One Book in the Grave: A Bibliophile Mystery

fireplace, having long, private talks. At night they would venture onto the deck and huddle in a blanket. I couldn’t hear the conversations, just the occasional giggle or sigh.
     
    I was superfluous, except in my role as cook, dishwasher, and feeder of the cat. I couldn’t complain, though. I still had Clyde’s friendship. And it was lovely to watch Max and Emily reconnect.
     
    It wasn’t all hearts and flowers, of course. It was slow going and there were glitches at first. I knew both of them were frustrated. Emily was occasionally tentative and Max had a tendency to brood.
     
    Who could blame either of them? Emily explained to me that she hadn’t been with a man since Max’s “death” three years ago. She’d made every effort to move on, built a good, if quiet, life for herself. She’d been contentto live alone. Now, suddenly, the man she’d loved so deeply had returned. But he’d lied to her, shown he didn’t trust her. Was it any wonder she sometimes questioned their present relationship?
     
    And Max had lived the life of a solitary refugee for the past three years. He had survived in the shadows of society, afraid to be too friendly or gregarious in case he attracted too much attention. He’d always been a bit of a brooder, but now he was world-class.
     
    It was so easy for me to see the big picture from the sidelines, but I tried to avoid offering advice or critiques and simply kept my mouth shut. There was a very good reason for that: namely, I was the last person on earth to give anyone relationship advice. Hello? Once engaged to a gay man? Not smart!
     
    No, the two of them would have to stumble through this one on their own. But I was encouraged and held out hope that they would come through stronger and more in love than ever.
     
    If we all survived the safe house, that was.
     
    Even though I kept my mouth shut, I did keep my eyes open and focused on the “happy” couple. Not simply for safety reasons, but because they were just so fascinating and
normal
.
     
    For some reason, observing the two of them interacting together reminded me of a BBC nature program I’d been hooked on years ago when I was living in London. It was called
The Return of the Tit-Willows
.
     
    Out in the woods, a camera had been inserted inside a tree where the young tit-willow couple had set up residence. Viewers could observe everything the birds were doing. The original reality show, right? It was fascinating to watch, but the absolute best part of the show was the narrator. He would describe each bird’s movements as though he were doing commentary at a golf tournament, his voice hushed and extremely serious. It was gripping.
     
    The male tit-willow approaches the nest. The female senses his arrival and readies herself. Wings flutter, feathersfly. Then…What’s this? It’s off with the boys he goes! Six weeks later, there’s the piper to pay.
     
    LOL, as Melody Byers would say. I couldn’t get enough of those BBC nature programs.
     
    After another long day and night, Emily and Max left their room and became sociable. We all got along well and Emily and I had some good talks, usually in the kitchen while playing flunkies to Max, our esteemed chef, who really had honed his kitchen skills.
     
    Over dinners, Max talked about his life on the farm and Emily was enthralled. She loved hearing about the fig trees and the goats and the honeybees and the radicchio he’d grown. Loved hearing how Max had found Bucky through a dog-rescue service and how Clyde had walked into Max’s kitchen one day and adopted him.
     
    She was amazed that Max woke up so early and worked so hard on his farm, and she was fascinated by the way he’d changed his world so drastically. She grilled him on the process he went through to become a different person. Max’s experiences became romantic and exciting when seen through her eyes.
     
    Clyde warmed up to Emily slowly, and Emily made it clear she loved the cat. While I was thrilled to know that Clyde would be cherished by his new mistress, it was a bittersweet shot of reality for me. The time had come to decide whether to find my own little cat to love. But would another cat love me like Clyde did? It was a big chance to take and I would need to think it through very carefully.
     
    During the day, though we’d never discussed it, Max and I had begun taking turns distracting Emily. He and I had our work to keep us busy, but we needed to find things for Emily to do.