‘They do, that’s the round we’re in now. Then if we get enough votes we’re in the final,’ explained Linda patiently.
‘Right. So we’re actually up for Library of the Year, across the whole country?’ As much as she had come to love Croftwood Library it certainly wasn’t of the calibre she suspected was necessary to compete for being Library of the Year.
‘Well, yes and no. I entered us into the Community Spirit category for the date-with-a-book club. If we end up the winner of that category we get automatically through to the Library of the Year Award. There’s a posh dinner for the final where they announce the category winner and then all the category winners compete for being the Library of the Year.’
‘Blimey. That sounds amazing. So how many other libraries are we up against in our category?’
‘Five, there’s six of us altogether and it’s all on votes. I’m going to tweet my socks off about it.’
‘That’s a great plan, but we need to find out how people can vote so we can put a link in the tweet or whatever. I assume it’s online voting?’
‘Yes, but they’ll send us some postcards to give out to people who aren’t online. I suppose there are still some people out there living in the dark ages,’ sighed Linda, forgetting that she had been one of them until very recently.
‘We ought to let the Gazette know, that would be great publicity and I’ll tell Robert at the Hive in case there’s anything they can do to help us out. Maybe they’d put up a poster or something.’
‘There are some official posters attached to the email which we can print off to display. I’ll run some off this morning. I gave Rosemary a ring to see if she’d pop in a bit earlier today. Maybe we can ask her to put some up around the town and with the Christmas lights switch-on coming up, it’s great timing.’
‘Good idea. She’s doing a great job of getting businesses to donate prizes for the children’s competition.’
Later that day, Lois rang Robert to tell him the good news.
‘Hmm.’ He sounded less than pleased. ‘I’m not sure you should have gone ahead with entering given the situation with Croftwood. It could be rather embarrassing for the council if you were to get any further in the competition only for the library to close.’
‘But don’t you think it could save the library if we won?’
She could hear Robert suck in a breath. ‘Well, it’s not for me to say, it’s a decision that’s bigger than me or you.’
‘It’s a great library, Robert. I think we’re proving that it’s a valuable part of Croftwood.’
‘I don’t think that’s in dispute, Lois. These decisions are purely financial, you know that, and however much you can improve the library, the powers that be have decided that it’s not worth the money it takes to keep it open.’ He paused. ‘Having said that, passion can go a long way. Let me gently spread the word about this competition before you tell the world, Lois. Give me a couple of days and I’ll let you know how the land lies.’
‘Okay, thanks. We need to get public votes for the next round so we need to get on with the word-spreading.’
‘Leave it with me. I understand how you feel, Lois. It’s dreadful to have to see a library close and we both know how easy it is to fall in love with the places.’
After the phone call, she briefed Linda not to do any tweeting until Robert gave them the go-ahead.
‘Does that count for the posters too?’ said Linda, looking sheepish. ‘Because I sent Rosemary off with fifty while you were on the phone.’
‘It does. Don’t worry, I’ll try and catch her up.’ Lois grabbed her coat from the office and hurriedly left the library, ran to the road and looked both ways to see if she could spot Rosemary. The high street was the most likely direction she’d gone in so Lois headed off at a brisk pace. Not able to see Rosemary ahead of her, she took a shortcut through the churchyard.
As she walked through, she could hear a noise coming from behind one of the tombs and crept off the path to have a look. It was Amy, sitting on a bench, crying.
It went against Lois’s instincts to carry on without going over to see if she was okay. After all, she wasn’t a stranger. On the other hand, she was most likely crying about something to do with Oliver and that made things a bit tricky.
‘Are you alright?’ Lois stood in front of her, feeling like it was too forward to sit down.
Amy looked up and wiped her eyes quickly. ‘I’m fine, thanks.’
‘Okay, well take care.’ Lois managed a tight smile, feeling relieved that she’d done her duty and stepped away.
‘You and Oliver are friends, right? I mean, aside from whatever else went on.’
Lois nodded. ‘We’ve not known each other long, just a couple of months since I started working at the library.’
‘Did he tell you about me, about what happened?’
Lois nodded again, worried that she was somehow being disloyal to Oliver by admitting it.
