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Annie laughed, and he held the door open for her.This particular pub had all the elements she’d mentioned, but the wall behind the bar was glass and mirrors, which allowed light from the shop front window to reflect into the low-ceilinged space, and the dark wood furniture, bar, and trim was offset with cream-colored walls.It was a modern, updated version of an old man pub, and one of his favorite places to eat.

For a minute, he imagined bringing Annie here during Christmas.This particular pub was famous for its holiday decorations, and he was fairly sure the nearly overwhelming number of twinkle lights, Santas, and of course, gingerbread houses and men would make her smile.

Annie claimed one side of a dark corner booth.Colum would have preferred to get a snug, but they were occupied, so he slid in next to her.For a moment, he tried to recall the last time he’d been out with a woman.It had been long before Josephine’s death.

Colum sighed softly, as he considered the chasm that sliced through his memories, his life divided into two parts—before and after Josephine.

The bartender walked over.“What’ll ye be having?”

“I’d like a pint of Guinness,” Annie said, before looking at Colum.“When in Rome…”

He smiled and asked for a Guinness shandy.He didn’t drink much anymore, not since he’d woken up on the bathroom floor one night with a nasty lump on his forehead and a black eye from passing out in a drunken stupor.The two-day pounding headache had been a wake-up call, as had the banged-up sight of his face.When he’d taken a hard look at himself in the mirror, he’d been overwhelmed with shame, imagining Josephine’s reaction if she’d seen him looking like he’d been on the wrong end of a bar brawl.No doubt she would have called him a gobshite or an eejit and clicked her tongue in disapproval, same as Ma always used to do when they were being little shites.

The bartender left them to study the menu while he went to get their beer.

“What would you suggest for someone who is starving?”Annie asked, tipping her head toward the menu written on the chalkboard.

Colum silently kicked himself for failing to offer her and Xavier something to eat back at the archive.Not that he’d had much in his cupboards besides some stale biscuits.“Can’t go wrong with fish and chips.”

“That good, huh?”

He nodded.“It’s my favorite.”

“Then that’s what I’ll have.”

The two of them placed their orders when the bartender delivered their pints.When Annie lifted her glass, he did the same.

“Slainte,” he said, and she repeated it, attempting to mimic his Irish accent.

“So, how exactly does one become the archivist of a secret society?”she asked in an exaggerated whisper.

“Nepotism.”The word slipped out without thought, and the second he saw her confused face, he wished he’d held his tongue.

“Seriously?”

He shook his head.“No, well, maybe.The fleet admiral started renting a small cottage on the corner of my family’s dairy farm in Galway when I was fifteen.I, uh…” Colum ran his hand through his hair.“I broke into his house.”

“You broke into the fleet admiral’s cottage?”Annie asked, eyes wide, clearly delighted by his story.

“Well, he wasn’t the fleet admiral at the time.Just Eric.”

“Why did you break into his house?”

Colum stumbled a bit, uncertain which side of this tale to tell her, the real version or the lie Josephine created at the time to keep Eric from learning about his social anxiety.

The truth was he’d broken in to learn everything he could about Eric so that he would know how to behave around him.Social interactions weren’t his strong point.Josephine understood his struggles, and because she was her, she’d insisted on breaking in with him.Thank God she had because when Eric caught them, Colum had frozen, unable to speak.

“Colum,” Annie prompted.

Dear God, he was woolgathering again.He cleared his throat.“Eric is this huge, powerful, intense Viking, and I was fascinated by him.You have to understand, I grew up in an extremely rural area.The only men I’d ever known were farmers, like my da, so when Eric showed up, I…”

“You what?”

Colum swallowed heavily, then pushed the truth down, falling back on the lie.“I planned to borrow one of his books.My family, we were poor, so the only books available to us were from the library and that collection was lacking.I’d never known anyone to own as many books as Eric.He had shelves full of them.”

Annie shook her head in an amused manner.“Only fifteen and already drawn to books, huh?”

Colum nodded earnestly.“I’ve loved books since the first moment I learned to read.”