Page 46 of The Little Teashop of Lost and Found
On the only occasion we’d met, Senga had struck me as fierce, which I suppose is what you want in an agent, so long as it isn’t directed at you. Or maybe it was what you wanted anyway, because the fear of her imminent arrival meant I’d really now have to throw myself into completing the new book the moment I moved into the flat.
And I’d need something more solid to put my printer and laptop on than the horrible café table, too, but which would still fit under the window: it was the perfect spot for a desk, where I could gaze absently across at Small and Perfect just as I was doing now … and then suddenly I remembered where I’d seen a lovely desk.
Hanging the curtains would have to wait until later.
When I bounced into Nile’s shop five minutes later, he’d just started bubble-wrapping a tiny piece of netsuke. It was in the shape of a grotesque little skeleton and I’d seen it the day before, when I’d gone in and fingered all the curios, on the pretext of asking him where the nearest post office was, even though I already knew the answer.
‘Nile, can you give me the directions to the antiques barn?’ I asked now. ‘Only I don’t think I could find it otherwise.’
Actually, I wasn’t sure I could find my way there evenwitha map – and I certainly couldn’t get a desk in the back of my Beetle, so I was deviously hoping he’d offer to take me again.
‘You want to go back there already?’ he asked, surprised.
‘Iurgentlyneed to buy a desk and I saw one there that would be just the right size.’
‘Buying a desk isurgent?’
‘It certainly is! My agent just rang and she’s expecting me to have almost finished my new book, but I’ve barely started. I need something solid enough to put my printer and laptop on – and I could do with a decent chair, too. Those tubular ones from the café are hideously uncomfortable and they creak and sway.’
‘Agent?’ he said, raising a dark eyebrow. ‘What sort of agent?’
‘Didn’t I say?’ I said, distractedly. ‘No – perhaps I just told Bel that I write sort of updated adult fairy stories. Darkish, with a twist. I self-published a couple and then a publisher offered me a contract.’
‘There’s no end to your talents, is there?’ he said, taping the bubble wrap round the netsuke and laying the parcel down on a tray.
I gave him a look. ‘My agent is dead scary, so I’ll have to get on with my writing in the evenings, despite the café renovation. So – do you think you could draw me a map of how to get to Rick’s?’
‘I could, but I think you’d get lost and we’d never see you again. Delightful thought though that might be, I feel Sheila would hold me to blame.’ He sighed. ‘I’ve got to phone a client, but then I could run you out there, I suppose.’
‘Not if you’re really busy – I expect I’ll find it. I really want something nicer and preferably cheaper than flatpack MDF.’
‘Then I’llhaveto come so I can do the bargaining.’
I was pretty sure I could beat his friend Rick down on the prices myself, but I just smiled sweetly and suggested I buy him lunch on the way.
We returned with a sturdy and rather Arts and Crafts-style oak desk and matching cupboard, just the right height to put my printer on – and, as a bonus, a small gate-leg dining table and two wheel-back chairs. It was lucky it was a dry day, because some of it ended up tied to the roof rack.
We managed to unload them and carry them up to the flat between us, because I’m an Amazon, and Nile, as I’d already discovered, is surprisingly strong despite all that willowy elegance.
While we were at it, I got him to help me take up the ottoman that I’d stored in the café and the other bits and pieces before he made his escape to finish packing his netsuke.
Once he was gone, I finally began the pleasurable task of moving things about until I was happy they were in the right place, unpacking and turning the flat into a home, though my lovely new desk in the window, with one of the wheel-back chairs in front of it, kept beckoning enticingly …
Back in Once-upon-a-time, Beauty’s not-terribly-evil stepmother was congratulating herself on having regained family peace. Luckily, her husband was both forgetful and unable to count to more than three, so that he seemed unaware of his eldest daughter’s disappearance, until one day a prince came riding up in search of her.
‘My mother told me I’d been betrothed to Princess Beauty when we were in our cradles, but I’d like to see her first – from a distance,’ said Prince S’Hallow. ‘If she’s not pretty, the deal’s off.’
‘Beauty? We appear to have … mislaid her,’ confessed her father, looking around him vaguely, as if she might be hiding behind the imperial purple curtains.
‘I know where she is – leave it all to me, dearest husband,’ said his queen soothingly, and he looked relieved and wandered off towards his library.
Since it was a weekday, I was surprised to find Nile at dinner that evening, though I don’t know why I should be, since it was his home after all.
In fact, everyone was there, but until Nile commented on it, I hadn’t realized quite how well I’d settled in and how much Oldstone Farm had already come to feel like home to me.
Sheila smiled at me across the table and said, ‘Oh, yes, Alice is an honorary Giddings now. We’ve unofficially adopted her and even though her flat’s almost ready, we hope she’s going to spend this weekend and any more she can spare with us.’
‘You know I’d love to – as long as you let me pay for my bed and board!’ I said.
