Chapter Five #3
Not that he loved Florence or had been besotted and swooning over her, either. But she had lingered in his thoughts, constantly popping up like a persistent little gnat.
Perhaps this was why their betrothal did not feel fake, nor did it alarm him that it might have to become real in order to protect Florence’s reputation.
“Well, you’ve chosen the loveliest bride,” Sebastian remarked. He bowed over Florence’s hand. “A pleasure to meet the woman who has captured Trajan’s heart.”
“Finally,” Nathan muttered, next to bow over her hand. “Are you by any chance the fake bird watcher?”
Florence gasped and turned to Trajan. “This is how you described me to your cousins?”
He arched an eyebrow. “Aren’t you surprised I talked about you at all?”
She gave it a moment’s thought and her eyes widened. “Oh, you talked about me to your family? What exactly did you tell them, other than convince them I know nothing about birds?”
“Mostly nice things. Lots of nice things,” he said, managing a grin. “You know I liked you from the first.”
Which was true, although she had tried hard to avoid him back then.
“Florence, you’ve been in my thoughts ever since we met last year.”
She cast him a surprisingly vulnerable smile that touched his heart.
For a young woman with family, she seemed incredibly alone in the world. Well, hers must have lost patience with her because she was headstrong and would not bend to their will. But had they made it a habit of withholding affection throughout her life? Even as a little girl?
Perhaps they had. Why else would she be so reluctant to talk about them?
“Now I see why he was so swept away with you,” Andrew said, bowing over her hand as his brothers had done once Trajan introduced him.
“I’m delighted to meet you all,” Florence responded with genuine warmth. “Are you hungry?”
Andrew laughed. “Always.”
Florence offered to have the salvers restocked while Trajan took his cousins up to their rooms so they could change out of their wet clothes.
She tugged gently on his arm as he was about to lead them upstairs. “Would you rather the four of you were left alone to chat? I do not need to be in the dining room with you. I can see to my aunt in the meanwhile.”
“No, Florence. You are welcome to join us. We won’t be speaking of anything confidential.”
“Not even… Er, surely they must be surprised by our betrothal.”
Her expression said it all. He had made an idiot of himself over Eden, and now Florence thought his cousins were going to ask about her and wonder whether he was settling for her as second best because his supposed true love was now married to the Duke of Lynton and out of his reach.
“Check on your aunt, if you wish. But come down and join us afterward.”
In the meanwhile, this would give his cousins a few minutes to ask their questions.
He hoped Florence would join them, for he liked being with her. However, she was taking his efforts to keep her close the wrong way. She thought he was doing it on purpose in order to keep watch over her.
There was a little of that. He needed to guard her from Frampton.
But he enjoyed her company, too.
Florence marched upstairs along with them and then parted from them to look in on her aunt. She went one way while he led his cousins the other way, toward his wing of the house. His cousins were to be placed in the rooms next to his.
Once they had washed and changed into dry clothes, they met him in the dining room. Florence had not come down yet, and Trajan wondered whether she would join them at all. Perhaps she wished to leave them to themselves.
“Lady Florence seems nice,” Andrew said, regarding Trajan thoughtfully. “But what is really going on between you?”
Trajan frowned. “What do you mean? You know I have gotten over Eden.”
Andrew nodded. “Yes, I suppose. So you’ve told us. But we weren’t quite sure.”
“And now?”
“Yes, we believe you,” he said. “Florence is beautiful.”
His brothers nodded.
“But, Trajan,” Andrew continued, his tone suddenly uncertain, “I was referring to the menacing-looking gentleman poised with a hunting rifle we encountered at your front gate.”
“What gentleman?” Trajan said, leaping to his feet.
“More like a ruffian off the London docks,” Sebastian said, motioning for him to sit back down. “The man is probably long gone by now. But we were immediately wary and asked what he was doing there.”
“And?”
“He claimed he was just passing by and asked us to bid Lady Florence a good day. Those were his exact words.”
“Blessed saints,” Trajan muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
“He did not give us his name,” Nathan said. “Frankly, he does not seem to be anyone she would know or ever acknowledge.”
“Did he say anything else to you?”
Andrew nodded. “He mentioned that Lady Florence is accident prone, and cautions her to tread carefully, lest she suffer a serious injury.”
“What in blazes did he mean by that?” Sebastian asked. “It sounded like a threat to me.”
Trajan frowned. “Because it was a threat.”
Nathan set down his coffee cup. “What does this ruffian have against your Florence? She seems very nice.”
Trajan wasn’t certain how much to tell them, but they had come here to help him out, albeit with the expectation of assisting with his Weymouth holdings. But why not enlist them in protecting Florence, too?
There was danger associated with this task, so he resolved to tell them the truth about what was going on and let them decide whether to accept the challenge or not.
Florence would not be happy about his revealing her mission, but this was no game, and he could not leave his cousins ignorant of the peril. If they agreed to help, she would then have four Aubreys to protect her.
He would take on the most burdensome responsibilities, of course. His cousins would remain in the shadows, watching his back while he watched over her.
“Then your betrothal is merely a ruse?” Andrew asked once Trajan had finished relating yesterday’s adventures.
“Yes… Well, no. That is…” Trajan sighed. “It feels real.”
“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 by liking 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 did not want 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. Someone had 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 at my front gate, and gave my cousins 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?
None of this made any sense.
Well, whatever the man’s reason for being there last night, Trajan and Florence were fortunate there was no harm done beyond a smashed cocoa pot, soiled clothes, and a stained carpet and settee.
Florence sniffled, but still held her chin high. “Your cousins may as well join us. You will repeat everything I tell you anyway. They may as well hear it directly from me.”
He took her hand, liking how small and soft it felt in his.
This was why Florence was so dangerous to his heart, this softness about her. She was intelligent, quick-witted, and independent. Yet achingly vulnerable. She brought out his protective instincts.
But did he not have the right to behave like a wild ape when she was behaving like a stubborn donkey?
There were four plump leather chairs arranged beside the hearth in his study, and he motioned for his cousins and Florence to sit while he remained standing.
He began to pace. “All right, Florence. Let’s have the rest of it.”
Her anger fled. She no longer scowled at him or cast him a stubborn look. Instead, she slumped her shoulders and buried her head in her hands. “I am so ashamed.”
She burst into sobs before all of them.
Trajan paled.
His cousins stared at him, confusion, remorse, and horror mingled in their expressions.
Oh, gad.
What had he done? What vile secrets was he forcing Florence to tell them?