First Louise Penny Book Novels & Stories

He hadn’t touched his. Penny looked up as Lochlan came over to her booth. He leaned forward, whispering into the ear of the woman sitting across from her. For the first time since the girl had sat down, her fingers stopped their incessant tapping. The girl slid out of the booth without a word, and the man took her place. Suddenly, Penny started to feel self-conscious about how she looked - and she didn’t usually. She resisted the urge to fuss with her hair, which she knew would be frizzy. The drier it got, the crazier she was going to look.

Her voice was clipped, and her brows furrowed when she took a good look at my face. "Hi Alice, I'm Penny. Is this your first time traveling on a ship?" I had never seen one in real life. The kind of ship that Leo owned, I had only seen in newspapers, but it looked even more majestic in person. "Second time on this one. Many times on a ship, of course. I'm trained to cater to the wealthy and royal passengers' needs." The ship's sudden lurch as I stepped onto the deck caught me off guard, causing me to lose balance. I instinctively reached out to grab Alice to stop myself from falling. Alice recoiled from my touch, brushing my hand off her skirt as if I were dirt.