Page 69 of The Battle of the Bookshops
“Good. Fancy working at Sotheby’s? I’ve got one more slot for an internship starting in January, if you’re available? Bloody hard work, but a chance to get your foot in, plenty of opportunity to take early responsibility—get some experience under your belt?”
Charlie nodded eagerly, and then his face fell. “It’s basically a funding thing,” he muttered apologetically.
“Never fear,” said Richard, “we don’t expect free labor. There’s a stipend. It’s not generous, but it should be enough to keep the wolf from the door. If you do as well as I expect you to, you’ll be drawing a proper salary before long. How about it?”
Chapter 30
“That was a-mazing,” said Charlie, sighing contently and sinking back into the train seat as he and Jules started their long journey home.
On the little table between them were celebratory cans of gin and tonic, a large bag of Jelly Babies, and a similar-sized bag of Reese’s Pieces. They had both agreed it was all too much of a red-letter day for a sensible supper, even supposing Paddington station shops had anything approximating real food.
“So, what’s the Codex Leicester?” asked Jules, now that they had settled down to examine the extraordinary events of the day.
“Only a seventy-odd-page notebook written by Leonardo da Vinci himself,” said Charlie, his eyes shining. “It was full of his diagrams of stuff he wanted to invent and his mirror writing—that was one of the things that made it obvious it was him.”
“Cool,” said Jules, impressed. “And it was auctioned?”
“Sold to Bill Gates for about thirty million dollars,” pronounced Charlie.
“Cool,”said Jules again. “Why Leicester?”
“Owned by the Earl of Leicester,” explained Charlie. “Don’t know how he ended up with it. I suppose possession counts foreverything. The grimoire will probably be known forevermore as the Capelthorne Grimoire. There’s a thought.”
“At least that will preserve the Capelthorne name. Nothing else will, at this rate,” said Jules, a little glum all of a sudden.
There was a silence while they both pondered.
“I mean, obviously, Bridget Capelthorne isn’t exactly up there with Leonardo da Vinci,” said Jules.
“No, fair,” agreed Charlie.
“But if Richard could get a five-figure sum, six figures even...”
“Yeah, maybe...” said Charlie cautiously.
“Then, let’s just say, Aunt Flo would have a few options,” said Jules, hardly daring to dream.
They were both stiff, tired, and cold by the time the train drew into Portneath station at ten o’clock that night. Jules was surprised and relieved to see Roman on the platform, waiting for them. As she drew closer the smile fell from her face. Roman was looking grimmer than she had ever seen him.
Her eyes asked the question for her.
“It’s Flo,” he said gently. “She’s been taken ill. I got her to the hospital. They’ve been waiting for you to come.”
“Oh God.” Jules clamped her hand over her mouth. She felt hideously sick and dizzy. Aunt Flo! Sheknewshe wasn’t well, and she had still just left her on her own all day.
“What’s the matter with your phone?” Roman asked as he handed her gently into the front seat of his car, with Charlie climbing in the back.
“I had it on silent because we were in a meeting,” she confessed, digging it out of her backpack and switching it on to see a bunch of notifications as Roman had tried desperately to message and call her. “Tell me exactly what’s happened,” she said, as they swung out of the station car park.
“I dropped in to see her at lunchtime,” said Roman as he drove, fast, toward the hospital. “I was there with the loss adjuster looking at the fire site, so, yeah, I dropped in. Luckily the shop door was unlocked. I found her in the office, looking deathly white. She was insisting she was fine, and then she collapsed in front of me.”
Jules gave a little groan.
Roman put his hand on her leg, whipping the steering wheel around with one hand to swerve into the hospital car park, where he parked across two bays, as close to the accident and emergency department door as he could get.
“I got an ambulance,” he went on. “They turned up pretty quickly, but...” Here his eyes locked on to Jules’s before he continued. “Listen, my love, her heart stopped, okay? They had to shock her. She came around. I’ve been talking to her. She knows you’re on your way.”
With Roman’s arm tightly around her, Jules could barely feel her legs as they rushed into the department, with Charlie bringing up the rear. As if by prearrangement, Roman just nodded at the hatchet-faced receptionist who waved them through the double doors to the department.
