“Her poodle slid off the deck during that one dip, but I caught her. She sure is clever. She can beg and play dead and everything.”

This time, I can’t hold back. “The girl or the dog?”

Jamie’s eyes—narrower than mine but a richer brown, like Mum’s—snap to me. He stares hard at my veil, but unlike the others, he knows the face on the other side. Knows its heart shape as well as his own, with our same tendency to stick up our chins as if perpetually checking for rain.

His mouth splits into a half grin, half grimace. “I don’t bloody believe it.”

I raise my veil long enough for him and his crew to get a peek. “Believe it, Jamie, because here I am.”

5

Though I cannot afford to attract more attention than I already have, I embrace my brother. The familiar scent of milk biscuits and trampled ryegrass, now dusted with coal, puts a lump in my throat. “How about you? Shoveling coal shored you up.” I give his solid shoulder a thump.

Despite his new density, his face is still youthful with fine bones and cheeks you can cup your hands around. He looks like a pretty boy, and I look like a boyish girl. “They said you were in E-16, but someone named Fong shut the door in my face, and I thought you didn’t make it after all, and you have no idea—” It’s hard to string words together when you’re trying not to blubber.

“Sorry about that. Fong’s a suspicious old boot. We exchanged rooms because he didn’t want Room 14.”

The Chinese avoid the number four, which sounds like the word for “death” in Cantonese.

“What are you doing here, Val? And why are you dressed like that?”

“It’s a bit of a story.”

His mates stand by, sporting various states of confusion. Olly stares openly, his eyes flitting to the short fan of feathers on my hat, which somehow survived my perilous journey aboard. Wink places a thin hand on the back of the bench and lifts himself up onto his toes, as if to get a better bead on me, his expressive eyes jittery. Bo leans his sturdy frame against the rail, chewing his lower lip. With or without his scowl, he charms the vision, his dark brows standing out against clear skin, his guarded eyes the color of oolong tea steeped to just the right smokiness.

“Jamie, how come you never told us you had a sweetheart?” Olly blurts.

I let go of my brother with a loud guffaw. Jamie slaps my back harder than he needs to. “Everyone, this is Valora. My twin sister. So no one get any ideas, because she’s off-limits.”