One of the first-class stewards approaches. “Ma’am, miss, you must go up to the Boat Deck. Come, I shall accompany you.” His grey eyes brush over Jamie and me. “And you should get back to your own cabins. Your steward will direct you.”

Why can’t he direct us to the Boat Deck as well?

The steward sets off, with Mrs. Fine in tow.

Jamie squeezes my shoulder. “Valora, go with Charlotte.”

“But I—”

“She and her mum might need help getting to the lifeboats.” The phoenix glares at the dragon, a vein throbbing in his neck. “Don’t worry. I’m just going to fetch the others. We’ll figure out what’s what and meet you up on the Boat Deck.”

The dragon withdraws her talons. “Fine.”

Charlotte catches Jamie by the arm. “You’ll be okay, right?”

“O’ course. Strudel and I have a date for tomorrow, don’t we, girl?”

Strudel pants happily between them. I begin to turn away, but not before seeing Charlotte place a kiss on Jamie’s lips.

Jamie whispers to Charlotte, and she whispers back, something stubborn animating her features. A tense moment seems to freeze them.

At last, Charlotte nods. Then like the sun as it sets over a hungry sea, she slips from his grasp.

A crowd waits for the lifts, so the steward leads whoever is willing to walk up the stairs. But Mrs. Fine doesn’t want to walk. Dutifully, Charlotte waits with her, and I wait with Charlotte, though each moment that passes squeezes my accordion heart tighter and tighter.

“We paid good money for this trip,” a man in a silk robe complains to his wife. “Why should we do these drills?”

Another man bites down on a cigar, his chest puffed with importance. “They’ll sort it out. I heard it was an accident on the Orlop Deck. Probably some bloke was drinking on the job and blew out a boiler.”

Judging by the smirk on his face, he’s probably never seen a boiler before. A blown boiler would be catastrophic for the men working it—and for the ship.

I can’t help thinking of Drummer. What if something happened in Boiler Room 6? He could be injured, or worse. And here I am, waiting in this stuffy lobby with these nobs who can’t be bothered to climb the stairs to their own safety. Charlotte and her mother don’t need my help. Jamie only sent me here to keep me out of the way.

Charlotte squeezes my arm. “Once we get to America, I was thinking, maybe I can take in Wink and Olly through the Home for Little Souls. I want to help.”

“We’re joining the circus,” I say, though the words suddenly strike me as childish.

“Of course. I only meant, just in case.”

Just in case what?