Page 56 - The Midnight Library

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‘ e chalkboard. ought you’d brought it in?’

So that was what she had been outside for.
‘No. No. I’m going to do it now.’
‘ ought I saw you go out.’
Nora smiled away her ner ves. ‘Yes, well, I did. I had to . . . I was worried

about our cat. Volts. Voltaire. I couldn’t find him so I went outside to look
for him and then I found him, didn’t I?’
Dan was back behind the bar, pouring himself a scotch.
He seemed to sense she was judging him. ‘ is is only my third. Fourth,

maybe. It’s quiz night. You know I get ner vous doing the compering. And it
helps me be funny. And I was funny, don’t you reckon?’
‘Yes. Ver y funny. Total funniness.’
His face fell into a serious mode. ‘I saw you talking to Erin. What did she

say?’
Nora wasn’t sure how best to answer this. ‘Oh, nothing much. e usual
stuff. You know Erin.’
‘ e usual stuff? I didn’t think you’d ever spoken to her before.’

‘I meant the usual stuff that people say. Not what Erin says. Usual people
stuff . . .’
‘How’s Will doing?’
‘Er, really well,’ Nora guessed. ‘He says hi.’

Dan’s eyes popped wide with surprise. ‘Really?’
Nora had no idea what to say. Maybe Will was a baby. Maybe Will was in
a coma. ‘Sorr y, no, he didn’t say hi. Sorr y, I’m not thinking. Anyway, I’ll . . .
go and get the board.’

She put the cat down on the floor and headed back out. is time she
noticed something she had missed on entering.
A framed newspaper article from the Oxford Times with a picture of Nora
and Dan standing outside the ree Horseshoes. Dan had his arm around

her. He was wearing a suit she had never seen before and she was in a smart
dress she would never have worn (she rarely wore dresses) in her original
life.

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