Page 15 of The Christmas Book Hunt

‘Eh?’ said the man with the beard.

‘Well, it says you shut at seven, and I believe we are still ten of the hour?’

Mirren bit her lip to stop herself smiling.

‘You what?’ said the man.

‘I have business in this shop with your early Dickens,’ improvised Theo. ‘And this young lady requires use of the facilities.’

‘Which early Dickens?’ said the man, getting a sly look on his face.

‘I’m from Palliser & Sons?’ said Theo. ‘I’m Theo Palliser.’

Suddenly, the entire mood changed.

‘Of course,’ said the man. ‘I was just ... checking the weather.’

He unlocked the door and ushered them inside. Mirren, utterly surprised, bolted off to the bathroom to pee, with some relief, and warm herself up. She hadn’t realised quite how freezing she’d got. There was a large old-fashioned radiator in the bathroom and she draped her hands across the top to get some feeling back into them. Her face looked pale andshe found herself dragging a little lipstick across her mouth, flattered and delighted that Theo should have come after her like this.

She emerged from the bathroom to see Theo regarding several incredibly old copies of Dickens’ novels, kept in a locked cabinet with a key. He was pointing out flaws to the bookseller and shaking his head in an expert fashion, and Mirren found herself rather proud to watch him. She hadn’t realised he was from one of the shops she’d been to in London; she’d visited so many.

As she waited, she grabbed a few leaflets for bed and breakfasts from the rack; perhaps they wouldn’t mind if she used the phone to see if she could find somewhere to stay.

Theo was making very non-committal sounds in response to the bookseller’s very best books and glanced up and looked at her. She smiled straight back at him.

‘I think,’ said Theo, ‘I’ve seen enough. Thank you.’

As the bookseller rather huffily started locking the books away again, Mirren found herself staring at the pictures that lined every inch of the walls: writers and booksellers down the years. There were so many, faded by the weather, dusty.

As Theo turned to go, she saw it. She crept forward, not sure what she was looking at. A glint of something in her memory.

‘Perhaps I could close the shopnow?’ said the bookseller, something of his original grumpy tone sneaking back into his voice.

‘Of course. And thank you,’ said Theo, all manners back, and Mirren, glancing around, quickly took her phone, on its 2% battery, and snapped a photo of the picture on the wall, just as it died and the man more or less marched them to the front door, putting out the lights as they went.

Chapter 14

Mirren and Theo stood out in the freezing cold, looking at one another.

‘Thanks,’ said Mirren, suddenly shy. It was a while since a man had done something so nice for her.

‘No problem,’ said Theo.

‘Now I just have to charge my phone and ... find somewhere to stay.’

‘You are very bad at booking ahead,’ observed Theo.

Mirren looked down at her wet feet. She was completely freezing again. In fact, it was worse this time, having come out of a nice warm shop.

‘I wanted to go home tonight,’ she said, and for some reason, ridiculously, her bottom lip started to wobble. ‘I just want to go home. But my car’s broken down. And my phone didn’t charge. And ...’

She stopped then, because she was sounding ridiculous.

Theo blinked. ‘Okay,’ he said, as if he’d decided something.

‘What do you mean, okay?’

‘Okay, follow me.’

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