Philip now had the world’s dullest job cataloging maps in the basement of the War Department. Luke had never gotten over being expelled from the academy, but she secretly thought he was probably a lot happier for it in the long run. Otherwise he could have ended up like Philip, who graduated first in his class but was little more than a clerical drudge.

She hung up the telephone and raced off to intercept Gray at Philip’s office. Between the two of them, they might have insight into how those artichokes had magically appeared overnight in a locked and secured room.

The basement of the War Department was a bleak maze of dimly lit corridors with the same dank smell that permeated most basements. Caroline’s heels echoed in the concrete halls until she arrived at the map room, its door firmly closed.

She knocked. A moment later Philip Ransom opened it, looking as thin and pale as ever. He was a handsome man, with a lanky frame and blond hair clipped to military precision, but he suffered from the pallor of being trapped in a basement all day.

“Caroline,” he said in surprise. “Come in. Your brother is here.”

Gray rose from behind the worktable as she entered the room, but a crate of rolled maps clogged the space between them. Philip dragged the crate aside to clear a path, accidentally bumping into a coat tree. It wobbled, but he managed to catch it before it crashed to the ground. In the past few months, this cramped map library had become their war room as the three of them strategized ways to mitigate Luke’s dilemma. She didn’t know how Philip could stand working in this overstuffed, windowless room, but for now she appreciated its privacy.

“Happy birthday.” Gray smiled as he stepped around a floor globe to kiss her cheek.

“Thank you,” she replied. Gray held a chair for her at the single table. “Did you perhaps remember it with a particularly unique gift?”

He quirked a brow. “That’s a little forward, even for you. Of course you’re getting a gift, but it isn’t wrapped yet.”

“I’m speaking about the twenty-nine artichokes that mysteriously appeared in the White House kitchen this morning.”

Gray’s jaw dropped. It took a lot to render him speechless, but the artichokes did the trick. After a moment, he found his voice. “How did he pull that one off?”

“So it wasn’t you?”

“It wasn’t me.” Gray met Philip’s eyes across the table. “Philip? Do you know anything about this?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Philip was so squeaky clean, he wouldn’t know how to lie if given a script and acting lessons. Besides, artichokes smuggled into the White House in the dead of night was a classic Luke stunt, not something from Philip the Meek.