A study in scandal (22 page)

She shook her head. “No, I’m not. But I’m glad you love me regardless.”

“Oh, but you are. I’ve never seen a woman love the way you love. Your father, your friends, people around you. Me. You are so attentive. You make everyone around you feel important and
cared for. That is a unique gift. An extraordinary gift.”

She hugged him tightly. “You’ve made all my dreams come true.

“The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.”

A Case of Identity

A
melia looked at Charlotte and Willow. “We can’t very well have a meeting without Meg. Where is she?”

“She’s at the confectionery. Some sort of trouble with the new worker she fancies,” Charlotte said.

“Simply unbelievable. How many times have I told her she would eventually get herself into trouble with those men?” Willow crossed her arms over her chest.

“Trouble,” Amelia said. “Do you suppose she needs assistance?”

Just then Colin poked his head in the door. “It’s time,” he said.

“I’ll be right back,” Amelia told the girls. “Papa, come quickly,” Amelia called as she and Colin walked toward her father’s study.

He ran into the hallway with Lady Hasbeck right on his heels. That friendship was certainly blossoming.

“Good heavens, Amelia, what is it? Are you hurt?” her father asked with labored breath.

She smiled. “No, all is well, Papa, all is well.”

“Then what is the big hurry?” he asked.

“Let us go into your study, and we shall show you.”

She linked her fingers with Colin’s and together they walked into the room.

“Colin,” she said, then nodded to him.

He opened the small case he’d been carrying, pulled out Nefertiti, and placed her on her rightful table.

“Oh.” Her father clasped his hands beneath his chin. “You found her,” he said gleefully. He walked forward and held his hand out to Colin. “Thank you for all your hard work.”

“It was not only me, sir, your daughter acted as my assistant. We found Nefertiti together,” Colin said.

Her father beamed. “Well, you two certainly make quite a team.”

“Indeed we do,” Colin said, then pulled Amelia into his arms.

Robyn DeHart
always knew she wanted to be a writer, but it took a while to discover precisely what she wanted to write. Reading Kathleen Woodiwiss’s
A Rose in Winter
sealed the deal, and she’s been reading and writing romance ever since. She should have realized she was destined for this career when her Barbies insisted on hosting elaborate masquerade parties, complete with stolen kisses in the moonlight. She lives in Tennessee with her incredibly supportive husband and two very spoiled cats. She loves to hear from readers. You can contact her via her webpage at
www.robyndehart.com.

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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A STUDY IN SCANDAL
. Copyright © 2006 by Robyn Ratliff. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Microsoft Reader May 2007 ISBN 978-0-06-146588-8

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