“While I certainly appreciate your dedication, in the future, a note will suffice. No need to wait about for my arrival. I could have been out until all hours of the night.” Not that he’d done that in ages. Reaching into his pocket, he withdrew a coin for her.

“Oh no, sir.”

“Please. Your dedication deserves an additional token of appreciation.” He’d paid for her daily services before he left.

After she finally took his offering, he saw her to the door and bid her a good day.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he shortly followed suit and left the residence. When he reached the shop, he opened the door, stepped over the threshold, and didn’t much like the ferocity with which disappointment slammed into him because a young woman with wheat-colored hair was standing behind the counter. Not the one he expected, not the one he wanted. No, he didn’t want. Want implied desire, and he most certainly didn’t have yearnings when it came to Miss Trewlove.

The young woman bestowed upon him a dazzling smile. “May I help you, sir?”

It hadn’t occurred to him that Miss Trewlove wouldn’t be about. Yet, still among the musty aroma of all the books she’d gathered to lovingly arrange on shelves and in various places around the room, he detected her scent, a mixture of oranges and a fragrance uniquely her. “If you’d be so good as to let Miss Trewlove know when she returns that Mr. Sommersby stopped by.”

Her face brightened further, her eyes widening with pleasure as though she sought nothing more than bringing him joy. “Oh, she’s here. Upstairs in the reading parlor.”

Unsurprised she’d have such a thing in her shop, he imagined her curled up in an extremely large overstuffed chair.

The clerk was still smiling with exuberance. “You may go up, if you like.”

May not can. He suspected Miss Trewlove had had a hand in educating the shopgirl, generously sharing what she might have learned in order to better others’ lives. “Thank you.”

He made short work of ascending the stairs, taking the steps two at time, certainly not because he was anxious to see Miss Trewlove, but he was curious to know why she’d bothered to stop by.

At the landing was a small hallway. Another set of stairs stood at the far end. He assumed they led up to her lodgings, to the window where light often spilled out late into the night.