Page 27 of Happily Ever After

He hoped it would be as easy as taking chips from a poker player who thought he could beat the house by doubling-down every hand. When they’d been in Vegas, Raphael had loved those guys. He could see them strutting over to the table from all the wayacross the casino. Sometimes he’d texted Flicka, telling her to see if she could get off of work early because he would have a pocketful of cash in an hour.

Second, Raphael knew he had to be with Wulf in person because he would have to talk Wulfram von Hannover down. Wulfram used to be a commando with the Swiss army’s ARD-10 and an excellent sniper. Wulfram was going to insist on going on themission to liberate Flicka, and Raphael couldn’t allow that.

Raphael asked, “Do you remember Carl von Clausewitz?”

Wulf didn’t unclench his teeth, but he ground out, “Why are you quizzing me on military philosophers at a time like this?”

That answered his question. “Do you remember what happened to Clausewitz during the Jena campaign during the Napoleonic Wars?”

Wulfram was grinding his teethlike rocks tumbling on each other. “He was captured.”

“Who was captured with him?”

“Twenty-five thousand Prussians.”

True, but not what Raphael had been angling for. “And who else?”

Wulfram’s shoulders slumped. “Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, the Duke of Brunswick.”

“HisDurchlaucht,who was your ancestor. That was Clausewitz’s largest failure, that he had allowed his commanding prince to be captured.He wrote about it obliquely inVom Kriege,”the three-volume treatiseOn War,“and it haunted him for the rest of his life.”

“I don’t see what—”

“You can’t lead the attack,Durchlaucht.You have a wife and newborn child. You didn’t go in first when we found Flicka with your father—”

“I wasthere.”

“You could play a role in this if you wanted to, but I’d prefer if you stayed here in the Southwestwith your wife and new child. Boy or girl?”

“Girl,” Wulf said, leaning against the wall. He closed his eyes. “Victoria Augusta.”

A girl.Raphael smiled at the memory of the night Alina was born. “With any luck, I’ll have Flicka home in time to be Victoria’s godmother at her christening.”

He nodded. “What role could I play?”

“You’d have to get Rae’s permission first. I’m not getting in themiddle of that,” Raphael assured him.

“Tell me. I’ll determine whether we should take it to Rae or,” Wulf sucked in a deep breath and his shoulders slumped, “or whether I will stay to the rear of the battle as modern commanding officers do, instead of riding at the front on a damned white horse with my sword raised, though I would dearly love to chop down Pierre Grimaldi with a sword.”

“We’llhack him to pieces eventually,Durchlaucht,but we need to get Flicka and Alina out first.”

Wulfram sighed and lifted his phone. “I’ll cancel the plane.”

Raphael shrugged and retrieved a small piece of paper from his wallet. “Let’s talk to Rae before you do that, and I need to talk to Georgie Johnson and her husband in there, too.”