Her explanation clarified what she had in mind, to a point — within the umbrella of books you don't let the general public see there was still a wide variety of different sorts of books. Some Ned didn't stock and never planned to — books of dark magic, books intended to cause harm and do very little else — but there were plenty of others. Books that were rare and highly specialized, which might make too good a target for thieves to allow out on the floor; books that required special licenses or permits to own because they (or their contents) could be hazardous if not stored correctly; books that were perfectly ordinary themselves but which contained material people didn't like to talk about at parties, and therefore didn't like to be reminded existed when they were out and about shopping. She had not really given him any indication which of those she was interested in.

"It wouldn't be very good business to keep books we didn't let the general public see," he joked, at his usual volume. "We probably wouldn't sell many of them." Then matching her lower, slightly conspiratorial tone, he continued: "We can get just about anything on a special order. Did you want to step into a side room to discuss exactly what it is you're looking for?"

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