“And you and Lisa read this?” she cried with dismay. When Suzette reddened but nodded, she asked, “Does Father know?”

Suzette snorted. “No, of course not. He hasn’t known much of anything ever since the first gambling incident. He has mostly stayed locked in his office, hiding from his shame since you left with Dicky the day after the wedding.” She scowled briefly, but then glanced to Christiana and pleaded, “Don’t say anything to him. And don’t say anything to Lisa either. ’Tis a banned book, and she made me swear not to tell anyone about it.”

“If ’tis banned, how did she get it?” Christiana asked grimly.

“I am not sure,” Suzette admitted. “She won’t tell me. But I think she got it from Mrs. Morgan.”

Christiana didn’t recognize the name. “Who is Mrs. Morgan?”

“A widow whose carriage broke down by the estate on her way to London,” Suzette explained. “Father invited her in for tea while the men looked at it for her. Of course, then he left us to entertain her,” she added bitterly.

“And this Mrs. Morgan gave Lisa the book then?” Christiana asked.

Suzette shook her head. “Her carriage was beyond the men’s ability to repair and had to be taken into the village. Mrs. Morgan stayed at the inn for nearly a week while it was repaired and Lisa visited her there every day. They became quite friendly and I guess before she left for London, Mrs. Morgan gave her the book as a thank-you gift for keeping her company.”

“Dear God,” Christiana growled. “What kind of woman gives a banned book like that to an unmarried girl?”

“Mrs. Morgan is very forward thinking,” Suzette said with a shrug. “She believes women should have more rights and freedoms of our own rather than be ruled by our fathers and husbands. Besides, Lisa is nearly twenty, Christiana. She is not a child anymore, and should already have had her debut and be settled with a husband and starting on children.”

Christiana didn’t argue the point. Their father had been lax in seeing to their future. But then she and her sisters hadn’t been pushing to have their debuts. They’d all simply been content as they were, each uneager to leave their childhood home and loved ones for an unknown husband. Although, Christiana had been contemplating doing so more and more the last year before marrying Dicky. She had begun to think she wanted children, which meant a London season to choose a husband, and she probably would have soon broached the subject with her father had the supposed ruination at the gambling table not forced the marriage to Dicky.

That thought made her recall what Richard had said about the gaming hell and the rumors about what went on there and she asked, “Father has been punishing himself for what happened and my having to marry Dicky?”

“Yes, and so he should,” Suzette said grimly. “I was actually feeling sorry for him, but then he went and did it again.”