Norah went back to the back, opening the door as quietly as she could. He was still on the box she had thumped down on the table, his head bent over a stack of frail yellowed papers. The light gave his dark hair a reddish halo she wouldn't have suspected, and there was just the tiniest wrinkle between his eyes.
“I know you're there.”
For the second time that day, Norah jumped, and then she blushed at being caught out.
“I wasn't trying to be a creeper,” she said, coming into the room. “I just wanted to peek in and see how you were getting along.”
He pointed at the depressingly small pile of things he had gone through. It looked absolutely minuscule compared to the rest of the lot that hulked in the back like a …
“Like a dragon,” she murmured without knowing quite why she said it, and Mr. Rychek's head shot up. Suddenly she was looking into his fierce eyes, and something inside her kindled at his gaze, something hot that threw off sparks.
“What did you say?” he asked, and she pointed at the pile behind him.
“Size of a dragon,” she squeaked. “It's big, and um, slightly inclined to eat you and – and, I'm sorry, I don't know …”
He shook his head, looking chagrined.
“I'm sorry,” he said. “I didn't mean to – well. Never mind. Did you come to protect me from the dragon?”
“I have a boffer sword at home from when I did foam fighting in college, but I make a pretty bad knight. Sorry.”
She could have sworn that Mr. Rychek muttered the word good before he smiled wryly at her.
“I appreciate the thought, but I asked for this beast. I shouldn't be so angry when I get it and it proves to be too big to swallow.”
“Well, it's okay. You don't have to swallow it all in one go. You can take little bites,” Norah said, aware she was losing the plot. “But I wanted to come back and to let you know that I had closed up the front.”
His face fell, and Norah fought back the urge to tell him no, he could have whatever he wanted so long as he didn't look so sad.
“Closed already?” he asked in dismay. “I was hoping to have some more time …”
“I usually stay for another hour to do any work I couldn't get done while there are people in and out.”
“Then do you mind if I stay? I promise, you won't even know that I'm back here.”
As if I could ignore you, she thought.
“The library pass restricts you to normal patron hours, but I'm happy to let you stay until I lock up. As a matter of fact, I was thinking I could rough sort what you go through for the collection and maybe help you look myself. Would that work for you?”
Mr. Rychek smiled at her, and it felt as if the sun had come out on a cold gray day.
“That would be wonderful, so long as I wasn't putting you out, Ms. Bridger.”
She made a face.
“Norah, please. Ms. Bridger is what the kids try to call me. It's not fun.”
“Norah,” he echoed, and she wasn't sure she had ever heard her name said with such care.
“Er, yes?”
“Then you should call me Val,” he said, and she was struck by how shy he sounded, as if he was offering her something important.
“Good to know you, Val,” she said She felt a blush coming up on her cheeks.
Really, this was getting ridiculous.
CHAPTER FOUR
∞∞∞
Val was still mulling over the delight of learning that his true mate's name was Norah when he realized she was speaking to him.
“I really can't help you if I don't know what we're looking for,” she said, hauling over her own box to sort. “You know that, right?”
He knew she was right, but he didn't have to like it.
“We're looking for mail, letters specifically,” he said reluctantly. “Sent from Valentine Rychek.”
She blinked her large brown eyes at him.
“A great-grandfather or something?”
“Or something.”
“Right. Okay. Any other clues?”
“Just that. All the letters are signed. We're looking for somewhere between seven and ten letters. I forget how many exactly.”
“Got it,” she said, and he was grateful she didn't ask anymore.
That gratitude lasted until she stopped him from placing a set of letters onto his discard pile.
“You're not checking the back?” she asked, and he blinked.
“Should I? This is just a plum pudding recipe from a Mrs. Hardison.”
“Yeah, here, give me those.”
She turned the fragile paper to the back, where he realized there was an entire other letter penned, this one from a Mr. Price.
“People didn't like to waste paper,” she said. “They'll use the backs of old letters to write new ones. Sometimes when they're really trying to scrimp and save, they'll write diagonally across a used page.”
“Then I-”
He glanced appalled at his discarded missives, piled more than a foot high to his left.
“Oh God.”
Norah made a sound that was suspiciously similar to a laugh, and when he looked at her reproachfully, she straightened up and nodded decisively.
“I'm going to start with the pile you've already gone through,” she said, taking her seat across from him. “That way, you won't have to feel as if you're backtracking.”
“You're being very nice to me,” he said, and she offered him a smile that warmed him from the inside out.
“I'm a very nice person when I'm not trying to fend off book thieves,” she said loftily. “And besides, you looked so sad when you saw how big the pile of letters was. How could I leave you back here to work away?”
His dragon crowed at that, and if he had his wings out, he'd be doing cartwheels in the sky.
She wouldn't leave us here, she came to help us!
Val told his dragon very firmly that that only meant that his fated mate was a decent human, which was all to the good, but that didn't mean that
