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Thea didn’t have the heart to open them. She knew what they were about – the sisters wanted her to come back. She imagined Callum had told Mabel and Marjorie that he’d given the bookshop to her, and she knew that if she opened those letters, they would pull at her heart strings when they mentioned the abandoned bookshop.
But she couldn’t go back there. Didn’t they understand?She was in love with Callum, but the bookshop was full of memories of their time together, the man she loved, the man who had deceived her, betrayed her. He was just like Miles.
Did he think giving her the bookshop could make up for that? He’d made a fool out her, leading her on, letting her believe her family still owned the bookshop and she was doing it up for her sister. It was no wonder he had been in the library, researching the history of the shop, seeing how it had come about that her still had the keys.
The question remained, though: how had it come about that Callum owned the bookshop? He’d never spoken much about his past.
She looked at Mabel’s letters. ‘I should write back to Mabel and tell her that I’m never coming back,’ she told Winston. ‘Then maybe she’ll stop writing.’
Thea heard a knock on her door. That was Gracie, expecting her to be ready to get the bus to work as usual. Thea left Winston on the sofa and walked over to the door. When she opened it, Gracie looked her up and down. ‘Is everything all right?’ she said, her voice full of concern when she saw that Thea wasn’t dressed for work.
Thea looked down at her old jogging bottoms and baggy sweatshirt. She hadn’t told Gracie everything about her stay in Aldeburgh. She’d told her about her sister moving abroad, but she hadn’t mentioned Callum.
‘I just got a call from my sister. They’re going away today.’
‘Oh, Thea.’
‘I don’t feel like going into work.’
‘I understand. Shall I let Edward know you won’t be in?’
Thea shook her head. ‘It’s okay. I’ll phone him.’
‘All right.’ Gracie was about to leave, when she said, ‘I don’t want to bother you with work stuff, but I’ve been doing some auditing, and I can’t find some of the artefacts – a journal and a few rare books that were in the database.’
For some reason, Thea thought of the occasion, which seemed like a lifetime ago, when she’d taken Miles to show him her place of work late one evening and had discovered Edward in the archives. It had been a bit of a shock to find someone else in the bowels of the museum that late at night. And all rather odd. Edward had said he was doing some overtime, but no one ever stayed after work and did overtime.
Gracie said, ‘I’m sure it’s nothing. One of us probably misfiled those items somewhere, or entered their whereabouts incorrectly in the database.’
Thea stared at her. ‘Yeah, it’s probably nothing.’
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to let Edward know you won’t be in today when I arrive at work?’
‘No, I’d like to speak to him.’
‘Suit yourself.’ Gracie smiled warmly at her. ‘It’s lovely that you’re back. I was missing my downstairs neighbour.’
Thea returned her smile. ‘I’ve missed you too.’ She was just closing her door, when Gracie said, ‘Nothing else happened while you were away – did it?’
Thea looked at her. The trouble with Gracie was that they’d known each other far too long. It was very, very difficult not to lie. ‘I met someone.’
‘You did? Well that’s wonderful—’ Gracie must have caught her expression. She halted.
‘It’s not wonderful.’ Thea tried to keep her emotions in check. ‘I don’t want to talk about it. It didn’t work out, just like all my relationships.’
‘I’m sorry, Thea.’
‘So am I. Look, I’d better go and phone Edward.’
‘Will you be okay, here on your own today?’
‘I’m not on my own.’
Gracie glanced at Winston as Thea shut the door.
Thea stood there for a moment with Winston by her side, wagging his tail. ‘Walkies?’ She smiled at Winston’s reaction as he ran around in a circle in excitement. She reached for the vase on the side table in the hall, picking it up just in time before his tail knocked it off. Thea had dog-proofed the flat as much as possible. She’d forgotten about the vase.
Winston disappeared into the lounge, returned with his lead and dropped it at her feet.
