Free Anila's Journey by Mary Finn

to the Botanical Gardens, full of ladies in bright outdoor clothes, and gentlemen, and, sometimes, their children. Well, this day I had joined them and some of those ladies wrapped up in warm shawls could not take their eyes off me, even though there was surely so much else to look at as we moved away from the ghat.
    I was no longer a boy. I had draped my tunic more becomingly and now I wore my scarf in the usual way, loose round my head. Mr Walker got his share of hard stares too, though he did not appear to notice. I sat on a seat and looked over the edge at the little waves that lapped round the boat. The sun was throwing gold spangles at them and they danced. Under my feet the boat swayed like a cradle.
    We passed behind the end of a ship that was chained fast in the water, like a watchdog in Garden Reach. It had many little windows cut into its great height and a bright pointed flag hanging out from its tail. Two sailors leaning over the wooden rail saw me stretching my neck back to look up and they waved down. I could feel the eyes of the other passengers on my back.
    â€œThis is my first time going across the river,” I told Mr Walker.
    He smiled. In the bright light I could see he had freckles starting across his nose, the sun dots the English ladies feared as much as snakes.
    â€œThis boat is rather like a gondola from Venice,” he said. “A little showy, not like the craft I have in mind for my trip.”
    He did not say “our” trip I noticed. But we had covered quite a few points about that business already. Mr Linnaeus, I discovered, was dead and so had nothing to do with us, not really. But he had invented a clever way to name animals and birds and plants so that everyone all over the world could understand which creature was intended, even though the world contained so many different languages. This man from the cold north of the world used a language that nobody on earth spoke any more and he used it to give every animal and plant a personal name and a family name.
    â€œIf you find a new creature you are allowed to choose its personal name, you make it sound a bit like Latin, and then it goes into the Book of Knowledge for all time.”
    To my mind, that made Mr Linnaeus a Writer, for sure, but I said nothing. It would be a fine thing to have a beautiful bird named for you, as Mr Walker hoped to do for his sister, but what if you found a new jheel snake or biting bug?
    He told me that there would be no women on his boat, only men. As well as himself there would be his manservant, who was English, his bearer and the boatmen.
    â€œThat would be a difficult situation for any female, in any country,” he said. “But I do know a couple of ladies who have such a passion for knowledge that they find themselves in constant conversation with awkwardness. They are definitely not ladies of the salon.”
    I thought of Miss Hickey and her plain dresses and her books.
    â€œI know ladies like that.”
    â€œWell, if you do you will know that they tend to have other useful weapons against society, like money, or an old name. Your situation is a delicate one, Anila, as I understand it from everything you have told me. This river journey is only a short one for I shall be returning to England in the new year. I cannot guarantee that you will make any progress as a result of having made the trip with me. Indeed in many ways I think you might suffer because of it. Do you understand?”
    He did not want me after all. I would be too much trouble. I clutched the straps of my bag until my fists felt hot, hard as stones.
    â€œMr Walker, I can take care of myself afterwards. The English ladies that you are talking about do not want me even now, and I have done nothing awkward yet. But I would love to travel up the river because of my mother and I would love do this work for you because I am able to do it. And then I would return to Calcutta and perhaps be a little braver. Perhaps I