“This is what remains ofWaverlyafter Pugsley made himself familiar with it last month.”
She took the book and gasped. The edges were entirely chewed up, and pages halfway ripped out of it.
“Goodness, that is what he does to my shoes and hats.” She handed the novel back with a bemused shake of the head. “I will say, more remains of your novel than of my bonnet.”
Somehow as they conversed, it felt like the heaviness that lingered in the air between them lifted. And for an instant, she almost forgot why they were here.
It was so easy talking to him. This was one of the reasons why she was so ardently in love with him. Even though Seth liked to keep to himself and was challenging to get to know, on those rare occasions when he broke out of his shell, he was funny, charming, and utterly interesting. She never conversed with him so intimately, of course, they were usually in the company of others.
“Were you able to finish it before Pugsley got ahold of it?”
He shook his head. “I am sad to say I was not. I was about halfway through before he so violently defaced it. I will have to pick up another copy. I ought to give this one to the servants to throw in the fire, but I don’t particularly appreciate throwing books away. It feels…”
“Sacrilegious,” Winnie said with an eager nod.
He smiled at this. “I would not go quite so far, but yes, it feels very wrong. “My father and mother were both very fond of books. It is one of the fondest memories I have of them, taking turns reading to us. However, Rose does not care for novels much. She collects them, but doesn’t read them. They are an investment, she says.”
“Leo does not read novels, either. He collects books about tea, and sugar. Spices and cookbooks. Nothing remotely creative. He’s much fonder of the theater or the opera. As of late, the ballet.”
Seth rolled his eyes. “Rose has a rather disturbing obsession with the ballet of late as well. We do not often venture out into town together, we are not that close, but she did attempt to force me to attend the ballet with her. I valiantly resist it.”
“I was not so lucky. Leo insisted that both Victoria and I attend the ballet with him for his birthday. “
Seth cringed. “My sincere condolences. But it seems you passed the evening without lasting effects.”
“Perhaps because I fell asleep midway through the performance. “
The two smiled at one another, and just as Winnifred was about to carry on the banter, his face darkened.
“Have you had the opportunity to look at my sister’s diary?”
Winnifred’s shoulders slumped forward. “Not yet, I shall do so now.”
He gave her a nod and crossed the room.
“While you are occupied with that, I will look through some of her books. Not that she reads them, but I shall look anyhow. If there was other correspondence from the blackmailers, she might have hidden the notes rather than leave it out for one of the maids to find.”
He turned his back to her without even waiting for a reply from Winnie. She sighed. The heaviness between them had returned. She could not shake the feeling that somehow Seth was angry with her.
His moods change so quickly. Has it always been like this? I know he has never been an easy-going kind of fellow, but he is not usually quite in such high dudgeon. Of course, your sister is not missing.
Winnie shook her head, sat down on the plush chair near Rose’s desk, and flicked through the booklet. She did keep very detailed notes. However, there was nothing of particular interest in the diary.
She saw a physician a month ago; she had an appointment to visit the circulating library with a friend, followed by a visit to the Royal Menagerie, but nothing, nothing at all that suggested even in the slightest that she was keeping a secret someone would blackmail her over. Winnie took one of Rose’s pencils and a page of writing paper. She quickly made a list of how often she’d attended the various social functions and then sat up straight. She placed the book in front of her.
“Any luck yet?” Seth asked from the other side of the room.
Winnie shook her head. “No, not yet. The only clear thing is that Rose was much too busy to be blackmailed.” She glanced at him, hoping to restore some of their earlier effortlessly conversations, but failed. Seth stared at her. Winnie picked up the paper and waved it in his direction. “I am making a list of how many times she is visiting the opera and other locations.”
He pursed his lips but said nothing as he proceeded to flick through another book.
She ignored his mood and paged through the book once more but then dropped it again. Outside, the sky darkened as the sun started its descent for the day. Her eyes burned from the strain of reading through the book, and she rubbed them.
Behind her, she heard Seth moving again. He picked up book after book and flipped through each for the past hour or so, only to return every single one to the shelf with a heavy sigh. She glanced over her shoulder, their eyes met, and she quickly looked away.
“So, tell me. Just how busy a social life did Rose have?” he asked. The brisk tone bothered her, but she pushed the vexation aside.
“The diary, for that is what this is, started in March. Since then, I have noted weekly visits to Almack’s on Wednesdays, six visits to the opera, seven to the ballet, and five to the Royal Menagerie. This is the only odd thing I noticed.”
