Protect Lily’s memory.

Protect the shop.

With all my gratitude, Julian. I read it twice, and then a third time, my tears falling onto the page. I needed to know that your kindness was genuine, unpolluted by the promise of wealth. That was why he had kept the truth from me, why he had let me believe he was a penniless, forgotten old man.

He had needed to be certain that I was comforting him for himself, and not for his fortune, and the only way to be certain was to hide the fortune entirely, and to watch whether I stayed.