Page 69 of Control's Undoing

“Just Florence,” Xavier said.

Annie sat back in her chair, an odd expression on her face.“Okay, let’s say I’m Florence.”

Xavier nodded, watching her carefully.

“I’m the daughter of a lieutenant in the British army.I grew up wealthy and well connected.Practical.Disciplined.Rule-oriented—don’t forget, she sued when an unauthorized movie version ofDraculawas made.Somehow, I get recruited into the Masters’ Admiralty, and when I get placed in my arranged marriage, it’s to Oscar Wilde and Bram Stoker.I know Oscar.I’ve known him since I was young.He’s smart, witty, charming, and doesn’t care what the world thinks.

“Then there’s Bram—also smart but quiet, thoughtful.Both men are clearly artists.They’re writers.Passionate about the theater.”Annie blew out a slow breath.“If it was me, in that time and place, with those men, I would have been worried.Very worried.”

“Worried about what?”Colum asked, but it was more of a prompt than a question.

“Worried someone would question the relationship,” Annie said.“That there would be rumors or whispers that would land the three of them in real trouble.Xavier mentioned Wilde’s parents’ salon, but Wilde’s father was a doctor and knighted for his work.His social standing protected the parents far more than Oscar’s or Bram’s as academics and writers would have protected them.”

Xavier nodded, glad to see Annie had followed his same train of thought.He clasped his hands, heart breaking for the man who’d been out of place in a world that couldn’t accept him.“Oscar didn’t leave because he was upset about not being the one to marry publicly.I think he left because Florence told him to.Told him he was too much—too radical, too outspoken.She told him to stay away.”

“Florence broke his heart and forced him to leave Dublin.”Colum sat back, eyes unfocused as he processed.

“She was trying to be logical and practical,” Annie said softly.

“In the first part of the manuscript, he’s vitriolic when speaking about her,” Xavier said.“But here, in this piece,” he motioned to the second part of the manuscript, currently weighed down to try to flatten the pages, “the tone is softer when he speaks about her.”

“He forgave her,” Annie said.

“Or he started to see she was right.”Colum pointed at the new chunk of manuscript.“Depending on when this was written, he may have already been getting in trouble with the British nobility.”

“If it was just her who told him to go, maybe Oscar sent a chunk of the manuscript to Bram.”

“We know Bram visited Oscar after he was released from prison,” Colum said.“But he never saw Florence again.”

“That we know of,” Xavier said.“But I think he loved them, always.I think, in the end, even with a broken heart, he would have trusted them.Trustedher.”

What Xavier didn’t tell them was he’d imagined it was them—that he, Annie, and Colum were in a trinity, and Annie told him to go away because it wasn’t safe.He would rage and fight, but he’d never be free of them.Xavier had known them only days—and Oscar had known Florence and Bram far longer than that before they were married—yet Xavier knew if he were in Oscar’s position, he would have come back to them in the end.

He would come home to them.

“Florence.”Colum started typing.“What happened to you and your people?”

Annie studied Xavier.“Was she afraid for herself, or was she afraid for Oscar?”Her gaze shifted to Colum.“She knew Oscar well enough to be scared that he was going to get in trouble for… What was it?Gross indecency?”

“Maybe she thought living too close to her and Bram would make it worse.That they’d get lazy and complacent within their trinity, and someone would catch the three of them together, or just Oscar and Bram together.”

Xavier tipped his head, considering.The revelation that he’d had at the window—Oscar’s change in tone regarding Florence, and that the Masters’ Admiralty’s explanation about why the trinity hadn’t stayed together didn’t fit—had hinged on Florence being practical and logical.But what Annie said felt right too.Maybe she’d looked at her husbands, seen that their minds and imaginations would change the world, and tried desperately to protect them.

Xavier came over, standing by Colum’s chair.

“Look up the Stokers’ movements,” he said softly.

It only took a few minutes before Colum made a sad little noise.“They followed him.”Colum pointed at the dates on the screen.After Wilde left Dublin for London, the Stokers had moved there too.Again and again, the Stokers’ movements mirrored Wilde’s.Not every one of them but enough it was clear they were trying to stay close to him.

“I wonder if she realized she’d broken his heart, when that was the last thing she wanted,” Annie murmured.“And I wonder where the Stokers’ things are…”

Colum rattled off the distressingly long list of Stoker descendants he’d researched.

“Guys, this might be it,” Annie said only minutes later.“Bram’s papers are all currently catalogued and held by museums, collectors, or descendants.But Bram and Florence’s great-niece on Florence’s side tried to auction off some of Florence Stoker’s personal effects and papers.”Annie kept typing and tapping even as she spoke.“According to this, all the major auction houses turned down the option to host an auction for Florence’s items, and she stated during the potential client interview that there was no one in the family who wanted Florence’s things either.”

“Did he forgive them?”Colum asked.“Enough to have sent or given them a piece of a manuscript that attacked the same society that married them?”

Xavier’s gut said yes, and right now, this felt like their best, their only, lead.

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