Annie looked across the room and, spotting the waitress clearing glasses onto a bar trolley, an idea seemed to strike her.
‘Excuse me,’ she was whispering to the woman, before Harri could work out what she was up to. Annie rummaged in her bag as the waitress pulled her trolley closer. ‘We used up our complimentary drinks passes. We’re lowlyblueguests, but…’
The bored girl had let Annie have the bottle of wine in exchange for a tenner, which went straight into her apron pocket with a surreptitious glance around, and Annie turned around triumphant and grinning, holding her prize.
‘What’s happening?’ Harri said, eyes narrowed and suspicious, but definitely up for a bit of scheming.
‘You want to go look at that library again?’ she said, suddenly driven by a new impulse, not her old mischief, rather something reckless within her; her old carefree self fighting to get out, perhaps?
Harri thought about it for precisely one second. Standing and taking Annie’s bag, putting it over his shoulder, he said, ‘What about the security guard?’
‘Just walk like you own the place,’ instructed Annie.
As they left the room Katie was busy taking auction payments and stifling her yawns. Everyone else was engaged in draining their bottles and preparing for the very last round of bidding.
Annie led him to the foyer at the foot of the stairs and peered up into the dark space above them.
‘No one around,’ she hissed, reaching for Harri’s hand.
He held on as she led the way, tiptoeing as fast as they could up the stairs. The rigged-up spotlights had been switched off and Harri lit their way with his phone. They laughed and shushed one another all the way up to the library doors.
The key was still in the lock and Harri turned it, again letting Annie peek in first.
‘Coast’s clear,’ she said, and as he followed her, he made sure to lock them inside the silence of the library. The mechanism clunked into place and he knew for sure nobody could disturb Annie’s impromptu escapade.
Doubtless, they’d only stay twenty minutes, long enough to take the photos Annie hadn’t been allowed to earlier, and to have a proper snoop around.
Pocketing the key, he followed Annie towards the fireplace where the last embers glowed amongst the cooling ashes. All the candles had been extinguished, no doubt by the efficient Katie, and the room was lit only by the stark wintry moonlight through the window.
Annie lifted some kindling from the basket by the fire, since there were no logs, and stuck them into the grate. The flames slowly sparked back into life and Harri crouched by her side to watch them as Annie piled on more of the soft wood. Then she lit a candelabra of three slender white tapers using the fire, wax dripping onto the stone hearth. Harri didn’t suppose it mattered.
‘They’re going to strip this library apart in the morning. We might be the very last people ever to see it like this,’ he said.
This stopped Annie in her tracks.
She was beautiful in the glow from the fire and candlelight. He determined not to mention that fact as he sat himself down on the fireside rug and cracked the screw top on the wine bottle, handing it to her.
‘Here’s to poor old Sir Courtenay and his library,’ he said.
Annie sat by him on the hearth rug and, setting the candlestick down, took a swig before handing it back. ‘Here’s to him.’
When he’d taken a drink, he watched Annie arrange her long coat and skirts. She hugged her arms around her legs where her long leather boots laced up her calves.
‘So do you want to tell me now?’ he said.
Annie seemed to take a second to work out what he was asking. She lunged for the bottle and drank with a grimace.
‘Cheap Shiraz,’ she said. ‘Dad would not approve.’
Harri laughed and reached for another drink, this time glugging it with deliberate relish to spite judgy, cold Mr Luna.
Annie’s laugh told him his joke had landed.
‘Go on then,’ Harri prompted. ‘I’m listening.’
His friend exhaled hard. Whatever she had to say, it wasn’t easy for her. Harri didn’t try to rush her, tipping his head and waiting for her to find the words, trying to stop his heart jumping to conclusions and hoping for too much.
‘I’m not on vacation leave,’ she began. ‘I was… we were all suspended from the library service.’
