Chapter Eight
The Library
Getting the better of a bully is as exhilarating as a tax return.
I never for a moment saw myself with Steven; he was a man who seemed ineffectual. How wrong I was—he was anything but ineffectual. I mean, he not only put up with my mother, he managed her.
Steven ran the library like an expert. He made it the hub of the community, and his quirky Westerns were part of that hub. People loved being served by an author; even Mum sprouted on about his books, not that she had read any. In fact, she banged on about his books almost as much as her retiring and what she would do if she didn’t have to “run this place” (meaning the library).
According to her, the only thing that was stopping her leaving was the library’s inability to function without her, like she had pe
