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Thea said, ‘So, where would he have gone?’
For the first time since she’d seen him, Thea saw him smile. ‘He went home.’
‘To your mother?’
Callum took Thea’s hand. ‘No, Thea. He went home.’
‘So, after our stop-over tonight, where to?’ Jack asked.
Thea stared at Callum. He nodded and continued smiling. She turned to Jack, and said, ‘Take us home to The Bookshop of Memories.’
Epilogue
Thea watched her father, who was talking to a customer. He was putting a book they’d just bought into a small paper bag emblazoned with the wordsThe Bookshop of Memories.
She left him at the counter and walked over to sit down on the couch, taking a break with a cup of tea.She recalled the surprising discovery little Fergus had made on their journey back there in the campervan from Scotland.
Beth had told her son not to touch anything, but curious little fingers had found a secret compartment in the van, and the mystery of why her father had wanted Thea and her sister to have his old campervan had been solved – along with the reason Callum’s mother had been desperate for Callum to return the van to her.
Henry hadn’t wanted Thea and Jenna to have the van for sentimental reasons. It had never been about the van, but what wasinthe van; something Moira had discovered too.
Over the years, Henry had been using the campervan as his own personal piggy bank, squirrelling away a lot of cash from the sales of his books. It turned out that Callum needn’t have felt guilty over the fact that Henry had given the bookshop to him rather than his girls. What Henry had left them more than compensated for the loss of their inheritance. Thea knew why her father had been saving up for so many years, even when he lost his memory and no longer remembered – it was the promise he’d made their mother to buy her a cottage.
Callum wasn’t best pleased when he realised where the money had come from to do up his mum’s house, but she had also used some of it to fund Henry’s place in a lovely care home. There was still enough money left in that hidden compartment for when Thea’s mum found the cottage where she wanted to live out her days.
Thea smiled at her dad and got out her mobile phone. She had a phone call to make. A few moments later, when she’d got off the phone with Gracie, Callum came over and joined her on the sofa. ‘I heard you on the phone. Everything okay?’
‘Oh, yes. All thanks to you.’
Callum grinned. ‘Okay, I’ll take the credit, even though I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘I’m talking about Edward.’
‘Ah. Is that who you were on the phone with?’
Thea shook her head. ‘No, I phoned Gracie for a catch-up.’
‘Just for a catch-up?’ Callum lifted an inquiring eyebrow guessing that wasn’t the only reason she’d called.
‘Oh, all right, it was an excuse to check that our plan has worked.’
‘And has it?’
‘Oh, yes. Nobody is any the wiser. Gracie apologised for bothering me with work stuff that day I didn’t go into work – the day she said she’d discovered some inconsistencies, stuff missing, during an audit. She told me that she’d found the missing items, and that Edward had admitted he’d logged their whereabouts in the database incorrectly. Gracie said she understood – it must have been years earlier. She knew it was around the time his wife was ill, and his mind was elsewhere, obviously.’
Callum smiled. ‘Good.’
‘I must admit, I was a bit worried about him getting caught returning the books and other items to the archives in the dead of night – you know, like a security guard thinking something suspicious was going on.’
‘Yes, but that didn’t happen. So, all’s well that ends well.’
‘All thanks to you, Callum.’
‘Really, you don’t have to thank me.’
‘I do. And your mum. I’m glad she spotted them still in your father’s private collection in Scotland before anyone else did.’
‘Yeah, that would have been a bit tricky.’
