General Well'ngone In Love (11 page)

“
If it is Amos & Amos calling again, I shall …” Mr Taylor
opened the door, but he had no need to complete his threat. The tea
merchant must have gone to find greener fields, for he was not the
one standing at the door.

“
Alt clo’s, sir?” asked an elderly Jew, dressed in ragged
clothes, whose hoary head was crowned by a faded, low-sitting,
flat-brimmed hat, which had been the height of fashion some ten
years previously and from which there now escaped several tangled
strands of white hair in a straggly fashion. “Buy or sell, I am at
your service, sir.”

“
Come in and I shall ask my sister.”

The old man,
whose name was Jeremiah Schneider, entered the room and Mr Taylor
quickly closed the door. “Have a seat, sir,” he said to the elderly
Jew. “Elisheva, is there still some salop?”

The old
clothes man sat down, while Elisheva went to the hearth and removed
the kettle from the hob. She poured some of the hot water into two
mugs, and then into each added a spoonful of powdered orchid root.
When the powder had dissolved, she added a few drops of rosewater,
to sweeten the brew.

“
Will you not join us, Elisheva?” asked the old man, after
Elisheva had placed the two mugs on the table.

“
I am not thirsty,” she replied.

“
She was invited to take tea at Devonshire Square,” Mr Taylor
added.

The elderly
Jew raised his bushy white eyebrows. “Devonshire Square? That’s a
fine place to wet your whistle. So is Bury Street, for that matter.
But I have not come to pay a social call. I am in trouble,
Gabriel.”

“
What kind of trouble?”

“
Hanging trouble.”

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Tempest in the Tea Room,
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ABOUT THE
AUTHOR

Libi Astaire is an
award-winning author who often writes about Jewish history. The
first book in her Ezra Melamed Mystery Series,
The Disappearing Dowry
, was a Sydney
Taylor Notable Book. Other volumes include
The Doppelganger’s Dance
,
Tempest in the Tea Room
,
and
The Ruby Spy Ring
.

She is also the author
of
Terra Incognita
, a novel about modern-day descendants of Spain’s
crypto-Jews,
The Banished
Heart
, a novel about Shakespeare’s writing
of
The Merchant of
Venice
, and several volumes of Chassidic
tales. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel.

For updates about future books in the Ezra Melamed Mystery
Series, visit her website at
www.libiastaire.weebly.com
.

COMING IN
2015

A New Mystery Series Featuring

General Well’ngone & the Earl of Gravel Lane

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