Here he was. Her knight in light tweed armor. “Can I get you a cup of tea?”
He shook his head. “Never touch the stuff, which is peculiar and inconvenient of me, I know. You cannot imagine the consternation it causes when I decline. I only drink peppermint tea, you see, and most people have never encountered such a curious thing.”
“I have. I like it. I think I have some in the back.”
“Is that so? Then we shall get along marvelously, you and I, but do you mind if we skip the tea altogether? I fancy a stroll since it’s such a pleasant day.”
Olivia hesitated.
“Ten minutes?” Henry prompted. “I’m sure all your customers will come back tomorrow.” He winked.
Olivia relented. Much as she needed paying customers, she also needed Henry’s help.
As they stepped outside, Mr. Blake remarked on the empty cottage beside the bookshop. “Wasn’t Cormac trying to get his hands on that?”
Olivia sighed. “Yes, but his inquiries never came to anything. Nora Plunkett won’t lease it. She says she’d prefer to leave it empty.”
“Who?”
“Nora Plunkett. She’s the secretary of the local shopkeeping society, or something. Likes to shove her nose into other people’s business. Her husband used to run a furniture business. The empty cottage was his shop. Some of the shop owners think she does wonders, but Pappy never liked her—and he was always a good judge of character—so neither do I.”
They walked together along Little Lane, passing the shops and the bakery with its delicious aromas of vanilla and buttery brioche that made Olivia’s stomach grumble.
“What was Cormac planning to do with the empty shop?” Henry asked.
“I presume he wanted to expand. He didn’t talk about it much. He knew Nora wouldn’t budge. It’s probably for the best anyway. I don’t think adding any more debts to the business would have been a good idea.”
“Indeed. Your grandfather had a great talent for discovering rare books, but in recent years he wasn’t so good at selling them. All that dreadful business with Martha distracted him.” Henry paused, the click click of his cane filling the silence as they walked slowly on. “How is she, by the way?”
“She’s doing okay. I saw her yesterday. The strange thing is that she remembers the distant past quite well. It’s the present she struggles with: what she did a few minutes ago, or an hour ago, or yesterday. She gets terribly confused—forgetting people and places. Even the words she wants to use. She gets very upset.”
“I believe that can often be the case with her condition. Desperately sad. She was always such a vivacious woman.”
Olivia glanced at Henry. “Did you know her well?”
Henry smiled warmly. “I did, yes. Although I knew a much younger version of her. People change so much over time, don’t they? I couldn’t claim to know her now.”
“Nana might have changed, Henry, but I believe that same vivacious woman is still in there. Somewhere.”
Henry said it would be nice to think so.
They sat on a bench beneath the harbor wall, glad to be sheltered from the breeze as they watched the passenger ferries setting out toward England.
“How did you know Pappy, Henry?”
“We met when I was a young man, starting out in lecturing at Trinity. Cormac was a few years older than me and I looked up to him. We became friendly through a mutual love of books, I suppose,” he explained. “Cormac started collecting rare books as a hobby. It was always his dream to open a shop when he retired. I planned to do the same.”
“And did you?”
“Sadly not. Life didn’t quite turn out the way I’d hoped it would.” He ran his fingers across his mustache and took his handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his glasses. “I fell in love, as all young fools do, but the woman I loved couldn’t love me in return, so I took a teaching post in New Zealand. As far away from Ireland as it is possible to go before you start to come back. I lived there for nearly thirty years. Had a marvelous time. Beautiful country.” He perched his glasses on the end of his nose. “I never forgot her.”
Henry’s words were a pinprick to Olivia’s conscience. She acknowledged to herself how easily she’d pushed Jack toward the edge of her heart. Too easily. “What brought you back?” she asked.
“Oh, various things. A longing for home, mostly. I was happy over there. I had a grand life, but I never met anyone quite like her. I suppose you would call her my soul mate. Life always felt terribly off balance without her. I’m afraid this stick of mine makes a very poor substitute for the warmth of her beside me.”
Olivia was touched by Mr. Blake’s gentle humility. “That’s such a sad story, Henry.”
“In one way, yes, but in another, not at all.” He tapped a finger to his head. “I have my memories, you see, and those I can always cherish. Memory is a wonderful gift, which is why it is so cruel to watch someone try to live without it.” He returned his handkerchief to his pocket. “Anyway, I eventually tracked Cormac down here. I couldn’t believe how much his small collection in our shared office had grown into an actual bookshop.”
“And now it’s all mine.”
“So I believe. Cormac told me he planned to leave the shop to you. You know, when the time came.”
“I’m not sure how long it will be mine, Mr. Blake . . . Henry. I love books and I adore the shop, but I don’t know the first thing about the business side.”
“Then I suppose it’s fortunate that I do.”
His words were like a balm to Olivia. “Really? You can help me with all that?”
“Yes, dear. I can help you with all that—with a little help from my nephew. I’m afraid I couldn’t claim to be quite as sharp as I once was! It won’t be easy and there will be difficult decisions to make along the way, but you don’t strike me as the sort of person to shy away from a difficult decision.”
She thought about her phone at the bottom of the sea and all the decisions it had taken down with it. Decisions that would still be waiting for her when—if—she chose to resurface from this self-imposed exile in Ireland, but decisions she would be better able to make because of it.
“Difficult decisions are easy enough, Mr. Blake. The tricky part is deciding to make them in the first place.”
Henry peered knowingly at Olivia through his spectacles. “Quite so, my dear.” He checked his watch and mumbled something to himself. “And I’m afraid I must be going.”
“So soon? I can’t tempt you to that peppermint tea?”
He saw the worry in Olivia’s eyes. “You will do superbly well, Olivia. Cormac thought of you as a very special woman. He wouldn’t have entrusted his shop to you if he didn’t believe you were up to the challenge.”
“I don’t want to let him down, Henry. I feel such a huge responsibility to get the bookshop back on its feet. It just . . . well . . . it’s come at a strange time for me.”
Henry studied Olivia with understanding in his eyes. “Life getting in the way of life?”