20
‘Nancy Drew,’ I breathed. ‘I’ve read every single title there ever was.’
‘So?’ said Jay.
‘Every Sherlock Holmes. Agatha Christie. All of them.’
‘Reading detective stories doesn’t make you a detective, Ves.’
‘No. But it can make you want to be a detective, and suddenly I do.’
‘Wish granted.’
‘Cordelia Vesper, Book Detective.’
‘You already have a job, had you forgotten?’
I ignored this.
‘Merlin’s Grimoire,’ said Val. Upon our return Home, we’d gone first to Milady’s tower, second to breakfast, and had then, inevitably, rattled down to the library. Jay had voted for a few hours’ sleep first. Lightweight.
‘Isn’t it exciting?’ I beamed.
Val looked monumentally unimpressed. ‘It sounds like a fool’s errand.’
‘No!’
‘Like Ms. Elvyng has no intention of parting with her hard-won and
