Believing there was little need to guard Miss Snow’s precious life while she dressed and coiffed herself, Gerard dragged the quilt over his head and ignored the butler’s polite queries as to his state of wakefulness until he finally went away. Gerard crawled out of bed after nine o’clock, his head pounding from too little sleep and too many misgivings. After giving himself a meticulous shave, polishing his spectacles, and breakfasting on a stale torte, he reported to the great house for duty only to discover that instead of exploring Ionia as he’d hoped to do, he was to accompany Miss Snow on some trivial errand. From what he could gather from the frantic menservants, their negligent young mistress had misplaced a valuable resource—the recently published memoirs of Admiral Lord Howell. As penance, she was to be sent to Lord Howell’s country estate to secure another copy. Her father had determined she could make the most efficient use of her time by letting the visit double as a social call to Lord Howell’s daughter Sylvie.
