“I will,” he said, nodding his head politely and dinging his way out of the shop.

Chapter Fifteen

The following week, the last in November, Carmen received an extremely surprising phone call just as she was looking around the shop with a distinct sense of satisfaction.

She had come in early, and the lights of Victoria Street were still glimmering in the early-morning darkness and, among the glitz and sparkle of the other shops, for once theirs stood proud too, the train trundling around. She was adding little figures every day just for fun, a cow here or there, and today she had a plan to put Santa next to the chimney on the top of the little station.

And a new box of books had arrived wrapped in polystyrene, which normally she would have complained about vociferously, for the waste of it. But maybe, today, she was going to crumble it into pieces and let it tumble like snow . . .

She was thinking happily about this—as well as thoroughly enjoying a warm mince pie she’d bought from the coffee shop down the road, which normally she would have felt a bit guilty about, but there was no doubt about it, all this endless marching up and down but mostly up Edinburgh hills, as well as Sofia’s meticulously balanced meals, was having a rather positive effect on her waistline, which meant there was room for a mince pie now and then, and they made the shop smell so nice—so she answered the rotary telephone cheerfully: “Good morning! McCredie’s bookshop!”

A very confident English voice said hello back and asked to speak to the manager, and Carmen without blinking once said she would be absolutely fine.

“Well,” said the voice, “you know Blair Pfenning is coming up to Edinburgh on a publicity tour?”

Carmen had not known this, but she was more than aware of who Blair Pfenning was: the huge bestselling writer who wrote about the power of the spirit to create love. Or possibly the power of love to create spirit. Carmen wasn’t a hundred percent sure on all the details because her first love was fiction, but she knew he was always on morning TV laughing with Phil and Holly on the sofa, and he had very white teeth.

“Um, so?” she said.

“He’s looking for somewhere picturesque to shoot a piece for BBC Scotland,” said the voice. “And one of the staff up there brought her daughter in for a reading and suggested using you as a backdrop. Do you think it might be possible?”

Mr. McCredie had appeared and was listening in. Carmen looked at him and he shook his head fiercely.