The man gave a huge sigh, and Pip felt sick. She should just tell them what she’d done. What did it matter if she had broken Audrey’s rules? Who cared about them except Audrey anyway? Then again, if she gave the diary up now, she might never get a chance to speak to Evelyn and then she would never find out the answers to all her questions. The diary was her way into that house. Even more so now she knew Evelyn clearly wanted it back.

‘Well, if it turns up, could you contact me?’ the man said, fishing a wallet out of his jacket pocket and extracting a business card, which he placed on the counter in front of Audrey.

Then he turned and left the shop.

As soon as he had gone, Pip breezed out of the back room, a pile of clothes in her arms.

‘What was that all about?’ she asked casually, as if she had no interest in the reply but was just making conversation.

‘Things given away in error,’ said Audrey. ‘People are so careless with the items they profess to hold dear to their hearts.’

‘He seemed terribly upset,’ said Pip. ‘Poor chap.’

Audrey just harrumphed and bustled off to put the kettle on.

Pip picked up the business card from the countertop and slipped it into her jeans pocket. Now she faced a quandary. The obvious thing to do was ring the man – Nicholas Mountcastle, according to his business card – and tell him she had the diary. But if she did that, then he would just take the diary from her and she would lose her opportunity to meet Evelyn.

Alternatively, she could turn up on Evelyn’s doorstep and say she had heard that this Nicholas chap was looking for the diary. The trouble with that plan was that it raised the question as to why she hadn’t just given it back to him. Also, Evelyn might not even be aware her diary was missing, so that would get Nicholas into all kinds of trouble. She didn’t actually care about that, but she liked that it supported her third, and preferred, option: she should ignore the fact that she now knew they were looking for the diary and just turn up at the house with it, as she had already planned to do. That way she would get to see Evelyn, hopefully, and could pretend she wasn’t aware of Nicholas’s visit to the shop.