toast and poached eggs, Mrs. Perry handed Able a note from across the street. Even she seemed subdued, after a look around the breakfast table showed no Jean Hubert in evidence.
“I may have been a little rough on the man,” Mrs. Perry admitted.
“He had to leave right away,” Able said.
“He couldn’t even stay for breakfast?”
“Mrs. Perry, he has duties we cannot discuss,” Meri said, as kindly as she could.
Mrs. Perry’s eyes filled with tears. Apparently everyone loves a rascal. The housekeeper and cook shook her head and left the room, muttering to herself.
“Meri, it appears that I have been summoned to Headmaster Croker’s chambers immediately,” he said, happy to change the subject.
“Gor, master, what did you do?” Nick teased.
Able smiled, even as he noticed how wide Smitty’s eyes grew. He and Nick had arrived at a pleasant camaraderie outside of the walls of St. Brendan’s, where students toed the line. Maybe someday you will see us as the humans we are, Smitty, he thought, as he folded the note and stood up. He kissed Meri, always a pleasure, even with her mouth full of jam. Or maybe especially with her mouth full of jam. He did like strawberries. He didn’t think the boys noticed that he ran his tongue inside her mouth, although Meri pinked up considerably.
“Never fear, Smitty,” he said as he licked jam off his lips. “The most frightening thing I ever did was run away from the Dumfries workhouse. I believe we three have all been that desperate.” He tapped the note. “I’d better hurry off how?”
“Roundly now!” both boys chimed in. Even Smitty smiled. “Come over at your usual time, my dears,” he said. And why not call them his dears? They were infinitely valuable to him, these workhouse boys.
Bertram, the headmaster’s evil butler, ushered him into Thaddeus Croker’s inner sanctum with the admonition “not t’wear out t’master.”
“Master Croker sent me a note requesting my presence,” Able said, wishing that he didn’t feel like a workhouse lad every time the butler addressed him. The man guarded Thaddeus Croker like the three-headed hound of the underworld. Still, Able felt a pang of his own. Thaddeus had never recovered fully from last year’s bout with the mumps, or maybe it was something else. Perhaps the headmaster required an over-attentive butler.
Thaddeus looked well enough, standing there and warming his hands at the fireplace. He pointed to a comfortable chair.
Able sat. “Your butler never suffers fools gladly,” he commented.
“Bertram is tenacious,” Thaddeus said, sounding cheerful about the matter.
“I am to report to Admiralty House as soon as possible, accompanied by Smitty and Captain Rose of Trinity House,” Able said, not waiting for Thaddeus to explain his reason for the early-morning summons. “There it is, plus the agreement to use a St. Brendan crew in a ship-to- shore messaging capacity, just as Sir B wanted.”
“I can’t think of a better use of your skills and your pupils’ needs,” Thaddeus said. “It’s finally come to national emergency. We will continue to prove our worth here at St. Brendan’s.”
“Aye, sir.”
Thaddeus looked at the flames. “I only wish Sir B could have lived a little longer, to know that his plans have been accepted.”
“I think he knows somehow.” Able had no trouble with that confidence, considering the cacophony in his head as his irritating cranial cohorts practically hooted with delight and commented in various languages that of course Sir B knew what was going on. Able was surprised Thaddeus couldn’t hear them.
“For a skeptical man of science, you have an unusual fondness for the divine, Master Six,” Thaddeus said, sounding at least half in jest.
If you only knew, Able thought, and forced himself not to smile. My brilliant pests are hardly divine. A little nod would do. “Now, sir, what would you ask of me?” He tapped the note again.
“A replacement, if you please,” Thaddeus said. “I gather that you will be in and out of Portsmouth, as demands of the service require. We need a substitute willing to take up the slack, as you would say. D’ye have anyone in mind?”
“I do, actually.” He did, oh, he did. “I know just the man.”
“Do tell.”
Able had thought the matter through earlier while he was shaving, a boring activity enlivened now because Ben liked to watch and smear shaving soap on his face, too. That led to tears the first time, but Ben quickly learned to keep soap from his eyes. Able prudently kept his razor in Meri’s drawer, hidden beneath her underthings.