Lotti bit her lip. “Well, you have Sam now …”

“So you thought I didn’t need you anymore!” Ben’s expression was thunderous. “You thought I was like your grandmother who stopped writing to you, or like your horrible uncle, that I could just … throw you away!”

“No!” Lotti looked stricken. “No, I never thought that! Not really. Just, you all want to go home, and Clara thinks I should go too, and …”

But Ben was fully launched.

“Well, I’m not like your uncle!” he shouted, quivering with indignation. “Do you think I’d let you go on your own after everything you’ve done for me? To a horrible old woman, who stopped writing to you when you needed her? We are going back to the Sparrowhawk RIGHT NOW and then me and Sam are going to FIX HER and then we are taking you to your grandmother ON the SPARROWHAWK because that is WHERE YOU BELONG and if she isn’t nice to you I WILL THUMP HER!”

He glared. Lotti, trembling, began to laugh, then tried to say something and burst into tears instead.

“Does that mean you won’t go on your own?” Ben demanded.

“No! I mean, yes! I just thought … oh, never mind. I think I am used to people throwing me away, like you said … and I’m used to doing things for myself … but oh, Ben, thank you! I’m so scared, you know, that Moune won’t want to see me; that she’ll turn me away or send me back to Barton. It will be so much easier if you’re with me.”

Ben, fighting a fresh urge to cry, said, “We’ll ask the sisters if they have a spare mattress or something. We can put it in the workshop.”

“How crowded we’ll be!” said Lotti. “Eleven of us, and we started with just four!”

“We’ll need more food,” said Ben. “Maybe the sisters could spare some. And we’ll have to look at the map …”

Smiling and full of plans, Ben and Lotti walked together back toward the Sparrowhawk, but as they arrived their faces fell.

Clara and Sam were standing on the jetty, and Clara was holding a telegram.

“It’s from Henri,” she said when they reached her. “Albert Skinner’s on his way to Buisseau.”

Lotti swallowed. Ben looked at her. She was scared, and with good reason—there was barely a household in Buisseau that didn’t know their story.

“We’ll leave straight away,” he said.

“What?” said Sam.

“I’ll explain later. Sam, get your things. We’ll say goodbye, and we’ll go.”

“But the Sparrowhawk … you said she needed fixing.”

“She’ll be fine until we get to Lotti’s grandmother.”

Clara’s eyes widened. “Lotti’s …?”

Oh, why did grown-ups always have so many questions?

“WE NEED TO GO,” Ben yelled. “BEFORE ALBERT SKINNER GETS TO BUISSEAU AND SOMEONE TELLS HIM WE ARE HERE!”