The Clock Winked (The Sagittan Chronicles Book 2) by Ariele Sieling Page A

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until later.”
    “Fine,” Salve agreed, following Bronwyn to a booth in the
back of the shop, near a large lamp that pointed away from the table. A moose
head decorated the wall and a mug of poisonous bayweed had been placed in the
center of the table.
    “Strange decorators in this place,” Salve said.
    The waitress set Bronwyn’s coffee on the table, winked at
Salve, and walked away.
    “Why did she wink?” Bronwyn asked.
    “I’m a long-time customer, and she thinks you’re cute,”
Salve replied. “Anyway, first question: how long have you known that you’re related
to the great and mysterious Bronwyn Rae of the old legend of the Clock?”
    “For about a year,” Bronwyn said, reaching out for the salt
shaker. She began to move it back and forth from one hand to the other. “My
aunt kept it a secret until I found out one day in school when I was reading in
the rare books collection about the legend.”
    “You’ve never seen your birth certificate?”
    “No. I’ve never needed to,” she said. “How old do you think
I am?”
    “I think I’ll ask the questions,” Salve said, grinning. “Wouldn’t want to dig myself into any holes, thanks. So,
you’re working at Oliphant, booksellers ?”
    “No, not really. I was just helping
out for the day you came in,” she answered. “I wouldn’t mind working there, of
course, but I think I would get in trouble.”
    “Your family is rather influential,” Salve stated. “I could
see it being a status issue.”
    “And my aunt is very keen that I should not learn anything
about the legend, although I don’t know why.”
    “Have you come across any relics or interesting facts about
your family since you learned who you were?”
    “Just one that I know of. The only
thing I learned—quite by accident actually—I learned when I heard my aunt and
Butler discussing some changes they wanted to make to the house. There is this
great big, ginormous, old, wooden desk in the study upstairs at my house. I’m
not allowed in the study, of course, so I’ve only seen it a couple of times
when I sneaked in, but I heard my aunt and Butler saying that it was really old
and that it had been in this same house for quite a number of generations.
Butler wanted to move it, but Aunt Llewellyn said no to that idea.” Bronwyn
took a sip of her coffee. “Are you seriously writing all this down?”
    “I sure am,” Salve said, glancing up from his notebook. He
smiled. “So did you learn anything interesting about Auvek while you were
working with him? You like him?”
    “Yeah, he seems really down-to-earth and straightforward. I
think he’ll do a lot of good for that store. His uncle is a bit of a drunk and
a nutcase. I probably wouldn’t buy books if he were the person I had to look at
when I walked in the door.” She glanced at Salve’s notebook and laughed. “Oh!
Don’t write that down!”
    Salve chuckled. “What kind of changes does he want to make?”
    “Oh, just cleaning and sorting and sifting the valuable
stuff out of the less valuable stuff. I mean, book collecting is a hobby for
the wealthy, so he could potentially make quite a lot if he markets it right.
He should use that monkey as a mascot.”
    “Monkey?”
    “Ooops. I think Simon is a secret.”
Bronwyn took a sip of her coffee.
    “Actually, there are quite a number of reports of a monkey
being seen in the shop. He was a well-known presence several Oliphants
previously, but he hasn’t been seen for centuries, and most people thought he had
died. Monkeys don’t live that long, you know.”
    “Simon is a robot monkey.” Bronwyn shrugged. “He’s very
sweet and he’s helping Auvek straighten out the business. But please, please
don’t say anything. I promised him I wouldn’t tell.”
    “You know you shouldn’t tell a reporter
things you don’t want other people to know,” Salve scolded gently. “Especially when it involves robot monkeys! But, okay. I
like you, so I’ll keep it to