Her insult didn’t cause even a flicker of change in the agent’s expression as he looked coolly at Gray. “I’d prefer not to have you bodily removed, but I have already warned your sister about unauthorized visitors. Her family is especially undesirable. Where there’s one traitor, more are likely flourishing nearby.”

It looked like he wanted to say more, but the gardener was slowly walking toward them as he wiggled a red carnation into his jacket’s buttonhole.

“Lay off her, Mr. Trask,” the gardener said curtly as he passed them on his way into the house.

Agent Trask snapped to attention. “Yes, sir,” he said promptly. “Of course, sir.”

Gray’s mouth dropped open. He’d heard that President McKinley wore a freshly cut red carnation in his lapel each day. His gaze trailed to Caroline. “Was that the president?”

“That was the president,” she confirmed. “He cuts flowers for the first lady every morning.”

The security agent relaxed a fraction as he shot a surly glare at Caroline. “One might think that should be your job.”

“Try to stop him,” Caroline said. “I’d enjoy watching that. Just try, I dare you.” Her taunting look made Gray suspect she was enjoying the interaction.

“The president may think you are indispensable, but I don’t,” Agent Trask said. “Sooner or later you’re going to place a foot wrong, and when that happens, I’ll be there to haul you out the door.”

The agent left, Caroline watching him the whole time. “Isn’t he delightful?”

“But he’s right,” Gray said reluctantly. “Any association you have with me or Luke can only harm you.”

“I suppose you’re both my cross to bear,” she teased.

She said it affectionately, but he feared she was correct, and that hurt more than anything.

Ever since Dickie Shuster’s visit, Annabelle scanned the newspaper each morning, curious about what he had up his sleeve, but the article was so much worse than she could have imagined. Dickie Shuster had no interest in food purity. He was only interested in writing a salacious exposé of the entire Delacroix family.

It was no surprise when she arrived at the laboratory to see Horace poring over the disgraceful article and not a single test tube or seed sample brought out of storage for testing.

“Have you seen this?” he asked with excitement.

“I’ve seen it,” she replied, heading straight toward her collection of lab notebooks.

“Absolutely appalling,” he said in a voice dripping with delight. “And there is more to come. Did you see that this is only the first article in a series?”

Annabelle dropped the lab books and darted to the newspaper. “No. Where?”

Sure enough, in small print near the bottom, it indicated that Mr. Shuster would release the second article about the Delacroix family and their crusade against the Magruders the following week.