"You're not thinking of going back, are you?" she asked at last. She knew him very well.
"No, don't worry!" he replied, stroking her hair. But she didn't believe him.
Elinor seemed to share Meggie's fears, for she was to be seen several times talking earnestly to Mo – in the hotel corridor outside her room, at breakfast, at dinner. But she fell silent abruptly as soon as Meggie joined them. Elinor called a doctor to treat Mo's arm, although he didn't think it necessary, and she bought them all new clothes, taking Meggie with her because, as she said, "If I choose you something myself you won't wear it. " She also did a great deal of telephoning and visited every bookshop in the town. At breakfast on the third day she suddenly announced that she was going home.
"I've already rented another car, " she said. "My feet are better now, I'm dying to see my books again, and if I see one more tourist in swimming trunks I shall scream. But before I leave, let me give you this!"
With these words she passed Mo a piece of paper across the table. It had a name and address on it in Elinor's large, bold handwriting. "I know you, Mortimer!" she said. "I know you can't get Inkheart out of your head. So I've found you Fenoglio's address. It wasn't easy, I can tell you, but after all there's a fair chance that he still has a few copies. Promise me you'll go to see him – he lives not far from here and put the copy of the book still in that wretched village out of your mind once and for all."
Mo stared at the address as if he were learning it by heart, then put the piece of paper in his new wallet. "You're right, it really is worth a try!" he said. "Thank you very much, Elinor!" He looked almost happy.
Meggie didn't understand any of this. But she knew one thing: She'd been right. Mo was still thinking of Inkheart; he couldn't come to terms with losing it.
"Who's Fenoglio?" she asked uncertainly. "A bookseller or something?" The name seemed familiar, though she couldn't remember where she had heard it. Mo did not reply, but gazed out of the window.
"Let's go back with Elinor, Mo!" said Meggie. "Please!"
It was nice going down to the sea in the morning, and she liked the brightly colored houses, but all the same she wanted to leave. Every time she saw the hills rising behind the town her heart beat faster, and she kept thinking she saw Basta's face, or Flatnose's, among the crowds in the streets. She wanted to go home, or at least to Elinor's house. She wanted to watch Mo giving Elinor's books new clothes, pressing fragile gold leaf into the leather with his stamps, choosing endpapers, stirring glue, fastening the press. She wanted everything to be as it had been before the night when Dustfinger turned up.
But Mo shook his head. "I have to pay this visit first, Meggie, " he said. "After that we'll go to Elinor's. The day after tomorrow at the latest. "
Meggie stared at her plate. What amazing things you could have for breakfast in an expensive hotel… but she didn't feel like waffles with fresh strawberries anymore.
"OK, then I'll see you in a couple days' time. Give me your word of honor, Mortimer!" There was no missing the concern in Elinor's voice. "You'll come even if you don't have any luck with Fenoglio. Promise!"
Mo had to smile. "My solemn word of honor, Elinor, " he said.
Elinor heaved a deep sigh of relief and bit into the croissant that had been waiting on her plate all this time. "Don't ask me what I had to do to get hold of that address!" she said with her mouth full. "And in the end the man doesn't live far from here at all – about an hour's car journey. Odd that he and Capricorn live so close to each other, isn't it?"
"Yes, odd, " murmured Mo, looking out of the window. The wind blew through the leaves of the palms in the hotel garden.
"His stories are nearly always set in this region, " Elinor went on, "but I believe he lived abroad for a long time and moved back here only a few years ago." She beckoned to a waitress and asked for more coffee.
Meggie shook her head when the waitress asked if she would like anything else.
"Mo, I don't want to stay here, " she said quietly. "I don't want to visit anyone either. I want to go home, or at least back to Elinor's. "
Mo picked up his coffee cup. It still hurt when he moved his left arm. "We'll get it over with tomorrow, Meggie, " he said. "You heard Elinor – it's not far away. And by the end of the day after that you'll be back in Elinor's huge bed, the one that a whole school class could sleep in. " He was trying to make her laugh, but Meggie couldn't. She looked at the straw berries on her plate. How red they were.
"I'll also have to rent a car, Elinor, " said Mo. "Can you lend me the money? I'll pay you back as soon as we meet up again."
Elinor nodded, her gaze lingering on Meggie. "You know something, Mortimer?" she said. "I don't think your daughter is very keen on books just now. I remember the feeling. Whenever my father got so absorbed in a book that we might have been invisible I felt like taking a pair of scissors and cutting it up. And now, I'm as mad about them as he was. Oh well, that's something to think about, eh!" She folded her nap kin and pushed back her chair. "I'm going upstairs to pack, and you can tell your daughter who Fenoglio is. "
Then she was gone, leaving Meggie at the table with Mo. He ordered another coffee, even though he usually drank no more than one cup.
"What about your strawberries?" he asked. "Don't you want them?"
Meggie shook her head.
Mo sighed and took one. "Fenoglio is the man who wrote Inkheart, " he said. "It's possible that as the author he will still have some copies. Indeed, it's more than possible, it's very probable. "
"Oh, come on!" said Meggie scornfully. "Capricorn's sure to have stolen them long ago! He stole all the copies – you saw that!"
But Mo shook his head. "I don't believe he will have thought of Fenoglio. You know, it's a funny thing about writers. Most people don't stop to think of books being written by people much like themselves. They think that writers are all dead long ago – they don't expect to meet them in the street or out shopping. They know their stories but not their names, and certainly not their faces. And most writers like it that way – you heard Elinor say it was quite hard for her to get hold of Fenoglio's address. Believe me, it's more than likely that Capricorn has no idea that the man who wrote his story lives scarcely two hours' drive away from him. "
Meggie wasn't so sure. She thoughtfully pleated the table cloth, then smoothed out the pale yellow fabric again. "All the same, I'd rather we went to Elinor's house, " she said. "I don't see why…" She hesitated, but then finished what she had been going to say. "I don't see why you want the book so much. It's no use anyway. " My mother's gone, she added in her thoughts. You tried to bring her back but it doesn't work. Let's go home.
Mo helped himself to another of her strawberries, the smallest of all. "The little ones are always the sweetest, " he said and put it in his mouth "Your mother loved strawberries She couldn't get enough of them, and she was always terribly cross if it rained so much in spring that they rotted in her strawberry bed."
A smile lit up his face as he looked out of the window again. "Just this one last shot, Meggie, " he said. "Just this one. And the day after tomorrow we'll go back to Elinor's. I promise."
23. A NIGHT FULL OF WORDS
What child unable to sleep on a warm summer night hasn't thought he saw Peter Pan's sailing ship in the sky? I will teach you to see that ship.