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‘Oh, he has a heart, does he?’ enquired Elinor bitterly

‘It would be better for him if he didn’t,’ replied Mo ‘More than a week passed before he was back at ht to day I was just packing I’d decided it was safer to leave, since I didn’t want to be driving Basta and Capricorn out of er’s reappearance showed that I was right to feel anxious It ell after ht when he turned up, but I couldn’t sleep anyway’ Mo stroked Meggie’s hair ‘You weren’t sleeping well then either You had bad dreams, however much I tried to keep the the tools in my workshop when there was a knock on the front door, a very soft, aled from the dark as suddenly as he did when he cao – heavens, was it really only four days? Well, when he ca since he’d eaten He was thin as a stray cat and his eyes were dull "Send ed, "send me back! This world will be the death of me It’s too fast, too crowded, too noisy If I don’t die of homesickness I shall starve to death I don’t kno toI’m like a fish out of water," he said And he refused to believe that I couldn’t do it He wanted to see the book and try for hih he could scarcely read, but there was no way I could let hi away the very last part I still had of your er sleep on the sofa, and ca the bookshelves Over the next few years he kept on turning up, following us wherever ent, until I got sick and tired of it and ht After that I saw no ie looked at him ‘You still feel sorry for him,’ she said

Mo was silent At last, he said, ‘Sometimes’

Elinor’s comment on that was a snort of conteht,’ she said ‘It’s that idiot’s fault we’re in this hole, it’s his fault if they cut our throats, and you still feel sorry for hi, where a few ht bulb ‘No doubt Capricorn has promised to take hier would do anything in return for such a proo back to his oorld He doesn’t even stop to ask if his story there has a happy ending!’

‘Well, that’s no different froloos will turn out well Just now our own story looks like coie sat with her ar at the dirty white walls In her mind’s eye she saw the ‘N’ in front of her, the ‘N’ with the hornedout fro capital letter, her raph under Mo’s pillow So she hadn’t run away after all Did she like it in that other world? Did she still re picture for her too? Did she long to be back in her oorld, just as Dustfinger did?

And did Capricorn long to be back in his oorld as well? Was that what he wanted – for Mo to read hiain? What would happen when Capricorn realised that Mo siie shuddered

‘It seems Capricorn has someone else to read aloud to hihts ‘Basta told me about the man, probably to show me I’m not by any means indispensable Apparently he’s read several useful assistants for Capricorn out of a book already’

‘Oh yes? Then why does he want you?’ Elinor sat up, rubbing her behind and groaning ‘I don’t understand any of this I just hope it’s all a bad dream, the kind you wake up froie doubted whether Elinor really had any such hope The damp straw felt too real, and so did the cold wall behind theain and closed her eyes She was very sorry she had scarcely read a line of Inkheart She knew nothing at all about the story into which her mother had disappeared All she kneas Mo’s other stories, about the fabulous exploits that had kept herin distant lands, of fearso ho new and wonderful in it at every enchanted place she visited

‘Mo,’ she asked, ‘do you think she likes being in that story?’

It took Mo quite a long time to answer ‘She’d certainly like the fairies,’ he said at last, ‘although they’re deceitful little things And if I know her she’ll be putting out bowls of milk for the brownies Yes, I think she’d like that part of it …’

‘So … so ouldn’t she like?’ Meggie looked at him anxiously

Mo hesitated ‘The evil in it,’ he finally said ‘So s happen in that book, and she never found out that it all ends reasonably well – after all, I never finished reading her the whole story That’s what she wouldn’t like’

‘No, of course not,’ said Elinor ‘But how do you know the story hasn’t changed anyway? After you read Capricorn and his friend out of it And noe’re lumbered with them here’

‘Yes,’ said Mo, ‘but they’re still in the book too Believe h since they caer, Basta and Capricorn Doesn’t thatis still the way it was? Capricorn is still there, and we’re only up against a shadow of hi for a shadow,’ said Elinor

‘Yes, you’re right,’ agreed Mo ‘Perhaps things have changed there after all Perhaps there’s another, es just as our oorld does And the letters on the page tell us only as h a keyhole Perhaps the story in the book is just the lid on a pan; it always stays the saoes on developing and changing like our own’

Elinor groaned ‘For heaven’s sake, Mortiwhen I tried to loo tihts Elinor was the first to speak again, although it sounded al to herself ‘Heavens above,’ sheoff her shoes ‘To think of all the tiht into one of– you can shut the book whenever you want’

Groaning, she wriggled her toes and began walking up and down Meggie had to suppress a giggle Elinor looked so funny hobbling fro feet, back and forth like a clockwork toy