Page 26 of The Secret Christmas Library
‘We used to,’ said Jamie. ‘I think we used to have a goose girl.’
‘What’s a goose girl?’
‘It’s someone who looks after the geese,’ said Jamie. ‘They’d have been down at the duck pond.’
‘Do you have books down there?’
‘I suppose there’s a summerhouse. It seems a bit . . . I mean,go seemeaninggoose? It’s a long shot, surely.’
He got up, and Theo did too.
‘What abouttake your pen?’ said Mirren.
‘Yeah, well, I suppose if you were outside, but the ducks . . . you wouldn’t need a pen...’
‘Is there a duck pen?’
‘Argh,’ said Jamie. ‘I don’t know! I don’t get it! It’s unbearable. There is a sheep pen, but it’s up on the side of the ben; nobody’s used it for years!’
‘If you can bear,’ said Mirren, writing the words in her beautiful script. ‘What does that mean? Like, just “can you bear it”?’
‘A bear. And a goose,’ said Theo.
‘What do you mean?’
‘At the star of neither land nor sea.’
‘I thought that might be filler,’ said Jamie. ‘All stars are in space. It’s just stupid.’
Theo frowned. ‘But if you did have geese and bears . . . andtake thy pen, go in. . . ’
‘PENGUIN!’ said Mirren.
‘What??’
Mirren flapped her hands. ‘If it was . . . oh, my God . . . the north. The North Star! Over the ice! Not land, not sea – ice! Those are Arctic animals!’
‘But we’re already in the north,’ said Theo, puzzled. ‘It’s freezing enough up here. Have you got bears?’
But Jamie wasn’t listening.
‘Bloody hell,’ he said. ‘I wonder if . . . I wonder if he meant the North Library.’
17
They all jumped up, galvanised. Then Mirren glanced back down and grabbed the last bit of her scone. It had been a very good scone.
‘Bring your notebook,’ said Jamie. ‘That method obviously works.’
‘I wouldn’t say “obviously”,’ said Theo. ‘Seeing as, you know. We haven’t actually found anything yet.’
‘Copying things out works?’ said Mirren, ignoring him. ‘Do you think?’
‘I’ve stared at that thing for three months without figuring a thing out,’ he said.
‘Why didn’t you just put it on the internet?’ said Mirren, puzzled.
‘Sure,’ said Jamie. ‘What I absolutely want is hundreds of weirdos turning up here and pulling the house apart. Thanks, that’s exactly what I had in mind.’ He shivered. ‘Oh, guess what, every rando on the internet? There might be treasure in my house and by the way, the doors don’t lock because they’re completely warped!’
