“That isn’t yours,” Brady said roughly.
“I’d be happy to give it back it to you,” Savannah replied. “In England.”
They’d come here to find Brady, and they’d found Brady. For Savannah, maybe it really was that simple, but for Gigi, nothing felt simple right now. In the past two hours, she hadn’t even managed to set down calla lily number two.
Warningnumber two.
“I can’t leave,” Brady said roughly. “If there’s even a chance that Calla is here, that she’s close, I can’t leave.” He looked to Gigi, to the lily in her hand. “This is me asking you to tell me everything you know aboutthat.”
Everything Gigi knew wasn’t much. “I was told it’s a warning of sorts.”
“What sort?”
“The floral sort?” Gigi guessed.
The scholar in Brady wasn’t satisfied with that. “What good is a warning if the recipient has no idea what she’s beingwarnedabout?”
“Valid point,” Gigi replied.
Brady’s gaze flitted from the calla back to the necklace Savannah had claimed. “Fleur-de-lisliterally translates as ‘flower-of-lily,’” Brady commented.
“Because what we really need right now,” Knox muttered, “is a French lesson.”
“Where did Calla get the necklace?” Gigi asked. “And on a related note, who named her? Because I’m really sensing a theme here.”Fleur-de-lis. Calla lilies. The Lily. Calla.
“Helena Thorp gave Calla that necklace for her fourth birthday,” Brady replied. “Calla never took it off. Given the way that family operates, I’d lay a lot of money on the family matriarch having been the one to name Calla as well.”
Gigi pondered that.
“Perhaps, instead of aimlessly theorizing about all of this,” Savannah said, “we should consider going to someone who has actual answers. The person who gave you that necklace, Brady. The person who told Gigi that calla lilies are warnings.”
The duchess.Savannah, as always, kept her eye on the prize.
“It’s too late to go anywhere tonight,” Rohan pointed out. “I believe some rest is in order.”
The look Savannah sent him in reply to that was what Gigi would have described asgenital-withering, but Rohan seemed to be fully immune. He was also, Gigi suspected, her best bet for an ally in what she was about to propose.
“Before we lock down for the night,” Gigi said brightly, “can we all just agree that I would make excellent bait? Maybe this lily of doom was for me, maybe it was more of a broadly targeted, pseudo-threateninghello—but either way, look how helpless I can look!” Gigi demonstrated. “And my talent for being kidnapped, surviving without a scratch, and kind of enjoying the experience is pretty much unmatched.”
“No.” Knox did not seem compelled to elaborate on that.
“I understand where you’re coming from, but it worked when Zella did it and—”
“You are not using my sister as bait,” Savannah told Rohan, cutting Gigi off.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, love.” Rohan’s tone made it perfectly clear thatyes, yes, he would.
Excellent!Gigi raised her hand. “Does anyone have a small and easily camouflaged GPS tracker? Hypothetically.”
“No.” Knox punctuated that by stomping to the ramshackle closet and pulling out a mound of faded blankets, which he dumped unceremoniously in Gigi’s arms. “You and your sister can take the loft bed.” Knox crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll sleep outside and keep watch.”
“Keep watch for mysteriously cloaked figures?” Gigi asked. “Or keep watch to make sure I don’t mosey off anywhere?”
“Both.” Knox’s tone strongly implied that moseying anywherewould not go wellfor Gigi.
“I’ll join you on watch, Mr. Landry,” Rohan volunteered. “You can take ground level, and I’ll take the platform. The intrepid Mr. Daniels can sleep in here on the floor.”
In other words: Rohan wasn’t about to let Brady mosey off anywhere, either.