Page 46 of A Shop Girl’s Christmas (Pennington’s Department Store #3)

Elizabeth looked at Joseph where he was bent down in front of a bureau in their attic, his brow furrowed as he discarded document after document from inside a leather trunk. They had been searching for Lillian’s papers relating to her charitable organisation for over an hour.

‘Where in God’s name can they be?’ he grumbled. ‘She kept anything of any importance in this trunk. I’m sure of it.’

Feeling helpless, Elizabeth gently laid her hand on his back. ‘We’ll find it. Try not to get so frustrated. It will be here somewhere.’

‘But where? We’ve looked in every possible place.’

She looked around the disordered boxes, bags and paraphernalia that lay all over the wooden floor. Joseph was adamant that, after Lillian’s funeral, he’d packed up her belongings and kept them in storage in the attic above Carter & Son’s. Once they’d married, he’d meticulously gone through everything he wanted to keep, give to charity or throw away. A painful process that meant his memory was clear about what he’d kept.

‘I am entirely certain the box relating to her charitable work came with me from the shop.’ He stood and put his hands on his hips. ‘It felt wrong to throw away something that was so important to her.’

A floral box in the far corner of the room caught Elizabeth’s eye and a rush of certainty swept through her. ‘What’s this?’

She walked over and drew the box from beneath a bag of old clothes.

‘That’s it!’ Joseph eagerly took the box from her and flipped open the lid. ‘God, I remember now.’

They sat on the floor in the middle of a stream of sunshine which shone through the skylight making the dancing dust motes glint.

Joseph feverishly extracted the pages, his gaze passing over each piece of paper, his smile growing. ‘She was definitely part of a group. Just as I told Gower. Here, look, the names of her associates. There are…’ He tapped his finger down the page. ‘Six in total.’

‘Six?’ Elizabeth swallowed, dread forming a knot in her stomach. ‘And Mr Gower thinks there’s a possibility the killer could target all of them?’

‘Yes. We need to give this to him immediately.’ Joseph looked at his watch. ‘If I hurry, I should be able to catch him before he leaves the store.’

They stood and Joseph took her hand.

‘Thank you for agreeing to not go in today so we could look for this. You mean the world to me, you do know that?’

Elizabeth smiled. ‘As you do to me. Joseph…’ She drew her gaze over his handsome face, worry for him rising, once again. ‘These papers do not mean Mr Gower will find Lillian’s killer immediately.’

‘I know.’ His smile vanished as his eyes darkened. ‘But they do mean he should be able to do all he can to warn and protect the others on this list. If these women are cautioned, they have a better chance of escaping this animal’s clutches than Lillian ever did.’

Worry for him continued to nag Elizabeth as they descended the stairs and entered their bedroom. She sat on the bed as he changed his shirt and put on the black suit he always wore at Pennington’s. Words battled inside her. She did not want to shower pessimism over his hopes, but more protect him from possible disappointment.

His face shone with renewed vitality, his smiles coming her way over and over again as he dressed and fixed on his cufflinks.

Elizabeth forced a smile and tried her utmost to bury her anxieties. She owed it to Joseph, to herself, to fully believe that the box contained the information Mr Gower needed to find the link between the murdered women.

‘You mentioned that Mr Gower referred to his inspector in the present tense while we were at Culford Manor. Do you think there’s a possibility he could leave us sooner than we thought? That he intends to return to London?’

‘I don’t know. He was never really clear on why he was in Bath in the first place, but it was his police experience that made me offer him the watchman position. I am still determined to eradicate the shoplifters at Pennington’s and having someone with his experience watching the goings-on can only be a good thing.’

‘Absolutely.’ Elizabeth frowned. ‘It will be a shame if we lose him.’

Joseph walked to her dressing table and picked up Lillian’s box before taking Elizabeth’s hand and pulling her gently from the bed. He brushed his lips over hers, gaze happy. ‘We won’t. I’m sure it was a slip of the tongue when he spoke of his inspector. Why would he leave Pennington’s after doing so much for us? He must have a want to stay.’

‘True.’ Elizabeth smiled. ‘I also suspect some romance brewing between him and Cornelia, too.’

‘As do I, my love. As do I.’ He kissed her again and headed for the door. ‘I must go. I’ll see you later.’

Elizabeth walked to the window and stared into the street, waiting for Joseph to emerge. She crossed her arms and took a heavy breath, praying that whatever Lillian had written on those papers provided a breakthrough. What a victory it would be for Joseph’s first wife to posthumously provide the very key to incarcerating her killer. Hope burned deep in Elizabeth’s heart as a feeling of inevitability stole through her. If there was one thing she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, no one should ever underestimate the power of women. Whether they be alive or dead…