Eva Ibbotson - Journey to the River Sea

He broke off. Finn was looking very odd. Different. He reached for Clovis’ hand.

‘Clovis, do you swear that you don’t mind staying here as Master of Westwood? Do you absolutely swear it?’

‘I swear it.’

Finn, as he walked back with his friend to the station, seemed to be made of something quite different. Not muscle and bone — feathers and air… and lightness. He did not actually intend to fly because that would have been showing off, but he could have done so if he’d wanted to.

‘You’ll never know what you’ve done for me,’ he said as they reached the gates of the level crossing. ‘If there’s anything you want—’

Clovis grinned. ‘Can I have Maia when she’s grown-up?’

Finn’s smile vanished in an instant.

‘No,’ he said.

‘Oh well…’

Maia would probably want to go off adventuring again one day, thought Clovis, and that wouldn’t suit him. He’d settle for one of the Basher’s banshees. There was plenty of time to decide which one.

At two o’clock, Maia saw Mr Murray’s motor stop outside the school. Five minutes later, Miss Minton arrived, walking across the square.

The interview took place in Miss Banks’ private sitting room while Maia waited in the hall, and as soon as she saw Mr Murray’s face, Miss Minton knew there was no hope. She would not even be allowed to look after Maia in the holidays. She was in complete disgrace.

Miss Minton had spent the night with her sister and bought another corset because the good times were gone. She sat up very straight and before Mr Murray could begin she opened her purse and took out ten sovereigns.

‘This is Maia’s money,’ she said. ‘We sold the things we had collected on the journey, and since there were four of us it seemed proper to divide everything we earned by four.’

Mr Murray looked at the heap of coins in surprise.

‘And I have of course kept a list of expenses. Anything I bought for Maia out of her allowance, I have written down here.’

‘Yes, yes…’ Mr Murray had no doubt about Miss Minton’s honesty. It was her sanity he was not sure about. He cleared his throat. ‘I have to tell you that before this… escapade… I was considering making you joint guardian with me of Maia. I’m getting old, and a woman would be able to help her with the problems she might soon meet. But now I’m afraid I shall have to dismiss you and arrange for Maia to spend her holidays at school.’

Miss Minton bowed her head. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I was expecting that.’

Mr Murray pushed back his chair.

‘Miss Minton, what on earth made you let a young girl travel up the Amazon and spend weeks living with savages? What made you do it? The British consul thinks that you must all have been drugged.’

‘Perhaps. Yes, perhaps we were drugged. Not by the things the Xanti smoked — none of us touched them — but by… peace… by happiness. By a different sense of time.’

‘I don’t think you have explained why you let Maia—’

Miss Minton interrupted him. ‘I will explain. At least I will try to. You see, I have looked after some truly dreadful children in my time and it was easy not to get fond of them. After all, a governess is not a mother. But Maia… well, I’m afraid I grew to love her. And that meant I began to think what I would do if she was my child.’

‘And you would let her—’ began Mr Murray.

But Miss Minton stopped him. ‘I would let her… have adventures. I would let her… choose her path. It would be hard… it was hard… but I would do it. Oh, not completely, of course. Some things have to go on. Cleaning one’s teeth, arithmetic. But Maia fell in love with the Amazon. It happens. The place was for her — and the people. Of course there was some danger, but there is danger everywhere. Two years ago, in this school, there was an outbreak of typhus and three girls died. Children are knocked down and killed by horses every week, here in these streets.’ She broke off, gathering her thoughts. ‘When she was travelling and exploring… and finding her songs Maia wasn’t just happy; she was… herself. I think something broke in Maia when her parents died, and out there it was healed. Perhaps I’m mad — and the professor too — but I think children must lead big lives… if it is in them to do so. And it is in Maia.’

The old lawyer was silent, rolling his silver pencil over and over between his fingers.

‘You would take her back to Brazil?’

‘Yes.’

‘To live among savages?’

‘No. To explore and discover and look for giant sloths and new melodies and flowers that only blossom once every twenty years. Not to find them necessarily, but to look…’

She broke off, remembering what they had planned, the four of them, as they sailed up the Agarapi. To build a proper House of Rest near the Carters’ old bungalow and live there in the rainy season, studying hard so that if Maia wanted to go to music college later, or Finn to train as a doctor they would be prepared. And in the dry weather, to set off and explore.

Mr Murray had risen to his feet. He walked over to the window and stood with his back to her, looking out at the square.

‘It’s impossible. It’s madness.’

There was a long pause.

‘Or is it?’ the old man said.

Maia had been sitting absolutely still on a chair in the hall, waiting.

Now she heard a loud peal on the street bell and turned to see a dark, wild-haired boy running up the steps. Taking no notice of the flustered maid, he came up to Maia.

‘I’m going home, Maia,’ shouted Finn. ‘I’m going home!’

Upstairs a door had opened and Miss Minton came slowly down the stairs, dabbing her eyes.

Then she drew herself up to her full height. ‘

We are all going home,’ she said.

Eva Ibbotson lives in Newcastle upon Tyne and has four grown-up children. She has written many other books for children. Journey to the River Sea won the Nestlé Gold Award, was runner-up for the Whitbread Children’s Book of the Year and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. The Star of Kazan won the Nestlé Silver Award and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

For more information about Eva Ibbotson and her books visit:

www.bebo.com/evaibbotsonand www.panmacmillan.com/evaibbotson

‘Enchanting and inspiring. Any reader presented with this book will be enriched for life’

‘The most perfect children’s book of the year… captivatingly told, funny and moving’ Nicolette Jones,

‘ Journey to the River Sea is pretty much perfect. A richly satisfying, superbly written adventure’ Dinah Hall,

‘A bubbly and fantastical adventure… Driven by humour and warmth, Journey to the River Sea has an irresistible charm’ Julia Eccleshare,

‘A plot too exciting to put down. Sheer pleasure’ Sarah Johnson,

‘This is a wonderful adventure story, told with energy and imagination’

‘ Journey to the River Sea is funny, wise and true’

Many years ago, a friend, who had been travelling in Brazil, told me that a thousand miles from the mouth of the Amazon river, in a city called Manaus, there was a fantastic opera house with grass growing through cracks in the stone and howler monkeys screeching on the roof. I immediately felt that little kick inside the head which means that you have found something that is yours . For years I researched that part of the world. I learned about the ‘rubber barons’ who became so rich from harvesting rubber trees that they could wash their carriage horses in champagne. It was they who built Manaus and sent for famous entertainers to perform in their beautiful opera house. Yet all the time the untamed jungle was on the doorstep, waiting to take over if they failed.