Page 83 of The Sugar and Spice Bookshop Bakery

‘Then why lie?’

‘He didn’t lie,’ Louise says quickly. She feels suddenly defensive. ‘He wouldn’t. He never told me he was an architect.’

Maddie shakes her head. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘It’s my father,’ Jack says. ‘I went to university, but Mamma passed away in my final year. My head was all over the place.’

Louise wishes now that she was sitting in the middle. She reaches across her stepdaughter and gives Jack’s knee a little rub.

‘So you failed your exams?’ Maddie says.

‘Yeah, and I told Babbo, but he’d always wanted me to be an architect – it was his own unfulfilled dream – and it was as if he didn’t hear me. He started telling people back home in Italy that I’d passed. And I should have put a stop to it back then, but he was so cut up after losing Mamma that I didn’t have the heart. For years, he’s gone on pretending that I’m an architect. To be honest, I think he’s a bit ashamed that I’m a tradesman. But carpentry’s what I always wanted to do.’

‘I wanted to be an artist,’ Maddie says. ‘But Dad said I should do something sensible.’

‘Fathers, eh?’ Jack says, and Louise thinks of her own beloved dad who wouldn’t have minded whatever she did.

‘So you’re doing what you want for a living, and your dad doesn’t like it?’ Maddie says. ‘That’s his problem, then, not yours.’

‘But I can’t work as a carpenter in Applethwaite when he’s going round telling people I’m an architect.’

‘’spose not.’

‘And if anyone found out he was lying, he’d be humiliated,’ Jack says. ‘I don’t want to do that to him. Especially not in the village where he grew up.’

‘So that’s why he can’t stay,’ Louise says.

‘That’s so unfair,’ Maddie says.

Jack nods. ‘I know. But it wasn’t ever certain that I’d move to Yorkshire. I have an established business in London. Giving that up and starting over somewhere new would be a big decision. On the other hand, moving closer to Applethwaite would make sense as Babbo’s getting older.’

‘And you’d be nearer Louise.’

‘I know,’ Jack says softly. ‘Don’t think I haven’t thought about that. Long and hard.’

Louise looks out of the window at the countryside passing by. She’s thought about little else.

‘Oh, I think this is it,’ Maddie says suddenly.

Their final destination is an old stone cottage, down a bumpy track. Louise winces every time they rattle over a pothole.

‘I hope this is worth it,’ Jack says.

‘Oh, it will be,’ Maddie says. ‘Just warning you both though. This is the heavy item. Get those muscles ready.’

The heavy item turns out to be an old-fashioned wooden wardrobe that Maddie has bought from a middle-aged woman via Facebook Marketplace.

‘I’m clearing out my late mother’s house,’ she tells Louise. ‘I didn’t think anyone would want this. It’s not an antique, exactly. And it’s not the style that people want any more.’

‘I think it’s perfect.’ Maddie runs her hands down the wardrobe. It’s dark wood, with an ornate pattern carved around each door, and a lock in one side. She takes out her phone, strikes a pose and takes a selfie. ‘One for the socials.’

‘Right, let’s get this thing on the trailer.’ Jack is clearly keen for them to get on their way.

Even with one person on each corner – the seller insists on helping – the wardrobe is ridiculously heavy. They somehow manoeuvre it onto the trailer, and Jack straps it down.

‘What on earth d’you want this for, Mads?’ Louise says.

‘For the bookshop,’ Maddie says.