In the Shadows

too forward to buy some for the sisters.

He felt guilty for his role in that night, and what a toll it

had taken on everyone. Some ribbons might be just the thing. . . .

As he opened the door, a jingling bell matched the tone of

voice of a woman talking. “. . . just this week. Yes, the cottage on

the bay. Very lovely. And you can deliver?”

The instinct to hide was sudden and overpowering. Thom

ducked behind shelves displaying cookware, trying to place the

voice and figure out why it affected him so.

“Of course!” the shop worker answered, his young voice

stretched and cracked by recent growth. “Anything you need. If

we don’t carry it, I’ll get it somewhere else.”

“There’s a good boy,” the woman said, and everything snapped

into place. He knew her voice. She was the woman who had scared

his father.

What was she doing here?

His father had sent them here the day after talking with her.

And for her to be here, too? The world was not such a small place

for something like this to be coincidence.

Squaring his shoulders and standing straight, Thom came

around the corner as casually as he could. He’d see who she was

without her noticing him. Looking up from a set of china, Thom

found himself facing her.

She smiled, full red lips not showing her teeth. Her hair was

dark and pinned back beneath an elegant hat. She stood nearly as

tall as him, but there was something in her bearing and the way

she held eye contact that made him feel smaller.

“Hello,” she said, amusement pulling the corners of her

mouth. “Shopping?”

“I — no, I — well, yes,” Thom stuttered.