‘Eventually, she reached a dead end. And a shop. It had a
drunken facade, bowed down by disrepute and a smell of damp animal hides. There
was a door on the left and bulging shop window to the right, and hanging above
the door was a lantern with a miniature sphinx atop, fashionably painted in
glistening garish colours. Isabella went up to the door and cleared the soot
off the plate:
Madame Sebbotendorf of Ekatrinburg
Seller of Rare
Books and Acquirer of Fine Curios
Specialist in Root
Race Antiquities
Breeder of Lhasa
Apsos of Distinction
Isabella turned her attention to the window, cupped her hands against one of its convex glass panels and peered in...’
 |
| Tea-stained Madness |
