8
Asher grasped the man’s shaking shoulders and held him at arm’s length. “First you must calm down. Your heart will burst if you don’t give it some air.”
“I. . .I ran all the way from the coach, sir,” the man admitted as Asher drew him inside. “Though the train was the fastest way into town, there was not a one scheduled until later, so I have been riding all this long night, if you see what I mean.”
“I will when you start from the very beginning,” Asher returned as he led him through a pair of side doors that led into an expansive library.
The room stretched to the back of the house some two hundred feet and both levels were filled top to bottom with tomes of all shapes, ages, and sizes. A comfortable setup of furniture sat in front of a dead hearth, and Asher directed his agitat
