“You’re not leaving yet, are you?” she asked.
Luc paused at the top step. The bell hung between them. It still swayed, though the hammer inside no longer chimed. He shook his head and attempted a smile, but it fell quickly.
He let his eyes rove over her, interrupted every few seconds by the lip of the bell. When Luc continued down the steps and out of sight, Ingrid remained where she was. She didn’t know if she could move, not yet. Her legs might not support her. Because she had the awful feeling that Luc had been lying to spare her a good-bye.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Before I started to write this book, my husband worked for months to transform a run-down cabin on our property into an official writing haven. Thank you for giving me my own space, Chad, and for understanding how much I needed it. It’s the fourth-best gift you’ve given me. The first three? Our beautiful daughters, Alexandra, Joslin, and Willa (who actually ask permission before entering the writing cabin!).
As always, I have an endless amount of gratitude for my fabulous agent, Ted Malawer, and my insightful and supportive editor, Krista Marino, along with Beverly Horowitz, Barbara Marcus, Jodie Hockensmith, Johanna Kirby, and the entire team at Random House Children’s Books. Thank you for the love and dedication you’ve all shown this series.
I’m also blessed with the best critique partners and friends: Maurissa Guibord, Dawn Metcalf, and Cindy Thomas. I’ll let you rip my manuscript to shreds any day, ladies!
A special thank-you to the HB&K Society—Amalie Howard, Cindy Thomas, Danielle Ellison, Kristi Cook, Arianne Mandell, and Kate Kaynak—for welcoming me into their annual retreat and for an incredible amount of friendship and support.
I wrote most of The Lovely and the Lost during summer vacation, so a big thank-you to my mother-in-law, Charley, and our wonderful babysitter, Anna, for entertaining the girls while I sequestered myself in the cabin.
Though this book is dedicated to my parents, Michael and Nancy Robie, they deserve one more thank-you here. They deserve much more than that, actually, but if all I have are words, the best ones would be “I love you.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Page Morgan has been fascinated with les grotesques ever since she came across a black-and-white photograph of a Notre Dame gargoyle keeping watch over the city of Paris. Her subsequent research fed her imagination, and she was inspired to piece together her own mythology for these remarkably complex stone figures. Page lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their three children.
Look for the first book in the Dispossessed series, The Beautiful and the Cursed, available from Delacorte Press.