Theo paused. Something about that date, twenty-five years previous, seemed off. He knew Sir Roderick had been the head librarian for seventy-two years; they’d talked about it, laughing: dear boy, you’ll be better than I ever was, you’ll keep it all ticking over for a hundred years, no doubt…fixing all our errors, putting us all to rights…
This was too recent to be an initial inventory. It had to be. Had Sir Roderick been doing research? A request from a member of the faculty?
Theo flicked the page over, and back. Sir Roderick had not left detailed notes. Simply a hasty scribble: all volumes accounted for. Where they should be.
Had that been in doubt?
Theo tapped his pen against the paper he’d brought for copying out relevant information. He had not needed to, thus far.
What he did hav
