Chapter Seventeen
The entrance to the stationery store was just off of 22nd Street between Market Street and Ship Mechanic Row, a simple red door between a boot repair shop and a pharmacy. A plain green sign hung overhead and read Brighton Stationary in gold letters. A brass bell jangled at the street door as Mathias led Alfred up the stairs and they slipped through a doorway at the top. Alfred stepped into a large store that filled the second floor above the pharmacy. It was lined with oak shelves displaying hand-sewn leather journals and examples of embossed paper products. A small table toward the windows at the front of the store held an assortment of pens and inkwells while a cabinet against the wall offered a variety of inks behind glass doors. Alfred stepped farther into the store
