‘No, another day.’ We were due to have lunch with Sean, and I didn’t want to be late.
‘You still see them, don’t you?’ Her manner was matter-of-fact. It was a question she knew the answer to.
‘Yes, sometimes.’
‘Do you see her in me?’
‘I guess I see bits of them in all of you,’ I replied evasively. She knew I could see Rosamunde in her eyes. ‘It’s not just them. The buildings, too. I never thought about the buildings, how oriental-looking they are.’
‘Most English seaside towns look a bit oriental.’
‘I can see that now. So much of Calabash is here.’
‘It was always here.’ She brushed a strand of hair from her placid, kind eyes.
‘So were you, Julia. I was wrapped up in myself—’
She dismissed the thought. ‘We were different people then. Being a teenager is a time for being different. I feel sorry for people who never know that feeling. It’s a barrier you have to pass through. Let’s walk to the shoreline, Kay.’
I watched her jump down onto the stones and start marching. I had to run to reach her side.
‘Don’t you miss your maps?’ she asked.
‘Atlantis. Babylon. Mesopotamia. All dead civilisations.’
‘Except Calabash. It could have killed you, you know.’
‘I know,’ I replied. ‘But it brought me life.’
For a moment I thought I saw the shields of the great bronze warriors reflecting on the water, but it was only the sunlight on the waves.
‘God, the sea looks cold,’ she said, walking to the edge of the tide.
‘It must be nearly freezing,’ I agreed. ‘It doesn’t look very clean.’
‘I dread to think what’s in it.’
‘I guess we’ll never know.’
But by the time we had finished talking, we had waded right in.
For Jim
Acknowledgements
I’m indebted to a wide variety of Middle Eastern studies, including R. B. Merriman’s Suleyman The Magnificent, Raffaella Lewis’s Everyday Life in Ottoman Turkey, Ilhan Aksit’s Treasures of Istanbul, Robert Tewdwr Moss’s Cleopatra’s Wedding Present, Jason Goodwin’s Lords of the Horizons, Lynne Thornton’s The Orientalists, and, of course, Tales From the One Thousand and One Nights. I would like to thank my charming and rather glamorous editor, Antonia Hodgson, Nann du Sautoy, my faithful and fearless agent, Serafina Clarke, my international agents, Jennifer Luithlen and Lora Fountain, and designer Martin Butterworth. With love and respect to Jim and Richard for their patience, help and kindness, and, as always, to my family, especially my mother Kath, from whom the idea for this book extends.
BY CHRISTOPHER FOWLER
Spanky
Roofworld
Rune
Red Bride
Darkest Day
City Jitters
The Bureau of Lost Souls
Sharper Knives
Psychoville
Flesh Wounds
Disturbia
Red Gloves
Soho Black
Personal Demons
Uncut
Paperboy: A Memoir
Film Freak
Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries
Full Dark House
The Water Room
Seventy-Seven Clocks
Ten Second Staircase
White Corridor
The Victoria Vanishes
Bryant & May on the Loose
Bryant & May off the Rails
The Memory of Blood
The Invisible Code
Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart
Bryant & May and the Burning Man
London’s Glory: The Lost Cases of Bryant & May and the Peculiar Crimes Unit
Bryant & May: Strange Tide
About the Author
CHRISTOPHER FOWLER is the acclaimed author of the award-winning Full Dark House and twelve other Peculiar Crimes Unit mysteries: The Water Room, Seventy-Seven Clocks, Ten Second Staircase, White Corridor, The Victoria Vanishes, Bryant & May on the Loose, Bryant & May off the Rails, The Memory of Blood, The Invisible Code, Bryant & May and the Bleeding Heart, Bryant & May and the Burning Man, and Bryant & May: Strange Tide. He lives in King’s Cross, London, where he is at work on his next Peculiar Crimes Unit novel.
christopherfowler.co.uk
Facebook.com/​chrisfowlerauthor
Twitter: @Peculiar
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