Page 69 of Impetuous

“I’m sorry. But you see, I don’t know you very well.”

Aunt Liliane nodded. “True. You never came to visit as much as your sister.”

“No,” Cassandra said hesitantly. Did the vague Aunt Liliane think she was someone else? “But…my sister once told me about a book you had told her about. A book about queens.”

“Queens?” Aunt Liliane wrinkled her forehead. “Which ones?”

“I’m not sure. It—it was in the library at Haverly House. An old book.”

“There were many old books there, young lady,” Aunt Liliane told her crisply. “Are you talking about a biography? A history?”

“I’m not sure. My, uh, sister just called it the Queens Book.”

The wrinkled old face cleared, and she let out a chuckle. “Oh, of course! Why didn’t you say so? You want to know about the Queen’s Book! Oh, yes, I can tell you all about that.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

A FRISSON OF excitement ran down Cassandra’s back like an icy finger. Could it be that this forgetful old woman actually knew about the book? For a moment she could not speak, could not move, could only stare at Aunt Liliane.

Fortunately Philip was not so handicapped. “You know of it?”

“Of course I do. Everyone does. It is the most valuable book in Papa’s collection.”

“Is—is that the title? The Queens Book?”

“Title?” Aunt Liliane looked at him oddly. “Young man, what are you talking about? You are the one who sounds as if he doesn’t know it.”

“I don’t,” Philip answered rather desperately. “You see, we are trying to find it.”

The old woman’s face filled with suspicion. “Now, see here, young man, what do you think you are about? You say you are a Neville, but you don’t know about the Queen’s Book?”

“No. I don’t. That is why I came to you. You see, the family has lost it, and we are trying to find it again.”

“Lost it! Lost Queen Elizabeth’s prayer book?” Aunt Liliane gazed at him in horror.

Suddenly everything she had said made sense. “Of course!” Cassandra exclaimed. “It all makes sense now! The word Queen was capitalized, and that smudgy thing must have been an apostrophe. I thought it was a spot of mildew. The Queen’s Book. It was so well-known to the Nevilles at that time that they would have known immediately what it referred to. And if it had belonged to Queen Elizabeth, it would have been far too valuable for them to get rid of. Margaret would have been sure that it would remain there and that no one would go browsing through it, looking for something to read. What a clever idea!”

“Indeed. Except it did not remain there,” Philip stated.

“What are you talking about?” Aunt Liliane asked querulously. “I don’t understand a word of it.”

“Aunt Liliane, it has been some time since you lived at Haverly House. You married and left there almost seventy years ago. In the time since then, the Queen’s Book has been misplaced. Sir Richard, your nephew, do you remember him?”

“Of course,” she retorted impatiently. “What does he have to do with the Book?”

“Well, he did not love books as you and his father did. As your father did.”

“Yes. I remember. It made my brother so sad.”

“He paid little attention to any of the books. His son Thomas was the same way. Somehow, during their lifetimes, the Book disappeared. No one today knows anything about it.”

“That is absurd!” Her ancient face was shocked. “It could not have been misplaced.”

“When was the last time you remember seeing it? Since you were a grown woman?”

She frowned. “I can’t remember. A long time ago, I suppose. I remember it from my childhood. After that…no, I can’t remember.”

“Did your father keep it in the library at Haverly House?”