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Chapter One

London, 1822

IT WAS FOUR DAYS until Christ library closed for the evening Lavinia Spencer sat, the daily ledger opened on the desk in front of her, and waited for the moment when the day would end and she could officially remove her five pennies from the take Every day since sus She’d saved the largesse in a cloth bag in the desk drahere nobody would find it and be teeon Now, she had almost two pounds

Two pounds in small, cold coins to the rest of the world For Lavinia, the ar and wine to oose—a sside their usual turnips Her two pounds meant a Christmas celebration that would —but the effort had been worth it, because Lavinia was going to deliver a holiday meal just like the ones her mother had prepared

The business they’d conducted today had been frenetic Lavinia finished adding columns in the daybook and nodded to herself Today’s take—according to her records—had been very fine indeed If she hadn’t miscalculated, today she’d let herself take six pennies fro that oose, as opposed tofowl Lavinia took a deep breath Layered atop the musk of leather-bound volumes and India ink, she could alined the red of s And in hertaller in his chair, color finally touching his cheeks

She reached for the cash box and started counting

The bell above the door rang—at a ust of winter wind poured in Lavinia looked up, prepared to be annoyed But when she saho had entered, she caught her breath

It was him Mr Williaht to demand on the day when he’d purchased his subscription But the naue William Q White She could never think of him as simply a ue, as it happened, far too ood

He took off his hat and gloves at the threshold and shook droplets of water froray of his coat Mr William Q White was tall and his dark hair was cropped close to his skull He did not dawdle in the doorway, letting the rain into the shop as so many other customers did Instead, heto rush It was not even a second before he closed the door on the frigid winter and entered the room Despite his alacrity, he did not track in mud

His eyes, a rich any, s of her stool He spoke little, but what he said—

“Miss Spencer” He gestured with his hat in acknowledgment

Unremarkable words, but her toes curled in their slippers nonetheless He spoke in a deep baritone, his voice as rich as the finest drinking chocolate But what reallyabout his accent It wasn’t the grating Cockney the delivery boys employed, nor the flat, pompous perfection of the London aristocracy He had a pure, cultured voice—but one that was nonetheless from somewhere many miles distant His Rs had just a hint of a roll to thes Every time he said “Miss Spencer,” the exotic cadence of his speech seemed to whisper, “I have been places”

She i, “Would you like to come with me?”

Yes Yes, she would Lavinia rather fancied a …vowels

And oh, she knew she was being foolish and giddy about Mr Williaiddy about a man when she was nineteen, when could she be foolish? It was hard to be serious all the time, especially when there was so much to be serious about

And so she took a risk “Merry Christmas, Mr White”

He was exa the shelves At her words, he turned toward her His eyes slid from her waist up to her face, and Lavinia ducked her head and stared at the stack of pennies in front of her to hide her blush

He didn’t need to speak to iddy, not when he looked at her with that breathtaking intensity For one scalding ht even step toward her Her hands curled around the edge of the desk in anticipation But instead, he shook his head and turned back to the shelves

A pity Not today, then Maybe not any day And with Mr Williaain, it was tiive herself over to seriousness She counted the coins fro sure to exactly align the pennies atop each other before starting a new pile

Lavinia prided herself on her ability to get the take exactly right Her longest stretch of perfection was thirty-seven days in a row, spanning the entirety of October That run had been ruined by a penny’s difference on Nove October’s record stand, however It had been twenty-two days since her last error Today would be number twenty-three

She’d counted and double-counted every transaction If she was so much as a ha’penny short, she’d eat Mr William Q White’s extremely wet hat Her hands flew as she placed dirty coins into careful piles Four, six, eight, and with the loose coins, that s, and four and one-halfpence Less than she’d ilanced at the tally in the ledger

Trepidation settled in an indigestible mass in Lavi

nia’s belly There, written in black and white in the daily ledger, was the final sus, four and one-half pence

She wasn’t half a penny short She was s

Lavinia recounted the coins, but there was no error Of course not; Lavinia did notNobody would take her to task for thecoins Her father was too ill to examine the books, and her brother would never question Lavinia’s jurisdiction over the shop

Still, she did not like to question herself How had she o, as if the rooer

She knehat she had to do It hurt—oh, how it stung Those three shillings could be the difference between a soose at all But with her father’s creditors cla almost monthly, the family could not spare more than a handful of pennies’ loss each day Lavinia slid open the drawer to make up the difference from her precious Christmas hoard

She always placed the bag in the saainst the left side But her fingers roped wildly and found nothing but the smooth wood of the drawer from corner to corner Lavinia held her breath and peered inside There was nothing in the drawer but a cracked inkwell, and that—she checked—contained nothing but bluish smears

“Hell” It was the worst curse word she could iine She whispered it; it was either that, or shriek

She wasn’tthe full two pounds All of Christ froh her carefully planned menu

“Vinny?” The words were a tremulous query behind her

With those words, the rising tide of Lavinia’s panic broke against an absolute certainty She knehere her precious two pounds had gone

Lavinia placed her hands on her hips She forced herself to turn around slowly, rather than whirling as she wished Her brother, still wrapped for the blustery weather outside, s out his hands in supplication Water dripped from his coat and puddled on the floor

Jaer than her, but Mae when calculating his sense Ja

“Oh” He peered beyond her to the coins, stacked in grie of the counter and the ransacked drawer His lip quirked “I see you’ve, um, already tallied the cash”

“Jarabbed his ear