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irrationality."
    "Oh," said Kit Solent, slightly surprised. "Coffee, then?"
    "Just a mug of boiled water, please."
    Fern giggled. Kit frowned at her. Fever watched as patiently as she could while her new employer wiped two mugs and set them ready, then filled a silvery infuser with tea leaves for himself. As politely as she could, she said, "Master Solent, a conservatory is not a rational place to keep a stove. The heat will be lost through all this glass, instead of helping to warm the house...."
    "Ah, but the view of the garden is so nice," said Kit Solent, grinning at her foolishly. The kettle grumbled, coming to the boil. He filled the mugs and brought them to the table, saying as he sat down, "It must feel strange, coming here after the Head. We're not very rational, I'm afraid. But you'll grow used to it."
    "Miss?" said Ruan. "What happened to your hair?"
    Fever felt herself tense, wondering how to speak to these unreasonable small people. "I shave it off," she said. "Hair is unnecessary. It is a vestige of our animal past, and provides a home for lice and fleas and other parasites."
    The boy nodded, and his eyes crossed as he peered up at his own tufty fringe, hoping to see some parasites there. "Fever," he said. "That's a funny name...."
    "Ruan!" his father warned.
    "Not at all," said Fever. "During the Scriven era there was a fashion for women to name their children after whatever ailments they suffered from while they were pregnant. I have heard of people named 'Backache,' 'Diarrhea' ..."
    "I knew a man once called Craving-For-Pickled-Onions McNee," agreed Kit Solent. Ruan giggled, and Fever looked disapprovingly at his father. Was he joking? She didn't see the purpose of jokes.
    The little girl, meanwhile, had decided that Fever was now safe to.talk to. She held out the toy dog to her and said, "His name's Noodle Poodle. He's three."
    Fever was not sure how to reply to that. She turned to Kit Solent instead. "You have work for me, I believe? Dr. Stayling said that you have uncovered an Ancient site, and that you have asked for an Engineer to help you study the artifacts it contains."
    Kit Solent took another slurp of tea and then sat back, lifting Fern onto his lap. He looked slightly embarrassed. "I may have misled old Stayling slightly. The site that I've uncovered has not yielded any artifacts yet, but I believe it soon will. Until it does, I'm keen to keep it secret; I should hate one of the big archaeological combines to nip in and steal it from me."
    Fever nodded. Archaeology in London was a cutthroat business, so it was rational that Kit Solent would wish to keep his find a secret. She said, "What is this site? An Ancient building?"
    "Not exactly ... Kit looked wary. "I'll take you there, so you can see for yourself. But first we must wait for Mistress Gloomstove to arrive. Mistress Gloomstove is my housekeeper. She will take the children to school, and then we can go exploring."
    ***
    Mistress Gloomstove arrived not long afterward; they heard her open the front door just as Fever was finishing her hot water, and the children went scampering to meet her, Ruan telling her loudly about their new, bald-headed visitor. She emerged into the conservatory a moment later, weighed down by bags and shopping baskets, the children orbiting her like eager moons. A large, red-faced, breathless-looking woman in starched white aprons and an irrational hat, she looked suspiciously at Fever, and muttered, "Charmed, Miss, I'm sure," when Kit Solent introduced them.
    "Fever will be staying," Kit told her, taking one of the baskets from her and nodding for Fern to take the other. "Will you make up a bed for her in the room on the top floor? The one that still has its ceiling all intact?"
    "Of course, sir," said the woman meekly, with another look at Fever. She carried her bags through into a kitchen which opened off at the conservatory's farther end, and the children went after her with the baskets, Fern saying loudly, "... and I