CHAPTER ONE



Work experience



It was lunchtime at Middleton Secondary School. Lucy Gardner sat with some other Year Ten students on a low wall. She took out her mobile phone and quickly opened a YouTube page. She wanted to watch Jack Powell. She really liked Jack. Lucy followed many YouTubers but he was her favourite. He was really funny and talked about interesting things.



Suddenly, one of the other students, Tom, jumped up. 'Hey! That's my apple, Chris. Give it back!'



Chris laughed and quickly threw the apple over Tom's head to a tall girl, Alice. She took a bite then gave it back to Tom with a smile. 'There you are.'



'Oh, yuck!' Tom laughed. 'I'm not eating that now.' He threw the apple at Chris but Chris moved and it hit Lucy on the arm.



Everyone laughed.



'Oops,' said Tom. 'Sorry.'



Lucy raised a hand but didn't take her eyes off her phone. Tom and Chris and Alice and the others were okay - she sat with them every day - but they weren't her real friends. Her real friends were Jack and all the other YouTubers. They didn't know her but she knew them. They never laughed at her. They were more grown-up. It was easy to be with them - she could just listen.



'Oh, no!' said Alice suddenly. 'I forgot. We've got Mr Fry this afternoon. We have to choose a job for work experience. I forgot to think about it.'



'I forgot too,' said Tom. 'A week out of school. Where do I want to go?'



'I want to do my work experience in a computer shop,' said Chris. 'A week in a computer shop - I'll have the best time!'



Tom smiled. 'Yeah, I want to do that too.'



'Oh, no,' said Chris quickly. 'You can't take my idea.'



Alice turned to Lucy. 'What job are you going to ask for?'



Lucy pushed her long brown hair back from her face and took her earphones out of her ears. 'Sorry. What?'



'Where do you want to go for work experience?'



'YouTube in California!' said Tom and everyone laughed.



'I like books,' said Lucy. 'So maybe a bookshop. Maybe Bigalows in the mall.'



Tom jumped to his feet. 'Oh, yeah! That's a good idea. My older sister told me about a boy in her class. He went to a bookshop for work experience and he just sat in a back room all day. He only had to do some small jobs - move some boxes, put some books on a shelf. Then he played games on his phone all week.'



Lucy wanted to work at a bookshop because she liked books. She wanted to be a writer. She put her earphones back in and listened to Jack.



Two weeks later, Mr Fry stood in front of his Year Ten class. 'Quiet, everyone, please. Two weeks ago, I asked you to choose jobs for work experience. The school has now found jobs for you.' He took some papers from his desk and started to give them out. 'These notes have the names, addresses and phone numbers of your place of work.' He gave Lucy her note and then looked at Tom and Alice. 'Three people chose to work in a bookshop, but Bigalows in the mall will only take two students. So, Tom and Alice, you will go there.' He turned back to Lucy. 'We've found a place for you, Lucy, at Middleton Books on the High Street.'



Everyone in the class started to laugh.



'Quiet, please,' said Mr Fry.



Chris turned to Tom. 'Who goes to the shops on the High Street?'



Alice answered. 'Nobody goes to the shops on the High Street.' The boys laughed. 'All those shops are old and small and dark. I never go there. The mall is better.'



Tom said, 'I went into that bookshop on the High Street, years ago, with my mother. There was a really old woman there. She was strange...'



'Quiet. NOW!' shouted Mr Fry.



Lucy looked at the note in her hands. Alice was right. Nobody went to the shops on the High Street now. Years ago, it was the centre of town, but now it was empty-dead. Why couldn't Tom or Alice go to work at Middleton Books? Why did she have to go?





CHAPTER TWO



In the cupboard



Lucy stood in front of Middleton Books - a tall, narrow shop in a long line of tall, narrow shops along the High Street. The day was cold and there were black clouds in the sky. She looked through the dirty window but she couldn't see much. There was no light on inside. She looked at the time on her phone. It was five minutes to nine.



Suddenly, the shop door opened and an old woman put her head out to look up at the sky. 'Pfff! Clouds and rain,' she grumbled. 'Clouds and rain.'



Lucy took her earphones out of her ears and smiled at the woman. 'Are you Miss Rum-?'



But the woman went back inside. Lucy stood there for a minute then slowly followed into the dark shop. She couldn't see the room very well but then a light suddenly came on.



From floor to ceiling, the wooden shelves in the little old shop were full of books. But there were books on small tables as well, and books on chairs. There were books in boxes and on the narrow stairs. Lucy put her hand over her nose. There was a strange smell too. The shop wasn't clean - thick dust lay over everything. Lucy couldn't see the old woman. So she made a noise. 'A-hem.'



At the back of the shop, the old woman looked out from a cupboard under the stairs. 'What?'



'Um, are you Miss Rumble?'



'Why? Who are you?'



'Um, I'm Lucy Gardner. I'm from Middleton Secondary School... I'm doing my work experience here this week...'



The old woman went back under the stairs.



Lucy waited.



The woman came out again and tried to tidy her long white hair. She pinned it up on her head but some of it fell down again. Her arms were very thin. She looked at Lucy but didn't smile. 'You're not a boy.'



'No.'



'I wanted a boy. I have a lot of heavy boxes.'



'Did you tell the school?'



'Pfff! It doesn't matter. I'll do it. I'll do it. I have to do everything!' Miss Rumble pushed open the door to the cupboard under the stairs. 'You can start in here.'



'In there?'



'Yes. I'm going to sell the shop and I need to move everything out. All the books - everything.' She put her head down and looked into the cupboard. 'I haven't been under here for a long time - years. All these things need to go in boxes. Then I can throw them out.'



Lucy went to look inside the cupboard. It was full of old books and papers.



At Miss Rumble's feet, there were two empty boxes. 'You can start with these two boxes and I'll find you some other ones.'



Lucy looked unhappily at Miss Rumble. 'But I can't stand up in there.'



'Oh, you'll be all right. You're young. You'll be all right.'



Lucy sighed. She looked Miss Rumble in the eye and slowly put her earphones in. She took the boxes and went inside. What a job! First, she had to come to this nasty old shop. Now, she had to work in a cupboard all day! She threw the boxes on top of the books, put her bag on the floor, found some good loud music and started work.



The books were very old and very uninteresting.



'The Story of Tea,' read Lucy. 'The Farmer in the Field. Cooking with Electricity.' She picked up a fat book. 'A History of Fishing in Scotland.' On the back of this book, there was a black and white picture of the author. He wore little glasses and carried a big fish. 'Not very interesting,' she said to him. 'In the box you go.'



At eleven o'clock, Miss Rumble called to her, 'I'm making a cup of tea. Do you want one?'



But Lucy didn't hear. Her music was very loud. Suddenly, there was a hand on her head and Lucy jumped. Quickly, she took out her earphones.



Miss Rumble stood over her and shouted, 'Do you want a cup of tea?'



'You don't have to shout.'



'Then why didn't you hear me the first time?'



'I was -'



'Oh, it doesn't matter. Do you want a cup of tea or don't you?'



'Yes, please. Milk and two sugars.'



'Pfff! I don't have any sugar.' Miss Rumble turned to go but Lucy stopped her.



'Miss Rumble, there are some papers here with your name on them. And some with another name - Pelham. Are they family things? Shall I put them with the books?' Lucy held out the papers.



Miss Rumble took them. 'I need my glasses to see.' She turned to look for them. 'Now, my glasses... my glasses... Where did I put them?'



'They're on your head.'



'Ah.' Miss Rumble turned back and pulled her glasses down onto her nose. 'Pelham was my mother's name. Yes. Yes. Yes, these are her things. She grew up here, you see. Her father - my grandfather - started Middleton Books. All the family lived upstairs.'



'So these papers have been here for a long time?'



'Perhaps... My mother died in the 1970s.'



'You haven't been in here since the 1970s! Did you never want to tidy the place?'



'Pfff!' Miss Rumble went to make the tea.



Lucy put her earphones back in and picked up another book. A postcard fell out of it. On the postcard, there was a picture of a ship. Lucy picked up the postcard and turned it over.





Dear William,



I have met some nice chaps on the ship - and some girls!



I can't wait to see New York.



Edgar





She opened the book. It was an old diary - the pages were yellow and the writing was faded. There were lots of things stuck into the diary - little notes, black and white photographs, train tickets... There was one photograph of three young men at the beach. Beside it were the words Edgar, Oscar and me - Brighton, July '36.



Who was 'me'? Lucy looked again at the back of the postcard. Perhaps 'me' was William. She looked at the faces in the photograph. Was William the one with the nice smile?



Lucy sat on the floor with the book and started to read.





27th August



Only five days! Then I must return to school. I shall hate it...





28th August



A very good - and funny - day. I went fishing with Edgar and he fell in the water. I laughed and laughed...





29th August



Today is my sixteenth birthday...



'So, William,' said Lucy quietly. 'You're sixteen years old.'





30th August



What a day! Early this morning, there was another robbery at a shop on the High Street - that's two robberies in three weeks. The police were here and asked a lot of questions. They told us to hide our valuables. I must find a hiding place for Ed-





'Here's your tea.'



Lucy quickly shut the diary and took the cup from Miss Rumble.



'Have your tea, then go back to work, please. This is a bookshop, not a library.'



'It's a cupboard,' said Lucy, but Miss Rumble turned to go and didn't hear. Lucy sighed. She opened the diary again and turned to the page with the photograph of the three boys. 'William,' she said to the boy with the nice smile. 'It's going to be a long week.' She closed the diary and carefully hid it behind some books on a top shelf.





CHAPTER THREE



William's diary



The next morning, Lucy waited unhappily on the street for Middleton Books to open. It was cold. She didn't like Miss Rumble and she didn't want to work all day in the cupboard again. It started to rain. She looked up and watched the rain hit the faded sign over the door. Suddenly, she started to laugh. In very small letters at the bottom of the sign were the words Proprietor: Miss G. Rumble. 'Miss Grumble!!' laughed Lucy.



The door opened.



The smile dropped from Lucy's face and she took her earphones out. 'Hello, Miss Rumble.'



'It's raining.'



Lucy followed the old woman inside.



'You can finish that cupboard this morning,' Miss Rumble said.



'But -'



'Hurry up.'



Lucy went into the cupboard. She took out William's diary. 'Good morning, Will. How are you today? Miss Grumble is very happy this morning... Oh, yes. Didn't you know? That's my new name for her.' She put the diary with her bag on the floor, put her earphones in and started work.



At a quarter to twelve, Lucy brought the last box out of the cupboard. 'There. It's done! The cupboard's empty.'



'What's that you say?' Miss Rumble called. She was in a little room at the back of the shop.



'I've finished.'



'Then have lunch.'



Lucy said, very quietly, 'Don't say thank you, will you, Miss Grumble!' She got her lunch from her bag, took William's diary and looked for a place to sit. But the shop was full of books and boxes. There weren't any empty chairs. She didn't want to go into the back room with Miss Grumble, she didn't want to sit in the cupboard again and she didn't want to go out in the rain.



Behind the counter, there was a wooden stepladder. Lucy climbed up the ladder and sat on the top step - her lunch and the diary in her lap. There was thick dust on the shelves beside her. With her finger, she drew a little face in the dust. She bit into an apple and opened William's diary.



They told us to hide our valuables. I must find a hiding place for Ed, she read again. Who was Ed? Was it Edgar? And why was he valuable? It was very strange. Lucy turned the pages of the diary. She found Edgar's name again and again but William didn't write again about a hiding place. She turned back to the page for the end of August.



At the bottom of the page, Lucy suddenly saw a short list.





Birthday gifts:



from Mother - socks



from Mary - 1pound



from Edgar - pen



from Father - 1st Ed!





'First Ed?' said Lucy. 'What does that mean, Will? I must find a hiding place for Ed. Maybe you don't mean Edgar. Maybe this is Ed - Ed is your father's gift.'



'Who are you talking to?' Miss Rumble looked behind the counter.



'Nobody.' Lucy quickly shut the diary.



'What are you doing up there?' Miss Rumble held up a cup of tea.



Lucy took the cup and put it on a top shelf. 'There are no chairs.'



'Pfff.' Miss Rumble drank her tea.



Lucy put her earphones in, found one of Jack Powell's YouTube videos on her phone and started to watch it. She started to laugh - the video was very funny.



Miss Rumble looked up at her. 'Why are you laughing?'



Lucy took out her earphones. 'Sorry. What?'



'What are you laughing at?'



'YouTube. I'm watching a video.'



'Pfff!' Miss Rumble pointed at Lucy's earphones. 'Do you always have to have those things in your ears?'



Lucy sighed and put down her phone. She ate her lunch and looked at the books beside her.



'Miss Rumble?'



'Yes?'



'Was there a William in your family?'



The old woman took off her glasses and looked up at Lucy with wide eyes. 'Yes. Yes. Yes, there was. He was my mother's younger brother. Why are you asking about him?'



Lucy slowly held out the diary. Was Miss Grumble going to be angry? 'I found this.'



Miss Rumble took the book, put on her glasses and looked inside it. She gave it back to Lucy and took a drink of her tea.



Lucy waited then said, 'Can I read it?'



'Why are you asking that? You've already read it, haven't you?'



'Yes. Sorry...' Lucy turned to the page with William's list. 'Miss Rumble?'



'Yes.'



Lucy held out the diary and pointed at the words 1st Ed. 'What does this mean? Do you know?'



'First Ed? That's a first edition. Don't you know that? What do they teach you at school? It's a book - one of the first copies of a book - a first edition.' Miss Rumble looked again at the list. 'William had a first edition, did he? Old ones can be very valuable.' She took off her glasses. 'Pfff, I've never seen it. It didn't stay in the family.' She finished her tea and returned to the back room.



'So, Ed was just a book,' said Lucy to the diary. 'And it's gone now - maybe you sold it a long time ago.' She closed the diary, picked up her phone and found Jack's video again. She was going to put the diary on the shelf but it dropped from her hand and fell to the floor. She quickly climbed down the ladder to get it.



The diary was open. On the page were two pictures. 'Oh, Will, you've drawn the bookshop! Here's the front of the shop with the sign. And there are the book shelves and the counter.' Lucy read the words beside the pictures.





23rd December



I am in the shop and am sitting on the top step of the ladder-





She stopped reading and smiled. She quickly went to sit at the top of the ladder again.





I am in the shop and am sitting on the top step of the ladder. From here, I can see everything. The lights are shining brightly on the wooden shelves and the shop is full of customers - and full of colour. Mr James has just come in and is taking off his long green coat. Mrs Protherow, in her new yellow hat, is asking for 'the best book' about horses for her daughter. A young woman in a pretty blue dress and bright red shoes is talking to Father. Children are looking in at the window. And, through the open door, I can see the new white snow on the ground...





Lucy looked up at the dusty old shop. It used to be bright and full of people. It used to be wonderful!



Miss Rumble was suddenly beside the ladder. 'Haven't you finished your lunch yet?'



Lucy held up the diary. 'William wrote about the shop, Miss Rumble. It used to be wonderful.'



'Pfff! Those days are gone! Nobody wants to buy books now. Everyone is happy with their televisions and computers. They don't need books.'



'That's not true. People buy books at the mall.'



Miss Rumble didn't listen. 'Nobody wants to buy books now. They just want to look at their computers and those things.' She pointed at Lucy's phone.



'That's not true,' repeated Lucy. 'Jack Powell - I follow him on YouTube - he's written a book and next week it will be in bookshops. Lots of people will want to buy his book.'



'YouTube, pfff!'



'People do buy books. They just don't come in here. People don't want to come in here because it's dark and dusty. Everything is untidy.' Lucy held out the diary again. 'This shop used to be happy and bright. Now it's old and dead.'



'And soon I'll be dead too! So it doesn't matter, does it?' Miss Rumble was angry now. 'You young people! You know everything, don't you? You've only been here for a day and you know everything!' She started to walk away.



Lucy came down from the ladder. 'I know this - you could bring the customers back into this shop. You could make it clean and tidy and nice and bright. You could make it a happy place again.'



Miss Rumble turned angrily. 'All right. You do that. You finish here on Friday, don't you? So you have three days.'



Lucy's mouth dropped open. 'What?'



'You can change things. Make the bookshop new and modern. Make it clean and tidy and nice and bright. Pfff! You'll see. The customers still won't come.'



Lucy remembered the bright shop in William's diary. 'Okay. I'll do it!'





CHAPTER FOUR



Everything old is new again



On Wednesday morning, Lucy stood outside Middleton Books with a big black bag. At nine o'clock, Miss Rumble opened the front door. She pointed at the bag in the girl's hand. 'What's in there? You didn't buy things, did you?' she grumbled. 'I can't give you any money. I don't have any.'



Lucy went inside. 'Good morning, Miss Rumble!' She was happy to be at work. It was going to be an interesting day. She took out her earphones and held up the bag. 'These are things to put in the window. I didn't buy them. I brought them from home. I found some wonderful old pictures on the Internet. I have pieces of material and I have an old lamp.' She carefully put the bag on the counter. 'That's my first job - I'm going to clean out the window and make a nice display. Your job is -'



'My job?!'



'Yes. I can't change things without your help.'



'Oh, all right, all right,' the old woman grumbled.



'Some books in this place are never going to sell. They've been here for years and years. It's not going to rain on Friday. So we can put a table outside and we can sell those books very cheaply. That will bring customers to the shop and the shop will be tidier.' Lucy threw up her hands. 'Nobody can move in here with all these books and boxes on the floor. On Friday, we'll put all the books in boxes outside.'



'But some books in the boxes could be valuable!'



'Then find those and put them back on the shelves. That's your job - to sort the books. On Friday, the books on the shelves will stay and the ones in the boxes will go.'



Miss Rumble looked at the young girl. 'You don't need work experience,' she grumbled. 'You're already the boss!'



'That's right,' Lucy smiled. 'I'm the boss.' She put her earphones back in and found some music. 'So get to work!'



'Pfff!'



All day Wednesday, Lucy cleaned and tidied the shop. She took the old display out of the window, washed the glass and cleaned up the dust and the dead flies. She made a new window display with long pieces of black and green material, some interesting books from the shop, pictures from the 1930s and the old lamp. She found an old radio in the back room and put that in the window too.



In the afternoon, Miss Rumble went outside to look at the display. Lucy followed her.



Miss Rumble's mouth dropped open. 'Oh. It's not modern!'



'No,' said Lucy. 'There's a modern bookshop in the mall. The town doesn't need another one. Some people will like this window display - it's 1930s. See? It's cool - everything old is new again.'



At twenty to five on Thursday afternoon, Miss Rumble carried two cups from the back room. 'Here's your tea.'



Lucy was up the ladder. 'Oh, thanks. I've nearly finished here.'



A minute later, she came down. 'There. Done!' She took out her earphones. 'It was a big job to dust all those shelves. I'm tired.' She sat on a step of the ladder and looked at the shop. Everything was in its place. Everything was clean and tidy. There were a lot of boxes of books beside the door but there weren't any books on the counter. There weren't any books on the floor. The empty chairs now stood in the corners of the room. The small tables had little book displays on them. And the light shone brightly on the clean wooden shelves.



Lucy took William's diary from under the counter and showed Miss Rumble his pictures of the shop. 'See. It used to be wonderful.'



'I know. I remember,' the old woman grumbled. 'I grew up in this shop, you know.' She looked at the clean counter and the tidy shelves. 'You've done a good job,' she said. 'But I don't see any customers.' She went to sit quietly in a corner.



Lucy put her earphones in and listened to Jack. She started to laugh softly.



In her corner, Miss Rumble sighed.



Lucy slowly turned the pages of the diary. There were some empty pages. Then, on the last page, she saw a strange note:





ED - EXNOB DRO CDKSBC SX RKCDSXQC





'What does that mean, Will?' Lucy pulled out her earphones. 'I can only understand the first word - Ed. Is it about the first edition?' She looked carefully at the letters. 'It is, isn't it? Is it a code, Will? A code to help you remember the hiding place of the book?'



'I'm very tired,' said Miss Rumble. She stood up and went to the door. 'I'm going to close the shop early today. I'll see you tomorrow.'



'But -'



'Hurry up. You can read that tomorrow.'





CHAPTER FIVE



The code



On Friday morning, some customers came into the shop.



Lucy saw the first woman through the window. 'She's looking at the display,' she told Miss Rumble. 'Now she's seen my sign.'



Outside, next to the door, was a long table with books on it and a bright sign:





CHEAP BOOKS



One day only!





The woman looked at the books on the table. She came to the door and looked into the shop. She saw Lucy and smiled. Then she saw Miss Rumble and quickly hurried away.



Another customer, a man, looked at the books on the table. He picked up a book and looked inside it but Miss Rumble stood at the door and watched him and he soon went away.



Lucy said, brightly, 'He nearly bought it.'



'Pfff. But he didn't, did he?' Miss Rumble went into the back room.



Lucy sighed. She put her earphones in and took out William's diary. 'It's my last day here, Will,' she said. 'After today, it will just be you and Miss Grumble. Sorry.' She opened the book to the page with the code. 'I won't find your first edition. I know that.' But she wanted to try to solve the code.



There was a noise and Lucy looked up. A large woman came into the shop. She smiled at Lucy. 'You know, I haven't been in this shop for years. I don't live in Middleton now - I'm just visiting. But I grew up here.' She laughed. 'I hated this shop! It was the only bookshop in town. My mother often brought me here and there was this grumpy old woman - oh, that's right, I remember now, we called her Miss Grumble!' The woman laughed loudly.



Miss Rumble suddenly came out from the back room. She was very angry. 'I can hear you, you know!'



The woman hurried out of the shop.



Miss Rumble followed her to the door. 'Pfff! Grumble - I haven't heard that name for a long time. Years ago children often came to the door here and shouted, Hello, Miss Grumble and quickly ran away.'



Lucy said quietly. 'You are very grumpy.'



Miss Rumble turned to her. 'What is there to be happy about? All my life I have worked in this shop. I've watched the customers slowly go away - from this shop, from all the shops along the High Street. Nobody wants to come in here now.'



'Maybe they don't,' said Lucy. She started to get angry too. A week with the old woman was a long time. 'But it's not because they don't want to buy books. It's not because the shop wasn't clean or tidy. Why do you have this shop? You don't like people, do you?'



'What are you talking about?'



'You've been grumpy with me since my first day here. You don't like other people.'



'Pfff! You can't talk.'



'What does that mean?'



'You - with your earphones in all the time. Do you like people? I mean real people - not people on YouTube.'



'They are real. Jack Powell is real.'



'Pfff! Jack Powell! Did you want to talk to me? No. You put your earphones in and shut out the real world.' She suddenly saw the diary in Lucy's hand. 'Oh, wait a minute. I forgot! You did talk to one person - a dead boy!'



'I didn't want to talk to you!' shouted Lucy. 'You didn't -' Then she stopped. 'Wait. Why did you call William a dead boy?'



'Because he was never a man.'



'What?' Lucy didn't understand.



'William died. In the winter after his sixteenth birthday. He died.'



Lucy looked down at the book in her hand. 'Oh,' she said quietly. She slowly sat down behind the counter and opened the diary to the photograph of the three boys. 'So, you never knew him.'



'No.'



Lucy looked sadly at the smile on William's face. She turned the pages of the diary and looked at all the things stuck in there. She ran her hand over the faded writing. 'The last months of his life.'



'Hm.' Miss Rumble went to sit in the corner.



Lucy came to the empty pages at the end of the book and she wanted to cry.



Then she remembered William's code. She quickly turned to the back page. 'You hid the first edition,' she said softly to him. 'But then you died. Did your family find the book? Or is it still in its hiding place?'



She looked at the code. 'You've changed the letters of the words to other letters, haven't you? You've made a substitution alphabet.' That was easy to understand. 'But how many places have the letters moved? What's the key?'



Lucy quickly wrote out the alphabet on a piece of paper and tried to find a substitution alphabet. She moved the letters of the code three places along the alphabet but it wasn't right. Then she tried five places but she couldn't solve it.



'Wait a minute. You wrote the code in the diary. Maybe the key to the code is there too.' She quickly turned the pages but couldn't find it. In the front of the book, there was a list of names with numbers next to them but Lucy didn't need numbers - she needed letters. She looked at the list. Perhaps it was a list of phone numbers. But there was one name without a number - Thomas Edison. 'What?' she cried. 'Thomas Edison? The famous inventor? Will, did you know Thomas Edison?'



Miss Rumble stood up. 'What are you shouting about, you strange girl?'



Wait a minute - could Will have known him? When did Thomas Edison die? 'Miss Rumble, do you have any books about Thomas Edison?'



'Who?'



'Edison.'



Lucy's mouth suddenly dropped open. Ed-is-on. ED is ON. Could the word Edison be the key?



'If E is O...' Lucy counted the places between the two letters in the alphabet. 'Ten.' She counted the places between D and N. 'Ten! I have to move the letters in the code back ten places.'



She quickly wrote out the alphabet again, and then she wrote new letters on top of it.





KLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHIJ



ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ





Then she changed the letters in William's sentence.





ED - EXNOB DRO CDKSBC SX RKCDSXQC



ED - UNDER THE STAIRS IN HASTINGS





'I've solved it! Ed is under the stairs in Hastings.' But what did it mean? 'Miss Rumble? Hastings is a town, isn't it?'



'Hastings? Yes, beside the sea, near Brighton. Do you still want this book about Edison?'



'Oh, no. Sorry.'



'Pfff.' Miss Rumble went to put the book back on the shelf.



'Did William's family have a house there?' asked Lucy.



'Where?'



'In Hastings?'



'No... No. My mother never told me about any house in Hastings. Look. There are two women outside at the table.'



'I'll go,' said Lucy. 'You stay here.'



The two women bought five books. Then another three customers came. Lucy smiled and laughed with them and her friendly face helped to sell another seven books. The customers walked away and Lucy heard one man say, 'These books are cheap. We'll have to tell everyone.' Soon, a lot of customers came. Some people bought two or three books. One man bought a box of books.



Lucy took the money inside. 'Half the books are gone,' she told Miss Rumble and quickly went back outside.



A woman at the table held out a very small book. 'My husband will like this,' she said to Lucy. 'Fishing on the River Tweed.' On the book was a picture of the author - he wore little glasses and carried a big fish. Under the picture was the author's name - Gerald Hastings.



Lucy threw her hands in the air and the woman dropped the book. 'Hastings isn't a place!' Lucy said. 'It's a person!'





CHAPTER SIX



The first edition



Lucy quickly looked at all the books on the table. 'Oh, where is it? Where is it?!'



The customer hurried away.



Miss Rumble came to the door. 'What's wrong?'



Lucy ran to get William's diary. She showed Miss Rumble the code. 'I solved it! William hid the book under the stairs inside another book - a big, fat book about fishing - A History of Fishing in Scotland. The author of that book was Gerald Hastings. I saw the book on my first day here. But now I can't find it. And maybe the first edition is still inside it!' There were some boxes of books on the ground under the table. Lucy quickly looked inside them. 'You didn't take the book out, did you?' She didn't wait for an answer. 'Oh, no. I haven't sold it, have I?'



Lucy and Miss Rumble looked in all the boxes but they couldn't find the book.



Lucy went back inside the shop. 'Could it be on the shelves?'



Miss Rumble followed her in. 'No. I didn't take any books out of your boxes.'



Lucy had William's diary. Unhappily, she put it on the counter. 'So, we'll never know...'



Miss Rumble said, 'I'll make us a nice cup of tea.' She went into the back room. 'Lucy... There's a box in here...'



Lucy ran to the back room and looked at the books in the box. Suddenly she saw Gerald Hasting's face. 'Here it is! This is it!' She took the book out, carried it into the shop and put it on the counter next to William's diary. Miss Rumble quickly followed her. Slowly, Lucy opened the book.



'Frankenstein!' said Miss Rumble.



There was a hole cut in the pages of A History of Fishing in Scotland. Inside the hole, was a smaller book - a copy of Frankenstein.



Carefully, Lucy took the book out and opened it to the first page. 'First edition, 1818,' she read. She gave the book to Miss Rumble.



Miss Rumble's mouth was open but she didn't say a word.



Lucy took out her phone and opened an Internet page. She looked for a first edition Frankenstein. She found one. 'Miss Rumble... two years ago, a first edition Frankenstein sold for nearly 45,000 pounds!'



Miss Rumble needed to sit down.



Lucy looked at the time. It was two minutes past five. 'I have to go.'



Miss Rumble walked with her to the door. She still held the copy of Frankenstein.



'Goodbye, Miss Rumble. It's been an interesting week, hasn't it?'



'Yes, it has. Thank you, Lucy.'



Lucy went outside and turned to look up at Miss Rumble's name on the sign. 'I wanted to ask you... G. Rumble. What is your first name?'



'It's Ginger.'



Lucy laughed. 'But that's a wonderful name!'



'Ginger Rogers was my mother's favourite film star.'



'Ginger Rumble,' said Lucy. 'It's a wonderful name. Goodbye, Miss Rumble.'



The old woman watched her go. Then she went outside and looked up at the sign. For the first time in a very long time, Miss Rumble smiled.



Three weeks later, Lucy sat down at the computer to watch Jack Powell's new video.



'My book is selling really well,' he said. 'Thank you, everyone! And now you can come and meet me. On the 4th May, I'll be at Reid's Books in Hotham and this Saturday I'll be at Ginger Rumble's in Middleton.'



'What?!' said Lucy. 'It can't be Miss Rumble's bookshop, can it?'



At ten o'clock on Saturday, Lucy went to the bookshop. There was a bright new sign over the door - GINGER RUMBLE'S - and a line of young people waited along the street. Some people already had a copy of Jack's book. Inside the shop, there was a big crowd. Miss Rumble was at the counter and, next to her, was Jack Powell.



'Miss Rumble!' called Lucy.



'Oh, come here. Come here, girl,' called Miss Rumble. 'I need some help.'



Lucy went behind the counter and met Jack.



'Ah!' he said. 'You're Lucy. I've heard about you.'



She stood next to him and took a photograph.



'Hurry up. Hurry up,' said Miss Rumble. 'There are people waiting.'



Lucy laughed. 'The shop has changed but you haven't, Miss Rumble.' She helped with the customers. People bought Jack's book. Then they moved over to talk to him and take photos.



'Miss Rumble, did you ask Jack to come here?' said Lucy.



'Yes. I remembered his name, I telephoned his publisher and he was happy to come.'



'I know some other YouTubers,' said Jack. 'They've written books too. I'll tell them about this place. It's cool.'



Lucy smiled. 'It's wonderful to see the shop full of people, isn't it, Miss Rumble?'



'Pfff. It's very noisy. I've had a lot of customers - all week. I'll have to get help on Saturdays.' She looked at Lucy. 'Do you want a job?'



Lucy smiled. 'Yes, I do. But I'll have to ask my parents first.'



William's diary was on the counter. On top of it was a new mobile phone. 'I'll ask them,' said Miss Rumble. She picked up the phone. 'What's their number?'





- THE END -



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