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After a minute, however, Hyacinth was confident that Lady D really had fallen asleep So she continued reading to herself, laboriously translating each sentence in her head The next entry was dated a few months later; Isabella expressed her relief that Anne had delivered a boy, who had been christened George The baron was beside hiold bracelet

Hyacinth flipped a few pages ahead, trying to see how long it would be until Isabella reached 1797, the year of Gareth’s birth One, two, three…She counted the pages, passing quickly through the years Seven, eight, nine…Ah, 1796 Gareth had been born in March, so if Isabella had written about his conception, it would be here, not 1797

Ten pages away, that was all

And it occurred to her—

Why not skip ahead? There was no law requiring her to read the diary in perfect, chronological order She could just peek ahead to 1796 and 1797 and see if there was anything relating to Gareth and his parentage If not, she’d go right back to where she’d left off and start reading anew

And wasn’t it Lady Danbury who’d said that patience most certainly was not a virtue?

Hyacinth glanced ruefully down at 1793, then, holding the five leaves of paper as one, shifted to 1796

Back…forth…back…

Forth

She turned to 1796, and planted her left hand down so that she wouldn’t turn back again

Definitely forth

“24 June 1796,” she read to herself “I arrived at Clair House for a summer visit, only to be informed that my son had already left for London”

Hyacinth quickly subtracted months in her head Gareth was born in March of 1797 Three months took her back to December 1796, and another six to—

June

And Gareth’s father was out of town