Page 10

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’m still struggling with this. The funeral is on Monday. I’m looking for somewhere to hold a wake.’

Aunt Marjorie shook her head. ‘We don’t cater for private parties, I’m afraid—’

‘There’s the function room,’ Jacob interrupted. ‘I mean, you’d struggle to get more than twenty-five people in there—’

‘That would be enough, I’m sure,’ the girl said as Aunt Marjorie looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

‘What kind of food could you put on? I’m sure just a few little buffet things would be fine.’

‘Sure, we could arrange that. And drinks. Coffee, tea, that kind of thing.’

‘How much would it cost for say, three hours?’

Under Aunt Marjorie’s watchful gaze, Jacob picked a number out of the air, not too high, not too low.

‘Oh, that would be fine,’ the girl said. ‘Can I pay in advance?’ She opened her purse and pulled out a debit card. Jacob tried to catch a glimpse of the name, but her finger was covering it.

‘We’ll need to take a few more details,’ Aunt Marjorie said, giving Jacob a knowing stare. ‘Can you give me your name, please?’

‘Charlotte,’ the girl said. ‘Charlotte Harding.’

‘Charlotte,’ Jacob said.

‘Write it down before you forget,’ Aunt Marjorie said, nudging Jacob in the ribs. Reluctantly he pulled his gaze away from the girl, scrabbling for a piece of notepaper. He wrote her name in his best handwriting, staring at it for a moment before looking up again at Charlotte, standing in front of him with a little smile on her face.

Aunt Marjorie seemed to be enjoying herself. ‘We’ll need a telephone number,’ she said to Jacob, rather than asking Charlotte directly.

‘Uh … do you have a telephone number?’

‘I have a mobile.’

‘Right.’

She read out the numbers and Jacob wrote them down, staring at them like they were made of gold.

‘We’ll make some arrangements, dear, then we’ll be in touch about the final details,’ Aunt Marjorie said. ‘Obviously it’s already Friday, and you want to hold the wake on Monday afternoon, so you can expect a call from us sometime tomorrow.’

‘Thank you very much,’ Charlotte said.

She smiled at Jacob and Marjorie, then backed out of the shop. Through the window panes she lifted a hand in a little wave, then turned and walked up the street. Jacob had an overwhelming urge to follow her, but suddenly found his aunt’s hand waving in front of his eyes.

‘Are you still in there?’

‘What? Oh, sorry.’

‘Wow, that was quite a sight to behold.’ Aunt Marjorie was grinning from ear to ear. ‘Now, once you’ve come down from whatever planet you’re currently on, I’d appreciate it if you could give some thought as to how you’re going to turn our stockroom into a function room by Monday afternoon.’