Everard shrugged. “He was our first choice only because he’s their first choice, but the boy has become much too industrious lately. Someone else would serve our purposes better. But he’s still pliable with the right incentive. Women. He is a philanderer at heart, after all.”
Alana wondered if her father knew his choice for her was still such a womanizer. It didn’t sound as if Braune knew she had returned either, so maybe Nadia’s lover wasn’t playing both sides, but merely keeping an eye on what Braune’s secret group of nobles was up to for his Bruslan employer, and delivering messages for Braune just to keep the door open.
“Your rebels were a waste of money,” Christoph said. “You have an alternative plan?”
Everard actually laughed. “We always have alternatives lined up. And you have conveniently supplied another one. Finally, Frederick won’t have you to depend on.”
“You really think one bullet can stop me? Make it count, old man, you won’t get a chance to fire the other.”
Alana was about to stand up, but she heard heavy footsteps pounding into the room, then four bullets were fired! She was still on the side of the sofa where she could see that Christoph was still standing there unharmed. It was Poppie who had to dodge those bullets!
Three Braune men had rushed into the room, obviously summoned by Nadia, but only two of them held double-barreled pistols, the third just a saber. They immediately tried to take out the smaller second man that their lord didn’t already have a pistol trained on. Everard began swearing at them for not asking for their orders first. He would have had them shoot Christoph instead to make sure the real threat was ended. But they’d acted on their own initiative, and fortunately, servants carrying weapons they didn’t really know how to use usually missed, and they did. Poppie dove and rolled out of the way, and when he came to his feet, he threw a dagger. His excellent aim left only two men charging at him now.
An assassin dealt with shadows and single targets, situations he could control. He didn’t do so well in an open fight with more than one opponent. Sabers had been drawn. Poppie only had more daggers to work with. But Christoph was slowly edging toward the fight to help. Everard must have been watching it as well, or he would have warned Christoph not to move. She wasn’t sure why Everard didn’t take advantage of the distraction to fire his own pistol, unless Christoph’s warning had made him too nervous to try it without his men ready to back him up. Then she saw yet another man outside, looking through the window behind Poppie, raising a rifle and pointing it at his back!
Alana screamed, “The window!”
Poppie was concentrating too deeply on avoiding the two sabers. He might not even have heard her. Christoph did, and the second he saw where the rifle was pointed, he threw his weight in that direction. He tackled Poppie out of the way, knocking over one of the two men, taking a saber slice from the other man to his back that had been meant for Poppie’s throat. The shot fired a moment later. Glass broke. The bullet continued across the room. Alana stood up in time to see Everard flinch as it struck the wall next to him, but then with an angry visage he took aim at Christoph, who was still on the floor. She threw her dagger at his chest to stop him. Not even close! But it did embed itself in his upper arm just as his pistol fired, then yet another shot was fired.
It all happened so fast. Everard’s aim was thrown off because of the dagger in his arm. Christoph’s aim was true. The older man looked down at his chest before he fell to the floor. But it was still mayhem in the other corner of the room. Without wasting time to get up first, Poppie threw another dagger through the broken window. The man out there ran instead of shooting again, the same man he’d followed up here, who must have circled back to investigate what they were doing turning in this direction. Christoph swiped a leg to knock over the last man standing, then pounded a fist into his face to keep him down, before he did the same to the other one.
Christoph had just saved Poppie’s life and taken a wound for it. Alana’s only thought was to make sure it wasn’t a serious wound, yet Christoph wouldn’t stop to let her look at it. He moved across the room and leaned down and examined Everard to make sure his chest wound was as serious as it had looked. It was. Then he stood up and shook her.
“Next time stay hidden until I say it’s safe to get up,” he growled at her. “We’re not out of this house yet.”
“You saved Poppie” was all she said before she threw her arms around his neck.
He squeezed her so tightly, for a moment she couldn’t breathe. “Come on, I’m getting you out of here. This was no time to try to make amends to you by giving you your way. Be warned, that will never happen again if danger is even remotely involved. My men can clean up this nest of vipers later.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
WHY WAS SHE NOT surprised? Restricted to the palace until after the wedding!
Her father had been quite upset after Christoph’s report because she had been in the Braunes’ parlor when bullets had been flying. She hadn’t been present for Christoph’s account of the surprisingly violent confrontation, but Frederick visited her afterward in her rooms.
After she realized why Frederick was upset, she actually tried to place the blame on herself by pointing out, “Do my orders not override his? I told him I was going with him. We both thought it would be safe.”
“I understand what was assumed, but Christoph knows better, and, no, your orders do not override his. Yet this entire unfortunate situation with the Bruslans is now resolved because of it. I may not have to deal harshly with any of them now that we know those younger bucks were instigated to action, that the rebellion wasn’t actually their idea. Quite a surprise, that. We knew Braune was up to something, but nothing of this magnitude. If Christoph hadn’t gotten that full confession, we may never have known.”
“You have Poppie to thank for that,” she reminded him, hoping Leonard would get a full pardon now because of it. “He led us there.”
Frederick finally smiled. “I am aware of what your Poppie has done.” But then his expression got stern again. “But you, daughter, will not be leaving the palace again until after your wedding. Consequently, the betrothal will be formalized tonight at dinner.”
She groaned. “Father, please, you can’t send me to live with the very people who may have tried to kill me!”
“We don’t know who did that yet. If Karsten is your husband, it will assure your safety.”
“But I’ll know it could have been one of them. I’ll never trust any of them. I’ll live in constant terror. Is that really what you want for me?”
“I want you protected. This is the way to assure—”
“I’ve been protected since I arrived!” she cut in desperately. “Your captain has seen to that.”
He got tight-lipped at the mention of Christoph. “I’ll see you tonight. Look your prettiest.”
She started crying the moment he left. Christoph had been right. Because Frederick knew they had been intimate, he was still furious with his captain. So even if she told her father that she loved Christoph, it wasn’t going to make any difference right now. In time it might, but she’d be married to the wrong man before then!
She prepared for the dinner, but she felt as if she were going to a funeral. Christoph arrived to escort her. He didn’t look too happy himself, had probably received a tongue-lashing for endangering her, but at least he hadn’t been dismissed for it. But her own expression was too revealing.
