Lady Friday(44)

There was a loud click, a buzz that to Leaf’s dispirited ears sounded like disconnection, then a distant voice echoed in the earpiece.

‘Hello! Hello?’

‘Dr Scamandros! It’s Leaf. I’m at Lady Friday’s mountain retreat out in the Secondary Realms. Maybe near the Magellanic Clouds or something. I need—’ ‘Leaf! Keep talking so I can make a note of your exact location. Where is my locating pencil?’

Scamandros kept muttering. Leaf looked at Milka and Feorin. Milka was tilting her head, listening more intently.

‘I’m meant to arrange for the shipment of fixed coughs and ailments to the Denizens here,’ said Leaf quickly. ‘Lady Friday’s here, of course, and about fifty other Denizens.’

‘Keep talking! Does Friday have her Key?’

‘I think so,’ said Leaf. Milka was walking over to her now. ‘A mirror? Now about those coughs, they probably need two each—’ ‘This telephone connection is forbidden,’ said the first voice that had come onto the line. ‘Action is being taken.’

The telephone shook in Leaf’s hands and began to emit wisps of steam. She dropped it on the desk but kept talking, putting her face as close to the fallen mouthpiece as she dared.

‘Scamandros! It’s the grey mould planet, I think! There’s some connection from a laundry on Earth—’

The phone bubbled and hissed and melted into a blob of unsightly muck that smelled like burnt hair.

‘Hmm,’ said Milka. ‘So it was all a trick.’

‘Yes,’ said Leaf defiantly.

‘We’d better get out of here, then,’ said Milka. She grabbed Leaf and turned to the door. ‘Feorin, pick up those pillowcases. Back to our room, quick!’

‘Why?’ asked Feorin. ‘It’s not our fault … Noon won’t blame … oh …’

Milka was already out the door, Leaf under her arm. Feorin picked up the pillowcases and followed, forgetting to shut the door after him. Thirty seconds later, all three of them were in Milka and Feorin’s room, a much smaller, shabbier, and eccentric chamber dominated by two worktables covered in books, papers, and bookbinding tools. In one corner sat a five-foot-tall book press that had been partially taken apart, a spanner still lying on the floor next to it.

‘Thanks,’ Leaf said as Milka set her down on the floor. ‘But why—’

‘Shut up!’ instructed Milka. ‘You’ve got us in enough trouble already. Let me think.’

‘Will Noon really blame us?’ asked Feorin.

‘Blame us!’ shrieked Milka. ‘You’re already on probation! He’ll send us down to Circle Zero! Do you fancy fighting all the plants that get in down there?’

‘What will we do?’ asked Feorin anxiously.

‘Hide,’ said Milka. ‘If Noon doesn’t see us, he can’t ask us anything.’

‘How long for?’

‘Forever!’

‘Forever?’

‘For a few days anyway. Noon will forget once he gets a new phone. As for you—’

Milka advanced on Leaf angrily. The girl retreated before her, almost falling over the pile of pillowcases that Feorin had dropped on the floor.

‘Can’t I come hide with you?’ Leaf asked.

‘No!’ Milka raised her fist but then let it fall without striking Leaf. ‘Definitely not. Get out! And don’t tell anyone what you’ve done, or that we helped you!’

‘Okay.’ Leaf picked up the pillowcases and backed out, Feorin obligingly holding the door open. ‘Thanks!’

‘Thanks?’ growled Milka. ‘You’re more trouble than Feorin!’

The door slammed behind Leaf, leaving her alone in the corridor. But she no longer felt alone. Dr Scamandros knew her situation, even if he didn’t know her exact location. That meant Arthur would soon know, and her friend would organise a rescue as soon as possible.

All she had to do now was find Aunt Mango and then – taking a leaf, so to speak, from Milka’s book – hide with her until the rescuing forces arrived.

Leaf smiled and walked away – straight into a very tall, impeccably dressed Denizen with straw-blond hair and a very shiny monocle over one of his piercing blue eyes. Though he had not been wearing the monocle previously, Leaf instantly recognised him as being one of the two Denizens who had preceded Lady Friday’s march through the hospital.

‘Ah,’ said the Denizen, who could only be Friday’s Noon. ‘The unauthorised use of my telephone is ex-plained. Miss Leaf, is it not?’

Leaf nodded.

‘You are fortunate that milady has ordered you to be kept in reasonable working order, as being of potential further use,’ drawled Noon. ‘That being the case, if you tell me who you called, I shall not punish you too heavily.’