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Hyacinth let out a long exhale, trying to figure out how best to proceed “Can you reanization of the titles?” she asked “Anything at all? Were they grouped by author? By subject?”
Gareth shook his head “I was in a bit of a rush I just grabbed books at rando as he planted his hands on his hips and surveyed the room “I do recall that there was quite a bit on the topic of hounds And over there there was…”
His words trailed off Hyacinth looked up sharply and saw that he was staring at a shelf by the door “What is it?” she asked urgently, co to her feet
“A section in Italian,” he said, turning and striding to the opposite side of the room
Hyacinth was right on his heels “They randmother’s books”
“And the last ones any of the St Clairs ht think to open,” Gareth murmured
“Do you see them?”
Gareth shook his head as he ran his finger along the spines of the books, searching for the ones in Italian
“I don’t suppose you thought to leave the set intact,” Hyacinthbelow him to inspect the lower shelves
“I don’t recall,” he adrew too bored of the prank to do a really good job of it I left htened “Here they are”
Hyacinth immediately stood up “Are there many?”
“Only two shelves,” he said “I would iine it was rather expensive to import books from Italy”
The books were right on a level with Hyacinth’s face, so she had Gareth hold their candle while she scanned the titles for so that sounded like what Isabella had written in her note Several did not have the entire title printed on the spine, and these she had to pull out to read the words on the front Every time she did so, she could hear Gareth’s sharply indrawn breath, followed by a disappointed exhale when she replaced the book on the shelf
She reached the end of the lower shelf and then stood on her tiptoes to investigate the upper Gareth was right behind her, standing so close that she could feel the heat of his body rippling through the air
“Do you see anything?” he asked, his words low and war to unsettle her with his nearness, but it was the end result all the same