Page 18 of The Redemption of the Shrew

“Tsk,” Alice said. “Lust trumps all.”

As a first step, it wasn’t much. At least Alice hadn’t laughed in her face. Perhaps she would pave the way with a little gossip, and Melinda and Daisy had agreed to help find more patrons during the upcoming season. Maybe publicly agreeing with Philippe wouldn’t be quite so humiliating after all.

December came. Gloriana left gifts for the children at the school and at Sophie Brun’s, and returned to Lancashire for the Christmas season.

She no longer berated herself for her own unkind, foolish behavior. Nor did she dwell on the cruelty on Philippe’s part which had sparked it, for what was the point? She reveled in the freedom and usefulness of her life in London. In Lancashire, she savored the company of her family, particularly her dear cousin Daisy, who had come to Garrison House with her husband, Sir Julian Kerr. Christmas came and went, and Gloriana participated happily in visiting tenants, distributing gifts, and serving lamb’s wool to a large party of guests on Christmas Eve. She played a role in a Christmas play, and even joined a group of rowdy neighbors in saluting the apple orchard on Twelfth Night.

“I am reborn,” she told herself as she returned to the Dower House well after midnight. She was a new, contented Gloriana, filled with goodwill and ready to seek out more patrons for the school. Surely now, after so many months, she could seek the comfort and solace of the Book of Hours once again.

She thanked the footman who’d escorted her home and went slowly up the stairs to her bedchamber. Impatiently, she let Elspeth undress her and prepare her for bed. “Thank you, but I’m not ready to sleep just yet,” she said when the maid tried to hustle her under the covers. “And I’m sure you’re dying to go to bed and read.” For Gloriana had given her two of the latest romantic novels as a Christmas gift.

Elspeth grinned. “Aye, Miss Glow, that I am.”

Pleased with herself, at peace with the world, and alone at last, Gloriana set her candle near the shelf and reached behind the books to her hiding place.

The Book of Hours wasn’t there.

Chapter 5

“It’s gone, I tell you. Gone!” Gloriana paced up and down in the drawing room at Garrison House. “Miles, are you sure you didn’t take it for safekeeping?”

“Completely sure.” Lord Garrison was seated at one end of the sofa, arms crossed in annoyance. “If I had thought about it, which I did not, I would have assumed you had taken it with you to London as usual.”

Oh, how she wished she had. She’d deprived herself of it out of a feeling of deep unworthiness, and now she’d lost it entirely. Did this mean she would never again deserve its consolations?

That was probably a flawed, and far too irrational, conclusion. Nevertheless, the conviction that its loss was her fault had gnawed at her all night.

“How can it be gone?” Melinda asked. “Perhaps you simply forgot where you last put it.”

“I know perfectly well where I put it,” Gloriana retorted. “I remember precisely because it was not long after Lord Hythwick tried to violate me.”

“Maybe you weren’t yourself at the time,” her cousin Daisy suggested from across the room. “Being assaulted is enough to overset anyone, even you.”

“I wasn’t overset. I was merely furious. Philippe de Bellechasse had a look at it, and when he handed it back, I put it where I always do—behind some books on one of my shelves.”

“Philippe asked to see it?” Daisy sent a startled glance at her husband, Sir Julian, who was prodding a log in the fireplace.

“It does seem rather a strange moment to do so,” Melinda said. “Hadn’t he just finished knocking Hythwick to the floor?”

Gloriana flapped a hand. “What does that have to do with it? He has no sensibility, and nor do I. We were quarreling, as we always do, and he spied it on the table and picked it up. I put it away and haven’t taken it out since.”

“You have quite a few books,” Melinda suggested. “Perhaps you put it on a different shelf.”

“I searched my entire bedchamber last night. I took every single book off the shelves. I didn’t sleep a wink, and I ransacked the whole room again this morning. I questioned all the servants at the Dower House. They say they haven’t seen it. I trust them all—they’ve been with us for years. They swore there have been no break-ins.”

“No, none at all. They would have informed me immediately,” Miles said.

“And yet,” Gloriana said, “I couldn’t help remembering that there were quite a few thefts here in the North last year.”

“That’s true,” Daisy agreed, shooting another glance at Julian, who frowned in response.

Gloriana wrung her hands. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I suppose I shall have to question my servants too,” Miles said.

“You can be quite intimidating if you choose,” Melinda said, looking uneasy.

“I prefer not to bully my people,” Miles said, “particularly when it serves little purpose. Even if one of the servants stole it, they must have sold it by now.”