‘But a book doesn’t know how old a reader or wanderer is,’ Grandad said. ‘There’s no way of putting an age limit on it.’
‘You’re right,’ Melville said. ‘So I imagine we shall have to bind the books for everyone and require people to file written permission to access them for bookwandering purposes. That’s a neat solution, don’t you think? We can ensure people are only bookwandering with valid reasons, not merely for a jaunt, or to cause mischief. Or indeed to seduce a fictional character.’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘How dare you make such crass implications about my daughter?’ Grandma said, and Tilly felt her hands squeeze involuntarily into fists, her fingernails pushing painfully into her palms.
‘That’s not fair!’ Tilly burst out. ‘That’s not what happened at all!’
‘I suggest you control yourself,’ Melville said. ‘Your outburst only supports my position.’
‘Do you know, you sound an awful lot like Enoch Chalk?’ Grandma said coldly, and Melville let annoyance cross his face for a moment.
‘I can assure you that I am the very opposite,’ Melville said. ‘Not that I have to justify myself to you. As you saw just minutes ago, the librarians are on my side. And one more thing. For the meantime, I think it’s probably wise to introduce a period of stamping, so we can keep track of everyone’s whereabouts.’
‘But that’s a gross invasion of privacy,’ Grandma said, and Tilly felt cold all over at the memory of Chalk stamping her without her knowledge so he could try to find out who her parents were.
‘Anyway, no one will agree,’ Grandad said. ‘Everyone will opt out.’
‘On the contrary, it’s already been agreed. It’s now mandatory to opt in.’
‘Mandatory opt-in?’ Grandad snorted. ‘A complete oxymoron. You can’t just change the meanings of words at your own will.’
‘On the contrary,’ Melville said. ‘Words can mean much more, or less, than they seem, and we can put them to such creative uses. The majority of our librarians understand, or are being made to understand, that stamping is for the best at this time of uncertainty. After all, if you’re not going anywhere you’re not supposed to, you shouldn’t have any concerns, should you? It would look awfully suspicious if you didn’t want your fellow bookwanderers to know where you were going. And before you get on your high horse, remember stamping only traces which books you’re travelling inside. No one will be watching your every move in your day-to-day life, or anything sinister like that. Come now, we’re librarians after all. Seb will take you to be registered. Thank you for your co-operation. It’s an exciting time for British bookwandering. You are honoured to be witnessing it.’
‘Hang on—’ Oskar started to say, but Melville interrupted him.
‘That’s all for now. Thank you for your time.’
‘You won’t get away with this,’ Grandad said to Melville.
‘And yet, I seem to be doing just that,’ Melville said, not looking up.
‘Wait until we’re somewhere private,’ he whispered urgently, and so they walked in a silent line into another office, this one much more sparsely decorated than the last.
‘I refuse to be stamped!’ Grandad said, as soon as the door was closed. ‘It’s an obvious and egregious infringement of my rights as a person and a bookwanderer. The Underlibrary has no legal right to do anything to us.’
‘No, of course not,’ Seb said. ‘But it does have powers over bookwandering, and it is within its rights – if on dubious ethical grounds – to say, for example, that only stamped bookwanderers are permitted to wander within books under the jurisdiction of the British Underlibrary. You know a stamp isn’t permanent – Tilly isn’t still stamped from when Chalk was following her.’ Tilly shuddered at the memory.
‘Come on, Seb, you don’t need to do this,’ Grandma said.
‘I would never even think of it,’ Seb said, affronted. ‘But it’s not me that’s doing it. I only found out this was the plan during the Inking Ceremony when my friend Willow warned me. Amelia thinks that I should ingratiate myself with Melville, so I can report back. But I don’t think he’s convinced of my allegiance yet, and he’s sending along someone else to do the stamping so I can’t sneak you out. The only thing that I can think of is to—’ At that moment the door banged open and a petite woman walked in.
‘I’ll take over from here, Sebastian,’ she said formally.
‘Of course, Angelica,’ he said. ‘I’ll just take Tilly and Oskar next door.’
‘Why?’ she said, frowning.
‘Didn’t Mr Underwood tell you? Because of his new guidelines for child bookwanderers, they’re being stamped by Willow a few doors down, so there’s a separate record for under-eighteens. Surely … Melville told you, didn’t he? How embarrassing if I’ve spilled the beans before I was supposed to.’
‘Of course not,’ Angelica said, blustering. ‘I knew that – I was just checking you did. I’m actually rather in the inner circle nowadays,’ she said, smiling smugly.
‘Yes, yes,’ Seb said, ushering Tilly and Oskar out of the door. ‘Well done, very important I’m sure. I’ll take them in. How long do you need?’
‘Only ten minutes or so,’ she said.
‘What about Grandma and Grandad?’ Tilly hissed at him, as Seb shoved her and Oskar into an empty room.
‘I am sure they will think of something,’ he said. ‘If it came down to it, I’m sure they would prefer to make sure you don’t get stamped. They’re more than capable of fending for themselves.’
‘Can Underwood check if we’ve been stamped, though?’ Oskar asked Seb nervously.
‘Well, he can check the record, yes,’ Seb said. ‘And I will duly be writing your names down so they appear to be there. And if he checks the stamp to see where you’ve been then it won’t show any record of bookwandering.’
‘How does he check?’ Oskar asked.
‘The stamps are linked to what ends up looking a lot like a diary,’ Seb explained. ‘Where you’ve bookwandered will be recorded in a list showing when and where you went. Yours will stay blank because you’re not actually being stamped – but he’ll assume that he has frightened you into submission. Showing that he does not know you very well, I might add.’
‘Couldn’t you do that for my grandparents as well?’ Tilly said.
‘I think Melville would be more suspicious if they were showing as not bookwandering at all. There’s no chance he would think he could scare Archie and Elsie.’
And despite how worried she felt, Tilly couldn’t help but feel a little proud.
‘So what is it that Angelica is actually going to do to them?’ Oskar said. ‘Tilly didn’t realise when she’d been stamped, so it’s obviously not, like, a big ink stamp … Is it?’
‘No, not quite so literal,’ Seb said, smiling despite the situation. ‘Chalk must have secretly stamped Tilly