“A journal.”
Gabriel’s head shot up. “A personal journal?”
The initials engraved on the cover seemed to indicate it as such. “Seems to be.”
“Let me see it.”
She pulled it out of his range and opened the front cover.
January 2nd, 1813. L.D., C.F., J.M., A.F., T.R., and I have taken it upon ourselves to indulge in some fun. We have formed a club. It will have the utmost discretion. We—
The journal was torn from her hands. She gasped. “How rude. Give it back.”
He held it out of her reach and flipped through. Something flitted past his eyes. He seemed to be looking for something.
“Gabriel!”
Page after page flipped, as she inelegantly reached for it, even going so far as to use the chair to stand higher. He simply moved away from her.
She sat in the chair and crossed her arms. It seemed an eternity later that he stopped flipping pages.
“It’s just a silly personal journal. Nothing is written since 1815. We need to find out if she kept any correspondence about her fears.”
Marietta held out her hand for the journal. He paused a moment, then tossed it to her. She sniffed and tucked the book into her bag. She wasn’t sure why, but she wanted to read it later. She began paging through the loose sheets. Gabriel sat next to her and grabbed a handful as well. His warmth seeped into her side as they rummaged and sorted bills from letters from notes. She leaned into him.
If only Kenny weren’t in prison, and women weren’t being murdered, the whole thing would feel like some grand adventure.
“She owed a lot of creditors.” Marietta looked around the room. “From these notes I would think her in dire straits, but the house is well-appointed.”
“Living beyond her means. Your brother is quite familiar with the state.”
She gave him a haughty stare and returned to the papers.
Butler needs replacing. Hardly knows what to do with himself. In the old days, I would have had him under my heel and begging like a dog to serve.
“She seems quite…scathing.”
“Do you mean comments like this, ‘Maid a twit. Frame her for jewelry theft next week.’”
Marietta stared at him and then pushed the side of the note in his hand down so she could read it. “Does it really say that?”
“No.”
The note said to purchase legumes from the grocer. She whacked him in the leg. “I almost believed you too. I’ve read more than a few in that vein.”
“How do you think I came up with that one?”
“Twit.”
“Gull.” He smiled. Warmth spread through her and she leaned in a little closer as they continued to read.
He made a triumphant noise. “There’s an address listed for the footman, Jacob Worley. She hired an investigator.” He flipped through the pages in his hand. “There are a number of observation pages here.”
Marietta held up the page she had just been skimming that had an account of the footman’s activity on a Wednesday two weeks past. “You are right. Here are a few more. Seemed the footman really was following her around. Right scary that must have been.”
He bumped her shoulder in a companionable fashion. “Gather all the correspondence. We’ll take it with us.”
“What if someone notices?”
