Page 58 of The Bookshop Ladies

‘I think it might be a first edition,’ Joy said quietly.

‘A first edition? Really?’ Robyn repeated and even if she didn’t know how much it could be worth, Robyn knew it made the book very special.

‘It’s worth or it could be worth a lot of money,’ Joy said after she’d explained about the first run and how only a handful had survived. ‘From what I’ve seen online, there were believed to be only twenty-three remaining and of those only five are in private collections, the rest are held in public museums and libraries.’

‘Oh my God, Joy, it must be worth a fortune,’ Fern said and she looked at Robyn, wide-eyed.

‘Uh…’ It was all Robyn could manage because her throat had dried up and she felt suddenly dizzy, as if the floor was coming up to meet her.

‘I know, it’s a huge thing to thrust on you, but I had to tell you, I couldn’t just keep carrying it around in my bag, it’s worth…’

‘How much?’ Fern asked because Robyn couldn’t think of what to say.

‘It depends on who you ask, but the last time one came up for auction it was valued at somewhere between two and three million dollars.’

‘Oh my God, seriously?’ Fern pulled her hand from the cover of the book as if her fingers had been scorched by it.

‘That’s…’ Robyn’s head began to spin, she thought she might fall backwards. ‘It’s a lot of money.’ If she wasn’t so stunned, she might have tried to figure out what it meant in euro, but really, two million of anything was a life-changing sum of money.

‘My friend, Sandrine, of course, she can’t commit to a definite valuation, not without seeing it, but she seemed to think there was a very high probability that it’s…’

‘Oh my God, is it just me or does anyone else here feel we should lock up the doors and hide it somewhere before we open them again?’ Fern laughed and it was a strange high-pitched nervous sound.

‘I don’t know what to think.’ Robyn reached for the nearby stool before her legs went from under her. ‘I mean, if it’s real, the only word I can think of is – life-changing.’

‘I know.’ Joy reached across and took her hand. ‘I’ve thought about that a lot.’

‘I don’t want anything to change, not now, not just when the bookshop is coming into its own. I mean, this is it, isn’t it?’

‘What’s it?’ Fern looked from one to the other.

‘I’m already living the dream, this is what I’ve always wanted, to have a bookshop that is successful – well, we’re on the cusp of success at least. I’m living where I’ve always wanted to, running on the beach every day and I have people around me who are… I have friends and…’ She stopped and for a moment, the strangest thought hit her. She wanted to lock the door of the shop, hide the volume among some of the older books and wait for it to fall into the hands of someone who would loveAlicejust as she was, not as a museum piece to be peered at through tempered glass. Books are meant to be loved, thumbed through, fallen asleep with, and this book, buried in a box for years, probably… ‘I don’t want anything to change.’

‘But Robyn, don’t you see, you could do so much with this, you could open a whole string of bookshops, all over the country, it could mean…’

‘I’ve never wanted a string of bookshops, Mum, all I wanted was this bookshop, overlooking the sea, and to be surrounded by people who made me feel as if I belonged with them.’

‘Okay, so, here’s a thought,’ Joy said softly, she was still holding Robyn’s hand. ‘We don’t know that it is a first-first edition. It might be one of the books printed on the second run, they are worth a whole lot less, probably no more than five thousand euro at most, maybe just about enough to carry out a few repairs in the shop and get you a slightly better car.’

‘Okay,thatI could live with.’ Robyn found herself smiling.

‘I don’t know, is there something wrong with me or what? If someone had given me a golden ticket with a value of a cool million, maybe more, I think I’d be celebrating all year long.’ Fern shook her head, perplexed but smiling.

‘And if it was worth a fortune, you could always donate it, you know to an Irish collection, I’m sure someone would be pleased to take it off your hands.’ Joy laughed now.

‘So, what do we do next?’ Robyn asked taking a deep breath.

‘That’s up to you. Stick it on a shelf if you’d like or bring it to Sandrine in Paris to take a proper look at it.’

‘I’m not sure I can just flit off to Paris, I mean, what about here and…’ Robyn said.

‘If it’s the real thing, Sandrine would probably come here.’ Joy said softly.

‘That’s so nice of her.’

‘I think she’s very excited about it, you know, a book like this, I have the impression she’d cycle to the moon if it meant just holding it in her hand for a moment.’

‘Oh God, she really thinks it’s that big of a deal.’ Robyn slumped down again. She couldn’t help thinking that half an hour ago, her biggest worry was how she was going to stick fairy lights to the magical realism section when there was no plug point nearby. She looked down at the book now, she hadn’t touched it since Joy had placed it on the counter.

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