Lady Kraken is there, in her bronze and wicker wheelchair. She’s wearing a woolly turban and is tucked beneath a blanket embroidered with the crest of the Grand Nautilus Hotel. Behind her, standing to attention, is Mr Mollusc. He’s holding an open umbrella over Lady Kraken, to protect her from the falling snow.

I slip out of the shop and into the frigid air of the new day.

“Um,” I say, as I stop before my employer, my heart galloping. “Your Ladyness?”

“I was watching,” croaks the old lady, fixing me with her turtle eyes. “Last night, by the light of the moon, I was watching.”

I nod.

“I saw you enter the creature’s lair.”

I blink.

“And now I have come for what is rightfully mine,” says Lady Kraken, reaching out one claw-like hand, palm upwards.

I know what she means, of course.

But did she really believe that I, a skinny twelvish-year-old, would be able to bring her the wondrous malamander egg?

And if she did, how will she react when she sees I have nothing to give her at all?

Well, not exactly nothing.

I take my Lost-and-Founder’s cap from my head and put it in her hand. Then I step back and bow my head.

I don’t dare look at Mr Mollusc. I can’t bear to see his triumphant face.

Snow falls silently.

Eventually, Lady Kraken speaks. “It takes someone special, Mr Lemon, to be Lost-and-Founder at the Grand Nautilus Hotel,” she says. “I often wondered if I was right to give the position to you.”

I say nothing.

“Many have wanted it,” she continues. “Some have wanted it so badly that they have turned bitter when the chance passed them by. Isn’t that right, Godfrey?”

Eh? I look up, and find that Lady Kraken has turned to peer at Mr Mollusc.

The hotel manager goes red and starts to splutter into his moustache.

“But Your Ladyship, I assure you, that is to say, I have never —”

Lady Kraken silences him with her hand. “It takes an honest heart to watch over the lost property of others.” She turns away from Mollusc, and looks at me again. “And honest hearts are hard to find. I cannot afford to lose yours, Herbert Lemon.”

She hands the cap back to me.

I put it on my head, and for once the elastic slips pinglessly around my chin.

“Just tell me one thing.”

“Yes, Lady Madame?” I say.

“My grandfather, Captain Kraken, is he…?”

I nod. “He is free,” I say, thinking back to what happened to Boathook Man. “As free as the fishes. His curse is over.”

Lady K sinks back into her chair with a long sigh. “Then you have, after all, returned something to me I haven’t had for a very long time, Mr Lemon. You have brought me peace.”

She makes a regal circling motion with her hand. “Come along, Godfrey.”