Excerpt:

The doorbell rang and Edgard Grimbold sloshed tea over his arm and dropped his "Visit Sunny Sotherland!" mug on the floor.  As Town Hermit, he received precious few visitors at Buggeroff.
   
Emmalinza's Damn Cat wound about his legs as he tiptoed to the door.  Why the woman had left it behind was beyond Edgard, even more beyond than why she'd brought the furry, yowling thing home in the first place.
   
Edgard peeked through the spyhole.  The trespasser waiting on the other side of the door peered back at him with "smarmy pious do-gooder" stamped into her forehead.  The Tweedhern City Council required they identify themselves in such an obvious manner so as to separate the dedicated pie-thumbers from the weekend meddlers.
   
"Yoo hoo!  Mister Grimbold!"  The woman rapped the door smartly with one gloved hand.
   
Edgard reached over the cat and plucked The Book of Hermitry from the bookshelf without removing his eye from the spy hole.  He consulted the Table of Contents and flipped to Chapter Four: Dealing with Unwanted Visitors.