The Heir of Thornfield Manor
Page 18
“It’s the two inch,” Lee said.
She chuckled as the two men positioned sides of the cabinet and started working a section together. How Patrick had tricked Lee into helping with this project, she wasn’t sure, and she was fine with that. Better Lee arguing over toggle sizes with Patrick than her.
She’d been a little surprised Patrick had purchased a DIY book shelf, but he’d told her he simply wanted the books out of the boxes and that he’d buy a nicer cabinet later on. She wondered though. To her it felt like he was trying to get into the good graces of her partner.
“Stop touching that,” Lee snapped.
She cringed. Lee never snapped.
“It goes there,” Patrick said.
“Not yet.” Lee grabbed a hammer.
Patrick flinched back. “Watch where you’re swinging that thing.”
Patrick had already worked two cases with them since leaving Thornfield, but Lee still held him at arm’s length. If Lee wanted to hit Patrick with the hammer, that would decrease arm’s length.
She sat on Patrick’s plush leather couch and pulled one of the boxes closer. On top was an old paper bond book in red with a gold spine. The pages jutted out at different sizes. She read the title on the Spine. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
She scooted back on the couch, trying to ignore the bickering coming from her partner and her boyfriend, and opened the book.
At the bottom of the front page in lovely cursive script it read “First Edition.”
“How many first editions do you have?” she asked.
The bickering stopped, and the men turned to face her.
“First edition?” Lee asked.
“A few.” Patrick grinned. “Which one do you have?”
“Pride and Prejudice.”
Lee leaned back on his knees. “You have a first edition of Pride and Prejudice?”
Patrick rested his hands on his hips and nodded.
“He also has the Count of Monte Cristo,” Elizabeth said.
Lee’s eyes widened. “Do you have The Three Musketeers?”
That was Lee’s favorite book.
Patrick smiled. “Do you want to see it?”
Lee’s lips twitched up at the side for just a second. “Yes.”
The men stood and made their way to a box near her. While Patrick sorted through it, Lee eyed Pride and Prejudice.
She handed it to him.
“It’s in great condition.” He ran his hand over the surface. “Have you read it?”
She frowned in thought. “I think so. Or it might just be another one of those books I think I’ve read but actually haven’t.” Though she did remember that there was a character named Elizabeth, like her, that everyone called Lizzie, not like her, and there was also something in there about an awkward cousin who wanted to marry her.
She glanced at Patrick and felt her face heat up.
What was that about?
“You know,” Lee said, now carefully skimming through the pages, “Mark Twain once reviewed Austen’s book saying ‘Everytime I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.’”
Elizabeth blinked, then chuckled. “‘Everytime?’ If he disliked it so much why did he keep reading it?”
Lee glanced at her, a gleam in his eye that from years of working with him she knew meant he was amused too.
“Here it is!” Patrick pulled another book from a box.
Lee handed back Pride and Prejudice as Patrick came to his feet. Patrick gave him the copy and Lee took it as gently as if he were handling a newborn baby.
“You can borrow it if you’d like.” Patrick rolled back on his heels.
“Are you sure?” Lee didn’t even bother looking up, only slowly turned the first page.
Elizabeth wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Lee look so content.
“Absolutely. Book lovers are always welcome in my library,” Patrick said.
Lee grinned.
Patrick looked at her and winked.
The old scoundrel had this planned all along. He’d know Lee loved books from seeing him whip through them on his breaks and downtime at work, and he was using his collection to win him over. The bookshelf probably hadn’t had anything to do with it at all.
Elizabeth leaned back in the couch and shook her head.
Reviews recommend books, but in this case the book was recommending the person. You like a book you recommend it to your friends by leaving reviews. You want a friend, you show them your vast book collection. Especially if it includes first editions.
“I love to read,” Patrick said.
“What do you recommend?” Lee asked.
First the book recommended the person and then the friend recommended the books.
* * *
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About the Author
Ellie Thornton is an award-winning author who has been writing since she could lift a pencil and making up stories even longer than that.
For years she worked part-time jobs so she would always have time to write, read, and travel. Some of her favorite filler jobs include working as an editor, at a nursery (flowers not children,) as a driving instructor (not as harrowing as one might think,) writing a blog called Confessions of a Property Manager, and being a ghost tour guide.
If she’s not at her computer, you can typically find her reading, listening to podcasts, at the local library, in her garden, in her kitchen, or with her sister and her sister’s kids.
You can find the first three standalone books in The Contemporary Reboot Series at:
Regencyland: The Bristle Park Murders (Book 1): My Book
Account 13,14…(Book 2): My Book.
Dead to Rights (Book 3): My Book