Page 5 of The Sound of Seduction
“But that’s a lie! Felix and the Crown Jewelers…I know them. They’re the most upstanding, honest, generous men I’ve met!” Andre’s voice rang with outrage.
Stan nodded once, grimly. “Which is exactly why they’re useful to List. He doesn’t care who he harms. He only wants to profit. And he needs a scapegoat for the collateral damage.”
His throat tightened. That phrase—scapegoat for the collateral damage—lodged somewhere deeper now. It was too familiar. He thought of Wendy, of the fragile line between her quiet heroism and the noise List would make if he ever caught wind of her connection to him. She, too, could be used. Twisted.
And he was the one who brought that risk near her, he reminded himself.
“So, if he hurts any of us and we fight back, he’ll make it seem like we attacked him? And that’ll just draw even more attention to us?” Alfie asked.
“I don’t understand what he would gain from hurting us or the women we love.” Nick blinked toward the door again.
He had the most to lose—his wife, his sister. But it wasn’t just personal. If anything happened to Pippa, it would shatter Nick. If anything happened to Wendy…
Stan exhaled. Wendy was more than Nick’s sister. She was the quiet strength behind everything Harley Street stood for. If List touched her, he wouldn’t just be harming a woman Stan had come to care for. He’d be undermining the very heart of the practice. Discrediting her would discredit them all.
And Wendy would lose so much more than her reputation. Not just her safety. Her dignity. Her place. Her brother’s legacy. The work they’d built with their bare hands.
The doctors at Harley Street weren’t just a group of forward-thinking healers. They were a family. And List, if given the chance, would destroy them from the inside out. He had seen villages torn apart by threats like List—silent, creeping, cloaked in legitimacy until it was too late. But here, there might still be time to act. And it had to begin with protecting the women who carried their futures in hand and heart.
“They might be easier prey than we are.” Andre shook his head.
“So, we protect Pippa, Bea, and Wendy,” Nick said. “Right? We keep my wife, your bride, and my little sister safe.”
Alfie nodded, and Andre joined in synchrony as if no further words were needed.
“It is my duty to protect them, too,” Stan said. “I brought List closer than he might have come to you all…”
Nick and the others shook their heads, but Stan didn’t hear them anymore. Wendy had her own royal guard, and for the first time in his life, Stan became the potential danger to the people he’d actually wanted to protect.
“About the corrupt Baron then…” Andre started anew.
“We knew he’d retaliate for the truth serum,” Alfie added. “Where do we start building our defenses?”
But Stan said nothing. He couldn’t. Silence was safer. His mind was far too occupied with reliving the moment Wendy stumbled over her words and glanced at him—the way she’d looked at him. Because it hadn’t been the gaze of someone embarrassed by polite company or overprotective brother figures. It had been something else entirely.
Something aimed at him.
And he only hoped he could be worthy of what she had to give without endangering her.
Chapter Three
Stan needed tospeak to Felix, too. He still carried his father’s letter in his pocket.
My Dear Son,
The weight of our house and the fate of our people rest heavily on us, and now more than ever, you must act with vigilance and diplomacy. Protect those under our care, especially your brother as he journeys to Cornwall. For even the thinnest threads of our family’s security are vital. Our enemy, List, is no better than his father, a man vile in his scapegoating of the Jews and cunning in evading accountability. His charm belies his true nature, and he grows more dangerous by the day. I trust your strength and decisiveness will meet the challenges ahead; this family and our people depend on it.
Your devoted Father,
Prince Ferdinand
But today, the hallway outside Felix’s office at 87 Harley Street felt narrower than it should have, like a space that seemed to close in when tension filled it. Stan adjusted his stance, his boot squeaking on the worn oak floor. Felix stood stiffly in front of him, his face unusually tense, his jaw clenched as if holding back words. The sharp smell of mint poultices and something metallic drifted from the rooms beyond, but Felix didn’t seemhis usual composed self today. His hands, normally quick and steady, hung stiffly at his sides.
“I haven’t seen you downstairs,” Stan said when Felix gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Henry told me that you had to change his appointment because you didn’t have enough material.”
Felix flattened his lips. Of course, Stan didn’t expect that any of the doctors at Harley Street would discuss private patient matters with him but since Stan lived with Henry, the Earl of Langley, he just happened to know.
“It’s not because of me,” Felix started, scanning the hallway before speaking again, quieter. “But about the Klonimuses.”
