‘Has anyone partaken of this little wonder?’ he asked the room. The tourists browsing the shelves ignored him, not knowing what to think.
Annie was closest and peered at the cover. ‘Parliament of Fowles?Nope. I did wonder what it has to do with Valentine’s Day.’
William very kindly suppressed the little impulse within him to call them all philistines. ‘This, in my opinion, is Chaucer’s finest work. A poem celebrating the time of year when birds typically choose their mate.’
‘Valentine’s Day?’ asked Harri from the cafe door where he was drying off washed baking rings. That morning he’d attempted a coffee cake frosted with buttercream, with moderate success.
‘Chaucer exercises some poetic licence, but yes, the feast of Saint Valentine was typically associated in the fourteenth century with the beginning of avian life cycles. Chaucer perhaps popularised the notion.’
‘Doesn’t soundsuperromantic,’ observed Annie.
‘If you don’t read it, you’ll never find out.’ William tapped the book to the side of his nose and put it back on its riser. ‘Valentine’s traditions are rather curious,’ he went on. ‘Especially in this region.’
‘Devonshire?’ Jowan asked from the middle of the floor where he was sweeping up sandy footprints with a long brush.
‘Hmm,’ the antiquarian agreed. ‘Valentine’s Day is deeply rooted here, more than many other places. Nicholas and I made the ritual our especial study for a period in the early nineteen-nineties.’
Annie and Harri exchanged a smiling glance. The more they learned about those two curious old bookworms, the more they loved them.
‘Did you know the Valentine’s greeting has its roots here in South Devon? In the nineteenth century, letters containing a love device of some kind or another were sent in vast numbers in this region, paving the way for these…’ he touched his fingertips to the Valentine’s cards in the rack, ‘…commercial Valentine’s.’ He evidently did not understand the need for them at all.
‘I’ve long said we are a more romantic sort round these parts than those ’uns up country,’ joined Jowan, resting on his brush.
‘It may well be attributable to the longer, lighter days in the South West,’ explained William dryly. ‘Spring arrives earlier here than other places. It is lusher and wetter, brighter, more clement. Thrushes, finches and woodpeckers were all conspicuous in their mating at this time of year, back when our bird populations were healthy. As a consequence, nests were feathered earlier, chicks hatched sooner; the first bees were flying by February some years.’
‘The lovers out-of-doors all the earlier, meeting in hedgerow trysts?’ Jowan said, throwing an irreverent wink to Harri who rolled his eyes.
Annie’s laughter fluttered through the shop.
‘It is true, we can only attribute the survival of Valentine’s rituals to certain… impulses of nature awakened by the springtime abundance,’ William said primly. ‘Especially given the attempts to ban the feast of St Valentine altogether.’
‘What?’ This caught Annie’s interest.
‘Edward and Elizabeth both abolished the holy day,’ tolled William, steepling his fingers in front of his tummy like a minister ending the sermon. ‘But it seems,’ he cleared his throat, ‘…amorousness continues regardless.’
‘Lovers will find one another.’ Jowan clicked his lips and rushed his sweepings right out into the courtyard. They promptly blew back inside again before he had a chance to swing the door shut.
Annie remained fixed on William’s words. ‘Seems to me there’s always someone set on banning all the good stuff just ’cus they don’t like it for themselves?’
William inhaled as though ready to begin a lecture on the topic, but Jowan made the very good point that not one of them had had a cuppa this past hour, and Harri took his cue and refilled the kettle, but Annie stayed silent for a long while, thinking hard, interrupted only by a customer wanting to pay for a 1977Blue Peterannual and a book about collecting Tonka vehicles. The woman explained in a shifty whisper they were a birthday present for her husband, and asked Annie to wrap them quickly before he emerged from the stacks and saw what she was up to.
When the couple left, the shop fell quiet and a warm three o’clock stillness set in. In contrast to the bright, blue-sky morning, the afternoon felt deeply dark. Venus was already shining brightly overhead by the time Harri emerged with the teas. Annie switched on the lamps one by one around the shop and now the Borrow-A-Bookshop basked in a honeyed glow. Harri had also baked millionaire’s shortbread before the lunchtime rush and the sweet vanilla caramel aroma hung in the air.
When William spotted the glossy chocolatey triangles on the tray in Harri’s hands, he confessed to feeling a little peckish and rushed to his armchair by the fire. Annie put another log on the fire to keep the flames roaring, and all four drew closer to the heat, lifting their steaming mugs appreciatively.
Aldous paid particularly close attention to William, who always dropped crumbs down his front. It was a waiting game, but he’d be snuffling those up as soon as the old man nodded off. Then the pair would have a glorious afternoon nap in peace, so long as no kiddies came in to disturb them. Aldous was not alone in observing that this newest villager had very much become a fixture of the place.
‘How was the consultation?’ asked Harri, leaning on the side of the shop counter nearest the fireplace. Annie slumped in a beanbag, a big bite of chocolate caramel shortbread already in her mouth.
William gave a dismissive grunt, so Jowan had to answer.
‘Seems they’ve a strong vision for Castle Lore as a sort of…’ he glanced at William from his spot by the fireplace, ‘…a sort of picturesque centrepiece for their holiday park.’ He took a long drink while everyone panicked about what to say next.
‘It is my home no longer,’ William said, with no particular intonation in his voice.
Annie and Harri exchanged glances in the silence that fell. Annie knew he must miss the only home he’d known for decades. She knew he must miss his friend even more. Rather desperately she said, ‘We’re lucky to have you here, William. Our very own antiquarian expert.’
Now Harri and Jowan looked at one another. Harri seemed to be trying to communicate something, but Annie didn’t know what.
