Amanda was pleasantly surprised to see Francine looking quite so much like a 'normal' person when she drove up in front of her apartment block the next morning. Standing on the sidewalk, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and only basic makeup, she was a far cry from her usual fashion plate look and secretly Amanda thought she looked nicer than she usually did but kept that to herself. She was just grateful to hobble out of the car and slide into the passenger seat with a sigh of relief as Francine lifted her bags into the back of the wagon.

Francine got into the driver's seat and turned on the ignition, glancing at Amanda's air cast. "Well at least I don't need to worry about you actually running into anything dangerous this weekend. With any luck, the biggest excitement is going to be deciding whether to go for a trail ride or lounge by the pool."

Amanda groaned. "I'm sure Penny's going to make me go on a trail ride. She mentioned it specifically – I think she just likes the peace and quiet away from Bo Johnson though."

"You don't like trail rides? I thought you were outdoorsy"

"Oh I am – and I like the idea of trail rides but horses like me more than I like them."

"You don't like horses?" Francine made it sound like that was almost a crime.

"Oh I love them – from a distance! It's just I'm really allergic to them so after a minute or so of petting them and thinking they're lovely, I can't see them anymore through the tears streaming out of my eyes."

"I can't even imagine not being able to go near a horse – I spent most of my life down at the stables growing up."

"Well, that'll make it easier for us to keep an eye on the princess then – you can just go on the rides instead of me!"

"Speaking of the princess, what have you told her about me?"

"Well, she knows you're coming and I told her you were a friend from work, so she knows you're Agency. Don't worry," Amanda added hurriedly. "She knows not to tell Bo and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure she's even told her husband. She really doesn't trust Bo and she definitely doesn't trust his influence over the prince."

"She doesn't mind that I'm Agency though?"

"Well, I might have kind of told her that I'd invited you along to help check up on Bo," said Amanda apologetically.

Francine grinned. "Well, that might not be entirely untrue. My pet IRS guy thinks Johnson Oil is having some financial problems based on their accounts the last couple of years. Efraim's following up on it now – I've got to call in for an update when we get there."

The rest of the drive to the ranch passed quickly and by late morning, they were pulling up to the front gate. As the massive security gate, adorned with cow skulls swung open to let them in, Francine looked at Amanda and rolled her eyes. "You can tell he's a Hollywood cowboy – this gate looks like something out of Walley World, not Texas!"

With that mental image in her head already, Amanda was hard pressed not to laugh out loud when they pulled up in front of the ranch house and it was an incredibly ornate Spanish villa. It was so over-the-top that it would barely have made sense in southern California but it was ridiculously out of place in the rolling hills of Virginia.

"Wow. I wonder when Zorro is going to show up," remarked Francine, echoing Amanda's inner thoughts, but before she could respond, Penny had appeared at the top of the steps and was rushing down to meet them.

"Oh, I'm so glad you could come, Amanda! And how wonderful that you found someone who could come with you!" she exclaimed as she came down the steps. As she leaned in to hug Amanda though, she muttered in a voice just loud enough to be heard, "And you're just in time to keep me from killing Bo Johnson with my bare hands!"

Amanda's eyes went wide and she tried unsuccessfully to keep in her laughter. "Does Princess Di talk like that?" she asked.

"Oh believe me, she's much worse!" Penny was giggling now too. "You'd be amazed what that girl will say at a state dinner after she's had one too many!"

Penny pulled away and turned to greet Francine. "And you must be Amanda's friend, Francine!" She began to laugh as Francine attempted a slight curtsy – which really looked odd in jeans. "Oh please no, none of that this weekend – this weekend I'm just Penny, alright? I get enough of the royal nonsense back in Zakir!"

"That royal nonsense, as you put it, is several centuries of tradition, My Love," said a voice from the top of the steps. The three women looked up to see Prince Rheza walking down the steps towards them, smiling broadly. "You Americans have such a young country," he chided his wife teasingly. "I wonder if I'll ever get you to take our customs seriously?"

"You know I take them seriously, Darling, but only when we're home in Zakir," laughed Penny.

"I suppose I will just have to be grateful that you refer to Zakir as home," he answered, leaning in to kiss her cheek. He turned with hands outstretched to Amanda. "And Mrs. King! How delightful that you were able to join us this weekend. And you are Ms. Desmond?" He bent over Francine's hand to kiss it before straightening up and looking at her appraisingly. "Have we met? You seem familiar."

Amanda and Penny tensed while only Francine managed to appear calm. "Oh, I'd remember meeting a prince! I think I just have one of those faces."

"Oh, I don't think that's true," laughed Rheza. "But you do have a very typical blonde, blue-eyed American look – and we don't see a lot of that in Zakir!"

He began to usher them into the house just as Bo Johnson came around the corner of the house.

"Well howdy there, Little Ladies!" he bellowed. "Welcome to my little piece of Texas heaven right here in Virginia!" He grabbed Amanda's hand and pumped it furiously, ignoring her look of pain at his iron grip. "Mrs. King! I'm so glad you could come along and keep our lil princess company!" He ignored the annoyed looks from all three women at that comment as he turned to Francine. He looked her up and down approvingly. "And well, well, well, what do we have here? You must be Mrs. King's little friend. I'll certainly look forward to getting to know you better this weekend!" The leer he gave her along with the comment did not bode well for Francine having a weekend free of grabbers.

"Oh I'm looking forward to getting to know so much more about you too!" cooed Francine. "Which reminds me – Amanda, don't let me forget to call home later and see how the boys' research project is going."

"I sure won't – I'm sure they're busting to tell you all about it," smiled Amanda. "I know my two can never wait to tell me all about their day."

"You both have children? How charming," said Rheza, continuing to lead them up the steps into the house. "Penny and I are hoping to have our own family some day, aren't we, Darling?"

"Yes, we are," answered Penny, with a brief pained expression. "My husband would like a big family, being an only child himself, but we haven't been blessed yet," she explained to Amanda in a quiet voice.

"Well, you two should be taking advantage of the rest and relaxation this weekend to work on that little project, shouldn't you?" boomed out Bo with a raucous laugh.

Amanda noticed Penny wincing at Bo's innuendo and slipped her arm through hers to give it a squeeze. "Oh, babies come along on their own schedule, sometimes good, sometimes bad. It'll happen when it happens," she said brightly.

Penny looked at her gratefully. "I guess you'd know, since you've been through it twice." She squeezed Amanda's arm back. "Now, let me show you to your room! I told the housekeeper to give you a shared suite – I hope that's ok?"

Francine looked back at where Bo was watching them from the bottom of the steps, watching her with a lecherous expression she was all too familiar with and gave a slight shudder. "A shared room will be perfect," she muttered. "Thank you for thinking of it."

The suite they'd been given was lovely, with a view of the valley, although the décor left something to be desired. Every wall was covered with the mounted heads of dead animals and the floor was covered with the scattered pelts of other animal victims. Francine lifted one of the curtains, and held it out to Amanda, showing her the pattern of an infant Davy Crockett killing a bear. "How charming," she remarked. "Look how the carpets match the drapes! Who does this guy think he is anyway? King of the Wild Frontier?"

Amanda wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Well, he'd like you to think so but from the looks of it, he just kept everything from every movie set he's ever been on."

To Penny's amazement, the next thing Francine did was pull a scanner from her bag to check for bugs and to her even greater astonishment, Francine found one hidden in the flower arrangement and another in the handset of the phone. With a roll of her eyes, Francine dropped the phone bug in a glass of water and moved the arrangement closer to the radio she'd turned on as soon as they entered and beckoned Amanda and the princess into the large bathroom. "We'll leave that live so they don't get suspicious– but we never talk about anything important without having the radio on or unless we're in here, understand? It's possible someone here is watching us just because we're connected to Penny, but they don't know we're Agency and that's the way I like it." She turned to Penny. "You should probably assume there's some in your room as well."

"Do you think it's Mr. Johnson?" whispered Amanda.

"I don't know and I don't like not knowing. It's possible someone has just infiltrated the place so we don't trust anyone until we find out, agreed?" Amanda and Penny both nodded solemnly.

"Okay, so now we go back out and make small talk and actually just try and have the nice girly weekend everyone thinks we're having."

Francine led the way back into the room, turned the radio up to blast volume and began pulling things out of her suitcase, singing along with the music. She pulled out a small box with a bow on it with an exclamation of surprise. "Oh, I almost forgot about this."

"What is it?" asked Penny. "Gift from your boyfriend?"

"Hardly," snorted Francine. "It's some kind of thank-you present from Lee for agreeing to help out here – Efraim brought it last night when he came over." She pulled off the ribbon and opened the lid before giving a choke of laughter. She reached into the box and pulled out a cap gun and a toy sheriff's badge, holding them up as both women started to laugh along with her.

"He thinks he's so cute," said Francine.

"He is cute," said Penny with a smile.

"Not that cute," chorused Francine and Amanda in unison.

Penny looked back and forth between the two friends. "Seriously? Neither of you? He's so good-looking, how do you resist?"

"I didn't resist," answered Francine cheerfully. "But that was a long time ago and I am quite happily dating someone who's his polar opposite. We would have ended up killing each other eventually."

"What about you?" Penny turned on Amanda. "He seemed pretty worried about you at the party; you two must be close."

"Oh yeah, we're friends, but I am so not his type," laughed Amanda. "He likes girls with no strings attached and I am nothing but strings, what with Mother and the boys."

"Are you sure?" asked Penny again. "I only saw those dimples once and I'd still be tempted to take a shot at him - if I wasn't married, of course."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure. His type is blonde and curvy and I'm zero-for-two in those departments," said Amanda cheerfully.

Francine bit back a laugh, remembering how Lee had zeroed in on Amanda at the party before realizing who it was, then joined in on the teasing. "You forgot dumb," added Francine. "He doesn't date the brightest bulbs."

"That's probably your fault," grinned Amanda. "Dated the smartest girl in the room and swore never to do it again." Her smile broadened as Francine gave her a thumbs up, before she turned back to Penny. "Besides, it's exhausting enough being friends with him – I can't even imagine what it would be like to try and go out with him. I'd spend every date waiting for someone to take a pot shot at us." She gasped and her hand flew up over her mouth. "Oh I'm sorry – I shouldn't joke about things like that right now."

Penny leaned over and patted her hand. "Don't worry about it – when you spend your life surrounded by men with machine guns, your sense of humor gets pretty dark pretty fast." She stood up and held out a hand to Amanda. "Okay, how about I show you around the place? I may not like Bo much, but I do love this ranch!"

It turned out that, keeping in mind that Amanda couldn't walk very far, Penny had asked Bo for the use of a golf cart and so they had been able to explore the grounds in some comfort. They couldn't venture far since they had to stay on the pathways, but it had given them the freedom to escape the confines of the house for a while. Thanks to her Benadryl tablets, Amanda was even able to go into the stables, although not with anything near the enthusiasm of the other two. She lingered near the door, Kleenexes in hand and watched as Penny and Francine wandered down the barn aisle, greeting every horse with pets and crooning noises.

"No I don't have anything for you!" laughed Francine as one overeager horse craned his head over the stall door and snuffled her pockets. "I'll make sure I have something next time, okay?"

Amanda had to laugh when the normally elegant Francine turned towards her with a huge green smear of horse spit across her blouse. Francine looked down and grimaced. "They're adorable but they have no fashion sense at all. Good thing I brought a lot of clothes!"

Amanda thought back to the two giant suitcases Francine had loaded into her station wagon and stifled a giggle. "I'll just stay back here where it's safe."

"I'm so sorry you're allergic to these guys," said Penny, gesturing to the stalls. "Here I thought I was giving you a bit of a treat and nothing could be further from the truth!"

"Oh of course this is a treat!" said Amanda. "I never get much time away by myself to just relax. And with this cast on, I have the perfect excuse to just rest by the pool later!"

They walked back out into the sunshine and stopped to admire the view across the valley.

"Have you found out anything about Bo yet?" asked Penny quietly. "He's really been working on Rheza since we got here and I know he's after even more drilling rights! I'm sure he's trying to sell Rheza a bill of goods and meanwhile, Zakir is getting the short end of the deal every time."

"Not a lot yet," answered Francine. "Our contact in the IRS has confirmed that according to their last audit, Johnson Oil is having problems making their loan payments for their drilling equipment, but for the moment, their subsidiary companies are keeping them afloat. We can't see any sign of anything criminal though, unfortunately." She grimaced and added, "But if he smacks me on the ass one more time, one of us is going up on assault charges."

Penny couldn't hold in her snort of laughter. "He used to do that to me too when I was first dating Rheza. Then we got married and the first time he tried it, one of the royal guards 'accidentally' knocked him down for touching a member of the royal family." Her smile broadened at the memory as the other two women laughed. "Definitely the best perk of being a princess."

Francine looked at her watch. "Well I'm about due to check in with 'my children' and I need to change my shirt so why don't I head inside and do that and I'll meet you out on the patio?"

With a wave, she went up to their room, snapping the radio up to a loud volume, double checked the handset for bugs, and then finally, dialed Efraim's desk.

"Hey Cowpoke, got anything for me?" she asked when he picked up.

"Well, hi there, Annie Oakley, how's life among the blue bloods?" he smiled down the line.

"We haven't shed any blood yet, thank goodness, but that may change by the end of the day if a certain geriatric lothario doesn't keep his paws to himself. Please tell me you found something on Bo. I don't even care if it's anything to do with the prince – I just want to get to slap handcuffs on him," she answered.

"Nothing solid yet, but I'm just waiting on one last call back from one of my boys who's down at the Commerce Department doing some snooping. Scarecrow got a call about an hour ago from someone who says he has intel on that assassination attempt – he's headed out to meet him in a few minutes." Efraim twirled a pen between his fingers and stared at the ceiling. "So, Mr. Johnson's giving you trouble?" he asked in a deceptively calm voice.

"Oh don't you worry about me, Toots," she replied instantly. "I've got his number and he thinks I'm just a suburban mom. If anyone is going to have an unpleasant surprise today, it's him."

"Should I be worried about him then?" Efraim grinned.

"Probably, but I'll try and restrain myself to just accidentally breaking his fingers," said Francine cheerfully.

"That's my girl," he chuckled. "Now listen, can you call me back in about two hours? We should have more by then."

"I sure can. Talk to you then." Francine hung up and glanced out the window. She could see someone walking a beautiful white Thoroughbred up the driveway. She knew it hadn't been in the stable when they were there earlier – she would have remembered such a gorgeous animal. She realized the man was leading it around the back of the house and got up to go see where he was headed. She arrived back on the patio in time to see Bo calling Penny down to the garden.

"Now I was friends with the previous prince, God rest his soul, and I'm proud to say that his son is just as good a friend to me as I hope I am to him," he was announcing. "And when he married such a beautiful girl from right here in the good, ole USA, I couldn't have been happier. And now in the spirit of that friendship, I'd like to present his little princess with a little something I trained up myself, just for her!" With a broad gesture, he waved to where the stable hand was leading the white horse out from behind a hedge. "This here is Sultan!"

"Oh Bo, he's beautiful!" Penny exclaimed. Both Amanda and Francine could see that she was overwhelmed, her excitement over the horse only slightly marred by the source of the gift.

"Well, I'm glad you like him, Penny," said Bo jovially. "I thought you'd enjoy having your very own horse to ride while you were here and when you head back to Zakir, I've arranged for him to be shipped there for you!"

"This was so kind, I really don't know how to thank you enough," said Penny shyly.

"Well, you can thank me by riding him while you're here and enjoying yourself, of course. You know all the trails from your other visits, of course, so I won't worry about you getting lost – and this fella can go for miles without tiring." Bo began patting his pockets looking for something. As he pulled some horse treats out, something slim and metal fell to the ground.

"Well, I'll leave you two to get to know each other," said Bo. "Meanwhile, I'm going to kidnap Rheza here for a little pre-dinner cigar," He slapped the prince on the back and went on, "Now come on Rheza – let's leave your little woman to get to know her new boyfriend, hey?" He led the prince off towards the house, leaving all three women exchanging looks of disgust.

"You know, I've been going to congressional parties for years now with men old enough to have fought in the Civil War and I still don't think I've ever met anyone as relentlessly chauvinistic as Bo," remarked Francine.

Penny snorted as she took hold of the bridle. "Well, he may be an ass, but he sure can pick a beautiful horse." She ran her hand up and down the horse's neck, murmuring nonsense words to him, then stepped back to look him in the eye as he nickered quietly.

Amanda had stepped away, unwilling to risk getting too close to the gelding, even with her allergy pills, and looked down, noticing for the first time whatever it was Bo had dropped. She leaned down to pick it up and studied it for a moment before realizing it was some kind of whistle. Raising it to her lips, she gave it a tentative blow. It wasn't very loud or very long but to her horror, it was enough to startle the horse into rearing slightly, pulling the bridle from Penny's hand and kicking out. In twin motion, both Penny and Francine leaped forward to grab the reins.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry! It never occurred to me that it would frighten him," she stammered.

"Well, normally something like that shouldn't," said Penny, soothing the horse by running her hand up and down his nose. "He must just be nervous around new people. Is that the problem, boy?" she crooned at him as Sultan continued to dance a little.

"You're probably right," said Francine. "Maybe you should let him go back to his stall and calm down a little and we can visit him after dinner after we beg some carrots or something from the kitchen? Let him get to know you better then?"

Penny glanced at her and realized Francine was gesturing towards the house with a slight nod of her head. It was obvious she wanted to talk to her and Amanda alone.

"That seems like a good idea," she answered immediately. "Could you take him back to the barn for me?" she asked the stable hand who had led Sultan out. "Thank you so much," she added as he nodded and stepped forward to take the bridle.

Upstairs in their room, Francine immediately crossed the room to turn the radio up again then gestured for the other two to huddle in close. "Penny, would you say Bo is a good horse trainer? Or that he has good trainers?"

"Oh yes – he's actually pretty well known for it – it's his favorite hobby after making money," answered Penny. "Why are you asking?"

"Well, Sultan may have been nervous but his heebie-jeebies were nothing compared to that stable hand. When Amanda blew that whistle, I thought he was going to jump right out of his boots – almost as if he knew exactly how Sultan was going to react."

Penny and Amanda stared at her, silently processing what she'd said.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" asked Penny finally.

"Yes – don't get on that horse until we've tested that little theory out, okay?"

Penny nodded. "It just doesn't seem possible that Bo is trying to hurt me though." She looked between Amanda and Francine, suddenly struck by a thought. "Should I tell Rheza?"

The other two exchanged a look of their own. "Well, that's up to you," said Amanda. "But maybe wait until we have more proof than just a bad feeling?"

Penny nodded again, still looking worried.

"And as much as you're going to hate hearing this…" said Francine.

"Don't go anywhere alone?" sighed Penny, shoulders sagging when Francine nodded. "Okay. Thank goodness you're both here – at least I can insist on spending all my time with you."

"And Rheza," added Amanda. "You should try and keep Bo from dragging him off for any more man-to-man talks until we find out if it's only you he's trying to hurt."

Francine glared at her for her blunt assessment of the situation but rather than frightening Penny more, it seemed to make her angrier. She drew herself up straight and looked back and forth between them. "Rheza's family has been helping that man line his coffers for twenty years and this is how he repays it? I'm going to kill him!"

"Alright, let's get a hold of ourselves before this turns into weekend at the OK Corral, ladies" scolded Francine. "I have to call Efraim again in an hour or so for the next update – let's all just keep calm and act like everything's fine until then, shall we?" She looked back and forth between the two brunettes. "So, who's up for a nice afternoon at the pool?"