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by choice.
"Marcus?" Louisa said gently. "Do you think you could set up a meeting between Uncle George, Simon,
Regina, and you and me?"
He sighed. "I could. It might take a day or two, though."
She let out a heavy breath."Will you, then? Will you give me the chance to have my revenge on Simon?"
How he wanted to say no, to keep Louisa locked up here safe. But now he knew what a mistake that
was. For Louisaand his wife. He wasn't sure he could do anything about Regina. But it wasn't too late to
do right by his sister.
"Yes, angel. You shall have your meeting."
Perhaps then even his wife might find some mercy in her heart for him.
Chapter Twenty-four
Feeling a certain fondness for your charge is perfectly acceptable as long as it doesn't cloud your
judgment.
-Miss Cicely Tremaine,The Ideal Chaperone
It was late in the afternoon when Regina, Cicely, and Katherine sat around the table in the immaculate
Iversley schoolroom. Regina pored over a poem by one of Katherine's favorite poets. A set of carved
wooden alphabet blocks were arrayed in front of her.
Regina worked at sounding out the first line. "I...wa-...wa-"
"This is too difficult," Cicely exclaimed.
"No, it isn't." Regina rubbed her fingers over the block with the raised letter that most looked like the
next letter. "Oh, 'n.' That's right-it looks like an 'u' sometimes, but it's not."
For some reason,feeling the letters made it easier for her to identify them. She didn't know why, but
after discovering it that day at Castlemaine, she'd known it was the only way she'd ever learn. It helped
that both Katherine and Cicely were infinitely patient with her.
She took a breath. "I wan-...wan-dered...l-l-lonely-Lonely?"
Katherine nodded.
Regina's head throbbed, but she soldiered on. Katherine's cook had offered a posset that helped when
the headache got too bad. But it seemed less painful as the days passed. She was getting used to it, just
as Marcus had predicted.
She winced. Shewouldn't think of Marcus, not now, not when she'd come so far. Otherwise, she'd start
crying, and her head would throb even more. She'd been trying to save her tears for her bed at night.
She didn't get much sleep.
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" 'I wandered lonely...as...a...clou-...clou-" Oh, no, more of those pesky d's. Or b's. But "cloub"
didn't make sense, so..." 'Cloud.' 'I wandered lonely as a cloud'?"
Katherine beamed at her. "That's it. You've got it!"
