before she obliged Greer to lead her out.
~~~
Abigail managed to extract herself from Mr. Greer’s company at the door of her shop, but not before he’d promised to fund Jesslyn’s salary without pilfering from Linus’s and consider paying Jesslyn’s aunt to work part time. Thoroughly pleased, she let herself into the shop.
Silence greeted her.
The spa might be crowded with guests, the other shops with visitors. But here no customers marveled over the pottery Mrs. Catchpole created from clay banks down the shore. No gentleman debated which of Mr. Josephs’ wrought-iron work to purchase. And no lady fingered Mrs. Mance’s tatted collars and asked about the price.
Which also meant no one was getting paid.
Unacceptable. She had started this shop to make a difference, for her and her mother and for the other families in the village for whom income wasn’t always reliable. She would not fail them now. She propped open the door with one of Mr. Josephs’ shoe stands and set about dusting and sweeping.
The first customers wandered inside within a quarter hour. She recognized the dark-haired fellow from the spa. He’d arrived just before the fracas at the castle. Like the others, he moved from display table to display table, picking up this, considering that. But he stood before the paintings the longest. Abigail finally went over to check on him.
“Do you prefer landscapes or sailing ships?” she asked him with her best shopkeeper’s smile.
He spared her a quick glance before returning his gaze to one of her more recent pieces, showing the castle on the headland with the waves pounding the cliffs below. “In truth, I’m not certain,” he admitted. “I was thinking about what I’d heard recently. Is it true there are caves under Castle How?”
“Quite true,” Abigail told him. “I hinted of the entrance there, where those two boulders part the waves. The area is called the Dragon’s Maw for those teeth-like boulders as well as the roar the waves make when they strike the cliff.”
“Fascinating.” He continued studying the piece a moment. “And you can access the castle from those caves, then?”
A chill ran up her spine. Why would he care? Eva had asked her to be alert to any strangers in the village. Mr. Donner—or was it Mr. George? The two were usually joined at the hip—had arrived a little sooner than she might have thought the French agents to appear, but perhaps Eva and the magistrate had mistaken their dates.
“I believe the access from the caves to the castle is well guarded these days,” she said, keeping her smile in place. “Are you interested in sailing, Mr. Donner?”
He didn’t correct the use of his name, so she must have guessed correctly. “I suppose I’ll need to be,” he said, turning at last from the painting. “I understand there will be a fine regatta here in the next month. I wouldn’t want to miss that.”
“Then you intend to stay in Grace-by-the-Sea so long?” she pressed.
His smile looked equally contrived. “For the foreseeable future. I find it a most welcoming place and well-suited to my purposes. Now, forgive me for monopolizing your time, Miss Archer. I know you have other customers eager to speak to you.” He inclined his head and sauntered out the door.
And she vowed to keep an eye on him.
But he was right, and she had others she must attend to at the moment. She kept busy answering questions and taking payments until she saw Mr. Carroll across the street locking his door. Then she ushered out the last shoppers and started for the back of the space, where a curtained doorway led to her studio and the flat beyond. Her paintings whispered to her, but she didn’t dare answer. Like it or not, she wasn’t ready to lift a paintbrush. And if she thought about losing the ability to paint, she would go mad.
She came into the flat to find her mother in a chair by the window, embroidery hoop in her lap and silken thread sliding off one edge.
“Where’s Ethan?” she asked.
“I sent him to the Mermaid to ask about dinner,” her mother answered. “He should be back shortly. How was your visit with Doctor Bennett?”
“I didn’t go to the spa to visit Doctor Bennett,” Abigail told her, coming to join her. “I went to prove I’m recovered. And I returned quite a while ago. I was working in the shop. Nearly one hundred pounds worth of product went out the door this afternoon. I’ll send word to pick up