“I do,” Cecilia said. “We need to get this book to Mr. Quetal. He should be able to tell us more about what these entries mean.”
“Do you think he is stable enough to do so?”
“I do. What I think he needs is a dose of confidence. He strikes me as an intelligent young man. Giving him an analytical task like this would boost his morale, return some of his confidence.”
Someone knocked on Cecilia’s door. “Lady Branstoke?”
Cecilia quickly closed the ledger and stuck under the mattress again. “Yes?” she said as she ran to the door.
“Might you know where Lady Stackpoole is? Her son is here to see her.”
Cecilia threw back the lock and opened the door. “She’s here. We were just having a comfortable chat.”
“My son is here? In the great hall?” Julia said, forgetting her conversation with Cecilia and swiftly leaving her room and following the maid who came with the news.
Cecilia didn’t blame her for how she ran off. She slowly followed her down the stairs, thoughts and questions crashing about in her mind. She needed to figure out how to get the book into Mr. Quetal’s hands. She finally decided she needed to find Mrs. Vance and Liddy and headed for the library. They might have ideas. She would start looking for answers by speaking with them.
There weren’t many people in the library that morning. Cecilia surmised the rare sunny day drew them outside. She immediately saw Liddy and Mrs. Vance by the bank of windows at the far end of the library. Liddy had a large book clutched in both hands, but she wasn’t reading. The two were earnestly talking.
“May I join you,” Cecilia asked, sitting down next to Liddy.
“Please do,” Mrs. Vance said. “Liddy has been telling me the most amazing things. Truly amazing, haven’t you, my dear?” Mrs. Vance said.
Liddy shrugged her thin shoulders. “I was just telling her about my home. We lived with my uncle Edgar in a house bigger than Camden House. A house bigger than the castle in this story book,” she said, holding up the book she held. “Bigger than anything!”
“That is big,” Cecilia said. “Houses that big have names. Did your house have a name?”
Liddy nodded eagerly. “Yes. It was called Ellinbourne. Same as Uncle Edgar.”
“Ellinbourne! Oh, gracious,” Cecilia said, suddenly at a loss for words. Ellinbourne was the ancestral home of the Dukes of Ellinbourne. She knew the current duke—not well, but she knew him well enough to enjoy a casual conversation with the man at a ball or party. Now that she knew the closeness of his relationship to Liddy, she knew he would not send his young cousin—for that is what Cecilia now knew Liddy must be—to a sanatorium to hide her away.
“You know the name?” Mrs. Vance asked.
“Yes. Liddy, does your mother still live at Ellinbourne?”
She shook her head. “No, she didn’t get on with Aunt Patience and her daughters when they moved in.” Liddy made a face. “I didn’t either. They were always giggling and talking about clothes. They never talked to me or wanted to play with me.”
“I imagine they were older than you,” Cecilia said to her sympathetically.
Liddy noddy sadly. “So, Mama took me to Bath with her. There was no one to play with there either, and Mama wouldn’t let me out of the house. Then Mama got the idea she would go to London and send me here.”
“That is a sad story,” Cecilia said. “Don’t you think so, Mrs. Vance?”
“I do.”
“We need to find a way to give it a happy ending like the stories in your book,” Cecilia said.
“All right,” Liddy said. “Can we go outside now?”
Cecilia started to laugh at the exuberance of children, then her attention was caught on the size of the book Liddy held. It looked to be the same size as the ledger book under the mattress of her bed. “Let’s take the book upstairs so we might read it later. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”
“Can we?”
“I don’t see why not, do you Mrs. Vance?”
“No, no I don’t.”
“Hold tight to the book,” Cecilia said, pleased with the plan forming in her head to get the book to Mr. Quetal to examine. She stood up and took Liddy’s hand. “I think we should go now, before Dr. Worcham finds us and reminds us we’re supposed to be cleaning Mr. Montgomery’s room.”
