The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, Volume 2) Read Online Free Page A

fragrant ointments and shampoos, and it was a favorite occupation of her friends to try out all the new ones.
    Suddenly Lyra realized that the other girl was weeping. She stopped and took Miriam’s arm. “Miriam, what is it? Was it that letter?”
    “Daddy’s bankrupt,” Miriam said shakily. “It’s all over. That’s what it is. So now you know.”
    “Oh, Miriam, that’s awful!”
    “And we won’t—they can’t—they’re selling the house, and I’ll have to leave college—they can’t afford…”
    She couldn’t go on. Lyra held out her arms, and Miriam leant against her, sobbing. Lyra could smell the fragrance of her shampoo, and wondered if there were roses in that too.
    “Hush,” she said. “You know there are bursaries and special funds and…You won’t have to leave, you’ll see!”
    “But everything’s going to change! They’re having to sell everything and move to…I don’t know…And Danny will have to leave Cambridge and…and it’s all going to be horrible.”
    “I bet it sounds worse than it is,” said Lyra. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Pan whispering to Syriax, and she knew he was saying just the same sort of thing. “Course it was a shock, learning about it in a letter over breakfast. But people survive this sort of thing, honest, and sometimes things turn out much better than you think. I bet you won’t have to leave college.”
    “But everyone will know….”
    “So what? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Things happen to people’s families all the time and it’s not their fault. If you cope with it by being brave, people will admire you for it.”
    “It’s not Daddy’s fault, after all.”
    “Course not,” said Lyra, who had no idea. “Like they teach us in economic history—the trade cycle. Things that are too big to resist.”
    “It just happened, and no one saw it coming.” Miriam was fumbling in her pocket. She brought out the crumpled letter and read: “ ‘The suppliers have simply been so unreasonable, and although Daddy has been to Latakia again and again, he can’t find a good source anywhere—apparently the big medical companies are buying everything up before anyone else can—there’s absolutely nothing one can do—it’s too awful….’ ”
    “Suppliers of what?” said Lyra. “Roses?”
    “Yes. They buy them from the gardens over there and distill them or something. Attar. Attar of roses. Something like that.”
    “Won’t English roses do?”
    “I don’t think so. It has to be roses from there.”
    “Or lavender. There’s lots of that.”
    “They— I don’t know!”
    “I suppose the men will lose their jobs,” Lyra said as they turned into Broad Street, opposite Bodley’s Library. “The men whose clothes smelled of roses.”
    “Probably. Oh, it’s awful.”
    “It is. But you can cope with it. Now, when we sit down, we’ll make a plan of what you can do, all the options, all the possibilities, and then you’ll feel better at once. You’ll see.”
    In the café, Lyra ordered bacon and eggs and a pint of tea. Miriam didn’t want anything except coffee, but Lyra told George to bring a currant bun anyway.
    “If she doesn’t eat it, I will,” she said.
    “Don’t they feed you in that college?” said George, a man whose hands moved faster than anyone’s Lyra had ever seen, slicing, buttering, pouring, shaking salt, cracking eggs. When she was young, she’d greatly admired his ability to crack three eggs at once into a frying pan with one hand and not spill a drop of white, or break the yolk, or include a fragment of shell. One day she got through two dozen trying it herself. That had earned her a clout, which she had to admit she deserved. George was more respectful these days. She still couldn’t do the egg trick.
    Lyra borrowed a pencil and a piece of paper from George and drew three columns, one headed Things to do, the next Things to find out, and the third Things to stop worrying about. Then she and