May 1, 1895 — Crowdy Memorial Library

Timothy had been in his position for years now and he had a decent group of librarians working alongside him in the library. He knew that he went against the norm when he had decided to allow for his librarians to continue work while pregnant (albeit with orders to not do heavy lifting in the later stages of their pregnancy) and to hold space for them to come back after leaving to actually have the baby taking up their womb. With some time to spend at home with the baby too.

Mrs Kirke was one of these women, having had three babies now, the last one only a few months ago. Having worked with his most of his staff for some years now, he had some insight on which kind of literature they most enjoyed and which they loathed. "Mrs. Kirke, I had been meaning to share this tome* with you upon your return but I have just been so busy," he said as he gently settled it on the table in front of her.

*you can make up what it is lol, you know Elsies reading preferences better than I do ;)

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Elsie Kirke

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   Elsie Kirke

Elsie had always been appreciative of Mr. Ainsworth's flexibility with her employment; she would simply go mad if she was to stay at home all of the time. She loved her children of course— and she also loved her work. The income was not strictly necessary, not now that Tyb was the head of the Dueling Commission, but it was nice and it kept them more than comfortable. Mostly it was purely for her sanity and for a way to keep abreast of the outside world. When she was confined to the house during pregnancy and the newborn days, she always felt like she was a little adrift without much knowledge of the goings on around her.

Currently she was sat at one of the side desks, cataloguing recently returned books to arrange to be put back on the shelves. This was the sort of thing she enjoyed. Many people would find it boring, but Elsie found the predictability and the organization soothing. It wasn't mindless and she always flipped through the books to make sure they were undamaged, but she also sometimes found bookmarks, or notes and she felt like she was learning something about the last person who had borrowed the book.

When a new novel had slipped into her field of view, she looked up at Mr. Ainsworth with a smile. "I have been eyeing it." She admitted with a sheepish smile. News from Nowhere was not a typical novel for her to grab; Elsie mostly read fairy tales or romance novels, but this one was categorized as a dystopian setting and the romance was secondary. The plot intrigued her and that Mr. Ainsworth had recognized it might be something she would enjoy felt like a good enough reason to give it a try. "Have you read it yet?" She was curious to see if he had thoughts.

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MJ always makes her so pretty