She hadn’t.
Neither had she hidden it in her chest of drawers, armoire, beneath the mattress of her bed, or even the pillows. She inspected every corner of her chamber and came up with a rather puzzling loss.
Surely . . . this couldn’t be?
“I suspect we have a problem,” the duke remarked flatly.
Lawks! “Weren’t you rummaging through my belongings moments ago? Why are you standing there as still as a tree now?”
“I searched in most of the places you did, my lady, and it wouldn’t be proper of me to rifle through your belongings with you in plain sight.”
“That’swhere you draw the line?”
“Most would commend me for having a line.”
Louisa gave a derisive laugh. “What an arrogant thing to say for a thief who got caught.”
He didn’t respond to that. Instead, he said. “Is it possible that someone might have found the book and moved it? Like a servant?”
Louisa thought about it. Other than misplacing items, in the past she’d also dreamed or imagined she’d done somethingwhen in reality she hadn’t, but then she believed she had. A rather strange occurrence, to be sure, though thankfully it didn’t happen often.
However, could this be the case with the book?
If so, then had she simply left that cursed thing in the drawing room somewhere?
Ah, Theodosia! Why bring this curse to me?
She had never wanted to touch the thing. But the blasted book had been stolen from White’s because, along with seven other heiresses, their best attributes and worst attributes were being tallied and their eventual marriages wagered over upon in its pages. Ghastly business. And she wanted only to put it and the comment it contained about her childbearing hips aside!
She scoffed inside.
Perhaps she could not remember where she placed it because her mind wished to erase the entire ordeal from its space. She wouldn’t mind. Even so, the entry itself didn’t bother her as much as the men who had written it. Honestly, was that the best they could do? Still, what had started only as the source of London’s recent social chaos had now become evidence to bring down a criminal organization.
Urg.
I hate that damn book.
Had she carried it to her chamber and tossed it carelessly about out in the open? But then what had happened to it? No servant would take anything from her chamber. Had she truly left it in the drawing room, then? Wait... hadn’t she browsed through the book the previous night by the light of a candle in the kitchen?
Louisa sighed.
Truthfully, at times, she found herself so exhausted from lack of sleep that she couldn’t tell left from right. Those tired dayswent by at the pace of a snail, and a daze would settle over her for most of the mornings.
“I’m not sure,” Louisa said after a moment. “I might have misplaced it more thoroughly than I thought.” She didn’t have to glance at him to determine what sort of look he made. “Yes, yes, I thought I hid it in the case, but I might have been a touch confused.”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“No, but even the air surrounding you practically cried out in accusation.”
“I’ll admit, I am curious how a person could misplace such a book to such a degree.”
“Rather easily,” Louisa muttered. “If you must know, I have trouble sleeping, which at times, causes me to be a bit muddleheaded.”
“Ah.”
She sent him a dirty look, marveling at how much unspoken reproval could be infused in such a simple sound.
Only a duke . . .
