through Montreal. He brought out a notepad to write down Merry amp; Go's number and the instruction 'Arrange helicopter, Nell will phone from Vancouver.'
'I'll phone from the train,' she said.
George stood up. 'I'll get moving then, Mr Lorrimore. We'll do everything possible ' He looked big, awkward and unshaven, but Mercer had taken strength from him and was grateful. 'My sympathy,' George said, 'to Mrs Lorrimore.'
The tray of empty tea cups still lay where I'd left it on the coffee table. I picked it up and asked if there was anything I could bring them, but Mercer shook his head.
'I'll come and find you,' Xanthe said, 'if they need anything.' She sounded competent and grown up, years older than at breakfast. Nell gave her a swift sweet glance of appreciation, and she, George and I made our way back into the dome car, George hurrying off to his radio and Nell sighing heavily over what to say to the other passengers.
'It'll spoil the end of their trip,' she said.
'Try them.'
'You're cynical.'
'Pretty often.'
She shook her head as if I were a lost cause and went into the dining room with the bad news, which was predictably greeted with shock but no grief.
'Poor Xanthe,' Rose Young exclaimed, and Mrs Unwin said, 'Poor Bambi.' The sympathy stage lasted ten seconds. The deliciously round-eyed 'isn't it dreadful' stage went on all morning.
Julius Apollo Filmer was no longer in the dining room and I wished he had been as I would like to have seen his reactions. Chance would seem to have robbed him of his lever against Mercer; or would he reckon that Mercer would still sacrifice one horse to preserve the reputation of the dead. Filmer could read it wrong, I thought.
There was a cocktail party scheduled for that evening in the Four Seasons Hotel for Vancouver's racing big- wigs to meet the owners, would it still be held, several anxiously asked.
'Certainly,' Nell answered robustly. 'The party and the race will go on.'
No one, not even I, was cynical enough to say, 'Sheridan would have wished it.'
I helped clear away the breakfast and wash the dishes and pack everything into boxes for sending back to the caterers in Toronto, and when we'd finished I found that Nell had collected gratuities from the passengers to give to the waiters, and Emil, Cathy and Oliver had split it four ways. Emil put a bundle of notes into my hand, and he and the others were smiling.
'I can't take it,' I said.
Emil said, 'We know you aren't a waiter, and we know you aren't an actor, but you have worked for it It's yours.'
'And we know you've worked all morning although it's obvious you've hurt your arm,' Cathy said. 'I made it worse… I'm real sorry.'
'And it would all have been very much harder work without you,' Oliver said. 'So we thought we'd like to give you a present.'
'And that's it,' Cathy added, pointing to the notes.
They waited expectantly, wanting my thanks.
'I… er, I don't know…' I kissed Cathy suddenly; hugged her. 'All right. I'll buy something to remember us by. To remember the journey. Thank you all very much.'
They laughed, pleased. 'It's been fun,' Cathy said, and Emil added ironically, 'But not every week.'
I shook Emil's hand, and Oliver's Kissed Cathy again. Shook hands with Angus. Was offered Simone's cheek for a peck. I looked round at their faces, wanting to hold on to the memory.
'See you again,' I said, and they said, 'Yes,' and we all knew it was doubtful. I went away along the swaying corridor, taking Tommy to extinction and, as often in the past, not looking back. Too many regrets in looking back.
In the sleeping cars everyone was packing and holding impromptu parties in each other's rooms, walking in and out of the open doors. Filmer's door was shut.
Nell was in her roomette, with the door open, packing.
'What's wrong with your arm?' she said, folding one of the straight skirts.
'Is it so obvious?'
'Most obvious when Cathy bumped into you with her tray. The shock went right through you.'
'Yes, well, it's not serious.'
'I'll get you a doctor.'
'Don't be silly.'
'I suppose,' she said, 'Mercer won't run his horse now on Tuesday. Such a shame. That
The biblical description, I thought, was accurate.
'Xanthe,' Nell said, putting the skirt in her suitcase, 'says you were kind to her at Lake Louise. Did you really say something about the corruption of self-importance? She said she learned a lot.'
'She grew up this morning,' I said.
'Yes, didn't she?'
'If we go to Hawaii,' I said, 'you can wear a sarong and a hibiscus behind your ear.'
She paused in the packing. 'They wouldn't really go,' she said judiciously, 'with a clipboard.'
George came out of his office and told her the cellular telephone was now working, if she wanted to make her calls, and I went into my roomette and changed out of uniform into Tommy's outdoor clothes, and packed everything away. The train journey might be finished, I was thinking, but my real job wasn't. There was much to be done. Filmer might be sick, but it was sick sharks that attacked swimmers, and there could still be a dorsal fin unseen below the surface.
Nell came out of George's office and along to my door. 'No helicopter needed,' she said. 'They've found Sheridan already.'
'That was quick.'
'Apparently he fell on to a fish ladder.'
'You're kidding me.'
'No, actually.' She stifled a laugh, as improper to the occasion. 'George says the ladders are a sort of staircase hundreds of metres long that are built in the river because the salmon can't swim upstream to spawn against the strength of the water, because the water flows much faster that it used to because a huge rock-fall constricted it.'
'I'll believe it.' I said.
'Some men were working on the lower ladder,' she said, 'and Sheridan was swept down in the water.'
'Dead?' I asked.
'Very.'
'You'd better tell Mercer.'
She made a reluctant face. 'You do it.'
'I can't. George could.'
George agreed to go with the good bad news and hurried off so as to be back at his post when we reached the station.
'Did you know,' I said to Nell, 'that Emil, Cathy and Oliver wanted to share their tips with me?'
'Yes, they asked me if I thought it would be all right. I do hope,' she said with sudden anxiety, 'that you accepted? They said you'd been great. They wanted to thank you. They were so pleased with themselves.'
'Yes,' I said, relieved to be able to. 'I accepted. I told them I'd buy something to remind me of them and the trip. And I will.'
She relaxed. 'I should have warned you. But then, I guess… no need.' She smiled. 'What are you really?'
'Happy,' I said.
'Yuk.'
'I try hard, but it keeps breaking out. My boss threatens to fire me for it.'
'Who's your boss?'
