“What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Pride and Prejudice,” he blurted out.
“Last shelf, there, underClassics.” She pointed to the other side of the room.
Suddenly, the door opened with a loud ring and three older ladies walked in. Mrs. Devereux’s demeanor quickly changed and she became very stiff.
“You’ll have to excuse me,” she said, and then hurried off to the group of women, who were now lurking suspiciously around the counter. I watched for a while as some hushed whispers were exchanged. They all looked up at us and then looked back down again.Odd.I glanced at Mike to see if he’d noticed it, too, this strange exchange that was happening right in front of us.
“What do you think is going on there?” I whispered to him.
“I have no idea.” Mike turned his back to them and walked to the last shelf. We found four copies ofPride and Prejudiceand immediately started flipping through them. But, as suspected, there were no letters inside any of them.
I looked at Mike and he shrugged. He seemed thoughtful for a few moments and then spoke: “Well, it’s exactly as we thought.”
“It was worth a try, though, I guess.”
Mike pulled a few more books off the shelf and then ran his hand over the wooden shelf panel.
I folded my arms. I wasn’t expecting him to find some secret, hidden compartment or—
“I don’t believe it,” Mike said, his eyes going wide.
“What?” I asked.
“Look.” Mike pulled, and a piece of wood moved.
“Oh my God! A secret compartment. What are the chan—? Oh,” I said, when I rushed over and looked at it. It wasn’t a secret compartment at all; the shelf was just so old that parts of it were falling off. I looked through the hole that had been created and I could see all the way to the other side of the library, to where Mrs. Devereux was. “What the . . . ?” I leaned in and looked closer. She was surrounded by a new group of women, now, and they were definitely up to something.
“What the hell?” Mike whispered, as he also watched.
“What are they doing?” I asked. “It looks completely clandestine and—look, another group of women are coming through the door. Since when is a library this busy?”
We watched in fascination as more woman came; they handed their books to Mrs. Devereux, who quickly took them out of the covers, and then, as fast as lightning, she slipped other books into the same covers and passed them back to the women.
I looked at Mike in utter confusion. What the hell could be going on there?
“Let’s investigate,” Mike said. He walked around the shelf and started striding across the library, back towards the counter. Everyone at the counter suddenly turned, and then, as quickly and quietly as they had all appeared, they dispersed. Some headed for the door, others ducked between nearby shelves, and another one scuttled out the back door, markedExit.
The closer Mike got to the desk, the stiffer Mrs. Devereux became. She met Mike’s eyes and smiled, pushing a book across the counter, as if hoping Mike wouldn’t see it. He had. He reached out and placed his hand over hers, stopping her. Her smile faltered as Mike picked the book up. He looked at her and raised his eyebrow, as if asking her a question. At that, her demeanor changed again. Her shoulders slumped and she raised her hands in the air in resignation.
“Oh, well. What can I say? You’ve caught us,” she said, and sat back down on the chair behind the counter.
“Caught you?” I asked, peering at the book in Mike’s hands. On the surface, it wasBlack Beauty, but when Mike slipped the cover off . . .
“Claimed Under the Full Moon: A Werewolf Erotica Collection,” Mike read, slowly.
“A what?” I gasped and reached for the book. Turning it over in my hands, I read the back out loud. “When Sasha goes for a jog in the park, late at night, the last thing she expects is to have all her wildest fantasies fulfilled by a sexy, shape-shifting werewolf. . . A what?!” I burst out laughing and turned the book back over in my hands, looking at the male torso on the front cover. I glanced up at Mrs. Devereux and she shrugged again.
I picked up another book from the counter and slipped its fake cover off. I immediately laughed when I saw it:Merman Ménage: Get Slippery. On the cover was a sexy merman, draped over a rock, holding what looked like a nubile virgin in his arms.
Mike shook his head and then turned back to Mrs. Devereux.
“You know, just because we’re old, doesn’t mean we stop liking sex!” she said, and it looked like Mike’s jaw was about to fall open.
I laughed even louder. “I get that,” I said, “but can’t you be into normal things? Not . . .” I turned the book over in my hands and read again. “Six steamy paranormal romances, featuring a merman ménage and a sexy, underwater, reverse harem!” I shook my head. “What the hell is a reverse harem?”
Mrs. Devereux blushed. “I guess, after thatFifty Shades, we were all looking for something a little . . .wilder.”
