It was strange. Usually bookshops welcomed her with open arms, called to her from across the street, but this one clearly didn't want anything to do with her. It wasn't the dark exterior—the shop didn't have a name and one of its windows were boarded up—it couldn't be, she'd seen places in worse conditions and the lure of books within had always overwhelmed the lesser instinct to run away.
But this shop was practically glaring at her. Meggie glared back at it, rocking back on her heels just a little.
"Are you sure this is the right place, Mo?" she called back over her shoulder. Her father looked up from where he was locking their van.
"Yes," he replied unhesitatingly. "This is it. Do you have the book?"
Meggie nodded, hand dropping to rest on the satchel by her hip as she continued to eye the building. She pulled her hand back up again quickly, burying it in the crook of her elbow as she hunched up against the cold.
"Come on," Mo said encouragingly, bumping her shoulder gently as he walked past her. "It's not as bad as it looks, promise."
She trusted him, but it was the cold and the drizzling rain that moved her forward fastest. Mo held the door open for her and Meggie hurried inside, stopping as soon as there was space for Mo to come in behind her. The shop smelled of damp, and was almost the temperature was almost as close to freezing as it was outside, but the books made up for it. Smiling, Meggie glanced up at Mo for permission to go further in and moved straight to the nearest book shelf at his nod.
"Mr Fell?" Mo called as Meggie brushed her fingers down the cloth bound cover of a copy of 'Scouting for Boys'.
Meggie glanced around, and froze. There was a desk against the wall opposite her, crammed in between two shelves and three stacks of dark, dyed-red leather books. The room was oddly shaped in the best sort of way, with uneven flooring and strange lighting, and she hadn't been at an angle to see it before. It differed from the rest of the room in that it wasn't over-piled with books—there were four neatly stacked on one corner—and it was immediately obvious why.
A snake sprawled in great coils across mahogany wood, pitch back and gleaming. Meggie couldn't tell how long it was, but it looked like it could easily wrap several times around the table it was laying on. And then crush it to splinters. Frozen where she stood, Meggie didn't breathe as she stared at it. A second later— Meggie wasn't a slow child—she breathed out as she saw the space heater sitting on the table next to the snake and realised the creature was asleep, bathed in what had momentarily seemed an unholy red light. Now it just looked warm, and a little tempting.
"Sorry, Meggie," Mo said, wincing as he followed her gaze to the snake. "I forget about him. He belongs to a friend of Mr Fell's.
"Shouldn't he be…" Meggie was going to say 'in a cage', but that was the moment that the snake lifted its head and looked at her.
"We're closed—" someone said from a room adjacent, just as Meggie took an automatic step back and fell over a pile of books.
"Are you okay?" Mo asked, at her side in two long steps, helping Meggie to her feet.
"Are the books okay?" said Meggie in response, worriedly crouching down again, ignoring the ache in back and elbows where she'd hit the floor.
"I should hope so," the someone said, revealing themselves to be a blonde man with a rather severe expression that cleared as soon as his gaze landed on Mo.
"Mo Folchart!" he said, sounding delighted. The room seemed to light up; literally, the dark shadows receding from the wooden floor, which looked less dusty than it had a moment ago, the smell of damp and neglect fading and room felt warmer.
Meggie blinked, looking at Mo to see if he'd felt the difference. Apparently he had not, smiling without batting an eyelid at the shop's sudden transformation, walking forward with a hand outstretched to meet the bookshop owner.
The snake on the table grinned at her.
"Mr Fell, yes, it's been a while."
"Ezra," Mr Fell corrected his eyes bright as he shook Mo's hand enthusiastically. "It's wonderful you're here, I just recently had a book that's in the most dreadful condition—"
As Meggie watched, the snake rolled its eyes and settled back down into its coils.
"I'd be happy to look at it, but I was here for a reason," Mo said, gently interrupting Ezra Fell with the tone he always used when guiding a conversation with an over-animated bookkeeper.
"Oh yes?" Ezra said, sounding interested.
Meggie recognised her cue and, tearing her eyes from the dozing serpent, took the book from her bag and passed it to Mo.
"This is my daughter, Meggie," Mo said by way of introduction, and Meggie smiled uncertainly. Ezra Fell beamed back at her before turning his attention to the book in Mo's hands. "She's the one who found this, while we were in Switzerland."
The book changed hands again.
"Pseudomonarchia Daemonum," said Ezra, sounding interested but confused. As he said the name, Meggie rolled her shoulders anxiously, on an inner reflex, without really noticing. On the desk, the snake shifted. Mr Fell moved towards it absently, running a hand down its coils. "I'm not sure exactly what it is," Mo said, apparently unaffected. "It's not a copy of the original appendix, it's been supplemented." "I can see," Ezra agreed, weighing the book with one hand. "By several hundred pages, I wouldn't doubt." Mo shrugged. "I've not really looked at it, it's not really my area of expertise. But I remembered you mentioned that your friend Anthony was interested in demonology—" here the snake let out a soft hiss that sounded amused, "—And the man who owned was giving it away. Very keen to be rid of it, I think, there's not a lot of market in demon books at the moment." "Not this one, certainly." The blonde haired man put the book down on the table, carefully, and the snake roused itself languidly, to slide with supple strength across the table and onto the book. "Well, it was very kind of you to bring it all the way here." "Well, I was wondering if you could do me a favour. I've been looking for a book, for a while now actually, I'm not sure why I've not asked you about it before…"
Meggie tuned out, turning towards the nearest shelf. She was aware that neither of the two adults was paying her any attention, but she didn't particularly mind. The books were calling.
"Yes, I think I did have it. But that was several years ago, you see, there was a fire here—"
"A fire?"
"Yes. A friend helped with the reconstruction and managed to save the majority of my books, but there was some that were overlooked."
Mo sighed, a heavy exhale of unhappy air, and Meggie turned her head away from the copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the sound.
"Mo?" she said, concerned, putting the book back down.
"It's nothing, Meggie. Thank you anyway, Mr Fell."
"Not at all, and if I hear anything of it I'll let you know."
"Thank you, I'd appreciate it. Do you see anything you'd like, Meggie?" Mo asked. Meggie caught a quick glimpse of the expression of Mr Fell's face and shook her head rapidly.
"No, I'm fine."
"Okay, well, you go to the library we saw, or the van if you're bored, I'll be with you in a few minutes; I'll have a look at this book of yours now if you like, Mr Fell."
Meggie nodded and spent a few more minutes inspecting the books. She half wished that she hadn't, as there seemed to be a number of children's books, unusual for a dusty old shop of this sort, but something told her Mr Fell's reception of them next time would be much less warm if they attempted to actually buy something. That at least was usual for this kind of bookshop, or at least this kind of shopkeeper. She was familiar with them, you learned to categorise the customers in Mo's line of work, and there was always a certain emphasis on the 'keeping' part.
When she eventually turned away and started towards the door, both Mo and Mr Fell oblivious to her quietly slipping by them, Meggie's eyes fell once again on the snake sprawling on top of the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. The snake winked at her. Next to her on the little table by the door, there was a fruit bowl that she hadn't noticed when she'd come in. Seized by the sudden duel compulsion to leave and to grab a green and red apple from the bowl, Meggie did both in one surreptitious motion, taken a quick bite as she walked from the shop. An odd place, definitely, but she'd seen stranger and was proud of it. In minutes she was preoccupied with the escapades of the tiny Arrietty , and Mr Fell and his snake are put out of her mind.
