He shook his head, starting to close the bathroom door. “I’ll be fine, I promise. Just give me a bit.”

I nodded, put my shoes on and grabbed my bag, tossing my notebook inside. I set a water bottle just outside the bathroom door and told James I’d be back soon to check on him.

I remembered there being a café a block down the road so I headed that way, intending to finish looking at the photos on my phone. But as soon as I stepped outside, my phone started to ring. I didn’t recognize the number, and thinking it might be James calling from the hotel, I answered it quickly. “Hello?”

“Caroline, it’s Gaynor!”

“Oh, oh, my gosh, hi, Gaynor.” I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and a pedestrian threw me an irritated glance.

“I’m sorry for calling so early, but the manuscripts I texted you about last night came in. Are you able to meet me at the library, like, ASAP? I’m not technically working today, but I stopped in a few minutes ago to check out the documents. You’re not going to believe it.”

I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to remember what she’d said yesterday about the documents. So much had happened in the last twenty-four hours and her text messages had, admittedly, been relegated to the back of my brain, given last night’s adventure—and now James’s illness.

“I’m so sorry, Gaynor. I can’t come now, I need to stay in this part of town in case—” I paused. Despite our long research session together, I still didn’t know Gaynor well enough to start on about my unfaithful husband who was now vomiting in my hotel room. In fact, I hadn’t even told her I had a husband—we hadn’t discussed our personal lives at all. “I just can’t make it over there right now. But I’m about to grab coffee, if you want to join? You could bring the documents with you?”

I heard her laugh on the other end of the line. “Taking them out of the building is a hell of a way to lose my job, but I can make copies. Plus, I could use a coffee.”

We agreed to meet in a half hour at the café near my hotel, and I passed the time at a small table in the corner of the café, eating a raspberry croissant and analyzing the photos of the apothecary’s book as best I could.