Chapter FiveTrue to her word, Miss Venture showed me the elegant mechanism that supported the enormous light in its quicksilver bed. She taught me to read the sea, interpret the weather station, and signal to passing ships. Eventually, she gave me full-length shifts—usually at night, so she could sleep. She became maniacally cheerful for several days, and then cranky, and then switched me to daytime shifts so she could work at night like she was used to.
She was uncomfortable with her own authority over me, except when she was talking about one of the finer points of navigation. Then her eyes brightened, and the tension left her shoulders, and we were colleagues. But she refused to speak to me about Melbourne. On the upside, I was allowed to experiment with the quicksilver as much as I li
