At the evacuation window, the first girl climbed into the tube. She plummeted down, a bulge in the canvas like a fish in a pelican’s throat, until she was spat out moments later, laughing and disheveled.
When the drill was over, and all equipment cleaned and returned to its positions, the subcaptains distributed towels and biscuits. As Catriona dabbed her face dry, she watched Hattie emerge from under the dark cloth of her camera. She had taken a photograph of Elias standing in front of the dorm. She had taken another one of him earlier, with his right hand on the pump wagon. Now he was saying something to Hattie that made her flip back her head and cover her mouth with her hand. She was giggling, and there was nothing performative about it. Catriona balled up the towel and tossed it straight into the nearby basket. A circle of curious girls was forming around Elias. She stayed back; her face still felt damp and sticky.
“Are you riding back into town with us?” she asked Lucie, who had supported the ground team for the chute. Lucie’s house was located on Norham Gardens, only a short walking distance from the college.
“I’m going home,” Lucie said, and snapped open her umbrella. “Boudicca needs feeding.”
The mention of Lucie’s little black cat eased the tension in Catriona’s neck. “Give her a treat from me.”
“I’m taking her to London tonight,” Lucie said darkly. “She loathes the pet carrier.”
“Then I shall see you next at the Blackstone dinner on Friday?”
“Yes.” Lucie glanced across the lawn to Elias, who was picking up Hattie’s camera. “I hope your father’s colleague won’t eat too much of your time until then. Tally-ho, my dear.”
Elias carried the camera to the waiting brougham, and Catriona watched this with alarm. Surely, surely he would not climb aboard. He didn’t. He briefly chatted with Hattie at the carriage door, then turned and walked down the road at a leisurely stride. He was returning to town on foot.
Hattie bounced back to Catriona, her eyes suspiciously shiny. Beneath her flouncy cape, she vibrated with poorly repressed excitement.
“You secretive thing,” she whisper-squeaked as she looped an arm through Catriona’s. “That is your father’s colleague?”
She moved her chin to the direction whence Elias was disappearing.
“Aye.”
Hattie’s fingers dug into her wrist. “Why didn’t you tell me that he was young, charming, and terribly handsome?”
“It hadn’t occurred to me that this was relevant information.”
Hattie eyed her with fox-like cunning. “So you agree that he is terribly handsome?”
“Hattie, it’s an objectively verifiable observation that he is handsome, nothing to get silly about.”
“He cares about working girls’ safety,” Hattie said, and sighed. “His eyes are like gemstones. His facial structure makes me want to paint in the classic style again.”
“Dear oh dear.”
“I shall ask him to sit for me,” Hattie said. “As a young Apollo.”
“You do that,” Catriona said, “if you want him to think you’re properly unhinged.”
“Hmph. He had no objections to being photographed.”
Elias Khoury’s face, eternalized on a bromide plate. A memento that would remain long after he had returned to the East. Hattie was very skilled; she would capture the confident tilt of his head and the expressive eyes . . . She hardly needed photographs to remind her. Her memories tended to be as sharp as any picture. Her blessing and her curse.
“Do what you must,” she told Hattie. “I don’t mind either way.”
“I invited him to the dinner,” Hattie said. “May I write you down as his table partner?”
She stopped in her tracks, instantly dizzy. “You have what?”
The enthusiasm slipped off Hattie’s face. “I . . . invited him to the dinner on Friday. I know it was rather too ad hoc, but he didn’t seem to mind.”
Some of the students were approaching them, so Catriona swallowed her reply, but she must have made a face of abject horror.
Hattie looked distraught. “It appears I made a gaffe,” she said. “I thought that since he’s an acquaintance of your father’s, and you know how Blackstone is invested in the arts and used to deal in antiques . . . so Mr. Khoury would fit in very well. It hadn’t occurred to me that you have reason to object. I do apologize.”
Catriona grabbed her hand. “It’s all right.”