Free Scandalous by Candace Camp Page A

no plans to do anything of the sort. Mr.—oh, bother, it is so absurd not being able to call you anything. We really need to come up with some sort of name for you, until you can remember your real one.”
    â€œMr. Smith?” Florian suggested.
    â€œNo. Much too common. What about Wolfe?”
    Florian tilted his head, considering. “Yes. That isn’t terribly ordinary. But not uncommon, either. What about a first name?”
    â€œOh, something plain, I should think. So we won’t forget it or slip up.”
    â€œWhat about George?”
    Priscilla shook her head. “I’ve never liked that name.”
    â€œWell, then, John.”
    â€œAll right.” Priscilla nodded. “John Wolfe.”
    â€œI think that sounds quite believable.”
    â€œCould we forget about my name and get back to the subject at hand?” their newly christened patient snapped. “Namely the danger in which you’re about to place yourself?”
    â€œAs I was saying, Mr. Wolfe is concerned aboutnothing. I am merely planning to go to the village and visit with Mrs. Whiting. Within the hour, I’ll know all about Mr. Wolfe, if anyone saw him or is expecting him.”
    â€œOh, yes, that’s true,” Florian told the other man. “The vicar’s wife knows everything that goes on in the area. That makes me think, Priscilla, perhaps we ought to tell the vicar about Mr. Wolfe and his problem. He is a most intelligent man. And Dr. Hightower, of course. He’d know much more about amnesia than I.”
    â€œI don’t know.” Priscilla looked doubtful. “Somehow I feel that the fewer people who know about Mr. Wolfe, the safer he will be. I had not planned to tell Mrs. Whiting anything about him. It would be all over the village before supper. And if we tell the vicar, it’s as good as telling his wife.”
    â€œWould you two stop discussing me as if I were not here?” the newly named John Wolfe said irritably. “And we were talking about you putting yourself in danger, not me. If those two men see you walking away from this house, they could follow you, attack you.”
    â€œTo what purpose?” Priscilla pointed out reasonably. “As I told you, if they think you are in here, they are much more likely to break in. Papa, be sure to keep all the doors locked. Perhaps it would be best if you didn’t go out to your laboratory this afternoon.”
    Florian looked shocked. “You’re not serious. Not go to my laboratory? No one is going to attack me in broad daylight in my own backyard.”
    Their visitor groaned. “Those two would have no hesitation about attacking anyone anywhere, as long as they thought they could get away with it. And if they want me, it would be far easier to seize you, MissHamilton, while you’re tripping along some rural path, than to try to break into a house and take me. Once they had you, they would know I would have to give myself up to them.”
    He was right, of course; it was precisely what one of her own heroes would do.
    â€œThey don’t know that you are in here. They could only suspect.”
    â€œThey would find out if they seized you.”
    â€œYes, but at rather a large risk. I would have seen them and could identify them. And whether they got you to give yourself up to them or not, they would know that I would go straight to the constable and tell him all about them.”
    Wolfe raised an eyebrow. “A dead person would not be going straight anywhere.”
    A chill ran through Priscilla at his words, but she stifled the frisson of fear and replied coolly, “Rather extreme measures, don’t you think? Especially considering the fact that they merely held you prisoner. They had ample opportunity to murder you, and they did not. Why would they risk murdering me?”
    â€œWhy would you risk the chance that they might?” he countered coolly.
    Priscilla narrowed her