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I straightened from the hug and tried to cool myself. “I left my phone in the castle. If you go anywhere near there, could you please grab it and give it to Valentine? He can send the message to Sir Reginald if he doesn’t mind. If I turn it on, I’m worried I’ll not be able to stop myself from replying to people.”
“I’ll sort it. Anyone I should look for messages from? Dori, perhaps?”
“Please.”
I gave him my passcode, and Raphael escorted me to the door then left me in the hands of Daisy. The blonde business owner directed me into the living room where space had been cleared in the middle, but wall-to-wall possessions crowded in on every side. Cross-legged on the floor, Mia tore off bin liners from a roll.
She handed one to me. “That pile all around the chair is empty food containers. Must’ve been where the lady ate her dinner. I tried tackling it but kept retching.”
I took in the space. “I’m on it. Guts of steel.”
Mia’s eyes crinkled, and though her mouth was hidden by a white mask, I knew she was grinning. “It’s the baby in mine that’s objecting.”
“You’re pregnant? Congratulations!”
“Thank you. It’s one of the reasons Valentine isn’t straying far from my side. He’s doing all the lifting and carrying. I’m being very careful with the dust and gross stuff. Daisy is going to tackle the bathroom and kitchen, when we get to it.”
In easy conversation, the three of us got to work. I threw myself into shovelling out food containers by the bag load, throwing them into the skip outside or handing them to Ben or Valentine who were always nearby. Jackson had the task of clearing stacks of books and boxes of paper from the hall then examining them in the light, setting aside anything that he thought Daisy and Mia might need to check in case of treasure status.
I discovered that Ben and Valentine were brothers, though they looked nothing alike, and both Daisy and Mia were getting married soon. They’d had a joint engagement party, organised by their fiancés, and I started to get the sense of the world Raphael lived in.
Not only the clean air and open space, but the good people. The respectful men who worked hard and were dedicated to not just their team but their women, too.
“I was obsessed with your cousin’s wedding,” Mia told me. “Sorry if I’m talking like I know your family. I just saw it on TV. It was incredible, and their romance was so swoonworthy.”
“It was quite the spectacle, and their romance is real. They’re the most in-love couple I ever saw.” To their twin sighs, I tied off what had to be my fifth bag and dragged it to the door. “It was a long day, though. I was a bridesmaid, which meant being ready with my hair done and gown fitted perfectly by eighta.m. I wasn’t allowed to slump in case I creased the dress, only perch on a stool. And eating anything remotely messy was out of the question. I remember being hungry, cold, and desperately wanting to wear a tiara like one of my aunts had from the royal collection.”
Turning, I found both women staring at me.
Daisy blinked. “Please tell me you’ve been able to raid that collection since?”
My mask hid my grin. “Not once. If I’d stayed in London, I mean, I was supposed to host a banquet…” My words dried up so I started again. “One of the royal jewellers would’ve come to my apartment today with a set for me to try on. A tiara, necklace, and earrings.” I wouldn’t have had a choice over which. Just another one of the controls Sir Reginald had.
Daisy’s eyes were kind. “Why do I get the impression you’re better off here?”
“You have no idea.” The fact they had no clue why I was a stage-five clinger to Raphael spoke greater volumes over the safety of his team and the information they held.
Mia tilted her head. “Would that be what your wedding is like? All carriages and horses and crowds?”
A shadow appeared in the door. I twisted to find Raphael had returned. Unlike us, he wasn’t masked up, so I could see every bit of his frown.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shook it off. “Nothing. Message sent. I took the liberty to check Dori hadn’t contacted ye.”
My heart sank. Through all the running away and delicious hiding I was doing, I still worried about my friend. “Nothing?”
“Sorry.”
Daisy stood and stretched. “Coffee break. Good work everyone, especially you, Alex. I can tell you how wonderful, andweird, it is to have the extra pair of hands, but you’re really helping.”
We headed outside into the fresh air. Raphael snagged Valentine, pulling him over into a huddle.
“New objective,” he told his teammate. “The man I asked ye to track down using a passport trace.”
Valentine nodded. “Count Ferdinand Dorian Christian Sonderburg. Try saying that drunk.”
Despite myself, I laughed. “I call him Dori. Thank you for tracing him.”