“Thanks,” she said, and leaned close to speak quietly. “But in the interest of full disclosure, I should warn you that ever since I moved here, my stomach has been going bonkers. I’ve been getting tested for everything but the doctors don’t know what’s going on.” She rubbed her belly for emphasis. “I’m just telling you because I tend to run off to the ladies’ room with alarming regularity. I’ll try not to be too disruptive about all the comings and goings.”

“Good to know,” I said, biting back a smile. At least she was honest, and I appreciated her self-deprecating wit. And now that I’d had a moment to study her more closely, the name Alice suited her perfectly, from her demure white blouse to her straight blond hair and velvet headband.

Her cell phone beeped and she jumped, then checked the screen. She shook her head and shot me a beleaguered look. “Sorry. Stuart and I text incessantly. We’re having wedding issues.”

“You have my complete sympathy,” I said, patting her shoulder. I handed her a set of tools and pointed to an empty chair. “Why don’t you sit over there next to Tom, and we’ll get started with sewing signatures?”

One hour later, I walked the periphery of the classroom, helping those who were struggling with the kettle stitch, the intricate nineteenth-century thread pattern used to sew linen tapes to signature pages. For some, the tricky part was drawing the thread through the paper without actually piercing the linen strips that would hold everything together. For others, it was keeping the thread tension even, as they added a new set of signatures to the previous one.

“Ack!” Gina cried. “I’m never going to get this.”

“Yes, you are,” I said, trying not to cringe at her wobbly stitches. “It’s just a little tricky because the book we’re making is so small. When we start on the journals, you’ll have an easier time.”