“Excuse me, Dr. Moore?” Nell asked.
Eve turned around, scanning the crowd to see who was calling to her.
“I’m sorry, I have an interview in a few minutes, but I’ll be able to give you a quote later if you’ll still be around,” she said, assuming Nell was a graduate student.
Nell put out her hand. “Actually, I’m not here for a class. I have a question about a Sanborn map in my own personal collection.” That was such a strange thing to say, but she supposed it was true now. She had two maps of the same geographical region from the same historical period. Technically, that was the start of a collection—however ridiculous the specimens were. “The person who gave it to me said it was special, but I don’t understand what that meant.”
“Special? Interesting.” Eve’s face brightened with curiosity. She returned the handshake. Around them, the crowd streamed toward some other booth that must have just opened, and Nell had to nudge closer to her in order not to be gently bumped by passing shoulders. “Was it a private sale or an auction? Who was the original owner?” Eve asked.
“You, actually, I think,” Nell answered.
Eve stared at her, confused. “I help curate the Penn State collection, but that’s owned by the university. I don’t . . .”
“I know it’s been a long time,” Nell said. “My name is Nell Young.”
Eve’s entire demeanor changed. The easy, professional smile had dropped off her face, and her eyes were wide and searching, as if stunned.
“I’m sorry to surprise you like this,” Nell added, more softly.
“No, no,” Eve replied. She reached out and clasped Nell’s hand. “It’s just so good to see you. Goodness, how you’ve grown.” Her brow furrowed as she gained control of herself again. “I’m so sorry about your father.”
“Thank you,” Nell said. She went out on a limb. “I’m grateful that you tried to help him. With the Sanborn map, I mean.”
It worked. She studied Nell suspiciously. “You found it in his things?”
Nell shook her head. “I went to see Ramona. She gave it to me.”
“You did? I’m surprised you found her shop.”
Nell paused, perplexed. Eve was the second person who had said something strange about Ramona’s shop. “My father had her business card. It wasn’t too difficult.”
Eve hesitated, as if deciding about something. “Yes,” she finally said. “Well. She’s always been cautious.”
The conference was still streaming around them, hundreds of people alone in their section, and hundreds more beyond that. Eve looked as eager to escape the crowd as Nell felt. Did she also know about the Cartographers and their connection to the other map—the General Drafting one?
“Let’s go to my booth,” Eve said, gesturing down another aisle. “We can talk in private there.”
They slipped away toward the booth in the center of the fair. Nell was nervous that it would be even more crowded than the hall, but although there were plenty of visitors, the Sanborn exhibit was so large that it was easy for them to find a secluded corner. Eve settled them at a small examination table in the back. All around them, detailed floor plans from the collection hung in frames against a black background—a million rooms within the room they were in.
As Nell pulled the envelope the Sanborn map was in out of her father’s portfolio, the photograph Francis had included with it fluttered free and landed on the far side of the table. Eve stared at it for a long moment before handing it back to Nell, smiling.
“I remember this,” she said. “That was the day after we all graduated from our Ph.D. program.”