When Passion Rules

by Johanna Lindsey

WHEN DID YOU KNOW?” Frederick asked.

  Christoph didn’t answer immediately. He was still swearing! Alana had chosen to stop listening to him after she caught a few of his more vulgar words. So she was standing happily in the circle of her father’s arms, her cheek pressed against his chest, oblivious to everything else. Frederick wasn’t embracing her as tightly now, but he still wasn’t letting go of her, either. She had no idea how long they had stood like that, soaking in the reality of each other.

  But she definitely heard her father’s question and noticed how long it took Christoph to finally answer. “I wasn’t sure,” he said. “But our meeting with the nursemaid this morning left a sour taste. I felt you needed to see her for yourself before I tried to make sense of this and explain my suspicions.”

  “What made you suspect?”

  “Helga didn’t act as a mother should. She displayed angry disbelief when presented with a daughter returned from the dead, then fearful acceptance, but not once the joy of a mother reunited with her child. She felt it, too, no connection to her,” Christoph added, nodding at Alana. “That they weren’t related at all.”

  Alana had to address that and turned to do so. Frederick resisted taking his arms off her so she could, but he put one arm around her shoulder instead, still unwilling to lose touch with her.

  “I didn’t say that,” she told Christoph. “Only that it felt like we were strangers.”

  He shrugged. “The same thing.”

  “Send for Helga Engel immediately,” Frederick ordered. “I want to know why she did this to me.”

  “She is already on her way here,” Christoph said. “When news of the attack was brought to me, we had to leave before I could voice my doubts to her. But I left a man there to escort her to the palace. Before the end of the day I promise you will have a full account of why she convinced you that her daughter was yours.”

  Alana interjected, “She did give a reason, you know she did.”

  “What?” Frederick asked, looking between them.

  Christoph answered, “She said she was terrified of what would be done to her if something happened to the princess, that she would be blamed for it. She could have made up that story about switching the babies the very night the princess disappeared, not done so weeks sooner. But there is no point in speculating when we will have the answers today.” Then Christoph nodded toward Alana. “I gather she actually looks like your first wife, Queen Avelina?”

  “Yes, uncannily so. But I feel it here, too.” Frederick put a hand to his heart. “There is no doubt.”

  Christoph nodded. “I understand. I will leave you alone to get acquainted. I am pleased for you both.”

  Frederick laughed. “You don’t sound pleased.”

  Christoph waved a hand to excuse his manner. “This was not expected, as you know. I’ve been wrong before, but not to this extent.”

  He started to leave, but Frederick’s voice stopped him. “Christoph, did you do—what we last discussed?”

  Christoph hesitated only a moment before giving a brief nod. Frederick stiffened. “That is . . . unfortunate.”

  Christoph merely nodded again in agreement before he walked out of the room. Alana wasn’t sure what had just happened, but her father was obviously upset about it.

  Staring at the closed door, then at her father, Alana realized that cryptic question had been about Christoph’s treatment of her during his interrogations, which had been quite rough.

  “He’s a barbarian,” Alana agreed, as if to say, What more would you expect? But then she realized whom she was saying that to and gasped.

  But Frederick smiled as he led her to the edge of the raised throne platform, where he sat her down and sat beside her, stretching out his long legs before him and crossing them at his ankles. Such an unkinglike thing to do! Alana thought. It made her relax more than anything else he could have done just then.

  “Occasionally, he is exactly that,” Frederick agreed with her. “And occasionally, it is useful. But most Lubinians resist change. At least my nobles try to progress, instead of clinging to the comfort of old ways. They set good examples—most of the time. Becker is very good at what he does, in whatever manner he does it.”

  Alana realized now that she was finally under her father’s protection, she wouldn’t have to deal with Christoph’s high-handed manner ever again. She should complain about him, is what she should do. She owed him a little retribution, didn’t she? But it could wait. This was more important. Her father! And for the moment, she had his undivided attention.

  They both said at exactly the same time, “Tell me—,” and they both stopped to laugh at each other, for having the same thought.

  At his nod for her to go first, she asked for something she really wanted. “Is there a portrait of my mother somewhere? I know there is none here in the palace, but—”

  “There is one, a miniature I keep in my bureau. I will show it to you later. My current wife, Nikola, knows I keep it. She doesn’t mind if I take it out occasionally and look at it. She’s a wonderful woman. I’m not ashamed to say I love them both.”

  “But my mother, she’s—”

  “Yes, she’s dead. But that doesn’t mean I have stopped loving her.”

  Alana felt tears well in her eyes. That was beautifully said. She hoped a man would feel like that about her someday.

  “Now tell me about this man who—raised you. I promise to contain my rage.”

  She started, though she should have expected her father to feel this way. “Don’t hate him, please. Like you just said about your two wives, I love you both.”

  “Then tell me why you do.”

  For three hours they talked there in the throne room, alone, without stopping. Alana felt it wasn’t nearly enough time. She had a whole life to talk about. So did he. And she found out it was her grandmother, Avelina’s mother, who’d had the black hair!

  Several officials looked in on them, but only to make sure the king was all right. He shooed them away. A woman came, for the same reason. He shooed her away, too, but with a smile and the promise that he would join her soon with a surprise. His wife, he explained to Alana. She’d guessed as much.

  But then Christoph showed up again, and there was no shooing him off.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  WE WILL NOT GET the confession you want today, Highness,” Christoph said as he marched briskly across the room to give his report.

  Christoph knew he could have waited to deliver this bad news, at least until father and daughter had left this room where they were getting acquainted. He knew that he was intruding, but he didn’t care. He’d had no idea how difficult it was going to be to lose possession of this woman when he had only just begun entertaining thoughts of a permanent relationship with her.

  Yesterday when his mother had looked so hopeful that he’d found someone he could actually bring home to them, who wasn’t merely a mistress, he’d begun to think how he might keep Alana. He’d even had a thought that he’d never had before for any other woman: marriage. His family would be delighted by it, and he’d been surprised to feel no resistance to the idea at all. But she hadn’t been the princess then. Now she was.

  Yet he’d tried to wait to deliver this report. He’d been informed of what had happened two hours ago. He’d waited that long to give them this time together alone.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off Alana now. Even when she looked down and away from him as soon as she noticed his gaze on her. Even when he continued the report for Frederick, he was looking at her as he spoke.

  “A man hiding at the side of the mountain road commandeered the sleigh bringing Helga Engel to the palace. He took my guard by surprise and pushed him out of the sleigh at knifepoint, then raced off in the sleigh with the woman. He might have been on his way to the chalet to see Helga Engel and decided to attack when he saw her in the sleigh coming down the road. My guard described the man as short and thin, his face covered by a hood.”

  Alana winced a
t the brief description he’d given of the thief. Christoph had already guessed it had been Rastibon. Who else would want to keep Helga Engel from reaching the palace? Alana’s reaction, which seemed to indicate she was having the same thought, confirmed it in his mind.

  But Frederick said, “You are searching the city for them?”

  “Certainly, but he will expect that. I doubt he will take her there.” And to Alana: “Why would your Poppie want to rescue Helga Engel?”

  “Why do you assume that was his motive? He wouldn’t do something like that unless he was after answers. But I don’t see why he would be, unless he somehow found out I went to visit her. You haven’t given him any access to me, so he might have thought she could tell him what that visit was about. But there was no way he could have known about it unless he followed us out of the city.”

  “He didn’t follow us, but, yes, he knew.”

  She frowned. “How?”

  “Your young friend came to visit you this morning before we got back. I had hoped he might, so I told the gate guard to tell him where I had taken you before escorting him out of the fortress.”

  She gasped. “You were hoping Henry would try to reach me again, weren’t you? You set that up deliberately!”

  Christoph shrugged. “It was worth trying if it would draw out your guardian.”

  “Who is Henry?” Frederick asked.

  “An English orphan Poppie and I are very fond of.”

  “They aren’t to be killed, Christoph,” Frederick said. “She has strong feelings for them, but especially for this man who raised her. I will not have her grieve over him.”

  “I understand,” Christoph said. “But I still need answers from him. He knows things we don’t.”

  “He doesn’t!” Alana exclaimed. “I’ve told you that’s what he’s doing here, finding those same answers you’re looking for. Why can’t you just work with him?”

  “That isn’t an option until he stands before me,” Christoph said.

  She seemed surprised. “Are you saying you will work with him now?”

  “Are you saying you will now help to bring us together, for your father’s sake?”

  “Not if you’re going to treat him the way you treated me and throw him in your prison!”

  She gasped the second the last word was out, even put her hand over her mouth and looked at her father with wide eyes. Christoph prepared himself for Frederick’s wrath. He’d put the princess of Lubinia in prison. He would have had to confess that at some point, but he’d hoped to resolve other issues first before he was dismissed from his job. Alana had warned him she’d make him pay for it. Perhaps she’d forgotten that because she seemed surprised now that she’d inadvertently done exactly that.

  Frederick, who had been watching with interest as they argued, left his inscrutable gaze on Christoph.

  “It would appear you did your job to the letter?” Frederick questioned.

  “Yes, I did.”

  Frederick turned to his daughter, and notably, emotion slipped into his tone. “Were you hurt?”

  “No, not hurt, just frustrated. A lot. And mortified with embarrassment. And, well, frightened a bit whenever he unleashed his barbarian side,” she finished indignantly.

  Frederick’s golden brow rose, but turned on Christoph again. “A bit?”

  Tight-lipped, he replied, “She wasn’t frightened for long. She had too much courage for that approach to work effectively. Argumentative. Furious. Absolutely insistent on convincing me who—she actually is.”

  Frederick turned to cup Alana’s cheeks in his hands. For a brief moment pride was in his expression at the description Christoph had just given of her, before that expression turned grave.

  “You know what we thought, the only thing we could think, given the lie that was perpetrated and believed so long ago,” the king told her. “You might have lived out your life, away from here, never knowing who you really are, and I would never have guessed you were still alive. Rastibon brought you back to me. He didn’t have to do that. As much as I hate him for what he did, at some point I will summon the generosity of spirit to thank him for keeping you safe all this time. He won’t be harmed, I give you my word. I cannot say the same of Helga Engel. Her lie affected many decisions that would have been very different, were the truth known. It was easy to be convinced not to take action against the suspects when we thought they had failed, when that action, at that time, could have provoked another civil war. What you must understand is that Christoph was doing a job he’s very good at. I don’t want you holding any part of it against him, when he had his orders from me to use any means necessary to get at the truth behind—what we thought was your impersonation.”

  Frederick turned to Christoph and ordered, “You will guard Alana’s safety—and that’s all—in the most professional manner until further notice.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  LEONARD KNEW OF THE abandoned, half-burned-down farm far from the road near the foothills. He’d found it when he was a child and had lost his way home. No one had torn it down back then because no one had wanted to replace it. That was apparently still the case all these years later. He didn’t expect so much of it, two of the four walls, to still be standing, though. He was able to hide the sleigh behind them.

  After kicking rubble and useless furniture aside for several minutes, he found the root cellar. He lifted the trapdoor and dragged the woman down the old stairs, closing the door behind them. He had unhooked the sleigh lantern and taken it with him, so they had light. It stopped flickering now that they were out of the cold wind. He had to knock ancient cobwebs aside so he could set the lantern on a broken shelf. He laid a blanket on the floor, set the woman down on it, then sat beside her.

  He was surprised she hadn’t once tried to remove the blanket he’d tossed over her head. He’d just wanted to keep her covered during the swift ride so the wind wouldn’t cut into her face. He removed the blanket now and saw why she hadn’t done so. She was terrified, and the moment he unwrapped his own face cover, she recognized him and began wailing.

  “Don’t be afraid,” Leonard quickly told her. “I’m not going to hurt you, Helga, I swear.”

  The fear didn’t leave her eyes. He wasn’t sure she even heard him. He kissed her gently. Confusion took the place of her fear.

  He smiled at her, confessing, “I’ve thought of you often over the years, more than I should have. I was more fond of you than I anticipated. It wasn’t part of the plan for that to happen. In the end, it changed how I performed that job I was hired for. I should have killed you, but I couldn’t. I didn’t even want you to suffer the horror of waking up to find your charge dead, so I took her with me to finish the job elsewhere away from the palace. Because of you.”

  “But you didn’t kill her!”

  His mouth turned wry. “No, I couldn’t do that, either. She won my heart with a smile. It changed me, completely. Because of her, I’m not the man I was.”

  “You stopped killing?” she asked hesitantly.

  “Yes, we lived a fairly normal life.”

  “You’re—not angry with me?”

  “Why would I be?”

  “You just abducted me! Terrified me! You”—she glanced around her—“bring me to a cellar!”

  He touched her cheek gently. “I’m sorry, there was no other way. I’m a wanted man here, and you were with a palace guard. I was on my way to the chalet to speak with you. It appeared you were being escorted to the palace. Once there, I wouldn’t have been able to reach you.”

  “But a cellar!”

  “I can’t afford to be seen by anyone, Helga. I am being searched for diligently. And now you will be searched for as well until I take you back. I wanted to talk to you in private, out of the cold, without being seen by anyone. I didn’t have many options. I remembered this old place, far from the roads, far from any village.”

  “This cellar is not warm,” she pointed out, hugging her arms.

  “But it’
s not freezing, and we won’t be here long.”

  “You intend to take me back to the chalet?”

  “If you want to go back, yes.”

  “Why—did you want to speak privately with me?” she asked cautiously.

  “I found out that Alana was taken to the king’s chalet to visit you. It was an obvious trap for me. That was too much information to be given of her whereabouts.”

  “You would have willingly walked into that trap?”

  “No, I wouldn’t have been able to get to her, not surrounded by guards as she was. But I only found out about her trip this morning, a day after she began it. I saw her returned to the palace before I started up the mountain.”

  “To see me,” she said uncomfortably.

  “To see you, yes. I visited your old house, but others live there now. I had no way to find you, until I heard she went to see you and where. Now, I do need to know what that visit was about. And you can tell me how she has fared. You do know, don’t you?”

  Color drained from her face. She tried to turn around so he wouldn’t see it. He put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. He was alarmed now, thinking something bad had happened to Alana.

  “Tell me!”

  “They—they think she’s mine.”

  “What?” he said incredulously.

  “They think she’s my daughter!”

  “How?” he got out before he realized, “My God, that’s why Frederick didn’t tear heaven and earth apart looking for her, isn’t it? You made him believe you saved his daughter?”

  “I had to! I let you in! They would have killed us if they found out!”

  His mind was moving frantically ahead. So many other things made sense now. But she was crying again. Keening loudly again.

  He asked gently, “What did you tell the other nursemaid when she returned?”

  “She knew. She was terrified, too. I convinced her we would both be blamed if she didn’t agree I had switched the babies to keep the princess safe. After we agreed, she went to report what had happened. I remembered too late that there was one man who had seen the princess recently, the physician who had been tasked to check on her. Others came first, telling me how sorry they were that my baby was missing. I barely heard them. I knew the truth would come out as soon as the physician arrived. I was paralyzed, they thought with grief, but with fear, because he would recognize that the baby left behind wasn’t Alana Stindal.”