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Thea stared at him. Jenna knew that their mum had kept the bookshop.So, why didn’t she tell me, thought Thea. Perhaps she was intending to reopen the bookshop; that was her new job, or she was hoping it would be. Perhaps that was what the phone messages she’d left for Thea had been about.
Toby sighed.‘No, she didn’t say anything about the bookshop. I found the key in her handbag.’
You mean, you took it,thought Thea.
He cast a glance towards the kitchen door, and lowered his voice.‘She’s been acting really weird lately.’
‘Who – your mum?’
‘Yes. Anyway, one day she collected us from school and dropped us in town.’
‘Town?’
‘Aldeburgh. She said she had some errands to run, and gave us money to go buy an ice cream or some chips. She never gives us a fiver each, or any money apart from pocket money. They’ve been very strict like that lately.’
Toby continued, ‘I bought an ice cream, then I saw Mum standing around the high street. I thought she was doing some shopping. I was bored, so I thought I’d catch up with her. Then she disappeared.’
‘Disappeared?’
‘Into Cobblers Yard. So, I followed her and looked into all the shop windows, but I couldn’t see her.’
‘Like I did with you when I followed you into Cobblers Yard. So, you found her in the bookshop?’
‘Not exactly. I’d walked into each shop, and I was standing in the antique shop when I saw her come out of the bookshop, glance around the yard, and quickly lock up the shop, putting the key in her handbag.’
‘Why didn’t you walk up to her and ask her about the shop?’
‘I don’t know. I followed her out of the yard, and she went into the Co-op. When she came out with a bag of groceries, and she saw me, I asked her where she’d been. She said just shopping, and didn’t mention the bookshop.’
Thea asked, ‘How much do you know about your grandad?’
Toby shrugged. ‘Mum doesn’t talk about him. I just know that he left years ago, when she was around our age, and didn’t come back.’
‘Do you know that he owned that bookshop?’
Toby stared at her and sat up from his slouching position on the stool. ‘For real?’
‘Yes. I assumed your grandma sold it years ago, but it looks like she kept it.’
‘Do you think she kept it in case Grandpa comes back?’
Thea looked at him. She couldn’t remember a lot about her dad, but Toby reminded her of him. He was quiet and introspective, and she wasn’t at all surprised that he was drawn to the old bookshop.
When she’d discovered Toby inside, she hadn’t hung around; she had just ushered him quickly out of the shop, thinking they were trespassing. Now, she didn’t think that at all. She thought she knew what was going on. ‘Katie told me that your mum is starting a new job soon. Well, I think it’s the bookshop. She’s intending to reopen it.’
‘You think that’s it?’ Theo frowned.
Thea saw him frowning. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?’
‘That wasn’t the first time I saw her in the bookshop.’ He looked at Thea. ‘Can I have some juice, please?’
Thea stood up and poured Toby a glass of orange juice from the fridge. She made herself a cup of tea and placed it on the kitchen island before resuming her seat. She looked across the table at Toby. When he’d finished drinking his juice he put the glass down and looked at Thea. ‘I told you Mum was acting weird.’
‘There’s nothing weird about her checking out the bookshop and deciding perhaps to reopen it.’ Thea frowned, wondering why her sister hadn’t mentioned it to her on her visit that afternoon. Jenna wouldn’t have gone through those boxes unless she’d known the key was there. Which meant their mum must have told her. That made sense – didn’t it: their mum suggesting that Jenna should run the bookshop and make some money that way?
Of course, there was another solution – sell the shop. But if her mum had kept it all these years, she’d never agree to it – would she? And besides, Thea didn’t want it to be sold. She’d come over surprisingly nostalgic after stepping into the shop; it held so many happy memories from her childhood – from when they had been a happy family of four before her father had left.
‘But it’s still weird,’ said Toby.
