I finished making the tea and sat down opposite her. “How’s Rose dealing with you moving out?”
“I think she’s still dealing with you moving back. Why didn’t you tell her you were coming over?”
I knew I hadn’t made the right decision not to tell her. I’d lied when I said I’d just been too swept up in things, and she was the one person I would usually tell something like that too, mainly because it involved her.
“Busy juggling things – there’s been a lot going on.”
Harriet tipped her head to one side. “Do you really expect me to just accept that, Carter? Vague has never suited you.”
I plonked my elbows on the surface of the kitchen island, missing a smear of jam by a millimetre. “For a variety of reasons, I need to be away from New York for a couple of years.”
“Are you going to share those reasons?”
“Beyond saying that it’s nothing illegal or anything worrying, no.” Because I couldn’t say anything. While it wasn’t illegal and was a favour for a friend, the favour involved telling a lie.
It wasn’t exactly a small one.
Harriet studied me, looking interested, and I wondered if I’d said too much already. She was the quietest of the four of them, the most watchful and the most unsure. After Rose, I was closest to her, mainly because I could get a word in edgeways which was almost impossible with Erin and Fallon, although I’d spent more time with Fallon recently.
“Are you going to be living here alone?” Harriet looked around the kitchen. “It seems weird to be so empty.”
“What makes you think I won’t be here alone?”
She laughed. “Because you’re never really on your own for long, Carter. I don’t mean a girlfriend but a flatmate or someone staying over. And you’ve only filled half your coat hangers, as in precisely fifty percent is clear, like you’re expecting someone else to put coats there.”
I’d forgotten how observant she was. “Guests. And I have someone coming over from New York for a few months.”
“Who?”
“A friend – she’s setting up a London branch of her company – a bookshop, don’t get too excited - ” I braced myself at the sight of Harriet’s expression.
She leaned over the kitchen island and looked like a child who’d just come downstairs on Christmas Day. “Your friend is opening a bookshop? What sort of bookshop? Where? What’s the one like she has in New York?”
Another gazillion questions followed. I had no way of keeping up with them, so I didn’t try.
“She has three bookshops – two in New York and one in Chicago and they specialise in first editions and collectors’ editions in lots of different genres – crime, romance, sci-fi,fantasy. She gets limited edition prints of just released books with all fancy stuff on them and does subscriber boxes and things like that.” I shrugged, proud but somewhat confused. Laurie had worked hard to get where she was; she was a good person who’d helped me out when things had been going pear shaped, or potato shaped – it’d been heavier than a pear, that was for sure.
“She needs to meet me – I can help her with contacts. I can also see if they’re the sorts of books we can add to this Stratford collections.” Her eyes were bright and dark, like a cat’s before it captures a mouse.
I felt slightly disconcerted.
“I thought your new collection was things like Shakespeare’s First Folio, and antique stuff?”
“It is, and everything after. It’s meant to show the development of literature over time, that’s the purpose behind it. But part of the role is to continue to grow it – special and signed editions of acclaimed new fiction will only add to it. What’s the name of the Bookshop – I might already know of it?” Her phone was ready to google.
“Silversmith’s. It was her grandmother’s maiden name.” And part of the reason why we were in this situation.
“I have heard of it.” She sounded surprised with herself, staring at her phone screen.
I wasn’t - I doubted there was a bookshop in existence that Harriet and Rose hadn’t heard of.
“When does she get here?” She put her device face down on the table. Harriet couldn’t abide being on a phone when she was meant to be talking to someone.
“Laurie? Another month. She’s got a shop near Leicester Square.” My words petered out. Part of what I’d been so busy with recently had been sorting out the lease on the shop and afew other legal bits and pieces. I’d be glad when Laurie finally got here and could do these things herself.
But her arrival would mean other things too, other things that I’d been booking.
“That’s going to be amazing, especially if she’s going to stock romance too. There’s a disproportionate amount of romance bookshops in London – meaning there should be more. There’s a massive market for it.” Harriet continued to go into detail.
