At 42, She Had Made Her Peace With Solitude—Then the Duke Walked Into Her Shop

At forty-two, Hester Wold had stopped expecting anything interesting to walk through her door. She had her shop, her herbs, her regulars, her routines. She had made a quiet life and she was not, despite what people seemed to assume, unhappy in it. Solitude, she had found, was not the same thing as loneliness. She had learned the difference some years ago and had never looked back. He came in because his horse had thrown a shoe and he needed somewhere to wait. She gave him a chair near the window and went back to her work, which he seemed to find unusual — most people, she gathered later, did not ignore him. He stayed for an hour. He asked her two questions, both of which were genuinely interesting. She answered them. He came back the next day. His horse was fine. And the day after that. New stories every day.