where to put his hands, jams them into his pockets. “Strudel was brilliant.” The electricity running between Charlotte and Jamie could power the whole deck. “Er, this is Tao, our locksmith.”

Tao bows, and Charlotte bows as well. The three make polite conversation, but I cannot think with all the worries sprouting like weeds in my head. The hour is already late, past the lights-out bugle. Mr. Stewart is the kind of man who adheres to a schedule. We’ll have to make up an excuse for our tardiness. I can’t exactly tell him I was locked in a squash closet for stowing away.

At last, the steward returns. “Please come with me.”

Jamie and I follow him toward the lifts, while Charlotte takes Tao’s arm. “Uncle, shall we?” With Strudel following close at her heels, they set off in the opposite direction, toward the Collar.