History Keepers: Nightship to China Read Online Free Page B

Rosie, are turning fifty. Also, they feel they should sort out the bathroom shop – don’t ask me why: no one’s ever going to find them in the nineteenth century. They wanted me to go with them, of course, and then
we
had an argument too. As usual, they threatened to take me back for good. I don’t know who they’re fooling – they love it here just as much as I do. Anyway, in the end I managed to get out of it. Emotional blackmail. Today is, you know . . .’ He didn’t finish the sentence.
    Charlie frowned, trying to remember what day it could be; then it came to him. ‘The twenty-first of June?’
    Jake nodded. ‘My brother’s birthday. He would have been nineteen.’
    Charlie squeezed his hand. ‘He
is
nineteen; let’s think of it that way.’
    Jake changed the subject. ‘I promised to go and tell the others when you woke up. I’ll be back in a minute. Don’t go anywhere,’ he joked as he left the room.
    With the news that Charlie had woken up, the sick bay quickly filled with people. Nathan arrived first with his father, Truman, both talking loudly and knocking things over. Topaz followed behind with Alan and Miriam. Jake’s mum had made chocolate brownies and she offered them round, oblivious to the expression of horror on people’s faces. (Miriam’s brownies were infamously as hard as granite and usually tasted of petrol.) Jupitus followed, and then Signor Gondolfino – the head of costumiery. Then Dr Chatterju dropped in, along with his ninety-year-old mother, who had stayed on after the non-wedding. Rose brought up the rear and, excited at finding such a jovial party, started to entertain them all – and annoy Jupitus – with stories from her ‘crazy days’ as a young agent in Constantinople. One rather risqué tale made Gondolfino feign deafness.
    It was when old Mrs Chatterju snapped a tooth on one of Miriam’s biscuits, creating a terrible scene, that Lydia Wunderbar insisted that enough was enough. She allowed Jake to stay, but booted everyone else out.
    After all the excitement, Jake sat back down and promptly fell asleep across the end of Charlie’s bed.
    ‘Jake?’ Lydia whispered.
    He sat up with a jolt, disorientated. ‘What time is it?’
    ‘It’s almost ten o’clock. Lights out.’
    Jake saw that it was almost dark outside. He stretched and turned to see Charlie sitting up, ensconced in a book, Mr Drake nestled next to him.
    ‘This is absolutely fascinating,’ Charlie said, holding up the tome. ‘Miss Yuting lent me this book about China, and something incredible has just occurred to me. I don’t know why I never thought of it before . . .’ He raised his eyebrows and dropped his bombshell: ‘The Han dynasty and the Roman empire existed at the same time.’
    Jake gave Miss Wunderbar a sideways glance; he didn’t have a clue what his friend was talking about.
    ‘I mean, think about it,’ the invalid continued, ‘it’s the first century BC and you have two of the biggest civilizations the world has ever known. In the west: Rome, Julius Caesar, vast empires, huge armies, all sorts of inventions. And four thousand miles away, you have the Han empire of China, just as grand, massive and all-conquering. And yet’ – he held up his finger to emphasize his point – ‘they knew next to
nothing
about each other. Well, all right, there was some silk and silver going back and forth, but basically, no cultural exchange whatsoever.’
    ‘Charlie, are you sure you’re not hallucinating?’ Jake asked.
    He shook his head and looked them both in the eye. ‘What I’m trying to say is this: east and west, they were once utterly divided. We take that for granted. And we shouldn’t.’ His gaze was unsettling.
    ‘Enough now,’ Lydia Wunderbar tutted, taking the book away. ‘I know I’m a librarian, but I wonder sometimes, Charlie, if you should take an interest in more mindless things – like Nathan Wylder does. Anyway, bedtime, both of you.’
    ‘Why don’t we talk