Page 19 of The Secret Christmas Library

‘What’s that?’ Mirren asked, shielding her eyes against the black glass. There was a beam of light shining, flickering back and forth.

Jamie looked up from the scattered tomes and frowned.

‘Probably lost tourists. They don’t usually make it this far up the track, though. Plus once some kids thought it was deserted and came to do some kind of YouTube exploring thing and my grandfather threatened them with an actual blunderbuss.’

‘He blunderbussed YouTube kids?’

‘Some of them are very annoying,’ murmured Theo.

Mirren looked at him.

‘Come on, you know it’s true. Hey, you guys, like and subscribe as I break into this creepy mansion. Sure hope I get attacked by a guy with a blunderbuss! ’

‘Well, if he did, how come that didn’t go viral?’ said Mirren.

‘Friends in high places,’ said Jamie. ‘Old boys’ network. Fortunately he was at school with the local paper’s editor and they managed to get it hushed up. Sorry. I didn’t invent it.’

‘Are they all dead ?’ said Mirren.

‘No,’ said Jamie. Then, ‘I don’t think so. And you’re the one asking why I don’t put the poem on the internet.’

‘In case you blunderbuss them?’

‘It’s definitely a car,’ said Theo with finality, pointing as, through the murk and the flurry of the blizzard outside, the glow separated itself into two beams: car headlights bending and moving as the light bounced off the snowflakes.

It was being driven very erratically, though, rather too fast for the conditions and the state of the single-track road, weaving from side to side, occasionally mounting the bank. ‘In a hurry by the looks of things.’

Jamie looked out at it and swore. ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake.’

‘What?’ said Mirren, as he turned and hurried towards the door.

Theo and Mirren looked at each other and kept watching as, eventually, the car drew up with a start outside a side door two storeys below them, and a furious-looking young woman with short hair jumped out.

Jamie came out from round the back and walked towards her, and she immediately started yelling at him, the Land Rover headlights still glowing, showing up how heavily the snow was falling.

‘Cor,’ said Theo. ‘I thought living in the country would be quiet. This is like EastEnders, if EastEnders were set in a castle. Which I would very much watch.’

‘I can’t work it out,’ said Mirren. ‘Girlfriend? Wife?’

‘Sister,’ said Theo, confidently. ‘She just laid into him straight away. Girlfriends lead up to it and pretend it’s your fault.’

‘Had a lot of women shout at you?’

‘You’ve done it yourself,’ said Theo.

The air in the room became even frostier than it was naturally. When Mirren spoke again, her tone had changed.

‘I really thought you were going to call me,’ she said, and it wasn’t with anger, or sarcasm, or implicit criticism. She spoke the truth, because it had made her sad. ‘And it made me really sad. I thought we had a good time.’

Theo looked at the floor. ‘We did,’ he said. He scratched the back of his head. ‘I’m sorry.’

He too looked up, his face open. It was as if the sadness of the North Library – the sad little boy, the unhappy family – had made them want to be better, to not waste as much of life as seemed to have been wasted here, in the piles of unread books and squandered paper.

It had affected him, made him more thoughtful.

‘I don’t want us to squabble on this job,’ he said. ‘Not that I think it’s going anywhere, but . . . even so.’

Mirren nodded, but didn’t say anything. Theo took a deep breath, shook his dark hair to get some of the dust out of it.

‘Look, Mirren, okay, fine. I was selfish. I thought I’d leave my options open.

Then I felt like a shit, and it felt better not to get in touch because then I didn’t have to think about myself being a shit.

’ He winced. ‘And then, we always think bad things about someone we’ve treated badly.

It’s a horrible quirk of human nature. I felt like you were making me feel guilty by just existing, so I got pissed off with you. ’

Mirren almost laughed. ‘Oh, God,’ she said. ‘That is so annoying. None of this is my fault. I didn’t do anything!’

‘I know,’ said Theo. ‘So saintly and nice. Drove me crazy.’

She laughed properly then. ‘I’m not always nice,’ she said to him, in a slightly more challenging voice.

He looked back at her, those impish black eyebrows arched.

‘I had forgotten,’ he said, ‘just how luscious-looking you are.’

‘Especially when I’m wearing all my clothes at once,’ said Mirren, but he didn’t laugh back. Just fixed her with that intense, hot-eyed vampire gaze. Mirren felt her pulse speed up. It had been a long time – a very long time – since she’d had sex. Her body was reminding her of that.

‘Well, I’m sure we could do something about that,’ he said.

The silence in the room was complete, apart from their breathing. Their breathing had become audible.

‘Well, FUCKING HELL!’ came a loud voice, and there was a huge bang, and the door of the library was thrown open.