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be unable to travel!”
    He looked remarkably better and brighter at
the thought of not having to get on a horse.
    “Al. You. Are. A. Big. Baby.”
    “I’m poorly, Lucretia.”
    “Poorly my fancy foot, Alexander.”
    “Harsh.”
    “But true. You obviously fell asleep
while you were intent on composing something. The ink spilled over everything.”
    “Have you ever considered a second
career as a sleuth?”
    “Not funny, Al. Have you even packed
up yet? Luckily for you, and given past form, Freddie knew to get help with
shutting up your work room. Everything is in chests and awaiting transport.”
    “Oh, thank goodness for that! But what
about all of this?” He gestured around his room with an ink-stained hand.
    Books lay everywhere, some opened, some
closed. Clothes spilled from drawers, bits of half-built contraptions littered
the surface of the dressing table. Clockwork innards crunched underfoot.
    “I have it!” He sprang from the
bed, fully healed, after a moment of deep thought. “You said that it was a
shame I hadn’t thought of something to help us pack. Here, quickly, help me.”
He fumbled in his pocket for a key, and on finding it made his way over to a
heavy wooden chest which he opened with alacrity.
    “The clockwork orchestra?” She
peered into the chest.
    “Indeed, help me wind them up and we
can put them to work.”
    “This is possibly one of your worst
ideas.”
    “Oh, ye of little faith,” he
replied, frantically turning the key on the back of one of the elephants.
     
    *
     
    The rain started falling softly, and
Lucretia pulled the hood of her travelling cape up. She walked around the house
that they were leaving, saying goodbye in her own way to the walls, windows, and
the roof where she had spent so many happy hours after leaving Germany. Her
eyes came to rest on Freddie.
    She would never tell him, but she loved
living with him and Al.
    Leibniz scampered up to her and climbed up
her cape until he was burrowed in close. Snuggling in, he chattered to her.
    He and Orion had been gifts from Mr. B. On
meeting her, he had decided she needed company while stargazing and had given
her two great friends, and his own friendship of course.
    “Lucretia! Damn it! How am I to get
Orion on the horse?” Freddie, red-faced with exertion, pleaded.
    Lucretia threw back her head and laughed. “He
hates horses, silly, almost as much as Al.”
    “Speaking of Al, have you seen him?”
    The thundering of hooves took them by
surprise and Orion took off in flight to land on Lucretia’s shoulder, pushing
her to her knees. Freddie wheeled round and tried to jump in front of the horse
to which Al was clinging for dear life.
    He fell and met the earth, screaming after his brother.
    The horse disappeared out of sight, leaving
a track of clods of earth driven up by its hooves.

Chapter 3
    In Which They Glimpse The Two-Horse Town New
Neighbours The Advertisement The Family O The Burning Of A Letter
     
    The trees went by in a blur of browns and
greens as brother and sister galloped after the rogue horse.
    “Orion! Go find Al. Fly!”
    The owl took off soundlessly, huge wings
spreading, soaring higher and higher until he was a dark smudge on the face of
the sky.
    “I’m not sure if I can keep this up,”
wheezed Freddie, teeth unnaturally white in his mud-spattered face.
    “Got to keep going,” she wheezed
in return. “Hang on, I think I see something!” She dug her heels in
to hurry her horse on even faster. The horse, indignant at her behaviour,
turned his head to nip her.
    “Not now!”
    The horse tossed his head in disdain.
    As they came over the brow of a hill there
was Orion, sitting placidly beside Al, with his horse contentedly munching on
grass.
    “Al!” She dismounted in one fluid
movement as she reached him. “How are you?”
    He looked up at her through his bloodied
fringe and smiled weakly. She put her hand out. “This is dreadful,
horrible!”
    “Lucretia, head wounds always look the
worst