Page 61 of A Sense of Paradise
Flora didn’t have time to ask him what he meant. Louis had disappeared, and Eloise had followed after him at a run. Flora scurried to catch up with her. They turned a corner into a backstreet and almost collided with the Frenchman.
‘What the devil…’ Eloise said in her own tongue.
‘You must get away from here now!’ Louis said at the same time, an urgent edge to his voice. ‘It is not safe for you.’
‘Miss Garnier,’ said another voice as a man stepped into their line of sight in the quiet backstreet.
‘Lord Avery.’ Eloise glanced at Flora, unable to conceal her fear.
‘I heard word of an elegant foreign lady turning heads in our sleepy little village, and I couldn’t think who else it could possibly be.’ The suave viscount turned his attention to Flora and treated her to an appraising look. ‘And you must be the interfering Miss Latimer, about whom I have heard so much.’ He tapped a finger against his lips as he continued to study her. ‘Hmm. Perhaps I can see the attraction. There’s something…’
‘You have the advantage of me, sir,’ Flora said, tilting her chin. ‘Come, Eloise, our business here is complete.’
‘Oh, I think not,’ Avery said in a tone of detached civility. ‘I dare say Miss Garnier is anxious to be reunited with her brother, which is something that can easily be achieved. Have the goodness to follow me, ladies.’
Two large men appeared from the shadows and closed in behind them, making it clear that it was not an invitation they would be permitted to decline.
‘Gladly,’ Flora said, aware of Remus still hovering, but unsure what he could do to help them out of this farrago. She sensed a darkness, a burning resentment in Avery’s aura, and knew that they wouldn’t be permitted to walk away. Was her father so very resentful that he would turn a blind eye to her murder? Flora would like to say with certainty that he was not, but wasn’t about to deceive herself. A man who exercised such absolute power over his family and the underlings who had served him during his rise through the ranks in the church couldn’t be expected to show mercy to those whom he considered guilty of orchestrating his fall from grace. Especially when one of them was his eldest daughter.
She momentarily wondered whether Pamela had lured her to Bradenstoke on their father’s orders. It would account for the remarkable change in her attitude, her desire to offer Flora an olive branch. Flora dismissed that possibility before it could take hold. Pamela still appeared to be besotted with her husband, whose career had stalled due to his association with their father, but which would flourish again thanks to Flora’s interception on his behalf.
Avery being here had to be a coincidence.
She thought of Archie and felt determination to get the better of this arrogant viscount ripple through her. Anyone who attempted to destroy the reputation of the man she adored could expect no quarter.
That’s the spirit.Remus had clearly read her thoughts.
This is your fault. You’re supposed to warn me before I get into impossible situations.
Your marquess is on his way.
Archie? How?
Where do you think I have been? You know I can only glean information if I am present when it is being exchanged.
Stay with me now, Remus.
Where else would I go?
Flora resisted the urge to roll her eyes.Now there’s a question.Avery escortedFlora and Eloise towards a waiting carriage. You may be able to make amends.
I live to serve.Remus straightened his coronet, looking unnaturally serious, which worried Flora almost more than her predicament. Remus was nothing if not irreverent and she had never seen anything dent his confidence.
Until now.
Archie hadn’t been able to settle to anything all day. A growing sense of unease had made him short-tempered and irritable. Even Pawson steered clear of him when he was in such an uncompromising mood. It wasn’t often that he felt sorry for himself but at that particular moment he would have given ten years of his life to be able to sit astride a powerful horse and either gallop off his mood or better yet, ride over to Fox Hollow and reassure himself that Flora wasn’t in any sort of danger.
He had been on the point of asking Pawson to do precisely that several times, but held back at the last minute. Flora wouldn’t take kindly to his over-protectiveness.
The house was in chaos, which made it difficult for him to sit and think quietly. The men that he’d commissioned to carry out the renovations were already hard at work, with only Archie’s library out of bounds to them. The intricately frescoed ceiling in the drawing room was being meticulously cleaned and touched up as necessary and the walls were being stripped. The old drapes had been taken down and, at Flora’s suggestion, passed on to the clergyman in Felsham to be distributed to the most deserving causes.
‘I have some news that might cheer you up,’ Pawson said, cautiously putting his head round Archie’s library door in the early afternoon.
‘Come in. I won’t bite.’
Pawson raised his eyebrows. ‘You sure?’
Archie grunted and said nothing.
