Page 91 of A Torn Allegiance
Lady Sophie looked up into His Grace’s face, and Elsie could see she was well and truly smitten. Elsie was happy for her. And a bit envious that her relationship with His Grace was far less complicated than her own with Hayes.
Oh, that he would ask for her hand tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Hayes arrived last with hisbrothers. He found Elsie immediately on the platform. The hand she raised in his direction felt like a beacon of support. The arrival of Lamoreaux had unsettled and disturbed him to such a degree that he felt uneasy about the past week he had spent courting Elsie instead of more intently watching the snake. But seeing her there, feeling the strength in her very nature, in her reactions to things, told him again that he would be a better man, would better handle all troubles such as this with her at his side. He reached down into the bucket at his feet and lifted the roses Bartholomew had allowed him and his brothers to take from his garden, raising one high for Elsie.
“For you!” He kissed its petals and tossed the rose out over the audience, right to Elsie’s outstretched hand. She held it to her nose, and he felt closer to her for a moment.
His brothers tossed the rest of the flowers out to waving, cheering women, and waved and bowed and laughed with the crowd.
But Lamoreaux was testing Hayes’s last thread of patience and diplomacy.
“For Napoleon!” Lamoreaux shouted as he pulled up and past the line of phaetons that waited to approach the starting line.
Duncan turned to the group, calling out, “Who invited him?”
From the expressions of all, not one of them had.
Marc and Kristoff continued to wave, earning loud cheers from the stands. Kristoff grinned. “Does it seem to you that they are overly pleased to see us?”
“Wouldn’t you be as pleased to see anyone following after that fool Lamoreaux?” Hayes frowned.
“You had to ruin my delusions of fame and grandeur.” Kristoff continued to wave.
Marc turned around to face them both. “Do you wish to win?”
His question was pointed, determined.
“I want to beat Lamoreaux,” Hayes nodded. “Whatever it takes.”
“And Duncan?” Marc eyed them both.
“I’d like to show his father that the strength of Oldenburg is much greater than that of his puny dukedom.” Kristoff was only half-joking, Hayes knew. “But I don’t want the father of your future bride to be at odds with his new son-in-law.”
“Possible future bride. I haven’t asked yet, you know.”
“And do you think she will decline your proposal?” Marc’s skepticism was obvious.
“Who can know?” Hayes hoped she would accept. He knew she wanted to, or at least, he was fairly certain.
Marc grunted and returned to his prior topic. “I would like to pull out in front of them all, cross the finish line in such a fashion that they never forget this race.”
Hayes was about to respond, but Marc held up a hand and said, “But I suggest that we come out in front, almost win, and when Duncan pulls ahead at the last possible second, who can know whether we slowed the horses to allow for such a thing?” He shrugged. “But I agree Lamoreaux is finished. I’d be happy to see him in last.”
“Agreed.” Hayes’s eyes found Elsie again. Their gazes met, and he nodded. She put a hand to her heart. Then he faced the front. A man off to the side had lifted a flag. He waved it three times and then dropped it to the ground.
Everyone took off in a rush, some horses nearly trampling others, small phaeton boxes seeming an almost inconsequential accessory to a great mass of animal strength. But there was no mistaking Napoleon’s flag in front of them.
“I’m going to take down the flag when we pass,” Marc shouted to them.
Hayes nodded. He pulled his equipage closer, ready to approach at the side of the flag. But just as he was about to pull alongside Lamoreaux’s phaeton, the man let the flag loose, and it floated in the air and landed across the faces of all three princes.
They scrambled to remove it. Hayes was completely blind, but he kept the horses at the same pace. Marc grabbed the flag and shoved it down at their feet. “Idiot.”
They raced past Lamoreaux, but he approached again, and they were soon side by side as they moved forward to take over some of the other competitors. One by one, Hayes passed them. They had four to pass in front, and he couldn’t shake Lamoreaux.
“I’m tired of this Frenchman,” he said.
