Page 53 of Ties of Legacy

“Precisely!” Mattie beamed at her. “I don’t know why so many of the family complain about my system.”

“Things that are white?” Elliot protested. “But—” He cut himself off, clearly realizing how pointless it would be to protest.

Returning to the table, he accepted his cup of tea from Mattie, even allowing her to stir in a spoon of sugar.

“Don’t worry,” Mattie assured Elliot comfortingly once they all had their drinks, “you’ve always got your looks.”

He choked, only just avoiding spraying tea across the closest pile of books.

“Traveling with you is doing wonders for my ego,” he murmured to Avery when he finally finished coughing.

Avery felt a pang of guilt, although she was fairly certain he was joking. Wanting to do something to ease the day’s shocks, she suggested he go and deliver Nutmeg’s afternoon feed.

“I can fill Mattie in on our problem,” she told him with a significant look. “And then, when you get back, we can discuss potential solutions.”

Elliot still found relating his story difficult, and saving him the stress of telling it himself was a small thing she could do for him.

“That sounds like the most efficient plan,” he said with gratitude in his voice. “I won’t take long.”

As soon as he disappeared from the room, Mattie leaned forward with an interested air.

“Got a problem of a sensitive nature, has he?”

Avery grimaced. “It’s hard to overcome a lifetime of secrecy.”

“I’ve always thought it was a cruel thing to ask a child to keep a secret,” Mattie said with a nod.

Avery hid a grin at the thought that it must certainly have seemed so to the sort of blunt child that Matilda must have been. But her smile fell away as she remembered the tale she had to tell. At least she was full of energy to tell it. The tea had worked better than she had expected, sending a jolt of alertness through her.

“It’s really Elliot’s problem,” she admitted, “but I’ve managed to get embroiled in it, and I can’t turn my back on him now. So that means it’s a family problem now, too.”

She quickly related what she knew of Elliot’s history and his tie to the lamp, finishing by saying how Lorne had sent them on to Mattie.

“Lorne?” Mattie scoffed. “Of course that old sweet talker would send you here. I can’t tell you how many times he’s come sniffing around our records.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “I suppose he wants Elliot to transfer his bond to his own body—like us.”

“So you know about that?” Avery asked. “I had no idea.”

Mattie shrugged. “Most people don’t question something so central to their existence. But I’ve spent decades studying our family. Believe me, there’s nothing Lorne knows about us that I don’t!”

“Then do you think it can be done?” Avery asked eagerly, too impatient to wait for Elliot’s return before posing the question.

“As to that…” Mattie heaved herself to her feet, heading toward a bookshelf near the library door.

Avery also stood, too excited to remain stationary when they might be so near to answers. But she hadn’t taken any steps toward Mattie when the door of the library burst open.

Three men poured inside, and for half a second she thought they must be roving merchants, although Mattie hadn’t mentioned any others currently staying with her.

But the first of the newcomers, a rough-looking man with a stern expression, seized Mattie, twisting both her arms behind her before she realized what was happening.

“Is she the one?” a second man asked, looking from Mattie to Avery with a frown. “Or is it that one?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” the one holding Mattie snapped. “Take them both.”

For another half second, Avery was frozen in shock. They were being abducted? From the record hall of the roving merchants? If only the Glandore Legacy protected the librarian as well as the library.

Her mind sped up, leaping from her predicament to Elliot, presumably still out the back with Nutmeg. Her hands tightened around the satchel that was strapped to her as always, and she leaped into motion.

There was no hope of going for the door—all three men stood between her and it—so she fled between two tall bookshelves instead. Within a second she was out of sight, although it wouldn’t last for long. There was nowhere in the room that would allow her to truly hide, but she didn’t need to keep out of sight for long.

---