Magnificent Devices 07 - A Lady of Integrity Read Online Free PDF

deny that any such person exists in the Duchy, and if forced to prove otherwise, they will simply dispose of him before her representatives arrive.”
    “We can only hope she disagrees with you.”
    “And if she does not? What then, Andrew? Will you disagree with me, too, once all hope of help is lost to us?”
    Trust Claire to come to the sticking point immediately.
    “Is it so wrong of me to fear for your safety?” Clearly unwilling to reply, she turned her gaze to the silk draperies. He went on, “Or to ask you to think before you plunge headlong into a situation for which you are not prepared?”
    “How can one prepare for this?”
    The truth was that one could not. But his fiancée was very good at thinking on her feet—and this was what frightened Andrew the most. That, and the thought of a failed rescue resulting in the woman he loved being imprisoned under the water herself.
    Or worse.
    “Let us consider the situation,” she said. “Should Her Majesty not be willing to assist us, what then? Will you allow Jake to die there before you will allow me to go?”
    “I do not recall any situation in which I have been called upon to allow you to do anything,” he pointed out. He must say something while he tried to marshal his panicked thoughts.
    He had experienced terrifying danger at Claire’s side—including the imminent threat of death and imprisonment. Why, then, should the thought of this voyage loom so darkly in his mind? Was it that it contrasted so completely with the bright picture of happiness he had been entertaining of late? Was it that, having secured her affection, he now valued it even more than the life of a young man?
    Andrew shuddered away from such an estimation of himself.
    “I know you are afraid for me,” Claire said, her face softening at the distress he could not hide. “Since you will be with me, I shall be just as afraid for you. But do you not see that if we do this together, we have twice the chance of success?”
    “Do what, exactly?” he replied, keeping his voice steady with difficulty. She responded best to a calm discussion of facts, so he must school himself to calm. “We cannot land, guns blazing, and expect to succeed at all. This Famiglia Rosa will see us coming from fifty miles off.”
    “Of course not,” she said, evidently heartened by his willingness to talk the matter over instead of locking her in her room, as his former business partner and her erstwhile fiancé had once so foolishly done. “We must approach this as a woman does—pleasantly, innocently, twirling our parasols and remarking upon the scenery. We shall attend the exhibition in full view, securing Claude’s safety while we are at it, and spirit Jake away by … by …”
    “By what means?”
    Crestfallen, she admitted, “I have not yet worked out that part, but I am sure I shall once we arrive.” She brightened. “It is Friday. Can you not contrive a strategy for rescuing someone from underwater by Sunday?”
    This was too much. “I suppose now is not the time to remind you that you were to have ordered your wedding gown by tomorrow?”
    “Wedding gown?” She looked so completely at sea over the change in subject that he had to laugh.
    “Yes, dearest. If we are to be married at Christmas, I am told one must do these things in advance. See? It is marked on your calendar.” He nodded at the wall calendar, scribbled over and crossed out to the point where it was difficult to see. But on October third it clearly said wedding dress , twice underlined.
    “Oh, dear,” Claire said. “That’s not the order, it is merely an appointment. I must remember to cancel it. I’m afraid I haven’t given much thought to the arrangements—dress, church, flowers.” She brightened. “But one isn’t required to carry flowers, is one? Many brides carry a Bible or a prayer book or some such.”
    “I think you have the wedding ceremony confused with an execution, dear.”
    “Do I? No, surely not. Oh,