Shadow Lane Volume 5 by Eve Howard

Author:Eve Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: ISBN781926585406
Publisher: CCB Publishing
Published: 2010-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

Frances and Sloan

Marguerite’s new husband disagreed about the manner in which she had determined to restaff her bookshop prior to embarking on their honeymoon. It was still only February; the dreariest month in New England, and all Malcolm Branwell could think of was how little his adorable wife would elect to wear in the desert. Yet here she was deliberately postponing their Jacuzzi soaked pleasures in order to play Cupid to two strangers!

“Why you can’t just put an ad in the Boston Globe?” Malcolm looked up from his Wall Street Journal to complain as Marguerite worked on the ad that was to appear in the upcoming issue of Hugo Sands’ magazine, The New Rod Quarterly.

“I told you, Malcolm, I want to give two worthy spanking people the positions.”

“But Marguerite, surely you must know that business and romance don’t mix.”

“Malcolm, do wake up. Sexually excited employees are happy employees.”

“Distracted employees,” he grumbled, wondering if this sheer silliness about hiring scene people was enough of an excuse to turn the leggy redhead over his knee. “You know you’re not a puppeteer, Marguerite,” he told her disapprovingly. “What if your plan backfires and they loathe each other? What if he tries something with her and she brings a law suit against you?”

“But Malcolm, whoever responds to ads in Hugo Sands’ magazine must necessarily be into it. Now listen to the ad,” she said, and began to read off the screen of her laptop, “Sales person sought for charming Cape Cod village book shop. Must be presentable and literate. Managerial skills preferred. Modest salary, nice living quarters included. Send resume and salary requirement.”

“I thought you needed two people.”

“Well darling, many people will answer the ad. I’ll pick one of the boys with the bookkeeping skills to be the store manager and the wittiest girl to be the clerk.”

“What if she’s better qualified to be the manager?”

“That would create a different dynamic than the one I had envisioned, but I’ll consider it.”

“That’s a relief at least.”

“I sense you don’t approve.”

“I think you’re being extremely silly about this whole thing.”

“Malcolm, didn’t you realize that my hobby is promoting romance in the scene?”

“Are they going to know that they’ve both been hired in response to the same ad?”

“I don’t intend to tell them, but I expect they’ll figure it out fairly quickly.”

“Do I get to interview the girls?” he asked with an endearing grin.

“Would you like to?” Marguerite smiled at him with amusement, causing Malcolm to flush. “Darling, I think that would be delicious,” she continued, shocking the young Bostonian. “You could pick the girl and I could pick the boy.”

“Okay,” he replied, in an uncertain voice. Marguerite smiled and printed the ad.

Two weeks later resumes began to arrive. The only candidate Marguerite ever seriously considered for the position of manager was Sloan Taylor, a tall, reedy, disarmingly attractive intellectual, the sound of whose cultivated voice instantly captivated her. He was currently managing a Branwell’s Book Bag in Brookline, but openly repudiated the supermarket mentality of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.