The Bookshop of Hidden Dreams

Chapter 10 Tay

CHAPTER 10

TAY

“Ketchup?”

Tay took the bottle from Sarah and poured a healthy amount onto her fries. She loved fries like these, crispy on the outside and soft in the center. The Moonlight Café always did things right.

She looked around the café, with its charming red checkerboard tablecloths, mason jar water glasses, and old diner-style china. The owner, Jules Stewart, had made improvements over the years, but the café still had the same southern charm it had always had.

Sarah reached across the table and helped herself to one of Tay’s fries. “By the way, did you know that Aunt Jo makes most of the baked goods here?”

“No, but I’ll get some on my way out.” Tay ate another fry. There was comfort in returning to a familiar place, and she needed it today. Last night had been rough, and she’d gotten less than two hours’ sleep, her mind racing. Maybe it was because, after collecting the last batch of court records, she’d headed for the University of North Carolina library to look at property records. Being on a college campus had reminded her of Richard far too much.

Her imagination was out of control lately. Combined with her conversation with Aunt Jo, she was a bit shaken. She had to admit the truth—she’d lost herself in her relationship with Richard, something she’d never thought she’d do.

“Tay?”

She looked up and found Sarah regarding her with a worried look. Tay’s face heated. “Sorry. I was just thinking about how to organize the trial notes I got yesterday.”

Sarah put down her glass with a thump. “Stop it.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop pretending.” Sarah’s gaze flickered over Tay’s face. “Ella and Ava think I should just let you alone, but I can’t, not when it’s obvious you’re upset. You’re not sleeping, you’re not really talking to anyone, and every time someone tries to—”

“Hello, everyone!” Zoe Bell appeared at their booth and slid onto the seat beside Sarah.

Relieved to be spared Sarah’s questioning, Tay welcomed Zoe with a bright smile. She’d always liked Zoe, who was the vice president of First People’s Bank. Black, slim, and elegant, she always looked as if she belonged on a yacht or at a swanky hotel in Paris rather than in their little town.

Zoe tossed her sunglasses onto the table, the corners of her hazel eyes crinkling as she smiled. “Good to see you two! Where are Ella and Ava? Aren’t they coming?”

Sarah shot Tay a firm we-will-talk-later look before turning to Zoe. “Ava has to meet her fertilizer supplier for her greenhouses, but Ella flat-out bailed. Some cookware company contacted her social media assistant about a sponsorship, and they needed to ‘talk.’?”

Zoe nodded. “I’d be mad about that if I didn’t know how much she’s making. Who knew you could make that much cash just from posting a video.”

Sarah sighed. “I guess so. Did you order?”

“I stopped by the counter before I joined you all.” Zoe put her elbows on the table, clasped her hands together, and leaned forward. “So, Tay. How’s the research going? Sarah says you’ve already uncovered some new information about Sarafina Dove.”

“Lots. The letters in that tin Ava and Dylan found in the dining room prove that William Day was in love with Sarafina. I’ve been researching his life. I spent the past few days getting copies of the trial records.”

Sarah picked up her chicken and avocado panini. “Tay’s been at it since she got here. It’s nice she took the time out of her research schedule to meet up with us.”

“Even professors have to eat.” Tay took a bite of her egg salad sandwich. “Mmm. This bread is amazing.”

Sarah wiped her fingers on her napkin. “That’s Aunt Jo’s sourdough.”

The waitress, Marian, stopped by the table. A tall, angular woman in her seventies with hair dyed bright red, she’d been a waitress at the Moonlight for as long as Tay could remember. She placed an iced tea and a large salad in front of Zoe. “Here you go.” The waitress swept an experienced eye over their half-empty glasses. “I’ll bring more tea. Anything else?”

“I think that’ll do for now,” Tay said.

“I’ll be right back, then.” Marian left.

Zoe picked up her fork. “From what I’ve heard Sarafina and William were Dove Pond’s own Romeo and Juliet.”

Tay agreed. “They were from different social levels. Her aunts couldn’t have been happy about that relationship, even before the train robbery.”

Sarah added, “I shouldn’t be surprised they knew each other, as they were in this town at about the same time period. I just never thought about it.”

“I didn’t either,” Tay admitted. “Sarafina left Dove Pond for New York in 1897 just weeks after William Day went to jail for the robbery. So far, I haven’t found a direct connection as to how they met or fell in love—nothing. We may never really know, either.”

“Is Sarafina mentioned in the trial records?” Sarah asked.

Tay shook her head.

“Too bad,” Zoe said. “What’s your next step?”

“I’m going to do another deep dive into the town records and the Dove Pond Register , too, and look for everything about the Day family, including William. The newspaper offers a pretty active look at the events in town—who attended what, and all that. I’ll make a chart to see if there’s any crossover. To be honest, I don’t expect that to yield much. From what little I’ve seen so far, Sarafina’s aunts are mentioned often, as they did a lot of charity work, but there’s very little about Sarafina and almost nothing about William Day until the robbery. At least not in the few copies of the Register I’ve seen so far.”

“Tay’s going to look at the copies of the Register that Rose Day’s keeping,” Sarah told Zoe. “Our archives are missing quite a few copies from that time, and the issues we do have are in poor shape. I’ve done what I could, but the last librarian didn’t understand the importance of humidity control. At least Rose does.”

“Rose can be a little thorny, if you’ll pardon my pun.” Zoe tilted her head to one side. “What did you see when you touched William’s letters?”

“He was in prison and was deeply in love with Sarafina. He seemed… to have given up hope. He kept telling her to go to New York without him.”

“I don’t suppose he mentioned the missing gold in any way.”

“Not a word.” Tay’s phone, tucked into the satchel sitting at her feet, buzzed. She pulled it out and looked at it, surprised to see Richard’s name flash across the screen.

Zoe leaned over to peer at the phone. “Who’s calling you?”

Tay returned her phone to the satchel. “It’s no one.” But it wasn’t no one. Richard would only call her if he wanted something, which made her stomach tighten. She’d gotten into this mess because she’d let him charm her into a half-assed relationship. What would keep her from doing that again?

That was what bothered her the most—that she hadn’t said no to him even when she should have. She’d made that mistake over and over in their relationship. When she thought back, one of the things she hated the most was how often she’d avoided the word “no.” Of course he didn’t respect me. Somehow, in this relationship, I forgot to respect myself.

The thought was jarring, and her eyes grew damp before she could stop them. Trying to quell her emotions, she took a gulp of her iced tea.

“Hello, everyone!” Dressed in a red suit and looking ready for a date instead of lunch out with her girlfriends, Kat Carter slid into the seat beside Tay and placed her cup of coffee on the table. “Sorry I’m late. I hope you guys don’t mind, but I ate with a client a half hour ago. I just came to say hi.”

Zoe brightened. “What property did you sell?”

Kat smiled. “The old mill sitting at the head of Sweet Creek.”

Sarah gave a happy hop. “Kat, that’s huge!”

“The commission is insane. I’m going shopping when I leave here.”

“Who bought it?” Zoe asked.

“An Atlanta company. They go to smaller towns that are growing and buy old, abandoned industrial buildings on the cheap and turn them into sleek, fancy condos.” Kat looked around the table. “What were you all talking about? You looked serious when I got here.”

“We’re talking about Tay’s mystery phone call,” Sarah said promptly. “The one she didn’t answer.”

“It was spam,” Tay said, hoping she sounded bored instead of bothered.

“Spam calls are the worst,” Kat said. “Tay, how’s the research into Sarafina going? I saw Ella at the post office yesterday, and she said you were thinking of writing a book about Sarafina and heading in ‘new directions.’?”

“I’ll recap,” Zoe offered. “The letters in that old tin found in the Dove house were love letters to Sarafina from William Day, the train robber.”

Tay added, “Which raises more questions than answers, but it’s a fresh direction for my research.”

Kat sipped her coffee. “So Sarafina had an admirer. I’m not surprised. She did some darned cool things.”

Zoe stabbed a slice of hard-boiled egg with her fork. “Tay, you’d better prepare for success. Sarah made me read that article you wrote about Shakespeare. The one where you said he didn’t write all the sonnets, but only some. If you can make dry stuff like that interesting to those of us who suffered through high school lit, then you’ll make a book about an exciting woman like Sarafina sell like crazy.”

Sarah nodded. “You should have your book launch party here in town, too.”

“Easy, people!” Tay said, trying not to laugh. “There is no book yet. I not only have to write it, but then I have to sell it to a pub-lisher.”

Kat rubbed her hands together. “I can’t wait to read it. I’m going to put a copy into every thank-you basket I give to my clients.”

“That’s a great idea.” Zoe took a sip of her iced tea. “So, Tay, tell us what you found out about the trial.”

“Not much yet, as I haven’t read all the transcripts. I know it was covered by most of the major newspapers and that the trial was held about two weeks after the robbery.”

Sarah looked up from her sandwich. “Two weeks? I wouldn’t think they would have been ready for a trial that fast.”

“Things were different back then, plus all three of the defendants were seen at the scene of the crime, and one of them confessed and was a witness against the other two. It was considered an open-and-shut case.” Tay pushed her half-eaten sandwich aside and pulled a thick folder out of her satchel and placed it on the table. “These are articles about the train robbery. The story made the front page in just about every major city.”

Zoe, Sarah, and Kat eagerly took various articles. Tay watched as they skimmed. “There were dozens of stories in the national press, but these were the most detailed.”

Sarah looked up from her article. “I wonder if this was the first time Dove Pond made the national news?”

“Probably,” Tay said. “It was a sensational story for the time. You have small-town suspects who manage to pull off a bold train robbery in broad daylight, an exciting shoot-out between some Pinkerton agents and the robbers, a bunch of gold that went missing, and then a gripping trial—as far as news stories go, it was big.”

“Pinkerton agents?” Kat asked.

“The Pinkerton Agency was a security company founded in the 1850s, before most towns had an established police force. The agents were hired both as investigators for certain crimes and as a protection service, especially by the railroads.”

Kat put down her article. “It says here that close to fifty thousand dollars in gold was stolen. What would that be worth today?”

“Around forty million dollars.” Tay pulled her plate closer and took a bite of her sandwich. She’d already taken a second one before she realized everyone at her table was frozen in paralyzed silence. “What?”

Sarah had pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes as if silently counting to ten. She dropped her hand back to her lap. “Are you saying that somewhere around here, in our little town, there’s a stash of gold worth forty million dollars?”

“No.” Tay put down her sandwich. “Hundreds, maybe even thousands of people came looking for it. If it was ever here, it’s gone now.”

Kat put her elbows on the table, her fingers laced together. “Hold on. Why did people believe the gold was hidden here to begin with?”

“A large portion was never recovered. Since the robbers were all apprehended here in town the night after the robbery, the prevalent theory was that they didn’t have time to stash their portions anyplace else.”

Sarah’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider. “Wait until I tell Grace about this. She’ll find a way to incorporate the story into one of our festivals.”

“I doubt she’ll want to draw attention to it,” Tay said. “Although, in my opinion, there’s no way that gold hasn’t already been found.” She’d had plenty of time to think this through yesterday while wait-ing for the transcript copies at the courthouse. She didn’t yet know a lot about William Day, but the little glance she’d gotten of him through the letters he’d written to Sarafina had given Tay an idea of his character. “If I had to guess, then I’d say William Day gave his portion to someone he trusted.”

“And they hid it?” Kat asked.

“Why bother? Think about it. If you’d been given the task of overseeing someone’s stash of gold, and then they died in prison, what would you do?”

Kat looked disappointed. “I guess I’d spend it.”

“Exactly,” Tay said.

“Ohhh!” Sarah leaned forward, her eyes wide. “Maybe he gave it to Sarafina!”

“I doubt it,” Tay said. “We have letters from William to Sarafina, but not the other way around. She moved away while he was in jail, too. It seems to me that if she cared about him, that wouldn’t have happened. She’d have stayed nearby, where she could have at least visited him.”

Everyone was silent a moment as they considered this. Finally, Zoe pointed out, “If Sarafina had that gold, she would have been able to live very comfortably in New York.”

“But she didn’t,” Tay said. “Sarafina’s life in New York is well-documented. I’ve got a copy of her landlord’s ledger and she rented a very small room in a boardinghouse during her early years. I know what she was paid at the newspaper, too, and she never once lived outside that limit. Not until she got married to David Tau did she move uptown, and that was because he was wealthy in his own right.”

Sarah propped her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm. “I guess she didn’t take it, then. Whoever did would have suddenly been wealthy but would have had to hide it.”

Tay nodded. “Which is why I want to get my hands on the Register s.” She wanted to see Rose’s family records, too, if possible. She thought of Rose’s expression when she’d mentioned William Day and grimaced. That’s going to take some doing, though.

Zoe leaned back in her seat and said in a blissful tone, “I have to say, this story would make a great movie.”

Sarah nodded slowly. “I’d watch that.”

Kat added, “Just think of the casting! The Days have that black-hair-and-blue-eyes thing going, which is devastating on a man.”

“Zac Efron,” Sarah said.

“He has brown hair, but good enough.” Kat clasped her hands to her heart. “What about the love child of Cillian Murphy and Megan Fox?”

“Now, that would be the perfect man,” Zoe said with a sigh. “I had a dream about Cillian just last night.”

“Wait!” Kat said. “We should cast a local. Luke Day must look a lot like William—they share DNA, after all.”

“He’s cute,” Zoe admitted.

“Cute?” Kat scoffed. “He’s gorgeous. ”

Tay tried to keep from rolling her eyes. These two. They were always on the hunt.

Sarah laughed. “Kat, do you have your eye on Luke Day?”

“Oh no. He has Lulu now, and I’m not ready for that. He’s nice to look at, though. I—” She straightened, her gaze now glued to a spot over Tay’s shoulder. “Look! He just came into the café.”

Zoe and Sarah looked over their shoulders. Tay refused to join in the fray. For the love of heaven, it’s just a guy. And yet her gaze dropped to where she’d stored her phone. She understood that excitement of waiting for a call, or a message, or even just a look. Was I that bad? She didn’t have to think about it for long. Yes, she’d definitely been every bit that foolish.

Zoe sighed. “It should be a crime when a man like that wears flannel. He’s nerd handsome and flannel handsome. It’s a deadly mix.”

Sarah nodded thoughtfully. “He’s a long, tall drink of water.” She leaned a bit more to her right so she could see around Zoe. “Or a particularly delicious piece of cake.”

Zoe gave Sarah a cutting look. “You have a guy, so stop looking. I’m the only one at this table ready for this challenge. You’re taken, Tay doesn’t seem interested, and Kat’s bailing because of the Lulu Factor.”

“Yup.” Kat held up her hands. “I’ve given up my claim.”

“Thank goodness,” Zoe said. “Otherwise, we’d have to fight for him. I would have been down with anything but Jell-O wrestling, as I have a certain style to think of.”

Tay smiled, although she was already thinking about going through the Register s at Rose’s. “I think I’ll leave you guys to—”

“Mind if I join you?” Luke stood by their table, a cup of to-go coffee in one hand. He smiled at everyone, although his gaze went right to Tay.

She wasn’t sure whether to nod at him or smile or what.

Zoe scooted over, pushing Tay more into the corner. “You can sit here!” She patted the now-empty seat beside her.

“I’ll get a chair.” Luke set his coffee on the table, grabbed a chair from nearby, flipped it around, and sat astride it. “So? What’s going on? This must be an important meeting. There’s too much talent at this table for it not to be something significant.”

Zoe beamed as if she’d just been handed an extra scoop of ice cream, while Tay began collecting the scattered news articles. Sheesh. How could anyone fall for a line like th—

“You’re so funny!” Zoe leaned closer to him. “We were talking about hidden treasures and one of your ancestors, William Day.”

His gaze instantly returned to Tay, his sleepy blue eyes suddenly intent. “Were you, now?”

Sarah pushed her empty plate away. “Your grandma won’t like knowing about this. She’s pretty protective of the family name.”

Kat nodded. “She threw a giant hissy fit when Grace wanted to do that timeline display of the town’s history at the Apple Festival a while back.”

Luke grimaced. “She didn’t like that William Day was named as the mastermind of the robbery.”

Sarah glanced at her watch and winced. “I hate to break this up, but I’d better get back to the library. My assistant is only part-time.”

Kat’s phone rang. She looked at it and frowned. “Oops. I have to take this. It’s a client.” She sent her friends a regretful look. “Sorry to dip, but it’s important.” She gathered her things and slid out of the booth. She was already talking on her phone as she went out the door.

Zoe sighed deeply. “I have to go, too.” She pulled on her coat and joined Sarah, who had just picked up her purse. “We’ll pay on our way out. Tay, let us know if you find out anything new.” With a wave, they left.

Tay put away her folders and latched her satchel. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m heading over to the bookshop. I need to speak to your grandmother.”

“Right. About that…” He sent her a look that could only be described as “self-satisfied.” “I spoke to Grandma Rose on your behalf. I’ve good news, too. She will not only allow you access to all the Register s, but she’ll also let you see the Day family archives.”

Oh wow. I didn’t expect that. She couldn’t help but grin. “Luke! That’s— Thank you!”

“Sure. And , in addition, she’ll bring back all the documents relating to William.”

Tay’s grin faded. “Bring back? From where?”

His eyes twinkled. “My grandmother is the family archivist for a reason. She doesn’t hesitate to protect the family secrets when she deems it necessary.”

“Wait. You’re saying that she removed some of the documents? But… they’re archives . You don’t remove documents from archives. How could she just— I would never…” Oh dear. Where should she begin?

“I’m not fond of the practice myself.” He sipped his coffee. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she brings it all back. But I should mention that she also asked that I be present whenever you’re reviewing the archives.”

Great. Just great. Tay supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. She grabbed her things and stood. “If you want to be there, that’s fine, but I should warn you that you’ll be bored.”

He took a last drink of his coffee, set it on the table, and then joined her. “Since I have to be present, then I’d like to offer my assistance.”

“Assistance? Doing what?”

“Whatever you need done. Let me point out that I do know my way around a computer. That has to be helpful in some way.”

Right. Her sisters always offered to “help” with her research, too, but they, like everyone else, quickly found it tedious. Plus, although they caught the obvious things, they tended to miss the more obscure references, the ones that were often the most important. Luke would likely be the same way. When the time came to actually do the work, he’d get bored and would then wander off to do his own thing, which was fine with her.

Still, there was no need to tell him that. “We’ll see.” There. That was neither a yes nor a no. I should have been a diplomat . She flashed a fake smile. “If you’ll excuse me, I should visit your grandmother.”

“I’ll walk with you.” He followed her to the door, taking a quick step past her so that he could open it for her.

As she walked past him, she murmured, “Thank you.”

He fell into step beside her, and she tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind. Finally, she blurted out, “Do you work full-time at the bookshop?”

“I work a few hours a day there. I have another job, though.”

“Oh?” She gestured to his flannel shirt. “Lumberjack? No, wait. Your grandmother said you do computer stuff.”

He laughed, his eyes crinkling. “It’s a bit simplistic to call what I do ‘computer stuff.’?”

That was vague. She glanced at his feet, noticing his rather frayed tennis shoes. Was there a Genius Bar at the mall in Asheville?

“Now I get to ask you a question,” he said. “What are you hoping to find in the old Dove Pond Register s?”

She pulled her attention from his shoes. “Local newspapers are gold for a researcher. They often hold innumerable clues about personal relationships and events, details missing from larger, national newspapers—small things that might otherwise be overlooked. For example, they might mention how Farmer Brown’s lost brown cow was found by Mr. Jones, or how Miss Palmer held a tea for the preacher’s wife and their two daughters.”

“That type of reporting can prove who knew who, and maybe even why.”

“Exactly.” She was slightly impressed he understood that much just from what she’d said. “You can learn a lot from a local newspaper, like the social standing of various citizens, how active certain members were in a society, what groups they might have been involved with—that sort of thing. Some articles can lead you to other sources as well.”

“Other sources?”

She rubbed her hands together, warming to one of her favorite topics. “If you discover from a newspaper article that Subject X brought up an issue for the Masons at the town hall meeting, you’ll know to search through the available Masonic records from that year. Or maybe Subject Y won a ribbon at the fair for the biggest calf. Now you know to look at town records that list the sale of livestock. See? One mention can open a whole new direction for your research.”

They turned the corner and stepped onto the street, the breeze making the sign for Rose’s Bookstore swing on its cast-iron bar. Luke said in a thoughtful tone, “From what you said to my grandma the other day about those letters, you are looking for confirmation of Sarafina Dove and William Day’s relationship.”

She’d have to give him credit. He was fast. “I want to—” Her phone buzzed, and she stopped and pulled it from her satchel. Richard’s name lit up the screen yet again. For the love of heaven, what does he want? She frowned at her phone just as the answer came to her. Ah. The book. Did I miss citing a source? The phone stopped buzzing abruptly, and she could imagine Richard’s mouth tightening as it did whenever he was irritated.

She fought a sigh and supposed she might as well get it over with. She turned to Luke. “I’m sorry, but why don’t you go ahead? I’ll meet you there when I’m done with this call.”

His gaze flickered over her face, but he shrugged. “Sure. I’ll see you at the bookstore.”

Tay watched him head down the sidewalk and disappear into the bookshop before she turned away. Then, leaning again the brick wall, she called Richard.

“Finally!” he snapped. “I’ve been trying to reach you for days.”

“I’m on leave. What’s up?” There. That sounded brisk and uncaring, didn’t it? And yet a knot had formed in her stomach and refused to let go.

“I have a form I need you to sign. I’m going to email it, but I thought I should explain it first.”

“A form for what?”

“The book,” he said impatiently. “The publisher would like to list just me as the author, rather than both of us.”

“ What? ”

He gave a noisy sigh. “There you go, overreacting.”

“Overreacting? Richard, I did all the new research and wrote most of that book!”

“Nonsense. I wrote some of it.”

“Two chapters out of twenty!”

“Stop shouting.”

“I’m not shouting, I’m—” She caught herself and took a deep breath. “Why do they suddenly want to change things? Did you—”

“It wasn’t my idea. And it’s not because anyone thinks you’re unqualified or anything like that. It’s just that John—our editor—thinks my name will mean more to our audience, as my vitae is much more focused on this type of research.”

“Your vitae is better? I’ve had more papers published than you.”

“And I’ve had more books published than you. Tay, it’s about the marketing. That’s all publishers think about. Don’t worry that you won’t get credit for your work, because you will. Your name will be listed inside as a contributor.”

Her jaw tightened. She hadn’t been able to get angry before, but now? Now it was all she could do to talk without her voice shaking. “I don’t like this, Richard.”

“Neither do I, but it’s what they want, so sign the form. Okay?” When she didn’t answer, he added, “I’m sure you don’t want to put our publication deal at risk.”

“I won’t sign that form.”

“Darn it, Tay! Will you stop being unreasonable! This is why we didn’t work out. You were always so fricking unpredictable, and—”

She hung up the phone and stood there, staring at it. How could he? How could he do such a thing?

She pushed herself from the wall, stared into the sky, and said through gritted teeth, “Richard, you elf-skinned, dried meat’s tongue, bull pizzle!”

A choked laugh made her spin around.

Luke stood there, the breeze ruffling his black hair. His coat was gone now, so he had his arms crossed over his chest, his shoulders hunched against the wind. “Sorry about that. It’s not often a person gets to hear Shakespearian-level insults like that.”

She frowned. “What do you want?”

“I came to see if you were okay. You looked pissed.”

“Did I?” She tried to keep the hiss out of her voice but couldn’t.

“You were death-glaring the world into flames, and I got worried you might turn that weapon on the bookstore. We have insurance, but I don’t think it covers that.”

Tay threw her phone into her satchel and then dropped the bag onto the ground. If she kicked it just right, the whole thing would fly into the sky and land on a rooftop somewhere. Or she could just stomp it until it broke into a million pieces and—

“Whatever that bull pizzle did, it’s obvious you’re worked up about it.” Luke leaned one shoulder against the brick wall, his arms still crossed. “You want to talk about it?”

“I don’t even want to think about it,” she snapped.

He nodded as if he’d expected that response. “It’s none of my business, but it can help to air things out when you’re upset.”

She leaned her head against the wall and stared at the clouds slowly moving past. She’d decided a while ago that there was no reason to keep anything a secret anymore, but that hadn’t made it any easier to talk about it.

Still, practice made perfect—maybe Luke was right and it would help to talk things through. “It’s a short but tragic story. My—” She caught herself just before she said “ex.” There was no need to load up her story with unnecessary details. “About a year ago, the head of my department asked for help with a book he was contracted to write. Because of his recent promotion at work, he didn’t have time to do the necessary research. He asked me to go to Oxford to validate some of his research and to even coauthor the book.” She sent Luke a hard look. “?‘Coauthor’—that was his word, not mine. So I agreed. Now that the book is done, even though I ended up writing far more than just half, as he was so busy, he wants all the credit.”

“He is a bull pizzle, then.”

She pinned Luke with a flat stare. “How many times do you plan to use that phrase today?”

He tilted his head back and squinted into the air as if doing an invisible math problem. “Four more times. You might want to avoid me until then.”

“I’m tempted to leave right now.”

“You could. But first, I have a few things to say about that bull pizzle. It seems like you’re facing a classic power grab. Do you have evidence of his promises? Emails or phone messages or anything like that?” At her nod, he said, “Call in some help before you get too upset. A lawyer, perhaps.”

That was actually good advice. She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck where it ached. “I will. It just hurts because he and I—” She flushed and pressed her lips together. Heavens, she couldn’t seem to stop blurting out her every thought to this man. “It doesn’t matter.”

But it did, and she was sure Luke knew it, too. She sighed and straightened up so she was no longer leaning against the wall. “Like I said, it’s a short, tragic story.”

He nodded slowly. “My eleventh-grade English teacher, Ms. Hughes, a known alcoholic with an acerbic wit made of the purest vinegar, always said tragic stories are the best.”

“I’d rather have a happily-ever-after, thank you very much.” Which she wouldn’t get. Not this time, anyway. Sighing again, she picked up her satchel, dusted it off, and hung it over her shoulder. “We should go. Your grandmother will be waiting.”

His gaze went from Tay to the bookstore. “She’s supposed to be adding up yesterday’s receipts, but it looks as if she’s staring out the window at us instead.”

Tay turned to look and, sure enough, there was Rose Day, her face framed by a windowpane. “That’s some CCTV you’ve got there.”

He chuckled. “It may not be high-tech, but it’s effective.”

“And disturbing.” Tay straightened her shoulders. “I should go talk to her. I’m excited to see both the Register s and the family archives, especially the missing ones.”

“Then let’s go.”

They were soon on their way across the street. As Tay walked, she made a decision. After she got things settled with Rose, she’d start looking for a way to deal with Richard’s newest insult. It was time she stopped avoiding and started acting. Whether he knew it or not, he’d thrown down the gauntlet, and she was finally angry enough to pick it up.