Stealing Mercy Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t tell him that I’d only recently discovered that commonality. I look from his shiny black shoes to my own well worn pumps. I can’t talk about my work or the diary and I won’t meet his eyes.
    He clears his throat. “Well, you’ve been more than kind. What do I owe you?”
    I start. “I’m not finished!”
    He glanced around the empty room, smiling. “Did you contract for more than the piano? Because you’ve obviously left your bench.”
    I sigh in relief. Of course, he meant to pay me for the music. “Please, it’s my gift.”
    He raises his eyebrows, taking in the fraying cuffs of my best black dress. “Are you sure?”
    I square my shoulders. “Dot was my friend.”
    “ You’ve been lovely, Mrs. Michaels. The music, beautiful.” He clears his throat. “I was worried you’d left before I had the chance to thank you.” Odious didn’t sound accusatory, merely curious.
    Still, I stammer when I reply. “I just stepped in here to wait out the rain. I didn’t want to intrude on your family and yet, I’m afraid I wasn’t looking forward to getting drenched.” I motion to the drizzle coating the window and blink hard. “I walked.”
    “ You’re a neighbor, then?”
    I nod and rest my hand on the library books. They were most likely overdue.
    “ Would you like a ride home?”
    “ Oh no, I couldn’t impose. I have an umbrella.” The obvious question would now be why hadn’t I used it? “I was just waiting for the worst to pass.” Weak. “I happened to notice the library books. Would you like me to return them?”
    Odious’ gaze flicks to the books beneath my finger tips. He catches and holds my gaze. “I couldn’t impose.”
    “ No bother,” I assure him. “I work at the library, so I won’t be going out of my way.”
    Odious flips a set of keys in his hands and I notice he has a raincoat folded over his arm. “I’m going out, and since you live close enough to walk, I’m sure you won’t take me out of my way.” He cocks an eyebrow in towards the door.
    Of course, at this point it’d seem churlish to refuse a ride. I gather up the books and the diary, carefully tucking the diary between the two library books and holding them against my belly so that the spines won’t show. The guilty worm twists and turns inside me. I’ll return it when I’m done, I promise the worm and the memory of Gregg that suddenly flashes in my mind.
     

 
    CHAPTER 4
     
     
    LOVE POTION TEA
    1 pinch of rosemary
    2 teaspoons of black tea
    3 pinches thyme
    3 pinches nutmeg
    3 fresh mint leaves
    6 fresh rose petals
    6 lemon leaves
    3 cups pure spring water
    Sugar
    Honey
    Brew tea on a Friday during a waxing moon.
    From the Recipes of Mercy Faye
     
    Mercy stood on the boardwalk, her arm tucked through Eloise’s, totally in love with her new life. She loved living with Tilly, working in the shop and she loved her new friends. The queasy apprehension that had plagued ever since her father’s death had finally settled so that when she thought of him and the life she’d left behind, as she often did, she felt a sweet sadness no longer tinged with the overriding loneliness that had haunted her. Occasionally she still had nightmares, but when she woke and found herself in her aunt’s home on Lily Hill, the fears abated. In the daytime hours, between her work at the shop and the social whirl her new friend Eloise had introduced her to, she rarely thought of New York and the horror she’d left behind.
    As she watched men disembark from the tall gray ship in the harbor, Mercy thought about her own arrival just three months prior and how far she’d come in so little time. The long hours the bakery demanded, the predawn hours spent rolling dough, the tiny, dark apartment--it seemed like another life belonging to another person.
    Eloise squeezed Mercy’s arm as they strolled down First Avenue and returned Mercy to her new reality.
    “They say that there’s about a hundred men to every woman.” An elfish