Page 10 of The Library of Second Chances
Then a floorboard creaked.
Eric, perhaps, or Clementine returning to find a spot to relax behind the curtain?
A whisk of cloth and the sound of a man clearing his throat. She thought about calling out, but instead she stepped out from between the shelves, looking left then right.
A man was leaning against the far-off shelf. He was enormously tall and wore a kilt and a grubby jacket. He lookedlike he had been wandering hills and roads for a long time, old dirt clinging to his clothes and dark leaves in his curly red hair.
Chloe hadn’t really expected it to work again. But she knew this man wasn’t a regular visitor. He hadn’t rocked up to the library with his sporran and mud on his bare knees and scars on his arms, looking around in confusion and suspicion as he half-crouched, as though sheltering from gunfire.
Her throat felt tight, but she managed to croak, ‘Hello.’
The man glanced up, eyes narrowed. ‘Who are ye? Where am I?’
As she had expected, his voice was rich and deep with a strong Scottish accent. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, especially when she spotted the dagger at the man’s hip. This was real. It was actually happening.
‘Um, Wellbridge,’ she said. ‘In a library. It’s safe,’ she added quickly, recalling that in most of his book, he was decidedlyunsafe. ‘You’ll be back in Scotland very soon, I promise.’
He looked her up and down, as though assessing whether she was a threat. Then he straightened to his full height. He was immensely tall, his shock of red hair fiery in the lantern light. A crooked smile appeared on his face. ‘Don’t know if I trust ye on that, but I don’t hear orsmellany more sassenachs about.’
Chloe raised her hands, sweat springing up on her back. ‘I just want to talk.’ She gestured to a nearby set of armchairs, trying hard not to glance at his dagger. ‘You’re safe here,’ she repeated.
‘Despite ye bein’ a sassenach, too?’ The man still sounded suspicious, but there was also a tone of amusement in there.
‘Despite that, yes.’ She managed a smile.
She stared at him for a long time, marvelling at how this had indeed happened. He didn’t glow or emit any kind of otherworldly vibe. He just looked like a normal guy in the fleshand blood. He smelled a bit of dirt and sweat, but that was hardly surprising.
‘Do ye suppose I’ve moved through time?’ he wondered aloud.
‘You could say that. But you won’t be here for long, you’ll see.’
‘Fine. What did ye want to talk about, lass?’
‘I won’t keep you.’ Chloe had to treat this as an experiment. The last time this had happened, the character had been wanting to get back to his party. She wondered if reading a line from the book made the character emerge from that exact scene. It made as much sense as everything else so far. ‘I’m Chloe. I was wondering if you could tell me where you came from.’
‘The last thing I remember, I was sleepin’ in the stables. I closed my eyes, and I must have drifted off. And next thing I knew, I was standing here.’ He glanced around. ‘I wonder if this is a dream. I’ve never seen so many books in one place before.’
Chloe marvelled at this. She was actually somehow pulling out characters from their books. Though it seemed it was the stories themselves that decided, not the characters. Clearly, they didn’t know how or why they came here, either.
Clementine appeared, looking from Chloe to the newcomer. She picked him up and petted him, and her new friend smiled down at him.
‘Och, a cat. Good for getting rid of rats. Do ye get a lot of rats here?’
‘I shouldn’t think so.’ Chloe wrinkled her nose at the thought. ‘They’d chew on the books.’
‘All the better to have one of these little beasties around.’ He petted Clementine, and the cat leaned into his large hand, purring. So Clementine had no problem with the library’s magical visitors, either.
Magical.An improbable word, not one that she’d say aloud, but there wasn’t any better way to describe it.
The red-headed Scot didn’t seem worried about being here, or maybe that was because he was used to much more frightening dangers than finding himself in a library with one woman. ‘Aren’t you concerned?’ she asked anyway.
‘Naw, not really.’ He leaned back in the armchair, shifting as though appreciating how comfortable it was. ‘There are a lot of things I don’t fully understand, but there’s no harm in having some faith in them.’
‘Yes,’ said Chloe, thinking on those words. ‘I think you’re right.’ She hesitated. ‘Thank you for talking to me. I just wanted to check something.’ She showed him the book in her hands. ‘This is how I’ll send you back. Are you ready to go back to the stable?’
His crooked smile made her heart flip over. ‘Aye, if I have to.’
Chloe opened the book, making sure to go near the back of it. She didn’t want to repeat his own words back to him, words he had said before in his life, and freak him out. She read aloud a random line, expecting him to disappear from in front of her eyes. Instead, he gave her a questioning look. He was indeed handsome, and she felt her cheeks warm.
