Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 47359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 237(@200wpm)___ 189(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Lara was relieved that the next street sign she came upon read Juniper. She turned down the narrow alley to find four shops, all but one closed, and it was the bookshop. She hurried to the light from inside reflected on the cobblestone street. Her hand grabbed the doorknob just as the sign on the door turned to closed.
She was not one to give up easily, so she tapped on the door’s windowpane.
Surprisingly, the door opened, though not surprisingly the distinguished looking white-haired man said, “I’m sorry, but I’m closed for the day.”
“Please, I have one day left to find the information I’m looking for and leave Mull before the snowstorm hits,” she said with a smile and a bit of desperation.
“How can I say no to such a beautiful woman,” he said and swept his hand back, inviting her in.
She stepped into the shop with a, “Thank you,” and pulled off her white gloves to rub the chill from her cold hands.
“Knit gloves won’t do here,” he scolded with a smile. “You need ones that will stand up against the cold. Come with me. You can sit by the fire while I make you a cup of tea.”
“I don’t want to impose,” she said, though she would kill for a cup of hot tea right now.
“Nonsense, you’re freezing,” he said and with a gentle hand to her back guided her to the rear of the small shop where a black cast iron stove radiated heat. He assisted her to sit in one of the two wing-back chairs that sat opposite each other in front of the stove. Then he opened the stove doors, inserted two logs from the nearby basket that was almost empty and instead of closing the doors, placed the fire screen in the opening. “Warm yourself, I’ll only be a moment.”
He didn’t have to tell her twice. Lara yanked off her white knit hat and ran her hand over her long auburn hair to chase away any static before slipping out of her red wool jacket and draping it over the back of the chair. She stretched her hands out and sighed with pleasure as the heat from the roaring flames licked away the cold. If only she could slip out of her mid-thigh black boots and do the same with her cold toes, though she was glad she had worn her gray leggings. They had, at least, kept her legs somewhat warm as did the black swing sweater she wore over a white tailored shirt.
She took the opportunity to glance around the shop as she continued warming her hands. It was smaller than she had expected. Two walls held floor to ceiling shelves filled with hardcover books, all old, not a new one among them. Chest-high, double-sided shelving ran down the middle of the store, dividing the small space into two aisles. Next to the door was a large window and in front of that sat a desk with all the usual technical paraphernalia for ringing up a sale, along with a laptop.
That made her reach into her oversized harvest gold leather purse and fish for her cell phone. “Drat,” she mumbled when she saw she still had no bars.
“If you’re looking for cell phone service, it’s practically impossible to find around here,” the man said, returning with a silver tray in hand. He placed it on an antique, pie-crust table next to the empty chair, then lifted both and placed the pair between them. After asking her how she took her tea and fixing one for her, and then one for himself, he sat opposite her and said, “I’m Desmond Hargrove proprietor of this shop and you are?”
“Lara Bennett,” she said, extending her hand.
Desmond shook it and smiled. “You’re warming up, that’s good.”
Lara determined his age to be somewhere in his late sixties. He was tall, over six feet, slender, and she had no doubt he could still set a woman’s libido jumping. She could only imagine how the women must have responded to him when he was younger.
“Now what may I do for you, Lara?”
“Tell me you have books about the vampires that founded this town.”
His brow knitted for a split second, and then he smiled like a father about to placate his child. “Now what does a lovely woman like you want with vampires?”
“Research for a book.”
“Ahh, yes, vampires are all the rage now, but I’m sorry to tell you that vampires are truly nothing more than myths.”
“I’ve always found that myths have some basis in fact, and I was hoping to find something different that could help me. Like the origin of the myth that the Village of Mull was founded by vampires.”
“That is an easy one to answer. It seems that gypsies were camped in the area when the founding family, the Valaines, arrived and began settling the place in 1784. The tale goes that Thaddeus Valaine chased them off the land and that the gypsies cursed Thaddeus to forever walk the earth as the undead and feed off the blood of his kind. Tales...nothing more than tales to frighten the ignorant.” He stood, placing his teacup on the silver tray. “I believe I have a book on the settlement of the Village of Mull, which mentions something about the gypsies, if you’re interested.”