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Hyacinth rolled her eyes “I’hty words,” she warned

He chuckled “Then I’norina Orsini any hty words”

Hyacinth turned to him in horror “You didn’t!”

“I did”

Her lips pursed “And you don’t even look the least bit remorseful about it”

“Remorseful?” He chuckled, deep in his throat, and then leaned down to press his lips against her ear There were a feords of Italian he bothered to commit to memory; he whispered every one of them to her

“Gareth!” she squeaked

“Gareth, yes? Or Gareth, no?”

She sighed She couldn’t help it “Gareth, more”

Isabella St Clair tapped her pencil against the side of her head as she regarded the words she’d recently written It was a challenge, translating fro never read quite right, so one had to choose one’s idiolanced over at the open page in Galileo’s Discorso intorno alle cose che stanno, in sù l’acqua, ò che in quella si muovono—this was perfect

Perfect perfect perfect

Her three favorite words

She glanced toward the door, waiting for herscientific texts because her mother always seemed to stuood fun to watch her hter

Not that Isabella wasthat She wasn’t mean-spirited; the only person she adored randh confined to a wheeled chair, still ed to wield her cane with alue

Isabella srew up, she wanted to be first exactly like her h with that, just like Great-Grandmama