Frances held up her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. “That was quite a performance. Congratulations.”

Harley and Rian looked at each other and grinned. Harley nodded at Frances, and elected to stay silent. The new offer’s coming any minute now.

She glanced over Frances’ shoulder, expecting the phalanx of lawyers that they’d met with to be trailing this woman. Frances caught her look. “I told them to wait inside. They’ll be in touch shortly. Formally propose a new offer, which I expect the museum’s board won’t have a problem with.”

Frances joined them under the shade. She extended a hand to Harley, who accepted it. As they shook hands, Frances said, “You were really quite impressive my dear. I thought for sure that we had this in the bag when you two walked in – we were underwhelmed, to be honest, since you two looked about as young as my daughter. But you took us to school, and I have to say we deserved it. So congratulations, again. I’ve told the buyer that, in the future, we should consider your firm for any future activities he plans to engage in in this part of the country.”

Harley dropped her mouth. Rian nudged her ribs and urged, under her breath, “Give her your card! Give her your card!”

The redhead pulled a card out of her jacket pocket, stammering, “Th-..thank you. Very kind words. And of course, please do consider us for your future activities.”

“Well … we certainly will consider you, Ms. Barton-Ash. You made an impression on me. And on him.”

Rian felt her excitement grow again, but her happiness was for Harley. Frances’ comments were surely a vindication of sorts for all the work the redhead was putting into her job.

Frances turned to Rian and extended her hand, a smile splitting her face. “And I think you have a secret calling for seduction, my dear. You got to the heart of the matter with that performance.”

Rian returned her smile, shook her hand and was about to respond but Frances continued quickly, “If I may ask, can we talk about something? It won’t take long…” she gestured to her right.

Rian looked at Harley who was frowning slightly. Frances reached out and rubbed Harley’s forearm. “Not about this, Harley. Another matter.”