Chapter 52

“Of course I’d already bloodied the noses of two of them, but the others were about to gang up on me, and Ma wouldn’t have been happy if I’d returned home with my dress torn.”

“I…uh…imagine not.”

“Would you like to come into the shop, Mr Synclaire? I left the tea to mash while I swept the pavement.”

“Thank you. I’d like that very much.” I would? I began to question my sanity. I hadn’t even known Eira Gwyn to say hello to. After all, she was a townie, and even if she’d been older, her parents would never have allowed her to mix with the landed gentry. And when I’d returned, waiting for Thomas to come home to convalesce, word had been her parents had passed away from the influenza epidemic and another family had taken over the shop her parents had run. As for Eira, to everyone’s knowledge, she had been taken in by relatives.

I followed her into the cool dimness of Seek and Ye Shall Find, and she led me to a door at the rear of the shop. “My living quarters are back here.”