Page 11 of The Secret Christmas Library
He shrugged, infuriatingly straight-faced. ‘Oh, well,’ he said, ‘you know . . . ’
‘Idon’tknow.’
‘Well, that’s good,’ said Theo suddenly. ‘Stop you getting to it first and taking all the credit.’
‘What?’ said Mirren.
‘Nothing,’ said Theo. ‘Nice plaque with your name on it at the British Museum by the way. You know, for the book we both found.’
‘You didn’t find it, I did! You’d given up and gone home!’
‘I helped!’
‘Well, they didn’t ask me for a line about people who helped!’
‘Would it have made any difference if they had?’
They sat there in silence for a few more seconds as the train’s whistle blew.
‘You never contacted me,’ said Mirren in a small voice. ‘You ghosted me.’
‘I was getting round to it,’ said Theo. ‘Then, I didn’t want to interrupt your publicity tour.’
‘I didn’t do a publicity tour!’
‘Hope you did well out of it.’
‘Are you kidding? I waited for you to call; you didn’t. I messaged you; you didn’t get back to me. There’s a word for that, Theo.’
He looked sulky. ‘Well, I didn’t know everyone was going to make such a fuss of you.’
‘Oh, boohoo,’ said Mirren. ‘And it wasn’t a fuss. It was one picture.’
‘And a plaque.’
‘I’ll make you a plaque.’
There was a further silence.
‘I see they didn’t give you enough money to buy a new coat.’
‘Oh, my God, shut up!’ Then, after a moment. ‘No, they didn’t.’
‘Well, that’s one good thing.’
‘Oh, yeah, thanks, yes, I’m still skint and I’m glad you’re glad. I thought you were working in a bookshop anyway.’
‘I am,’ said Theo. ‘This is an extra job.’
‘For your uncle?’
He shrugged.
She looked at him again in the soft light. He looked even hotter when he was pouting, if that was even possible.
‘So you don’t know anything about this book either,’ she said.
He wouldn’t answer either way, which she took to mean he absolutely definitely didn’t know any more than she did.
