Chapter 22
O nce he’d found out what they were doing, Mr McCreadie’s eyes burned with excitement, and he asked Carmen to bring them all tea, at which she rudely refused, saying she wasn’t his servant, until she saw that the people in the shop obviously thought she was being incredibly cruel to the lovely gentle old man and capitulated, grumpily. They all settled in the back drawing room behind the stacks, an extraordinary little nook in front of a roaring fire, with armchairs laid out and family pictures on the wall.
They allowed Mr McCreadie to tell them the story of his wilderness adventures, which he did at some length, but Mirren found she didn’t mind. It was cosy in front of the fire, and there was tea and hot buttered toast, and she felt, in this safe place with the shelves and shelves of books weighing down on her, and the tiny coil of paper in her pocket, that they were getting closer; they had to be. Had to be.
Mr McCreadie had, it turned out, heard of the Beardsley book, but hadn’t believed it truly existed. He took out a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and blinked at the picture Mirren brought up on her phone. ‘Well, blow me down,’ he said.
As they sat there, talking about possibilities, an absurdly tall man, dipping his head, threaded his way through the stacks.
‘RAMSAY!’ said Mr McCreadie in delight.
Ramsay made his way to the fireplace. ‘Carmen says you’re on some wild goose chase,’ he said.
‘I certainly am!’ said Mr McCreadie gleefully.
Theo and Mirren jumped up.
‘This is the best antiquarian bookfinder in Scotland, Ramsay Urquhart,’ said Mr McCreadie. ‘Or at least, the tallest.’
‘Uhm, thank you,’ said Ramsay.
‘Mirren Sutherland,’ said Mirren. Ramsay’s hand engulfed hers completely as he shook it. He gave her a wide friendly grin.
‘Theo Palliser,’ said Theo.
Ramsay’s grin suddenly faded. ‘No relation to ...’
‘Philip? He’s my uncle.’
‘And you’re working for him?’
The shift had been so fast, Mirren was puzzled.
‘Uhm, yes,’ said Theo.
‘You too?’
‘No!’ said Mirren. ‘I’m just looking for a book for my great-aunt. That she lost a long time ago.’
‘And you’ve ... hired a Palliser?’
‘Just coincidence,’ said Theo quickly. ‘I’m touring on the lookout for early Dickens, we can’t get enough of that in London. Specifically, a second-edition Sketches by “Boz” , if you come across one.’
Ramsay’s face softened a little. ‘Oh, that is a pretty couple of tomes,’ he said, smiling slightly. Then he looked around and folded his arms. ‘So, what are you after?’
Mirren explained, and Ramsay whistled. ‘So you think it’s real?’
She showed him the photograph.
‘And this was just ... hanging up?’ He shook his head. ‘Bloody hell. I thought it was a myth, like the Up on the Rooftops white edition.’ He stared at it again. ‘WELL,’ he said. Then, almost to himself, ‘Where would you start looking?’
‘I don’t have it,’ said Mr McCreadie.
‘How could you possibly know?’ said Mirren, looking around at the seemingly endless Aladdin’s cave.
‘Oh, he knows,’ shouted Carmen’s voice from way off. ‘He just won’t share his “magical system” with anybody else.’