Tilly and the Bookwanderers

by Anna James

  ‘And then, while I was in the Underlibrary with your grandad, helping him clear out his office, Chalk took me to one side without warning and told me that he knew of a way that Crewe and I could be together in the real world. Chalk knew nothing about you, Tilly, but he did know how desperate I was – everyone did after the Source Library debacle. He said he could help me if I told him what Dad was doing to stop his plans.’

  Tilly looked confused. ‘What plans? And what was Grandad doing?’

  ‘That’s the thing, Tilly,’ Bea said. ‘I don’t think Grandad knows anything about Chalk being fictional, or any plans. He certainly never spoke to me about it.’

  ‘As far as I’m aware Archie knows nothing about Chalk’s true identity,’ Amelia said quietly.

  ‘But how do you?’ Tilly asked. ‘And why did you let him keep working here?’

  ‘I’ve suspected for a while that something was awry, but I didn’t know for certain until tonight,’ she said. ‘And I wanted him close by while I tried to find evidence and work out what he was trying to achieve. But I think that might be a story for another day.’

  ‘But how did you find out that he’s a character from a book?’ Tilly turned back to Bea.

  ‘Completely by accident,’ Bea said. ‘When I came to meet him to find out more about what he was offering, I hadn’t told your grandparents where I was going – I couldn’t tell them I was trying to find another way for us to be with your father. When I arrived he wasn’t in his office so I just went in and waited and absent-mindedly flicked through the book on his desk as I didn’t recognise the title.’

  ‘Like mother like daughter, am I right?’ Oskar said, but no one laughed.

  ‘It was stamped as a Source Edition,’ Bea continued, ‘so it shouldn’t have been in here anyway. There were so many blank pages with only the odd page or paragraph printed here and there. But my eye was caught by the name Enoch Chalk and, as I flicked through, it kept coming up.

  ‘I hadn’t even joined the dots in my own brain when he stalked into the room and saw me reading his book. He started yelling at me, telling me no one could know, that it was a secret. He started ranting about how only a handful of people had noticed anything wrong over the years, and that they had all been dealt with.

  ‘Then it dawned on me. Why he was so angry and terrified. I realised it was him in the book. His name being the same wasn’t a coincidence, and it wasn’t from him having travelled in as a bookwanderer. I went for the door, but he wouldn’t let me leave, just grabbed my wrist, closed his eyes and the next thing I knew I was inside A Little Princess. He let go of me and vanished, and I was stuck, because he hadn’t even brought the book with us, let alone left it with me. And I would have been there for who knows how long if you hadn’t found me, Matilda.’

  ‘And Oskar,’ Tilly said quietly.

  ‘But why didn’t you get stuck in the Endpapers?’ Oskar asked Bea.

  Amelia looked at Tilly, Oskar and Bea and sighed deeply. ‘Chalk seems to have created some sort of loop, and even books that can’t be stamped. There’s obviously an awful lot more explaining that needs to be done, but I think perhaps the priority right now is to get you all home.’ She helped Bea out of her chair and wrapped her friend up in a warm hug. Tilly could see tears on both of their cheeks. ‘Tilly and Oskar, if we took a shortcut back to Pages & Co., do you think you could pretend to forget about it?’

  They nodded and followed Amelia, who still had an arm round Bea, out of Chalk’s office, back through the main library hall, and to the Map Room.

  Tilly looked at Amelia in confusion.

  ‘I know I showed you this room before, Tilly. But it has a rather less publicised function, only to be used in emergencies by the most senior and trusted of librarians.’ They followed Amelia in and she closed the door behind them. ‘Tilly, if you wouldn’t mind, perhaps you could find Pages & Co. on the map again?’

  Tilly found the tiny glowing light that marked home, and turned expectantly to Amelia.

  ‘And next, if you could just pop your finger on that light? Don’t worry, it’s not hot. Now read the bookshop name?’ Tilly did as she was asked, but nothing happened. ‘Perfect, thank you, Tilly. Now, Oskar, would you mind getting the door?’

  ‘The door we just came in through?’ Oskar said hesitantly.

  ‘The very same,’ Amelia said, nodding her head towards it.

  Oskar went back to the door and opened it. The doorway looked like it had a sheet of tissue paper hanging in front of it.

  Amelia grinned at Tilly and Oskar. ‘Just between us, remember?’ she said, and the four of them went through.

  It was like walking through a waterfall made out of magic. There was a second when their vision was blurred and they couldn’t see anything at all and then they were in the main entrance to Pages & Co., with the party going on as if they had never left.

  ‘I told you they wouldn’t notice we’d gone,’ Tilly said.

  ‘I’m glad to see this evening hasn’t stopped you being annoying when you’re right,’ Oskar said, but he was smiling.

  The bookshop was full of people and light and music. Grandad was behind the till, putting a pile of books in the brown paper bags printed with the Pages & Co. logo for a customer holding a cocktail. He glanced up and saw the four of them looking a little shellshocked in the doorway. When he noticed who was being supported by Amelia he staggered a little on his feet. He left the customer mid-sentence and walked towards them.

  ‘Is that you, my little Bea?’ he said, holding out a hand towards Beatrice. Bea collapsed into his arms and they held on to each other for a very long time.

  ‘I’ll go and find your grandma,’ Amelia said, and soon Elsie joined her husband and daughter and pulled Tilly in.

  Amelia put an arm round Oskar’s shoulder. ‘Well done,’ she said. ‘I don’t know all the details, but I do know that Tilly couldn’t have done this without you.’

  Hours later, after all the guests had gone home, Grandad, Grandma, Bea, Tilly, Amelia and Oskar were sitting on a blanket round a circle of candles and leftover cake. Tilly didn’t quite know how to be around the mum she’d never known, but simply being next to her was a start, and every time Bea smiled at her she felt one of the tiny cracks in her heart start to knit back together, even if the edges were still a little messy.

  Tilly and Oskar, mouths full of cake, explained exactly what had happened that evening, with Bea adding how she had discovered Chalk’s secret and Amelia filling in any other gaps. When she said that Chalk had escaped Grandad gave a shudder.

  ‘Do we have any idea where he’s gone? I know you are more than capable of dealing with this, Amelia, but a Source character on the loose who seems determined to bend the rules of bookwandering to his own aims is a rather unprecedented turn of events, even for the Underlibrary.’

  ‘We’ve got some educated guesses about where to begin,’ Amelia said. ‘I’ve asked some colleagues to seal off his office and we are going to start with the very small supply of books in there, and any books we know he has a historic link to. The rules of bookwandering are being stretched and tested in a way they haven’t been before, maybe even beyond Chalk’s meddling.’

  ‘You must let me know if I or Elsie, or Tilly and Oskar, can be of any help,’ said Grandad. And to one side Oskar choked a little on a mouthful of cake when he heard his name.

  ‘I will, of course, Archie. We’ll find him and deal with him,’ Amelia said, and Grandad nodded. ‘He may be a Source character, but they still have their limits.

  ‘But, Tilly, I have one more question: how did you get back to the Underlibrary again without any of the librarians noticing? Did you use the damaged copy of A Little Princess?’

  Tilly shook her head fiercely. ‘No, you said not to! We, uh, we sort of went via the Endpapers of Alice in Wonderland,’ Tilly confessed sheepishly. ‘I sort of put everything together – what Seb told us, and what happened when I ended up back at the Underlibrary when the last lines were missin
g from A Little Princess – and realised that I could travel from the Endpapers because of who my father is, and the whole being half-fictional thing.’

  ‘So we just travelled to the very end of the book and waited, and everything went all trippy and weird and sort of rewound around us,’ Oskar finished.

  ‘That was incredibly risky,’ Amelia said, pale-faced. ‘I’m sure Seb warned you that the Endpapers are a dangerous place.’

  ‘But ingenious, you have to admit,’ Grandma said, failing to keep a distinct note of pride from her voice.

  Amelia tutted, but with the hint of a smile on her face. ‘Honestly, Elsie.’

  ‘Speaking of the end of Alice,’ Tilly said, trying to change the subject a little, ‘why does Alice’s story end with the whole thing being a dream?’

  ‘Well,’ Grandad said, ‘I’ve always thought that it’s because the writer is saying that our dreams and our stories matter. I think it’s quite beautiful that you can read the whole book as Alice telling her sister a story. And then Alice’s sister is thinking about passing on the story to their future children, because stories last much longer than we do. Our stories are how we will be remembered – so we’ve got to make sure they are worth telling.’

  think it’s time,’ Bea said to Tilly, who nodded. It was a frosty weekend at the start of December and every day since she had come home Bea and Tilly had got to know each other a little better than they had the day before. Their relationship was still fragile, but it was beautiful and sweet like spun sugar.

  Tilly got out her brand-new copy of A Little Princess and turned to the page where Captain Crewe and Sara first arrive at Miss Minchin’s – the moment Bea had first met Captain Crewe, and the moment Tilly had first seen her father. They held hands and Tilly read them in.

  Even as the smoggy Victorian square blossomed around them, they did not drop each other’s hands. They watched as the black cab drew up to the school steps and a small girl with a black bob got out, clutching the hand of a tall man. The two characters climbed the steps to the school and rang the doorbell. As the door opened Captain Crewe happened to glance behind him to where Bea and Tilly were standing. He tilted his head as if he recognised them but couldn’t place from where, and then offered them a smile and a tip of his hat before disappearing inside. Bea pulled Tilly closer to her as she wiped a tear from her cheek. She took a deep breath and smiled, and Tilly read them back to Pages & Co., where Grandad had the kettle on.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To Mum and Dad, who gave me a childhood full of books and library visits, and taught me to love learning and words. To my sister, Hester, who I love fiercely, and who this book is for. To my grandparents; I borrowed bits of all of you to make Tilly’s grandparents so special.

  To all the Brays and Kitchens, Paul Frost, and the Collier/Cotton family.

  To my agent, Claire Wilson, who is a constant source of wisdom, encouragement and kindness. To Rosie Price and Miriam Tobin, and everyone at RCW.

  To the three editors of this book: Lizzie Clifford, who acquired it; Sarah Hughes, who tamed it; and Rachel Denwood, who helped it over the finishing line. To Jo-Anna Parkinson, Alex Cowan, Elisa Offord, Julia Sanderson, David McDougall, Elorine Grant, Francesca Lecchini-Lee, Beth Maher, Jessica Dean, Carla Alonzi, Ann-Janine Murtagh and the whole team at HarperCollins Children’s Books who have made this experience so wonderful. To Paola Escobar, for her beautiful illustrations.

  To Katie Webber and Cat Doyle, for more things than I have space to list here.

  To my friends: Kiran Millwood-Hargrave, Rosalind Jana, Kate Rundell, Tom de Freston, Kevin Tsang, Melinda Salisbury, Lizzie Preston, Amy Stutz, Erin Minogue, Jamie Wright, Jon Usher, Anne Miller, Sarah Shaffi, Sarah McKenna, Alice Ryan, Eric Anderson, Naomi Reed, Naomi Kent, Sarah Richards, Jo Kitchen, Laura Iredale, Jen Herlihy, Jennie Rickell, and Jules at the Aylmer Pantry, where I wrote and edited so much of this book.

  To those who encouraged me at the earliest of stages: Alan Weir, Jacqueline Hughes-Williams, Cathy Rentzenbrink and John Ironmonger.

  To the literary world, online and in real life, including everyone I worked with at The Bookseller, who gave me a community of book-lovers and friends and like-minded people just when I needed it most. To Anne Shirley, Sara Crewe and Alice, and also to Lyra Belacqua, who is sadly still in copyright.

  And to Adam Collier, for everything, always.

  Have you read these classic stories from the shelves of Pages & Co.?

  ANNE OF GREEN GABLES

  Tilly’s first bookwandering experience leads her inside the world of one of her most treasured characters. In this novel, eleven-year-old orphan Anne Shirley is begrudgingly adopted by Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who were expecting a boy. After a rocky start and various adventures gone wrong, Anne finds a home, and friends, in the village of Avonlea.

  ALICE IN WONDERLAND

  Tilly might get tangled up in riddles at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, but this world-famous tale is another of her favourites. This is the story of a young girl called Alice, whose curiosity leads her to follow a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole and emerge in a strange land where animals talk, playing cards reign, logic is overruled by nonsense, and it’s always tea-time.

  A LITTLE PRINCESS

  The most special and important book to the Pages family is the story of Sara Crewe. Having spent her life so far in India with her soldier father, Sara is sent to Miss Minchin’s boarding school in London. The doting Captain Crewe pays for Sara to receive special treatment in the school – a private room and a maid – and sends her extravagant gifts. But when the captain dies penniless, Miss Minchin strips Sara of all her fine things and forces her to earn her father’s unpaid bills by working as an errand girl in the school. It is Sara’s kindness and imagination that must see her through.

  TREASURE ISLAND

  Tilly and Oskar take a thrilling dip into the middle of Treasure Island, the classic pirate adventure, but it all begins when a mysterious sailor arrives at the inn owned by Jim Hawkins’s parents. When the sailor dies suddenly, Jim sets out to discover the location of the treasure hoard that he finds marked on the stranger’s map. Aboard the Hispaniola, Jim, now working as the ship’s cabin boy, discovers that some of the crew – led by the cook, Long John Silver – are planning a mutiny. Jim must find a way to thwart the mutineers and find the treasure.

  PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

  This classic novel follows the story of Elizabeth Bennet, a famously witty character and one of Tilly’s grandma’s oldest friends and visitors. In her story, Elizabeth and her four sisters, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Lydia, grow up overshadowed by the knowledge that at least one of them will have to marry into a wealthy family if they are all to avoid poverty. Elizabeth is determined to marry for love or not at all, but first she must overcome her tendency to form quick judgements and learn to see what lies beneath the surface.

  THE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES

  When Tilly sees a tall, elegant man smoking a pipe in Pages & Co., she knows something strange is afoot. Her grandad is a fan of this series of short stories and novels, in which Sherlock Holmes, a London-based detective, uses his almost superhuman logical and reasoning abilities to solve the most complicated mysteries and crimes. Holmes is accompanied in these stores by his room-mate and assistant Dr Watson, who is also their narrator.

  PLAY WITH US

  The perfect place to start for a bookwandering beginner, this book was first published in 1964, designed to help children learn to read. The Key Words series familiarises new readers with words they will need every day such as ‘and’, ‘like’ and ‘has’, as well as how to use them in simple phrases. In Play With Us, readers are introduced to the characters of Peter and Jane and their parents, home and toys.

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