Book Woman
Page 30
By lunch-time Mary had re-read the lease and faxed the relevant pages off to Norman so that the lease could be transferred. She wanted to complete the transfer before she made the rates appeal or stirred up a hornet's nest by revealing the secret rooms. A shadow fell across her desk and she looked up.
“How did you get in, we’re closed.”
Robert smiled.
“Lady in a sari let me in.”
Mary giggled.
“You mean our matron of honour.”
Robert face took on a peculiar hue.
“Nice; must get married more often.”
Mary smiled at his foolishness and stood up.
“Why the ladder?”
“Want to look in the other room. I've studied the high resolution pictures and the hatch isn’t bolted and I really want to look in those chests.”
Mary shrugged.
“Is it important?”
He grabbed her hand.
“I had this nightmare, just suppose they're full of ammunition for those rifles. After fifty odd years goodness knows what state it would be in. I've only just found you, I'd hate to have you blown up.’
Mary saw the actual worry on his face, ‘they wouldn't put ammunition in a sealed room would they?”
Robert shrugged.
“I suppose they wouldn't put gold coins up there either.”
Mary took the point.
Robert wedged the ladder against a bookcase and extended it up to the hatch, he picked up a small lump hammer and then sighed.
“Blast, I’ve left my piece of wood in the car.”
“What piece of wood would that be?”
“It’s covered in an old blanket, save damaging the hatch when I hit it with this hammer.”
Mary grinned and pulled a book off the shelf.
“Try this.”
Robert studied it.
“Doesn’t anybody read Colridge anymore?”
“Not in this library, most classics go out once every two years if we’re lucky. We keep them to look learned.”
He laughed and climbed up the ladder, he steadied himself and then place the book on the hatch and gave it a mighty thump. Nothing happened, so he thumped again and again and again; the ladder began to shake and Mary was just about to tell him to stop when there was a popping sound and a slight chuff of air. Robert pushed the hatch back and almost immediately came down a few rungs. “Dreadful smell in here, something like rubber and dog muck.”
Mary called up.
“I know, I can smell it from here.”
He took a deep breath and scrambled into the room. She heard thumping noises and then the sliding of the window. He emerged looking slightly sick.
“That is horrid.”
He came down and she could smell the odour on him. He opened a window behind her and immediately they could feel the draught going up into the second secret room. He sat on her desk.
“When are you going to tell the powers that be?”
She shrugged.
“Got an appointment for Friday, but now John’s died I need to have the lease safely in my hands before I do anything, I wouldn’t want them closing us down.”
Robert look surprised.
“Why would they do that?”
She shrugged.
“Get the feeling at the moment that any excuse would do.”
He sighed.
“Councils can be like that. Remember that planning permission for the old people’s home I was after? I finally got it, but only when I pointed out that they had a glass extension on the back of the Town Hall and if I didn’t get it I might go to the press and talk about double standards. Then guess what? Surprise surprise my next two applications were deferred to the next meeting.”
He rolled his eyes.
“They’ve got a new chairwoman, or should I say chair, Mrs Freda Church, and believe me she is not to be tangled with.”
Mary half smiled and muttered.
“That’s who I’m seeing on Friday about the rates appeal and she is the one pressing hard for a public library.”
Robert raised his eyebrows.
“I didn’t think councillors got involved in the day to day running of the council, I thought that you’d be seeing some clerk.”
Mary sighed.
“I am, but Mrs Church is sitting in as an observer.”
He leapt off the desk.
“Time for a look.”
She stopped him by holding onto his jumper.
“You will be careful. If they are full of ammunition I want to bomb squad here lease or no lease and I don’t want you blowing yourself up, or handling the goods.”
He kissed her and scurried up the ladder. There was silence and then his head appeared over the edge of the hatch.
“All clear, they’re full of blankets and rolled up hammocks.”
He grinned.
“Want to come and see?”
She remembered her trip to the other room.
“Not unless I have to.”
His head disappeared and five minutes later he emerged, closed the hatch and came down. “Nine rifles, two shotguns, one dart gun and two revolvers, plus twenty truncheons, there’s one behind every rubber suit.”
Mary nodded.
“Did you close the window?”
“Yes, and I fastened it. I think the suits are deteriorating, hence the smell.”
She rubbed his shoulder.
“Thanks for looking.”
He gave a foolish grin.
“Suppose you think I let my imagination run riot.”
She kissed him on the cheek.
“Nothing of the sort.”
She hesitated.
“While you’re here I don’t suppose you’d do me another favour?”
“Just name it.”
She looked apprehensively at the ceiling and visibly swallowed.
“I promised John’s daughter that I’d send her John’s personal possessions, but I’d rather not go in the flat alone.”
He took hold of her hand.
“Of course - now?”
Mary’s eyes took on an apprehensive glaze.
“Don’t you have to collect Josie?”
“If I don’t ring she’s being dropped here at five, you did say that we could have dinner with you tonight?”
She nodded.
“Come on then, let’s get it over with.”
He helped her up the stairs and they stood facing the door to John’s flat. Robert eventually took the key from Mary’s hand and opened the door. She shuddered and walked in. Robert followed her, and then, when she lingered in the lounge, he passed her and had a quick look round. He was back in a couple of minutes.
“Bathroom’s got virtually nothing, what I think is the spare bedroom is totally bare and the kitchen cupboards are empty.”
Mary nodded absent-mindedly.
“He used to use the spare bedroom a study, I think he intended to put a home cinema in there, last time he talked to me about it he said he was painting it white.”
Robert studied the baby grand-piano and tinkled a few keys.
“Do you play?”
Mary gave him a withering look and then, on seeing his innocence, giggled.
“Be a bit clunky. I used to play before.”
A look of horror crosses his face and Mary said gently.
“It’s nice that you forget.”
He covered his embarrassment by talking about Josie.
“Josie wants to learn, but her teacher insists on weighted keys and not a cheap electronic keyboard.”
Mary said idly.
“Actually Joanna said I could have the piano.”
Robert came and sat next to her.
“Finding it hard?”
She nodded and he gave her a hug.
“Let’s do it together then.”
An hour later they had one book-box full of various bits and pieces and another with a carefully packed glass chess set and some framed photographs. Robert
checked his watch.
“This place is bigger than I imagined; for a two bedroom flat it’s huge, but I guess it does go across four shops. What will you do with it, let it out?”
Mary shook her head.
“Lease won’t allow sub-letting, besides to get up here means coming in through the shop and up the staircase if the library is locked.”
Robert’s face took on a frown of thought.
“How many of the rooms up here do you use?”
Mary thought for a few seconds and almost spoke to herself as the thoughts came into her head.
“One is a mess room, but nobody really uses it as there is a better one in the basement; it’s got a proper sink and a dishwasher. We used to use three for storing old stock, but I’ve sold most of them as we were never going to use them again. We’ve got spare shelving stored in one and one’s set up as a first-aid room, but again nobody uses it and it’s a bit of an extravagance anyway.” She looked at Robert.
“That makes four in use, but only two forming a useful purpose.”
Robert nodded.
“We could live up here. What you call a single bedroom is far larger than Josie’s bedroom at home and the double bedroom is huge. I could easily split my study into two of the rooms above the library, one for my office and one for the large printer and drawing press, perhaps I could even squeeze a plotter in. We could move the piano into another room and perhaps equip one as a sitting room if we have visitors the want to talk to, like you and Susan. I’m sure we could also find a use for a fifth room. So your library could use five of the ten rooms above the library and we could use five.”
Mary held up her hands.
“Whoa! Whoa, not so fast, let me catch up with you.”
She frowned.
“There’s no walk-in shower.”
Robert grinned.
“Bedroom is so large we could put an en-suite bathroom down one edge and not notice, just a simple WC, small hand-basin and walk-in shower. Bathroom is already large enough if you wanted one of those whirlpool baths.”
Mary nodded.
“But what about access? I hate coming up here.”
Robert sat back in his chair.
“No point in marrying an architect if you don’t use his skills. The staircase at the back of the book-shop is of ballroom proportions. You could easily fit a simple single person lift up the centre.”
He frowned.
“Actually the cheapest option might be to fit a wheel chair lift, they cope with person in a wheelchair and a carer or a girl on a buggy, so you could take your shopping with you!”
Mary sighed and flashed back.
“What makes you think I’m doing the shopping?”
She then voiced another concern; “What about power-cuts?”
Robert nodded.
“Single person lifts are designed to drop slowly to the bottom if you’re in them when there’s a power cut and if it’s parked at the top it will give you a one-way passage downwards, useful if there’s a fire. Oh and the top-flight model can be hand-cranked to get you up in a power-cut, but believe me it’s hard work.”
Mary sighed.
“All sounds good, but I wouldn’t want Josie entering and leaving at the back of the building; I know there are houses on the other side of the road, but there never seems to be anyone around. And I wouldn’t want her coming in through the book-shop.”
Robert wrinkled his nose.
“Ah. That’s a problem. Am I right in saying that the ballroom size staircase exits into the car-park at the back, so does the small staircase sandwiched between us and the restaurant and at the far end you go out onto an external iron staircase that is also at the back. So all the exits, apart from the book-shop, are out the back?”
She smiled.
“Check.”
He wandered over to look out of the dining room window.
“Is this really not just like any other residential street? How many people do you see walking up and down your street?”
She joined him to look out.
“Well I suppose it’s well lit because of all the lights on the back of the shops.”
He put his arm around her.
“Be nice for her, living in the centre of town.”
“There’s no garden.”
“Beach is less than a hundred yards away.”
Mary gave her final argument.
“Where’s the money coming from? This place is rented and, apart from the flat, I wouldn’t want to pour too much money into it.”
Robert nodded.
“Major cost would be the lift and I’m sure we can get a grant towards that, the rest is peanuts, you’ve even already got a single entry door at the bottom of the staircase.”
Mary wavered, the idea appealed, but she wanted a second string in case they ever lost the lease.
“Let’s give it six months without altering anything, except getting the lift installed. By then I’ll know if I can keep the library going and if this is going to work. In the meantime we rent out your house, just in case.”
Robert gently squeezed her shoulders.
“If that’s what you want, but what about the lease, we’d be using some of the rooms above the library that are for commercial use.”
Mary shook her head.
“Mixed use. I read through the lease with a fine tooth comb this morning. It’s a peculiar document obviously drawn up in a hurry when John first wanted to take over the old ballroom, it lists all of the third story as dual use, but all the space on both storeys is paid for together with the book-shop To quote the council, ‘you have to have it all on not at all.’”
She turned to face him.
“I’ll give it a go, at least it’s available and the decision is mine.”
He kissed her.
“I’ll set about the lift design, can you pay for it before we get the grant?”
Mary rolled her eyes.
“Probably.”
He kissed her again.
“Then I’d better set about selling off this furniture and putting in your special additions to the kitchen, you know electric can-opener, electric carving knife and suchlike.”
She laughed.
“And decorating, if you think I’m living in a flat that has nothing but Magnolia walls…”
He kissed her again and they set about planning their first home together; somewhere, perhaps, where they would find the love they were seeking.
Chapter 20
Hard negotiations
Next morning Mary arrived at the library with Josie in tow. She was clutching her Space Journey book and clearly happy to be with Mary. Mary parked the car and Josie turned to her.
“Are we really going to live here?”
Mary smiled and climbed out the front to let Josie out the back.
“Yes, and your dad’s coming lunch-time to show you the flat as it is now.”
Josie looked doubtful.
“Be funny living in a flat over the library.”
Mary grinned.
“Just think of all the bedtime reading.”
Josie started giggling and continued giggling all the way up to the library. She automatically ran down the library to turn the lights on and then returned to sit at Mary’s desk. Mary went down to the book-shop and rooted out Olga, who was refilling the local interest shelf. Mary raised an eyebrow.
“Shingle Street still selling well?”
Olga sighed.
“Nope, word on the street is the metal detector mob are after books on Orfordness, hence the change. Doesn’t matter much, the Orfordness book is by the same author and he thinks that Christmas has come early.”
Mary chuckled .
“Yesterday did I hear you tell a customer that Nat Wilson had written a second book after Space Journey?”
Olga put the last books on the shelf.
“Not as such. He wrote a book before Space Journey called Underwater Trek, but it’s nowhere near as good and frankly the customers I’
ve talked to said that their kids found it disappointing.”
Mary automatically straightened a few unruly books.
“Shame, I was hoping that it was as good. I can’t prise Space Journey out of Josie’s hands.”
Olga smiled and spoke from the wisdom of motherhood.
“Well another book probably won’t solve the problem; she’s probably not reading it, just carrying it around because it’s special to her; she probably treats it as a link with the giver.”
Mary digested the concept. Olga stopped stacking books.
“Look it’s never easy, I have no idea sometimes what my children are thinking and I’ve known them since they were born. I admire you for being willing to take on an eight year old whose not your own.”
Mary gave a weak smile.
“We’ve got on fine so far, but I keep waiting for some reaction. Can’t be easy for her, suddenly having to share her dad.”
Olga, for the very first time, saw uncertainty in Mary’s eyes.
“Well make hay while the sun shines and in any case you may not get the reaction you think you will anyway. Kids can be very robust and if I understand the situation correctly you haven’t exactly forced the mother out.”
Mary looked uncertain and Olga added quietly.
“Look, just wait until she’s a teenager and then you’ll know all about reactions. Just be natural with her and if you make a mistake you’ll soon know.”
Mary patted Olga on the shoulder.
“Thanks.”
Olga smiled.
“And you can always try Jennifer Keyess’ Desert Adventure. You’ve got a copy in the library if I remember.”
Mary tucked that piece of information away and went back upstairs mulling over the fact that she thought that she was a specialist in Children’s books, but was now not quite so confident.
The library had just opened, and Mary was still inspecting the post for the day, when a man tapped on her desk. She looked up.
“Why Mr Young, what brings you here?”
He looked at Josie and raised an eyebrow. Mary turned to Josie.
“Josie, can you do me a favour? Go to the children’s section and find me the book Desert Adventure by Jennifer Keyess, I’m told it has an orange cover with a picture of a blue camel on the front.”
Josie wrinkled up her little nose.
“But camels aren’t blue.”