My Pleasure, Darling

23: The Intricate Talents of a Professional Fat Girl

My wish is granted. It's another five agonizing days – in which I try to comfort Felix as best I can and make sure he has company – before I'm running home with a newspaper under my arm. I'm out of breath by the time I vault through the front door, but it doesn't matter – I clatter up the stairs without taking my boots off. I throw the door open. Felix is lying in bed, trying to nap, and he's not happy I've woken him.

"What?"

I throw the newspaper down on his sheets, triumphant. "They're opening the ports as of Saturday."

He's wide awake, sitting up, holding the paper, eyes scouring it. They flit from side to side, taking in the words. He looks up. I thought he'd be happy, excited, just as elated as I am. His expression is guilty, doubtful, uncomfortable. It spoils the rush of my blood through my veins, chasing the fire away with crystals of ice.

He's right. I shouldn't be so joyful. We're about to embark on what might be the most dangerous part of this journey. We're about to start a tedious journey by ship in the hopes nobody rats us out. We have to take Andrea away again, away from a house that is warm and comfortable, that she loves, where she started to speak again, and try to smuggle her out of the country.

"I guess it's time, then," he says solemnly.

"Yes. Yes it's time." My voice is quieter now. Serene. I pause. "Felix... I can't read your mind and I don't know what you want. But I'm asking you to go with us."

He frowns, confused, smiling. "Of course I'm going with you. Why wouldn't I?"

I sigh a little. "For a moment, I was scared you were going to say you wanted to stay."

"I wouldn't do that to you – the Chancellor may have given you the quest, but I've got to see it through just like you do." He gently folds the paper over and puts it down. "Besides, I'm a wanted criminal, remember?"

I do remember. How could I forget. I'm very simply, very purely, grateful that he will be with us.

Two months ago, if you had asked me about Felix Bruge, I'd have been hard-pressed to pick him out of a line-up. Now, I can't imagine the horror of continuing this journey without him. Now I need him close. Now we are friends. Thrown together by fate, as a poet might say. Now I am used to having him around, and I'd like to keep it that way.

He comes down for dinner, for the first time in nearly a week. It refreshes him just to sit at the table with us in a different setting. Because after dinner, we have to tell Elise, and she has to help us plan.

When the dishes are cleared away, she and Lionel sit at the table with us. The newspaper is spread open with details of the first ships scheduled to leave port on Saturday, and there's a map of the inner city.

Hakkat is a port city, but a small one. Exports declined a century ago. There are still cargo ships and cruises that come in and out, but it's no longer the hub of traffic it once was. A port that is not busy is one in which you are more likely to be noticed. And we need to slip by undetected.

We're all in agreement. I'll go down to the port on Friday morning and meet the Captains of the ships ready to sail. Pretend to be interested. Just for the sake of having something to look forward to. Lois Cartille is a young lady of much wealth and little to do with it, so she might be interested in ships.

If I find one who seems cooperative, and make a deal with him, I'll use a payphone to get back to Elise at the house, and then Felix can take Andrea to the docks in the car before first light. All in code, of course, so even if somebody was listening to our phone call – which, honestly, in the current political climate, wouldn't surprise me – they wouldn't suspect anything.