Page 39 of Coming Home to Crumbleton

Mabel took it and flipped the paper open curiously. ‘Goodness!’ she chuckled as her eyes skimmed the note. ‘This is all rather romantic, don’t you think?’

Ruby shook her head automatically, causing Mabel to raise an eyebrow.

‘Okay… maybe… you think?’ said Ruby, wincing slightly at the note of hope that just snuck into her voice.

‘Well… there’s only really one way to find out,’ said Mabel.

‘What’s that?’ said Ruby.

‘You’re going to have to follow the clues and see where they take you, aren’t you?’ said Mabel, her eyes shining.

‘There’s just one problem with that,’ said Ruby. ‘I seem to be missing the next clue!’

‘Maybe it’s in the basket?’ said Mabel, tipping it towards her for a good look inside.

‘Anything?’ said Ruby, who was already pretty sure there wasn’t.

Mabel shook her head.

‘Maybe he forgot,’ said Ruby.

‘No chance,’ laughed Mabel. ‘Anyone that goes to all this trouble isn’t going to fall at the first hurdle. It must be in the note.’

‘You think?’ said Ruby, glancing at the words again.

‘What did that PS mean?’ said Mabel. ‘The bit about your old teacher.’

“Ps remember what our English teacher always told us - beginnings are important,” said Ruby, reading it again. She shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

‘Why do you suddenly look like you’re sitting on a hedgehog?’ said Mabel in surprise.

‘Well… me and Oli…’ she paused. ‘I just figured it was his roundabout way of reminding me that we had a bit of a thing when we were younger.’

Not that she needed reminding!

‘Huh,’ said Mabel, looking entirely unsurprised by the revelation of Ruby’s biggest secret. ‘Well… that explains a lot.’

‘It does?’ said Ruby.

‘Well yes - he did suddenly start turning up in here towards closing time whenever you were around… and he always looked a bit like a love-sick moose!’ laughed Mabel.

Ruby snorted, storing up the term “love-sick-moose” in case she ever got the chance to share it with Oli.

‘Okay,’ said Ruby, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes, ‘but I’m not sure that gets us any further with the clue.’

‘What exactly was your old teacher talking about?’ said Mabel. ‘Beginnings are important. Beginnings of what - stories?’

‘No - she was a total grammar freak,’ said Ruby. ‘She was always going on about sentence structure and… ohhhh’

She quickly scanned the note again.

‘Ohhhh what?!’ said Mabel.

‘Can I borrow your pen?’ said Ruby, excitement wriggling in her stomach.

Mabel handed her the order pen she kept tucked behind her ear, and Ruby started to circle the first letter of each sentence.

READ TO ME

---