‘I’ve never even heard of these.’
‘Legends from the deep north,’ said Ramsay. ‘To be shared over a yule log, I should think.’
Carmen picked one up entitledThe Shining Star, which had the most beautiful raised engraving of a shepherd and a lamb on the leather-bound cover.
‘Oh, this is gorgeous.’
‘Thought you’d like it,’ said Ramsay, looking around. ‘Are you going to skin me again for it? Wow, it’s getting more Christmassy in here every day.’
He beckoned the two boys forward and they stomped in, dinging the bell loudly. The slightly smaller one gasped in awe. The other, who was dressed in a shirt and tie for some reason, looked around in quite a calculating manner.
Mr McCredie materialised beside Carmen.
‘Ramsay,’ he said, wreathed in smiles. ‘What have you been foraging for us today?’ He looked down. ‘And is this … it isn’t … is thisPatrick?’
‘Well, of course I am Patrick,’ said the boy.
Mr McCredie looked at Ramsay.
‘You brought him here once when he was a baby! And I have scarcely seen him since.’
‘I know,’ said Ramsay. ‘Things got a little hectic.’
He smiled.
‘Ramsay fell in love with the nanny,’ Mr McCredie helpfully supplied to Carmen.
Carmen smiled.
‘Good money-saving technique.’
To his credit, Ramsay laughed.
‘You’d think,’ he said. ‘Still skint though.’
‘Hello, excuse me?’ said Patrick on his tippy-toes at the countertop. ‘I have some questions about the train set. It is quite a lot of questions. Hari, say hello. Sometimes he forgets to say hello unless I tell him but he is really quite clever. When I help him.’
Hari was a beautiful child, with messy straight black hair and olive skin, and he smiled cheerfully.
‘Hiya,’ he said in a surprisingly deep voice, his accent much thicker than Patrick’s. ‘Ah like your train set, ken.’
‘Well,’ said Carmen. ‘I’m going to be doing a story in a little while – would you like to stay for it?’
Hari looked immediately interested; Patrick less so.
‘I can read for myself perfectly well,’ he announced. ‘I AM nearly seven.’
‘All right, Jacob Rees-Mogg,’ said Carmen, before remembering she was being nice to children these days – everyone’s children. But Ramsay just laughed.
‘Patrick, what did we talk about showing off?’
‘Being able to read is NOT SHOWING OFF!’
And he opened his backpack and pulled out a large paperback.
‘Whatishe reading?’ asked Carmen.
‘Uh,Teach Your Child to Read,’ said Ramsay.
