Page 27 - TheSecretDetectives

purser and asking him about his own little girl onshore, as if anybody cared about people who weren’t even there.
The only time Isobel could be sure Letitia wasn’t going to start asking questions was when Letitia was asleep, which did not exactly leave Isobel much choice.
Isobel disliked Letitia more than she could remember disliking anyone, and since Isobel had never liked anybody in her life, that was saying a lot. But it was because of Letitia, really, that Isobel saw it at all.
It was quite late at night, on the eighth night of their voyage, and Isobel had slipped out of the stateroom up on to the deck.
She thought it might be a bit dangerous, but she wasn’t sure she minded. She thought she might quite like danger: it was exciting.
In any case, because their stateroom was in Row A, it was not difficult to get out on deck. She could get back quite easily if something went wrong. And she had done this already once before, three nights ago – and it seemed to her to be the best possible adventure on board ship. It had been wonderful.
There had been nobody about. On the floor below –
on the crew deck – she had seen a sailor moving steadily
about on watch, and if she craned her neck round the
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