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‘Five years’ His tone was smoothed to careful politeness, like sea-worn stones ‘I know it’s the policy to keep new people here till they’ve studied the basics and they’re sure we’re not going to do a runner, but it’s been five sodding years’

‘I’m sorry,’ Irene said flatly as she tapped in a quick response to Coppelia’s email

‘Sorry?’

‘Yes I was born into the job My parents are both Librarians It probably s easier I always kneas expected of s easier She’d always knohat she was being brought up to do The years in the Library were rotated with years in alternates, and they’d gone by one after another, with study, practice and effort and long silent aisles of books

‘Oh’

‘I don’t expect that waiting has beenfun’

‘Fun’ He snorted ‘No Not fun It was kinda interesting, but it wasn’t fun’

‘Did you like Coppelia?’ She dispatched the e under her for the last few months’

‘She’s one of theords she could use that wouldn’t get her into trouble later if repeated elsewhere She personally liked Coppelia, but words such as Machiavellian, efficiently unprincipled, and ice-hearted didn’t always go doell in conversations

‘Oh, I liked her,’ Kai said hastily, and Irene turned to look at hi wo personality My mother would like – would have liked her If You know They never take people to work here with close living relatives, right?’

‘No,’ Irene agreed ‘It’s in the rules It’d be unfair to the eyelashes ‘About those rumours that so relatives? Or any living relatives at all?’

Irene sed She leaned across to turn off the coesture ‘There are always rumours’

‘Are they true?’

Sometimes I think they are She wasn’t naive She knew that the Library didn’t always stick to its own rules ‘It wouldn’t help either of us for me to tell you they were,’ she said flatly

‘Oh’ He leaned back in his chair again