24
The next afternoon, Adam and I are waiting for Freddy, my clockmaker friend, to arrive at the shop.
I phoned him this morning and asked if he could call in at the shop as soon as possible, and he promised to come this afternoon.
Adam’s plans to open his shop have had to be postponed. He planned to open today, but, after what we found out last night, he decided to delay the opening and concentrate on the latest instalment of our mystery.
‘Saturday is a good day to open anyway,’ I told him. ‘More people around.’ I wasn’t happy. I didn’t want him to delay opening a business he’s already put so much work into. But Adam was insistent.
While we wait for Freddy to arrive, we go through the contents of the letters once more. I thought a bit about it last night before falling asleep. But Adam stayed the night and having someone sleeping next to me in my bed, when I was so used to sleeping alone now, felt very strange indeed.
‘ Venus and Mars …’ I say, reading from my grandmother’s letter as I lean up against the wooden cash desk. ‘It rings a bell. Isn’t there a painting called that?’
‘I assumed it meant the planets,’ Adam says, sitting in a Lloyd Loom chair.
‘It could well do … I’ll check online.’ I look around and lift my phone from the counter. ‘Yes, it’s a painting by Botticelli. Venus and Mars is also a studio album by Wings. Could that mean something, do you think, with your music background?’
‘Paul McCartney’s band after the Beatles,’ Adam says, thinking. ‘Hmm … I don’t think so. But I can’t say I’m particularly familiar with it.’
‘We’ll go back to that clue, then. So hopefully we’ll know about the Freddy reference when he arrives. What about: There is someone close who will have many of the answers ?’
‘Someone in Clockmaker Court, perhaps?’ Adam glances out of the window.
‘Possibly, but who? Ben, maybe – he knew your grandfather.’
‘Yeah, he’d be a good place to start. How about we try to talk to him later, when we’ve seen this Freddy.
Now, what’s next?’ Adam stands up from the chair, walks around the desk and puts his arm around my waist while we read the letter together.
Although it feels a little odd to have him this close to me in the shop, I can’t deny his touch feels incredibly comforting.
‘Erm … The Romans knew their numbers .’
‘Roman numerals, perhaps?’
‘Yes, that’s what I thought too. Have you seen any lately?’
‘They’re everywhere, aren’t they? Even the grandfather clock over there has Roman numerals on its face.’
‘True. Perhaps it is another clock reference. It would make sense. Now … Hide-and-seek . I really have no idea what that means at all.’
‘It says Eve, so I really think it’s aimed at you.’
‘True. Hmm …’ I rack my brains trying to think what that could mean. ‘I can’t think of anything right now. And the last two seem like they are guidance of sorts. Let’s hope Freddy can shine some light on it all when he arrives. Otherwise I think we’re going to be stuck once more.’
‘Freddy!’ I call from the doorway as I see him walking towards the shop a while later. ‘Thank you so much for coming at such short notice.’
‘Anything for the Sinclair family,’ Freddy says, kissing the back of my hand in greeting. ‘You know that.’
Freddy is a tall man, with white hair and wire-rimmed spectacles perched on the end of his nose. He carries a black cane with a silver tip, and he wears what I can only describe as dandyish clothing – velvet jackets, ruffled shirts, that type of thing.
Today he is sporting a navy-blue smoking jacket with a white shirt, a brightly coloured cravat perfectly tied around his neck, and emerald-green trousers.
‘And who may this be?’ he asks, looking Adam up and down.
‘This is Adam. He owns the shop next door.’
‘Adam …’ Freddy looks surprised. ‘And you have the shop next door now?’
‘I do,’ Adam says, holding out his hand to Freddy. ‘Pleased to meet you.’
‘The pleasure is all mine, dear boy,’ Freddy says, shaking his hand, then mumbles almost to himself: ‘You were right, then, Sarah. Good on you both.’
‘What are you saying, Freddy?’ I ask.
‘Oh, nothing, my dear. Nothing you need to worry about, anyway. Your grandmother always said she’d match you up with an Adam one day, and it would seem she was right.’
‘Oh … Adam and I aren’t …’ Actually we kind of are now. ‘You see, we …’ I glance at Adam. He just nods.
‘And you’d be right, Freddy,’ I say, surprised how good this feels to admit. I look at Adam again, and he smiles.
‘Can I get you anything, Freddy?’ Adam asks, as Freddy sits elegantly down on the chair Adam had been sitting on earlier. ‘Tea, coffee … juice, perhaps?’
‘Kind of you, dear boy, but no. I stopped for a cup of tea at Fitzbillies on the way here. Charming as always.’
‘Adam is very partial to their Chelsea buns,’ I tell him.
‘And why wouldn’t you be? They perfected that recipe over a hundred years ago when they first opened. It should be the best and it still is. Anyway, enough talk of cake,’ Freddy says. ‘Wonderful though that is. What can I do for you today?’
‘I was hoping you could tell me, actually. I found a letter,’ I say carefully, ‘from my grandmother, and she said to ask you to come and visit the shop.’
‘Did she now … for what purpose?’
‘I’m afraid I don’t really know.’
‘I see … well, let me take a look around.’ Freddy scans the shop from his chair, his hands resting on the top of his cane. He does this slowly, taking in everything on view in the shop bit by bit. Finally, his gaze rests upon the grandfather clock on the wall opposite.
‘Where did you get that?’ he asks, pointing his cane at the clock. ‘Quite the beast. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a large specimen.’
‘In a house clearance,’ I reply, not wanting to lead him at all.
‘A house clearance … where?’
‘In Grantchester. It was Adam’s grandfather’s house.’
‘I see.’
‘I was actually going to call you about it when I first got it, but then I found out it wasn’t working because it has no mechanism inside.’
‘Really … open, please.’ He gestures to the door of the clock now.
I go over and open it up. ‘See, nothing.’
Freddy nods knowingly. ‘That door is not the original,’ he says. ‘It’s been replaced.’
‘This door,’ I say, swinging the door to and fro on its hinges.
‘It’s not a revolving door, my dear, be careful with it.’
‘Sorry, how do you know it’s not the original door?’
‘I just do. The wood is not the same grain, for one thing.’
Both Adam and I examine the door.
‘He’s right.’ Adam kneels down next to the clock. ‘It is slightly different.’
‘How did I not notice this before?’ I ask, annoyed at myself.
‘No one other than an expert would notice,’ Freddy says.
‘Don’t reproach yourself too much, my dear.
In fact, I’d say that was never supposed to be the door of a clock case; it’s far too thick.
Clock-case doors are much more delicate usually.
There’s no need for them to be great chunks of wood like this one is. Far too heavy.’
‘I did think it was a funny weight when we carried it into the shop. It makes sense now you’ve said that.’
Freddy leans forward in his chair. ‘Do I spy something on the other side of that door? Some detailing. Engraving, perhaps.’
I open the door of the clock as wide as it will go. ‘Yes, there is! Look, Adam.’
Adam comes over to the other side of the clock and I open the door as far as its hinges will allow.
‘It’s only another tree again!’ he says. ‘Perhaps a bit fainter than we’ve seen before, but it’s definitely there, carved into the wood.’
‘Yes, I can see it too,’ I say. ‘It looks like half a tree, though, this time, and there’s another carving at the side. What is that? It looks like an arrow. Is it pointing at something?’
Freddy stands up and comes over to inspect the carving with us.
He leans down by supporting his weight on his cane so he can peer more closely at the door.
‘I’d say that’s the Greek sign for male you’ve got there,’ he says, pointing with his cane again.
‘You see there – the arrow looks like it’s coming out of the side of the circle.
This side would have been the front of the door when it was first used.
There are still marks where the original hinges would have been. Can you see?’
Adam and I both look closely, and I can just make out some marks at the side of the door, which are partly covered by newer, much smaller hinges.
‘This would have been part of a pair of small doors originally, and this door was the right one.’
Freddy returns to his seat.
‘I don’t suppose you have the other one to make up the pair, do you?’ he asks while Adam and I still look at the door. ‘Did you see anything else like this at your grandfather’s house, Adam?’
‘No,’ Adam says honestly, looking at me now. ‘ I didn’t see one at all. But Eve has a door that looks extremely like this one, don’t you, Eve?’
Adam returns to my house to collect the door while I see Freddy off, promising to keep him updated on our progress. Then, while I wait for Adam to return, in between customers, I sit and think about everything that has happened so far.
‘You OK, my lovely?’ Luca asks a few minutes later, making me jump as he pauses in the doorway of the shop. ‘You looked away with the … how you say, er … the fairies, just now.’
‘Hi, Luca, yeah, I’m fine. Just got a lot going on right now, you know?’
‘You should never have so much going on that it puts a frown on your pretty face!’
I smile at him. ‘Thanks.’
‘Where is Adam? I thought he was opening up his shop today?’
‘He’s postponed it for a few days.’
‘How so?’
‘He’s got some stuff going on, too.’
Luca narrows his eyes. ‘The same stuff as you, by any chance?’
I can’t help smiling. Suddenly I want to share my exciting news with someone else, and who better than one of my best friends. ‘Perhaps …’ I grin.
‘I knew it! Tell! Tell!’ Luca rushes into the shop and hops up on the counter.