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Hyacinth fingered the small bookmark she’d used to hold her place and opened the book Isabella had just arrived in England in the middle of the season, and after a ed her off to London, where she was expected—without the benefit of fluent English—to socialize and entertain as befitted her station

To make matters worse, Lord St Clair’s mother was in residence at Clair House and was clearly unhappy about having to give up her position as lady of the house

Hyacinth frowned as she read on, stopping every now and then to look up an unfa with the servants, counter it uncomfortable for those who accepted the new baroness as the woe

It certainly didn’tHyacinth made a mental note to try to marry a man without a mother

“Chin up, Isabella,” sheas she read about the latest altercation—so about an addition of mussels to the menu, despite the fact that shellfish made Isabella develop hives

“You need to e,” Hyacinth said to the book “You—”

She frowned, looking down at the latest entry This didn’tabout her bambino?

Hyacinth read the words three tilance back up at the date at top 24 Ottobre, 1766

1766? Wait a minute…

She flipped back one page

1764

Isabella had skipped two years Why would she do that?

Hyacinth looked quickly through the next twenty or so pages 1766…1769…1769…1770…1774…

“You’re not a very dedicated diarist,” Hyacinth ed to fit decades into one slim volume; she frequently went years between entries

Hyacinth turned back to the passage about the ba her laborious translation Isabella was back in London, this time without her husband, which didn’t seeained a bit of self-confidence, although that er, which Hyacinth surmised had happened a year earlier