The Countess Page 0,101

days when I think I would have gone mad without something to read."

"But surely those horrid novels Lisa reads do not - "

"Nay, not most of them, but - " Suzette paused to glance around and then ushered her into the nearest room, Richard's office. She closed the door and urged Christiana over to the chairs by the fire before admitting, "Lisa received one recently that was about a young girl named Fanny who runs away to London and becomes a prostitute and it was . . . er . . . quite informative."

"And you and Lisa read this?" she cried with dismay. When Suzette reddened but nodded, she asked, "Does Father know?"

Suzette snorted. "No, of course not. He hasn't known much of anything ever since the first gambling incident. He has mostly stayed locked in his office, hiding from his shame since you left with Dicky the day after the wedding." She scowled briefly, but then glanced to Christiana and pleaded, "Don't say anything to him. And don't say anything to Lisa either. 'Tis a banned book, and she made me swear not to tel anyone about it."

"If 'tis banned, how did she get it?" Christiana asked grimly.

"I am not sure," Suzette admitted. "She won't tel me. But I think she got it from Mrs. Morgan."

Christiana didn't recognize the name. "Who is Mrs. Morgan?"

"A widow whose carriage broke down by the estate on her way to London,"

Suzette explained. "Father invited her in for tea while the men looked at it for her. Of course, then he left us to entertain her," she added bitterly.

"And this Mrs. Morgan gave Lisa the book then?" Christiana asked.

Suzette shook her head. "Her carriage was beyond the men's ability to repair and had to be taken into the vil age. Mrs. Morgan stayed at the inn for nearly a week while it was repaired and Lisa visited her there every day. They became quite friendly and I guess before she left for London, Mrs. Morgan gave her the book as a thank-you gift for keeping her company."

"Dear God," Christiana growled. "What kind of woman gives a banned book like that to an unmarried girl?"

"Mrs. Morgan is very forward thinking," Suzette said with a shrug. "She believes women should have more rights and freedoms of our own rather than be ruled by our fathers and husbands. Besides, Lisa is nearly twenty, Christiana. She is not a child anymore, and should already have had her debut and be settled with a husband and starting on children."

Christiana didn't argue the point. Their father had been lax in seeing to their future. But then she and her sisters hadn't been pushing to have their debuts. They'd al simply been content as they were, each uneager to leave their childhood home and loved ones for an unknown husband. Although, Christiana had been contemplating doing so more and more the last year before marrying Dicky. She had begun to think she wanted children, which meant a London season to choose a husband, and she probably would have soon broached the subject with her father had the supposed ruination at the gambling table not forced the marriage to Dicky.

That thought made her recal what Richard had said about the gaming hel and the rumors about what went on there and she asked, "Father has been punishing himself for what happened and my having to marry Dicky?"

"Yes, and so he should," Suzette said grimly. "I was actual y feeling sorry for him, but then he went and did it again."

"That may not be true," Christiana said quietly. "He may not have gambled at al ."

"What?" Suzette glanced at her sharply.

"Richard said there are rumors that Dicky had befriended a certain owner of a gaming hel reputed to drug its patrons and fleece them. He suspects it's possible that is what happened to Father."

Suzette's breath left her on a whoosh, making Christiana's eyebrows raise.

Before she could ask what had caused it, Suzette said, "When we found him at the townhouse, Father kept saying he was sorry, and he didn't know how it had happened, that his memories were a jumble and he didn't even recal how he'd ended up at the gaming hel , just waking up there both times to learn he'd gambled us into ruin."

Christiana sighed. "He probably didn't gamble at al ."

"Oh God," Suzette moaned and dropped back against the chair unhappily. "I was so cruel to him the morning we arrived in London. I said some awful things."

"It is