Page 64 of The Bookshop of Forbidden Books

“I don’t know every detail of her past, certainly, but judging by her excitement while we were holed up in your storeroom during your arrest, I’d say the answer is no. Frankly, you’ve set the bar extremely high. How will I ever manage to titillate her like that again?”

Verner rubbed his chin and folded his long frame onto the stool. He looked terrible, Mitch thought – as if he were crumbling on the inside, dangerously close to collapse. A lengthy silence followed. Verner stared vacantly at his fingernails while Mitch flipped through the pages of his order book.

“Did you come looking for something to read?” Mitch offered at last.

“Not at all. I was hoping you could do me a small favour.”

A few minutes later, Verner opened up over a cup of lukewarm tea. In his view, Mitch was directly responsible for his current predicament, and the least he could do was help devise a new way to revive Madame Ateltow’s feelings of “exhilaration” – but in more ordinary circumstances, as he put it.

“So, no police or handcuffs, if I understand correctly,” Mitch said.

“Preferably not, no.”

“How about the tango?”

“I don’t get the impression she’s very taken with my dancing.” Verner looked rueful.

“Have you asked her?”

“No – and even if she accepted, it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

“Are you sure she wants to be surprised?”

“Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with an overwhelming desire to make love to her. I’m sure that’s happened to you as well. But I’m not exactly going to call her at three in the morning to tell her that.”

“I meant a less… surprising surprise,” Mitch suggested. “Has it occurred to you that it wasn’t the police raid she found so romantic and thrilling, but being hidden away with you in that back room? The sudden intimacy?”

Verner gaped at him, stunned. Then: “Well, don’t leave me hanging. I can tell you have something in mind, and I certainly don’t, so what do you suggest?” He watched Mitch expectantly.

“An intimate dinner.”

“She’ll never agree to that. She’d be too afraid of what people might say.”

“What her son would say, you mean.”

“She talked to you about him?”

Mindful of bookseller confidentiality, Mitch didn’t answer.

“Verner,” he advised solemnly, “trust yourself. Break the law – well, her law, at least. Make a reservation somewhere quiet. Go and pick her up without warning. Surprise her.”

“As in, a sort of kidnapping?” Verner asked, eyes sparkling.

“Something like that, yeah.”

The music teacher straightened on his stool and clapped his hands, delighted.

“You’re quite right – doing nothing would lead nowhere, and your idea is highly original!”

“Er… I wouldn’t go that far, but it does have the advantage of—”

Mitch didn’t have time to finish. Verner was already halfway out the door.

“So, no book, then?”

“Oh – yes, yes, of course. It’s the least I can do. Pick one out for me, would you? No – make it two! Put them on my tab. I’ll come by another time and tell you everything.”

“You don’t have a tab!” Mitch called after him.