Chapter 7 #2
“Apprentice Librarian Beatrice, please show this gentleman to the right section and assist him with picking out a book.” Basil waved from the patron to her. “I would suggest starting with Hogglesnoot’s Complete Avian Compendium.”
Beatrice plastered a smile on her face as she turned back to the patron and her duty as a librarian. “Please come this way, sir.”
Puzzling out Benedict could wait.
As evening fell around the Great Library, Beatrice propped herself against Basil’s desk.
Her feet ached, her leg muscles quivered and spasmed from all the running, and all she wanted to do was collapse on the nearest comfy chair.
But at last, the number of patrons had faded to a trickle, and most of them were heading for the easy desks at the front of the Tree rather than working around the atrium to Basil’s desk.
Basil sagged in his chair, his hair slightly mussed and his coat rumpled. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. “That was the busiest day I can remember.”
Beatrice managed a nod before she heaved a sigh and gestured to several massive stacks of books sitting on the corner of his desk. “I suppose these need to be reshelved.”
Basil flapped one hand at them. “They do. But you can take a moment. They aren’t going anywhere.”
Maybe. But she wasn’t going to get less tired standing there. She hefted the first stack. “I might as well just get it done.”
“I’ll help.” Benedict was at her side, picking up one of the other stacks.
It was so strangely courteous of him that she found herself saying, “Thanks,” in a normal tone of voice.
Benedict’s smile held more genuine warmth and less of the annoying teasing than usual. Perhaps he, too, was too tired for their usual animosity.
The two of them meandered between the shelves, occasionally pausing to hold up a book for a Library branch to pluck from their hands and shelve in its spot.
“So.” Benedict adjusted his grip on his pile of books. “How many patrons did you help today?”
“Forty-two.” Beatrice had somehow managed to keep track, even during the craziness of the day. She shifted her grip on her books so that she could ease one of the middle books from the pile. “What about you?”
“Forty-one.” He grinned at her. “You beat me by one.”
For a moment, she just grinned back. But then she met his gaze, and she swatted his arm. It was his grin that gave him away. Too warm and not teasing enough. “You’re lying. Tell the truth. What’s the real number?”
“Forty-five.” Benedict’s gaze swung away from hers. “But I had a whole group that came together and all wanted books. That really should count as one.”
“No, no. If they all wanted books, then they should count as separate patrons.” Beatrice wasn’t sure why she was arguing, considering it was giving him the win.
She held a book up to the nearest shelf.
The Library detached a branch from the shelf, took the book from her, and tucked it onto one of the top shelves. “It’s only fair.”
Benedict sent her another one of those warm, genuine smiles before he dug another book out of his stack.
That smile shouldn’t send such flutters through her chest. Yet it wasn’t just the empty flutters of before. This was something deeper. A strange sense of connection as the two of them strolled between the shelves and returned books.
She and Benedict took two more trips to Basil’s desk before they had all the books distributed to the various Library shelves. With the Library so inaccessible because of the war for the past year, overdue books had really piled up.
When she and Benedict trudged back to the desk, Basil was still there, looking over two pieces of paper on the desk before him.
“Do you need anything else?” Beatrice propped herself against the desk. She’d thought herself dead on her feet before. Now she could barely stand, aching from her shoulders to her back and all the way down to the soles of her feet.
Basil lifted his head and glanced between the two of them. “Are the two of you going to research the mate bond more?”
Benedict shot a look at her before he shook his head. “No. Not today. I might just take home a few of the more promising books to look over tonight.”
“I’ll do that too.” Beatrice nodded, even though the thought of walking back to the shelves to retrieve the books set her feet to throbbing.
“I can look over some of them with you tonight.” Basil slid the two pieces of paper across the desk toward them. “I have the roster of those who will be performing at the Faerie Market when it arrives next week. The two of you have been assigned to do readings together.”
“What?” Beatrice snatched one of the pieces of papers, her stomach sinking as she read. Their names appeared partway down. Together. “Who created this list?”
“Not me.” Basil grimaced and shook his head.
“What is with the Library pushing us together?” Beatrice flapped a hand at Benedict. Every time she turned around, she was being paired with him. Sure, the day hadn’t been all that bad. Almost pleasant, even. But that didn’t mean she wanted to spend the whole morning of the Faerie Market with him.
“Perhaps the Library knows something you don’t?” Benedict was back to giving her that smoldering smirk, his copy of the list in his hands. “It is the Great Library of the Court of Knowledge, after all.”
Beatrice rolled her eyes. “Knowledge doesn’t always mean wisdom.”
Not that she usually doubted the Great Library. But it had been making some puzzling choices lately. Perhaps the magic of Midsummer was addling it.
“I beg to differ in this case.” Benedict gave that insouciant shrug as he turned back to the paper. “It seems we have been assigned to spend the morning of the third day of the Market attempting to fill as many entertainment spots as possible with readings.”
Beatrice dropped her gaze back to the piece of paper, reading the instructions that started beneath the list and ran onto the back of the page.
At least their readings could be the same piece each time. As the audience in the Market would be ever changing, they wouldn’t need to come up with multiple pieces.
“You’ll want to pick out your piece and start practicing.” Basil gestured to the papers they held. “You can find the list of what is acceptable and how long the excerpt needs to be on the back.”
Beatrice flipped the paper and perused the instructions. The pieces couldn’t be risqué and needed to be a certain length. Other than that, there was no restriction on genre or type of performance. If they wanted to perform a play or read from a dry tome on the Laws of Bindings, that was up to them.
Benedict met Beatrice’s gaze, giving her the flirtatious grin that always made her blood boil. “I think we should do a romance.”
“Not a chance.” Beatrice stuffed the paper into a pocket of her coat. No way was she performing a romance with Benedict of the Smoldering Smirk.
“Come on. It would be a lot more fun than reading from one of the books we’ve been forging through lately.” Benedict might have been more convincing, if he hadn’t waggled his eyebrows. “Surely you don’t want to read one of the boring tomes we have been reading.”
Beatrice huffed a sigh that was more anger than resignation. Just when she thought she and Benedict were coming to some kind of understanding, he did something annoying. “We’ll see.”
That was about as good of an agreement as she was going to give him.