Deadly Ever After by Eva Gates (distant reading .txt) 📗

I mentally shook my head. Then I physically shook it. “Wrong? No, nothing at all. It’s nice to see you this afternoon, Theodore.”

“Okay. If you’re sure. It’s nice to see you too, Lucy.”

“Although we are closed,” Ronald pointed out.

“I just popped in for a book. Won’t take long. Don’t mind me. What’s going to happen to your apartment when you move, Lucy?”

“Speaking of the Lighthouse Aerie.” Bertie’s head popped around the corner. “My office please. Lucy, Charlene, Ronald.”

James gave Charlene’s shoulder a light squeeze, and she smiled at him. “I’ll wait out here,” he said.

Theodore went in search of the book he was after.

Ronald and I fell into step behind Charlene. “Do you know what this is about, Lucy?” he whispered to me.

“I know some of it, but I suspect not all,” I replied. That Louise Jane had spent so long in Bertie’s office, behind closed doors, had to mean something.

Louise Jane nodded at us as we came in, her face folded into serious lines. She couldn’t quite hide the twinkle in her eyes or the air of self-satisfaction that hung over her. I gave her a questioning look, and she turned away from me, the edges of her mouth curling up. Charles perched on top of the filing cabinet. He, on the other hand, didn’t look at all pleased. Charles doesn’t care for change.

“Lucy,” Bertie said, as she settled herself behind her desk. “Did your mother get away all right?”

“Yes, thanks.” I’d gone to Aunt Ellen’s this morning to say good-bye. Mom and Evangeline had hired a limo to take them to the airport, where they’d meet Rich’s body for the flight home. I’d taken Fluffy with me, and she’d be on the plane with Evangeline and Mom. To my surprise, I’d been sorry to see Fluffy go. I’d grown fond of the little thing. Maybe once we were settled, Connor and I could get a dog. As Fluffy and I walked out of the lighthouse, I’d turned back to see Charles watching us. I swear, he might have lifted one paw in farewell to his new friend.

I hadn’t spoken to Evangeline, and that suited me perfectly well. Ricky had left on Sunday, in answer to Dad’s summons. He hadn’t called me to say good-bye.

Bertie cleared her throat. She announced what I already knew: Charlene had handed in her resignation in order to take up a new position at Oxford University. Ronald hugged her and wished her the best, and I joined in. When we separated, Charlene wiped tears from her eyes.

“As for Charlene’s position here,” Bertie said, “she will be almost impossible to replace, but I think we’ve hit on a good solution. Charlene?”

“My friend Denise Robarts works at North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” Charlene said. “She’s an Outer Banks girl, and she’s past sixty. She’s been wanting to retire and move back to Nags Head, but she loves her job and is worried about keeping herself busy. She’s a widow and her children live in Manhattan, which she detests. I’ve convinced her to work part-time here. She gets to come back to the Outer Banks, she keeps working, and she can ease into her retirement at her own pace.”

“That sounds like a good fit,” Ronald said. “But you’re always so busy, Charlene. Will a part-timer be enough?”

Louise Jane shifted in her seat.

“I’ve decided,” Bertie said, “to split the job of academic librarian into two. Denise will do the archiving and most of the work with our own rare documents and those we get on loan. The actual interaction with visiting scholars and researchers, and searching secondary sources, will be the job of—” She cleared her throat.

“Me!” Louise Jane couldn’t contain herself any longer, and she leapt out of her chair, punching her fists into the air. “Me! I’m going to be the new academic librarian assistant. You won’t regret this, Bertie, I promise you that.” She grabbed Ronald’s hands and pumped them. “I start tomorrow so Charlene has time to show me some of the ropes.” She dropped Ronald’s hands and lunged at me. She wrapped me in a hug so tight it brought back the uncomfortable memory of being strangled by Stephen Livingstone. “We’re going to be colleagues, Lucy! Isn’t that wonderful? Now, don’t worry about a thing. I’m starting work tomorrow, but I’ll wait until you move out before I move in.”

“Move in?” I asked.

“To the Lighthouse Aerie! At last! You won’t mind if I run up now and measure the space, do you?”

Charles put his paws over his eyes.

I briefly considered putting my paws over my own eyes, but instead I threw my hands into the air. “That is so great. You love this place, Louise Jane, and it’s a perfect fit. Like the members of the unpainted aristocracy, the Lighthouse Aerie needs to be lived in.”

“You think so, Lucy?” she said.

“I do. I do.” Louise Jane truly loved the library, and the library, I believed, loved her in return. If she wanted to tiptoe around at night, hunting for ghosts, what was the harm? Bertie and our new librarian, Denise, would make sure she didn’t confuse fact and legend in her job.

As for me … time to move on. I loved living in the Lighthouse Aerie, but I’d always known it wouldn’t be forever. Connor and I had an exciting future waiting for us in our new house, and I couldn’t wait to get it started.

Even if I had to learn how to wield a hammer.

 Author’s Note

The Bodie Island Lighthouse is a real historic lighthouse, located in Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It is still a working lighthouse, protecting ships from the Graveyard of the Atlantic, and the public is invited to tour it and climb the 214 steps to the top. The view from up there is well worth the trip. But the lighthouse does not contain a library, nor is it large enough to house a collection of books, offices, staff rooms, two staircases, and even