“Wedid nothing. This is all on me, Daffy.” It was his turn to flex his hands and pace. “What we need is a plan.”
“W-what we need…is amiracle.” Daffy swerved from the window with a hint of tears in her words.
“The replicas.” Gus stopped beside her. “We’ll use a replica.”
Now she just looked mad. “Every curator knows that chair. And several reporters. Never mind your mum as well as mine. A replica would be spotted in a second.Wait.Did you say you’d fixed a few chairs in your life?”
“Hammered a nail. Tightened a screw. Nothing like what that blooming chair needs. We’d fare better with the replica.”
Daffy returned to her chair, tugging at the cuffs of her blue uniform. “I should call Mum. Tell her the news.”
“Not yet, Daffy. We have time to figure this out. If anyone makes a call, it’s me to Her Majesty. I’ll shoulder the blame. As far as I’m concerned, I was the only one in the room.”
“But you weren’t. I know the truth.” She twisted her fingers together. “If I lie about what happened, what kind of integrity do I have?”
“Keeping a secret isn’t a lie, is it? Don’t you have one about the queen?”
She glared up at him. “Keeping aconfidenceis not the same as pretending I wasn’t there when theTituswas destroyed—which I was. If I’m asked outright, I’ll have to tell the truth.”
Her red hair waved and curled about her face, giving her a wild, free look. For the first time Gus saw she carried a bit of a lioness inside. For a moment, his thoughts drifted from the current dilemma to the woman in front of him. And what it might be like to kiss her.
Now he was blushing. Clearing his throat, Gus turned for the open window. He needed a breath of cold morning air himself. Best to focus on the trial at hand and not how she’d feel in his arms.Friends, mate. She’s just a friend.
“Tell your maid not to go into the dressing room,” he said, taking command of himself and the situation.
“She won’t. There’s nothing in there besides my coat and an empty suitcase.”
“Is there a key? Can you lock it?” Gus knelt next to Daffy and placed a hand on her knee. “I have an idea. My friend Ernst will know how to help. How to find a skilled craftsman.”
“We cannot tell him about the chair.”
“He won’t ask.”
For the first time since they’d been talking, Daffy brightened and rested her hand on his. “We need someone good, Gus. More than a man or woman with a hammer and carpenter’s glue. And someone with discretion.”
Gus’s phone pinged. He knew without looking Stern was reminding him of their planning meeting.
“I’ve a meeting in twenty minutes in the New Hamlet so I’ve got to go. But meet by my apartment tonight. Eight o’clock.” Gus rose to his feet and stepped back.
“Make it nine. Most of the servants have gone home or retired to their quarters by then. We won’t be seen.”
“Look at you with your espionage plan.” Gus offered her a grin and a salute. “See you at nine.”
Out of the suite, Daffy went one way, Gus another. He met Stern in the Grand Foyer, who motioned to their waiting car.
Sunlight flooded the streets as the motor jostled over old Dalholm cobblestones to the smooth asphalt of the modern side of the hamlet.
Stern ran down the meeting agenda, but Gus barely listened. Instead he pictured the redhead who seemed to bring her whole soul with her wherever she went.
Daffy was both beautiful and easy to be around. Too bad he didn’t meet her two years ago. After Coral. Even better, before Coral. Their reconnection was too late for him.
Besides, she was engaged which stuffed any musings of a “them” back into the box where it belonged.
* * *
Daffy
A snowstorm gobbled up the sunlight as it rolled over Dalholm midafternoon, burying the hamlet in white. By teatime, windblown drifts collected along the castle walls. By dinner, the kitchen staff had to push against the doors to carry out the rubbish.
