The Library of Forbidden Books

Chapter 2

As they drove up Johnston Terrace toward Nina’s suggested pub, there was a network of memories and events exchanged between the two women in the car. Nina listened as Gretchen told her of her fairytale marriage that ended in dire heartbreak at the death of her husband in a construction accident in Italy. She had been teaching at several colleges and universities all over Europe, but the warmth of the Mediterranean countries appealed most to her. It was odd for Nina to hear, since she remembered that Gretchen was a skiing champion and could never wait for the German winter so that she could go hunting with her father and his brothers in the Schwarzwald and gallivant in the snow-flanked rivers of southwest Germany.

Nina was selective about what she shared about her past excursions, but since they were comparing romantic conquests and relationships she had no choice but to introduce Dave Purdue and Sam Cleave.

“Oh, I know them,” Gretchen smiled, and then laughed heartily at Nina’s perplexed frown. “Not like that, silly! It’s not my fault you surround yourself with celebrities.”

Nina realized that both her former lovers were in fact famous in certain circles. Of course, Gretchen being an academic she would have heard of Dave Purdue, the playboy billionaire inventor and explorer who launched many expeditions to find legendary locations that were considered myths.

And naturally, a wider spectrum of people knew Sam Cleave, the Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist who lost his fiancée to a well-placed bullet when the two of them exposed a dangerous international arms ring that Nina’s own fiancé at the time was involved in.

“But now you are alone?” Gretchen asked, once they both sat down in the rowdy pub for some dinner and drinks.

“Blissfully,” Nina said indifferently, looking around the establishment, driven by that same habit of surveying her environment.

“How so? We all want to be with someone,” Gretchen said sincerely, reading through the menu. Nina noticed that she had aged quite a bit, but still retained her soft features. Her slightly kinky hair flopped over her shoulders and in the yellow light from the ceiling it went from gold to its natural reddish copper color. She still had that mousy face, pointy chin, and those freckles that she so carefully concealed with plastered base that just made her look plastic.

But Nina could never tell her that she looked painted, even though Gretchen was perfectly beautiful without any make-up. The lines on her face attested to a harsh emotional blow or two in her past, but her age did not show as unkindly as she might have thought.

“I thought I wanted to be with someone,” Nina admitted. “And at times I was greedy and wanted them both, but now that I am not that emotionally dependent, now that I am exhausted by the dangers of what we do, I just want to be alone for a while.”

“Geez, what did they do to you? I mean, Nina Gould was never Miss Romantic or anything, but you seem downright cynical now,” her friend observed honestly.

Nina smiled warmly. It was so good to have female company again, something she never thought she would crave, and Gretchen was the best kind of female. She was dead honest without being insulting or judgmental and she was a truly wise old soul who always applied her knowledge to her emotions to get an even result to act from.

“I’ll thaw again,” Nina winked, “just not soon. I bought a house in Oban!”

Gretchen was surprised at the sudden jump in subject and mood, but the news was very interesting and uplifting so she entertained it instantly.

“No way! In your old stomping grounds!” she exclaimed excitedly. When the two women were roommates she always wanted to see Nina’s hometown. From the pictures on her walls it looked like postcard-picture perfection, Gretchen recalled.

“Aye,” Nina nodded.

“When are you moving in?” she asked with a beaming grin as she received her steak dinner from the waiter.

“Next week,” Nina answered. “I just have to go and sign the transfer papers at the agency office.”

“Is it a cottage on the shoreline? You know, I’ve heard some fishermen in small towns are quite fetching,” Gretchen jested.

“Nope. It’s in a normal street with other normal houses, but it is an older home. Apparently it is much older than the others in the neighborhood. But that is what I want, Gretch. I want to… ” Nina sighed at her own absurdity, “go back in time. I want to hide in a space that comes from the old times. Being a historian, loving the past, I feel it to be an honor to live in a structure that lived then, that saw the events I can only read about and study in books. Imagine being in the same space as… as… Julius Caesar, as Attila the Hun, to walk where Christ walked. That is why I wanted this house.”

“Is it that old?” Gretchen frowned. She seemed intrigued and abandoned her food to Nina’s words.

“No,” Nina sighed and smiled, “of course not that old, but when I was a little girl it was already there. I remember being in awe of the old place and now I get to live in it!”

“I think that is very cool. I’d love to see the place,” Gretchen said. “To see you in a house would be odd, though. You are such a typical posh-apartment-for-young-professionals type.”

“Take a good look, honey,” Nina replied. “There is not much young or professional left in me.”

“Oh, bollocks!” her friend retorted. “Your beauty only matured. Let’s just say your looks now match that mean fucking temper of yours.”

Again, Gretchen’s honesty was refreshing after all the lies Purdue and Cleave had fed her so many times. Nina was finally happy.