He sniffed and nodded, then looked up at her meekly.

“I’ll stay till Christmas,” she said finally. “And you need to let me do what I want and stop telling me not to go in the stacks or move anything.”

He swallowed. “I’ll try.”

Chapter Nine

“Are you going to take us on any outings or anything?” said Jack, bouncing his ball on the floor the next day, which happened to be a Sunday, meaning the shop was closed, even though Carmen thought closing the shop six Sundays before Christmas was a dumb idea.

“Like where?” said Carmen. The children had more or less given up on expecting much of her. She didn’t seem at all impressed by Pippa’s gold stars, she didn’t care about football, and she didn’t seem to notice Phoebe at all. She wasn’t like Federico’s brother, their uncle, Julio, who played goalkeeper and held skipping ropes and tickled Phoebe even though she pretended to hate it and bought them two ice creams a day whenever he swung by. That was a fun uncle to have. Carmen, Pippa loudly told Skylar, was not a good auntie at all, and Skylar said very firmly “not to forget that we always had to be kind?” and “Carmen didn’t have a goal in life? And was very sad?” Which would have been fine had Carmen not been just coming out of the shower at the time and had to dig her fingers into her hands to pretend she hadn’t heard. She and Sofia were still not speaking, which was very annoying, as there was a delicious-smelling venison stew on the burner and Carmen was starving.

“Like what?” said Carmen shortly.

“Like the zoo?”

“Zoos are cruel,” said Carmen. “It’s just animals in prison.”

Jack sighed. “Well, I’m just bored.”

“You and me both, kid.”

She had a sudden thought. “Can you clean?”

“What, like clean my room?”

“I’m not cleaning my room,” said Phoebe, appearing as she did out of nowhere, the frowzy head crosspatch as ever. “It’s my room.”

“I don’t mean your rooms,” said Carmen. They looked at her, still suspicious. “Do you want to come with me and clean out the bookshop?”

“What’s in it for us?”

“I can’t get my new dress dirty,” said Pippa, fastidiously patting down the purple pinafore.

“Why not?” said Phoebe. “It’s horrible. You look like two plums stuck together.”

“Be kind, Phoebe,” said Pippa primly.

“Will I get a broom?” said Jack.

“Yup.”

“And a treat?”

“You drive a hard bargain.”

Skylar came in in her yoga kit again, blond hair freshly washed and bouncing. “Have a great day with the kids, yeah? Bye, guys! Don’t forget, five portions! Namaste!”