“Perhaps you could assuage my curiosity, madam?” he said. “Since the ink is drying on the lease?”
Miss Dearheart looked around the room conspiratorially, as if the heavy old bookcases concealed a multitude of ears.
“Can you keep a secret, Mr. Blister?”
“Oh, indeed, madam. Indeed!”
She looked around cautiously.
“Even so, this should be said quietly,” she hissed.
He nodded hopefully, leaned forward, and for the first time in many years felt a woman’s breath in his ear:
“So can I,” she said.
That was nearly three weeks ago…