Читать книгу Pages & Co: Tilly and the Bookwanderers - Anna James, Anna James - Страница 15

ater that afternoon, long after Alice and Anne had returned to their own stories, Tilly laid out all her mum’s books on the floor in her bedroom like jigsaw pieces from different puzzles. She was determined to try to work out at least a little bit of what Tilly-ness meant. Oskar’s words about missing her mum circled round her head, and she was determined to find some proof that there was more to what was going on than imaginary friends. Whatever it was, Anne’s hand in hers had been resolutely real.

Tilly studied the books laid out in front of her. They were by different authors, from different publishers, and they were different ages and colours. There were adventures and romances, stories about pirates and princesses, and everything in between.

‘If this is really happening,’ Tilly murmured, ‘then there must be rules. There are always rules for this sort of thing.’

She looked for another book she had already read, and was drawn back again to A Little Princess. You could tell it was a favourite: the cover was coming away from the spine and there were several rips in the pages. Wondering if she needed to be in the bookshop for whatever was happening to kick in, she headed downstairs to her reading corner and settled herself there.

‘Right, here goes,’ Tilly said to herself, and opened the book at the first page. She read the first chapter, being sure to pay particular attention to all the details about the main character, Sara, in case that helped. Then she put the book down and waited, but there was no sign of Sara in Pages & Co.

Okay, maybe I need to read more, Tilly thought, and she began to delve further into the book. But the best part of an hour and several circuits of the bookshop later there was still no one matching the description of Sara, or any of the other characters.

Tilly tried books she hadn’t read, books that were hers, books that were fresh off the shelves, but there was no one even slightly fictional to be found. She felt a strange mix of disappointment and relief that there didn’t seem to be anything more magical than her imagination at play. Maybe Oskar had been right after all.

Finally giving up, Tilly went to find Jack and flung herself dramatically into one of the café chairs, her head still spinning.

‘All right, Tils?’ Jack called from behind the counter. ‘That was quite an entrance. I keep telling you that if you stay cooped up in the shop all the time, it’ll start getting to you.’

Tilly blew her fringe out of her eyes in response.

‘Hey, come here. I need some help.’

Tilly stood and shuffled her way over to see what Jack was concocting.

‘Right, so these are going to be bear pawprint brownies,’ he said, gesturing at a tray of gooey-looking chocolate brownies cut into squares. ‘They’re an ode to We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.’

He held up a square of baking paper with the shape of a pawprint cut out of the middle and a tiny sieve. ‘So, I’ll hold this template on each brownie and you’re going to shake some icing sugar through the sieve and then, hopefully, we’ll peel it off and each one will have a sugar pawprint right in the middle. Got it?’

‘I think so,’ Tilly said, taking the mini sieve and box of icing sugar Jack was holding.

Jack carefully placed the template on the first brownie and nodded to Tilly who tried to shake some icing sugar into the sieve, but far too much came out and ballooned up, making the air taste sweet around them.

Jack grinned. ‘Never mind, that’s the test one. We can eat it later to check the brownies. Have another go, and maybe shake the box a little slower this time …’

Tilly gingerly shook the box, managing to get a light sprinkling of sugar through the sieve and on to a brownie. Jack peeled back the baking paper pattern and gave Tilly a triumphant high five, causing another icing-sugar cloud.

‘Who’s your favourite book character, Jack?’ Tilly asked him as they worked.

‘Tough question, Tils. And what do you mean by favourite? The character I like the most, or the character I think is the best written?’