Page 97 of The Sugar and Spice Bookshop Bakery

But your biggest supporter is still by your side.

Your mother.

I know she’s pushy sometimes, but she has a heart of gold.

You have to keep going, Lou.

This place means so much to you and your mum.

And even though we won’t be there, it means a lot to Jack and me too.

In time, it’ll mean a hell of a lot to all your customers.

So don’t quit. Even if you’re feeling alone right now.

Besides, that’d be letting the Geriatric Mean Girls win.

Louise laughs. Maddie knows her so well. Giving up would feel like she’s giving Miss Anderson exactly what she wants – to see Louise Dearnley fail yet again.

‘There’s no way on earth I’m doing that,’ she says to Aslan.

And maybe she’s delusional now, because she could swear there’s a smile in his eyes that wasn’t there before.

She looks down at the letter again, her eyes scanning for the place where she’d left off.

You have the chance to do here what Miss Anderson never managed: to inspire a new generation to love books, to love reading, and perhaps to be writers too.

How did you feel as you stepped through the wardrobe?

Excited, I’ll bet.

And how did you feel when you first saw Narnia?

Now think back to being eight years old and imagine seeing this place for the first time.

How many children might discover a love of books, of reading, after that?

You know how you’re always saying that real life isn’t like a romance novel?

That’s true.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something from the heroines of those novels.

What do they always do? They push through.

Maddie’s right about that. Elspeth and Sally wouldn’t give up.

She turns over the page and continues reading.

You are braver than you think, Louise. You’re a lioness.

That’s why I made you an Aslan.

(Well, and also because he fitted with my theme!)

Didn’t Aslan say that courage isn’t an absence of fear, but about fighting even though you’re afraid?

Or maybe that’s a different book?