Page 16 of Saving a Scoundrel
Mr. Knight sighed. He walked down to the end of the counter and flipped open a large leather-bound ledger. “What is the name of the bookshop in Marbury?”
“Mr. Buxley’s Bookshop,” Ellie replied.
“Original,” he muttered under his breath. He flipped through pages of notation. “Do you know the date?”
“Would have been March or early April of last year.”
“Well, you should have said.” He continued to mutter as he flipped back a section of pages.
Susanna covered her mouth with her hand, and Ellie knew she was stifling a laugh. This man was even more grumpy than their own Mr. Buxley. Perhaps barely veiled intolerance was a character requirement to own a bookshop?
“Yes, I see it here. But I cannot give you any information. The crate sold to Mr. Buxley was part of a larger collection sold to me by a private family. I am not at liberty to disclose their name.” He snapped the ledger shut.
“Oh.” How very disappointing. “Do you have any more books from the collection here?”
“Hard to tell. If I do, they have been shelved.” He waved a hand toward the shelves behind him. “Everything is organized by category and then shelved in alphabetical order by author.”
Susanna moved close to the counter. She aimed a sunny smile at the older man. “Mr. Knight, are you sure you can’t tell us the name of the family? We won’t cause any trouble. We would love to meet them. Based on our mutual reading taste, we’d become fast friends.”
Ellie’s lips twitched as she tried to chuckle at the slightly stunned look on Mr. Knight’s face. No one could resist Susanna’s smile at full power. But a moment later, he seemed to collect himself. His bushy eyebrows drew together. “Certainly not. My customer’s privacy is of the utmost importance to me.”
Ellie stepped forward. “It is abundantly clear that you are very organized and meticulous in your record keeping. Would you have a list of the books that were part of that collection? Would you allow us to see it?”
Mr. Knight straightened and tugged on the lapels of his jacket. “Of course, I have the inventory list, but it will take me time to pull it from my files.”
“We would be so appreciative of your effort. We will just go browse and pick out some books to purchase.”
Mr. Knight seemed somewhat mollified that they would be buying books. He pushed open the half door to exit from behind the counter and strode away toward the back of the store.
Susanna immediately hurried over to where the ledger sat. She was reaching for it when Ellie grabbed her elbow and pulled her away from the counter toward the large front window. “No need to make an enemy of him. This is our chance to find more letters.”
Susanna crossed her arms. “But not the name of the owner of the letters! That man was so rude. If I owned a bookshop, I certainly would be more solicitous.”
She and Susanna stared out at the rain-soaked street. How could they surreptitiously get a look at the name in that book?
“Hey, isn’t that Lucius Grisham?” Susanna pointed out the window.
Sure enough, Charlotte’s brother strode down the street. A focused stride replaced his usual casual swagger. The drizzle from earlier had turned to a proper downpour. Lucius held a newspaper over his head to block the rain. Where was his umbrella? Ellie shook her head. The man was never prepared for the weather. His overly long blond locks dripped across his forehead. Even wet he managed to look roguishly handsome.
“Shall we offer him a ride?” Susanna asked.
Ellie shook her head. “No, look, he’s already past. He looks like he is in a rush. The rain is really coming down. Shall we browse while we wait for it to let up?”
“Yes, let’s. I’ve never seen so many books, except maybe at my aunt Georgette’s library at Millhurst.”
They strolled back to peruse the stacks. So different than Mr. Buxley’s shop, where he shelved all the books with no rhyme or reason. Mr. Buxley put things on the shelf wherever there was space. This made every trip to his store a surprise to what you might discover. Ellie ran her fingers across the cloth-covered spines of the fiction section as she strolled down the aisle. Did anything in the world smell better than books?
“Ladies?” Mr. Knight appeared at the end of the row. He held a piece of parchment in his hand. “I’ve found the inventory list. A total of seventy-five books were sold to me from their library. The crate Mr. Buxley’s shop bought was a collection of twenty-five fiction and horticulture titles. What’s left is more fiction, some horticulture, and mostly history and art and architecture volumes.”
Susanna bustled forward and graced Mr. Knight with another of her sunny smiles before accepting the list from him. “Thank you so much.”
Mr. Knight huffed a little before turning away to return to the front. Susanna walked over, and the two of them perused the lengthy list. “This will take hours,” she sighed.
Ellie agreed. “Well, where should we start?”
Chapter Ten
Lucius entered thespacious warehouse just below the Strand that housed Macdougal’s brewing company with a sigh of relief. Blasted rain! He threw the water-logged newsprint down. He was soaked. Hardly a professional look for a meeting with his boss. He shrugged out of his jacket and gave it a shake, and water droplets sprinkled down across the stone floor. He ran his hands through his wet hair to slick it back into some semblance of order. Draping his jacket over his arm Lucius walked across the main floor.
