Kind of a mirror to Bianca’s earlier instincts of “show care for Patrick by bringing him books.”
…except not in the sense that Lily’s caring for Timothy. He’s not special to Brother Alvah, therefore he’s not special to her. (Yet.)
No, what’s going on is, Alvah doesn’t share books with Lily. Doesn’t talk about the Bible with her, definitely doesn’t talk about his special secret books that nobody else in the compound gets to see.
She can’t read them herself, so the only way to get closer to her Master is to have someone else read them to her.
Lily: You’re ignoring me. Why?
Timothy: Um . . . I . . .
Lily: Did we run out of stories in the book?
Timothy: Yes! Yes, that’s it. We’re all out of stories.
Lily: There are more books in my Master’s room. If I get one of them, could we read that?
Sparrow: Uh-oh. I see where this is going. How many of the “secret books” were porn, and how creepy?
Timothy: . . . Some. Not as many as the breathless news reports would like to imply, but some. But I didn’t find out about that part until much later.
The first book Lily brought out to read wasn’t sexual at all, though it wasn’t exactly spiritual . . .
Right. It’s not like Lily is personally interested in the books. She wants to know what’s there to better understand her master.
Okay so I know you didn’t ask for one this time but, well. It seemed thematically appropriate.
https://imgur.com/a/qYYj6D3
Excellent addition!