Page 56 of The Bookshop Ladies

‘Snake pits, of course.’ Joy rolled her eyes, she couldn’t see the people of Ballycove being impressed at the introduction of snakes to the village. ‘But then, St Patrick’s done away with all that malarkey here, hasn’t he?’

‘Thank goodness for that, I don’t care what we have to do with the place when Halloween comes; I’m never having snakes anywhere near the shop. Urgh!’ She shivered at the very idea of it.

‘Well, don’t say I’m not doing my fair share of research on your behalf.’ Joy laughed. And then the vibration of her phone in her pocket halted her from telling Robyn about some of the other quirky ideas she’d been reading about. Sandrine. Oh God, the phone call she’d been dreading and hoping for in equal measure. She mouthed an apology and moved away from Robyn to take the call in private.

‘Joie, I can’t believe I’m calling you to tell you that I think you might have found one of the most valuable books in the world.’ Sandrine sounded her usual sophisticated self, but just beneath the polished veneer, there was an undeniable hint of enthusiasm that sounded strange, as if it was unused to getting air.

‘So, you think it’s the real deal?’

‘Well, obviously, I can’t say for certain, not until I have it in my hand, there are tests to run, you understand? Paper and ink – they are simple tests, but I can’t commit until I have scientific verification. Still, if I was asked to lay my life on going either way, I know which way I’d jump.’ She laughed now.

‘That’s good enough for me,’ Joy said.

‘Do you think you could get it over here, so I could take a proper look at it?’ Sandrine asked.

‘I’ll have to talk it over with Robyn, it’s her book after all, but that’s the logical next step, I suppose?’

‘Yes, to have it verified, I mean, unless she is a very wealthy woman, I assume she’d want to sell, otherwise, the security and the insurance around holding onto something like that, well, it’s… you know what it’s like here, perhaps things are a little more reasonable in Ireland, but still…’

‘Leave it with me, yeah?’ Joy said quickly. She spotted Albie coming up the street in the opposite direction. ‘And Sandrine, thanks, you know for taking a look at it.’

‘A pleasure, we’ll talk soon, yes?’

‘Absolutely, as soon as things get a little less hectic here,’ Joy said and she hung up the call with a mixture of emotions pumping through her veins.

She took a deep breath.

She’d hidden Alice without a word of its significance to Robyn since she’d found it. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest just thinking about the subterfuge of holding onto it while saying nothing. Days sitting on a secret that could change Robyn’s life completely and absolutely.

On the one hand, if this book was the real deal – then Robyn’s financial worries would be at an end. The survival of the bookshop would not hinge entirely on one good or bad financial year.

But the bookshop had been the making of Robyn. Joy had only known her for a short while, but in the time she’d been here, she’d seen Robyn blossom like a flower opening up after a very long and cold winter.

You can’t put a price on the experience of making a success of something and that was what was happening for Robyn now, so much so that she hardly mentioned Kian any more.

The biggest change had come in the way she dealt with customers – Joy remembered watching her when she arrived first, scuttling around the shop, as if she was being chased away by demons. Hadn’t she completely got the wrong end of the stick with Joy the day she’d arrived and everything had ended up so differently to how Joy had originally planned?

Okay, so it might not have been entirely Robyn’s fault, but certainly, Robyn had been the main driver of a conversation that veered away from bookselling and ended up in a field far off course.

And then, there was her own place here. She hated herself for it, but maybe Joy knew already, she didn’t want anything to change because she didn’t want things to change between them.

‘Penny for them, Joy?’ Albie said. He was leaving the shop. God, how long had she been out here in the street?

‘I couldn’t put a price on them, Albie,’ she said and wasn’t that the truth.

‘Go on inside with you now, whatever is playing on your mind can’t be that bad, surely?’

‘Thanks Albie,’ she said and somehow, she knew, he’d been sent to give her courage. There was nothing for it, she couldn’t bury the book in the middle of the children’s section and forget it had ever been a thing. She’d brought it with her every day – at times it was hard not to give in to the temptation.

No.

She had to hand it over to Robyn and give her the chance to decide on what was going to happen next.

38

Fern was racing down to catch the postman when she ran straight into Joy, almost knocking them both off their feet. Joy was a petite, Jackie O of a woman, the type it would be easy to imagine being swept away by a hungry gust.

‘My fault, I was in another world,’ Joy said, as soon as she regained her balance.

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