Page 33 of Crash Landing
“It looks real,” Nathan said.
Trajan shrugged. “I’m not sure if it will ever lead to anything more. That will be up to Florence to decide.”
“Then you really like her?” Sebastian asked.
“That depends on what you mean byliking her. She is smart and quite beautiful, but I also want to throttle her most of the time because she is so bloody stubborn.”
Andrew shook his head. “Understandable, but I can also see her point. How can she ignore a personal request from the Princess of Wales? And it was awfully brilliant of her to invite Lady Frampton to tea tomorrow. Sounds like she and Lord Frampton were playing a game of chess with each other and she checkmated him. Now Lady Frampton must return the invitation, and this will get Florence into his house.”
Sebastian and Nathan grinned, apparently also admiring Florence’s quick thinking.
“You seem to be missing the point, Andrew. That invitation is the one thing Frampton didnotwant to have happen,” Trajan muttered. “But Florence is going to plow ahead anyway. She’s really too clever for her own good.”
Andrew eased back in his chair. “We’ll all stay close to protect her.”
“I don’t know how we will manage it while she is inside his home,” Trajan grumbled, hoping Hermia’s presence there would somehow rein in Frampton. More to the point, he hoped she might be enlisted to rein in Florence.Someonehad to keep her from running amok.
“Then you are in?” he asked his cousins. “Are you sure? This is a dangerous undertaking.”
All three nodded.
Florence walked in just as they put their hands forward and placed them one atop the other. “To protecting Florence,” they said as one.
She gasped. “You told them?”
Trajan hurriedly rose. His cousins shot to their feet, as well. “Yes, I had to.”
“Why?” Her dismayed gaze flitted from one to the other, taking them all in. “How could you?”
“You mustn’t blame Trajan,” Andrew said. “We walked in knowing something was amiss.”
“Frampton had one of his lackeys standing with a rifle atmyfront gate, and gavemycousins a threatening message for you from that miserable cur.”
“Frampton did that? The unmitigated gall.” She curled her hands into fists. “How dare that lowly coward… I ought to—”
“Gad, Florence!” Did she always have to make his heart shoot into his throat? “You ought to do nothing at all. Do you hear me?”
She cast him a stubborn look.
He threw down his table linen and turned to his cousins. “See what I mean? She is as obstinate as a donkey. Are you sure you don’t want to back out?”
“No,” Andrew said. “All the more reason we Aubreys must stick together. We are in this with you to the end, Trajan.”
“But what is to be the end?” Trajan’s gaze bored into Florence. “This is no longer just you and me at risk. This involves my cousins, too. And what of Hermia? Do you think she will be safe if you push Frampton too far?”
He knew his remarks were cruel and had gutted her. She stood in silence for a long moment, then her chin began to wobble and her eyes watered.
Good, let her cry.
It was never in his nature to be cruel, but how else was he to make her see reason? Let the Princess of Wales send an army to upend Frampton’s house and grab whatever scandalous letters they could find. Why in blazes did it have to be a one-person clandestine operation? And why was Florence the one person chosen to carry out this task when it was clearly beyond her expertise and would get her killed?
Florence was no fool. In fact, she was extremely intelligent. So why was she refusing to let go of this assignment?
Something else had to be going on, something she had not told him yet. “Florence, you now have four men who have pledged to die for you. I think we have the right to know everything. And do not think to deny that there is more to this story than you have told me. What have you left out?” He glanced at his cousins, realizing Florence may not want to speak in front of them. “Do you prefer for us to speak alone? You and I can discuss this privately in my study. I would suggest the library, but it is being cleaned right now.”
He was purposely bringing up last night’s incident to serve as a reminder. They were fortunate the man with a pistol at his library window last night had not fired a shot at them. Perhaps he was never meant to fire a shot, merely scare them.
By why aim a weapon at someone if you had no intention of using it? It seemed odd that their lurker would be instructed to do nothing more than stand with his face at the window until they noticed him. And then what? Was he merely to run away?
