After taking something of a hiatus on her research over the Christmas holiday, Juliana was eager to jump back into things. The manuscript for her book was already in and she was waiting on comments and revisions from her editor, so she had shifted her attention to another focal area. As much as she rejected Piccardy's "scholarship" out of hand, his early criticism of her work had been sticking in her mind. She trusted her sources, and what was more, she trusted herself to discern when her sources were being forthcoming and when there was something hidden — but she could not expect scholars, who would never meet her or her subjects, to have that same trust. She needed to do some physical experiments, she had decided, to provide some proof that the people she was talking to actually were inflicted with lycanthropy.

Unfortunately, chemistry and anatomy were far removed from qualitative interviews, which had been the focus of her work so far. She needed to get a functional knowledge of multiple subjects quickly if she were going to do any serious work. To that end, she'd spent a free afternoon more or less pillaging the library. She'd filled a book bag at her side and stacked up quite the tower in her arms, and was carefully treading towards the counter. She had quite a ways to go and was making slow progress, however, so when she saw a cart pull out in front of her in the aisle she immediately tried to get the attention of the man pushing it.

"Sorry to be a bother, but perhaps I could borrow that cart? Oh! Mr. Ainsworth! Hello," she said pleasantly, peeking over the top of her book tower.

Timothy Ainsworth Roberto Devine