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“That is your choice, but I must warn you the other option is death. You know too much, and that makes you dangerous.”
Laurent took a menacing step toward Ffoulkes. The marquis was not a man who tolerated threats well. He never had, and he was not about to allow this upstartrosbifto utter another word without his fist in his face.
“Stop.” Honoria stepped between the two men. “This is ridiculous. Sir Andrew.” She turned to the John Bull. “We have only just arrived. You might offer us tea before you issue your proclamations and warnings.”
Ffoulkes gave her a long look, then turned his glacial stare on Laurent. “Would you like tea?”
“No.”
Ffoulkes lunged, and Honoria had to slip between them again. “Coffee then!” she cried. “Alex, would you fetch it? I am afraid to leave these two alone.”
The pixie gave an exasperated sigh. “Very well, but do not do anything interesting until I return.”
She hurried out. Honoria faced Ffoulkes. “You, sir, sit here.” She pointed to one of the dining room chairs. Ffoulkes didn’t move right away, but finally he strode to the table, lifted his tea, and carried it to the far end.
“And you sit here.” Honoria pointed to the other end of the table. Laurent raised a shoulder and took a seat. He’d trusted her to sway the minds of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and now she had to prove she could do it.
“I would think, Miss Blake, that after the man abducted you and”—he looked at her clothing—“whatnot, you might not be opposed to the former marquis receiving a blow to the nose or a punch in the breadbasket.”
“Oh, I assure you, he deserves that and more,” she said, sitting in a chair equidistant between them.
Laurent glared at her.Fickleness, thy name is woman.
“But I convinced him to bring me here because he needs our help.”
“Oh, I have no doubt of that, but if this is more about the princess, he is wasting his time.”
Honoria’s chin jerked up, and Laurent had a brief impression of Marie Antoinette. Not that Honoria Blake resembled the queen in the least, but she had the same regal manner, the same stiff backbone under pressure. “Then I am wasting my time as well.”
“How is that?” Ffoulkes asked.
“Because I have promised to help him, and I will do so with or without you.”
Thirteen
“What did he do to you?” Alex asked that night when they were alone in their bedchamber.
