in a moment, but I wanted to take the opportunity to catch up. Everyone was so busy yesterday, I feel like we hardly saw each other. Sophie.”
I jerked, my cheeks flushing as he turned his gaze on me. “Sophia,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I go by Sophia,” I told him.
“Right,” he said. I searched his face for some hint that it hadn’t just been a mistake. I went by Sophie when I was here as a child—did he know? But if he did, he didn’t let it slip in his expression. “You’ve been doing good work. I admit I’ve been very curious about you.”
“Oh?” I said.
He smiled. “Why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself? Since I didn’t have the advantage of a long correspondence to get to know you, the way Vanya did.”
All the careful lies I’d practiced about Sophia Hayes, lover of birds and northern climes, fled. My mouth was dry. I couldn’t think of anything to say.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
Why did he affect me this way? “No,” I stammered. “It’s just—”
“Everyone here? Good,” Dr. Kapoor said, striding in. Dr. Hardcastle half turned with a frown.
“Ms. Hayes was just going to tell us a bit about herself,” he said.
“Another time,” she said briskly. “The water’s going to be foul midmorning, so we shouldn’t dawdle on the crossing. Ms. Clark and Mr. Lee will be on Belaya Skala, Ms. Hayes in the specimen room. Dr. Hardcastle and I will be handling some administrative matters here.”
I couldn’t stop the muffled squawk of protest that came out of my mouth. Dr. Kapoor gave me a measured look. “Yes, Ms. Hayes? Do you object to your task?”
“Of course I do,” I said. “I came here to learn, not declutter. I barely got to watch you work yesterday. And no offense to Liam, but I didn’t come here to hang out with him either.”
“She came hundreds of miles and, by God, she wants to count some birds,” Lily said, obviously amused. “She can tag along with Kenny and me. We’ll make sure she doesn’t count a bunch of pebbles as chicks and bump our babies off the endangered species list.”
Dr. Kapoor hadn’t spoken. Her steady gaze made the hair on the back of my neck prickle. Just strict? Or is there another reason you make me uneasy?
“Very well,” she said. “Get your gear together, Ms. Hayes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said. I’d expected to get chewed out, but then it occurred to me that letting me onto Belaya Skala might not be an act of consideration and charity, given what lurked there.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me. Moriarty got out last night, and I need to check on his well-being,” she said, and turned away. I felt a stab of guilt. After Moriarty had helped me, I hadn’t checked on him to see if he got back all right. I didn’t know how he’d gotten into that place at all, let alone returned.
“Let’s head out. We’re playing catch-up from yesterday,” Lily said. She and Kenny started bustling about to gather up supplies. Dr. Hardcastle gave us an officious nod before wandering off to parts unknown.
We walked down to the beach together. Lily and Kenny kept up a sort of slow-motion conversation about nothing in particular. We’d just secured the last of the gear when Liam and Abby appeared, jogging across the beach.
“Wait up,” Liam called. Lily straightened, a frown ghosting across her features. She was the hard target here, I knew. Kenny would go with whatever we said.
“What’s up?” she asked, addressing Liam but looking at Abby with a jaundiced eye.
“Abby and I are going to tag along,” Liam said. “I checked it out with Dr. Kapoor, she said it’s all right.” He wasn’t nearly as good a liar as I was. His throat kind of wobbled when he spoke, and he didn’t know what to do with his hands. Abby clearly had the same opinion of his skills, but she was working gamely to keep it off her face.
“Uh. Really?” Lily asked. “Why exactly?”
“Because . . .” Liam flushed a little. “I invited her. She wanted to see the island again, and I promised I’d show her. Like . . .”
“A date?” Lily said.
Abby, to her credit, looked only briefly bemused before carefully constructing an expression of faint embarrassment, complete with a little shy smile. “Shy” suited her about as well as lying suited Liam, but most people, I knew, see what they expect to.
“I thought that you and—” Kenny started, his thumb starting to