Chapter 2For Renée, the first task of every morning in the archives was the one she liked best: shelving books. The first time she did it, she went as quickly and accurately as possible. The second time, she was tempted to take longer than the task really required just so she’d have something to do besides wait for people to show up with requests.
She hadn’t given into that urge because she might be judged on how efficient she was even in such a menial job.
This was the last week of December: she only had two more months of this. That idea kept her going.
Until she saw the huge daddy longlegs. It was hanging around in the space she’d just cleared for a book. Startled, although she wasn’t usually afraid of spiders, Renée backed up rapidly and knocked, hard, into the cart. She grunted in
