He studied her face for any signs of injury or distress. But, he thought rather smugly, she looked nothing other than beautiful and thoroughly kissed.
Jacob allowed himself a moment of unadulterated male pride as he took in the blush on her satiny smooth cheeks that was visible even in the moonlight.
Her eyes fluttered, the lashes batting open.
He expected wonder. Awe. Desire, certainly. Maybe even a tear for the romance of it all.
But as he gazed into the deep brown pools of her eyes, they narrowed menacingly and he got the distinct impression that he was in trouble.
“Harriet,” he whispered.
He didn’t get to finish whatever it was he was going to stay.
Without warning, her boot-clad foot came down hard on the tip of his Hessian, causing him to curse profusely, though quietly, as pain radiated through his toes.
“What are you doing here?” she spat.
He gazed at her in affronted amazement before his temper rose to match her own.
“I’m rescuing you,” he spat right back.
Her brow rose in superior disbelief, making him feel like an imbecile.
“Oh really?” she sneered. “Thank goodness you were here to watch me climb down a tree. However would I have managed without you?”
Jacob rolled his eyes at her sarcasm.
“If you would have just waited for someone to rescue you, you wouldn’t have had to climb down the damned tree,” he bit out, uncaring that he was swearing at the Crown Princess.
“Well, four days seemed long enough for a supposed elite agent of the Crown to manage to enter one house to rescue one person, so forgive me if I wasn’t in the mood to wait.”
“I didn’t know you were here until yesterday,” he shot at her, annoyed and embarrassed by her singularly low opinion of him. “And when I found out, I came as quickly as I could to—”
“To watch me rescue myself,” she interrupted, her voice saccharine sweet. “My hero,” she drawled sarcastically.
“You are the most ill-mannered, ungrateful person I’ve ever rescued,” he sniffed, mortally wounded by her attitude.
Her jaw dropped as she scowled furiously up at him.
“You haven’t rescued me,” she screeched even in a whisper which, he grudgingly had to admit, was rather impressive. He could only imagine the volume would make his ears bleed if she were free to yell.
“And you’re not going to,” she continued, her chest heaving with outrage. “You might have tricked me into allowing you to interfere with my getaway, Jacob Lauer. But you will not stop me from rescuing myself. Now, get out of my way.”
She made to stomp past him, but Jacob shot out a hand and clasped her upper arm, gently but firmly.
He was not going to allow her to mess up her own rescue. It was as simple as that.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, every inch the princess. “Unhand me at once.”
“No,” he said simply, preparing for her outrage.
“You – I – you – how dare you?” she spluttered, pulling against his hold. All she managed to do was tire herself out.
“Let’s just get out of here.” He tried to coax her into being agreeable, at least until they got to safety.
“I’m not going with you,” she insisted, and the mutinous set to her lips told him that she was serious. “My brother—”
“Your brother is waiting at a safe place nearby for me to bring you back,” he interrupted. “They both are.”
She frowned then blinked in surprise.
“Alex is here?”
“Yes. He is,” he said evenly. “And both of your brothers want you out of here safely, just as much as I do.”
“Christopher sent you.”
Was it Jacob’s imagination, or did she sound ever so slightly disappointed?
“Well, tell him thank you, but I can find my own way out of this without interference from him, or you, or anybody else.”
Jacob closed his eyes and prayed for patience.
She would turn his hair white before he got her the hell out of here.
“I can’t do that,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Why not?” she demanded.
“Because,” he snapped, his temper fraying. “He didn’t want me to be the one rescuing you in the first place, and if I go back without you, he’ll very likely put a bullet in me.”
“Oh,” was all she said, but Jacob could practically see the wheels turning in that baffling head of hers. Then she frowned.
“Why didn’t he want you rescuing me?”
They really didn’t have the time to be standing here discussing this.
Yet Jacob couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk to her without her yelling at him or worse, crying over him.
He laughed, but it was a harsh and humourless sound.
“Because,” he said dully. “I’m the reason you’re here in the first place. I was supposed to be protecting you, Harriet. Not—” He swallowed past a lump in his throat. “Not seducing you and hurting you. Sending you off straight into the enemy’s clutches.”
She was quiet for an age, and Jacob found himself desperately wondering what she was thinking.
“It’s not your fault,” she finally mumbled grudgingly. “I chose to leave with Althea. I wouldn’t let you take me home.”
“You chose to go because of me. You know it. I know it. And the prince knows it.”
“But you’re here,” she said, a look of consternation and something he couldn’t quite decipher lighting her eyes.
“Yes, I am.”
“So, he changed his mind?”
“I can’t say that I gave him much of a choice,” Jacob answered.
He knew what she was thinking; Prince Christopher’s choice was the only choice.
Jacob had a decision to make. He could try to charm her, coax her, distract her from her questions.
Or he could come clean. Tell her the truth, even though it wouldn’t make a difference.
“The prince knew I would have come anyway, Harriet. Regardless of whether he allowed it or not.”
“And disobey his orders?” She frowned. “Why on earth would you do that?”
Jacob took a steadying breath and looked straight into her eyes, the eyes that had haunted his dreams for the past four nights.
“Because I needed to be the one to make you safe,” he said. “Because I wanted to be here with you. Because I never wanted to be parted from you in the first place.”
He stepped closer until nothing was separating them, until she had to tilt her head to look up and see the sincerity of his words in his face.
“Because,” he said softly. “I love you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Well, isn’t this cosy?”
Before Harriet’s world even began to right itself after Jacob’s words, another voice sounded in the darkness, and she found herself being moved, quick as a flash, until she was standing behind Jacob.
He was facing away from her, his shoulders tense, all of his focus on the duke, who was strolling toward them.
His appearance wasn’t enough to frighten Harriet.
The revolver he had trained on them, however, was a different matter.
“Now, see what you’ve done?” she whispered furiously to Jacob’s back, since it was the only part of him she could currently see.
“What I’ve done?” He sounded incredulous and furious, though he still didn’t turn around. “We would have been out of here if you had just, for once, done what you were told.”
Harriet hadn’t forgotten what he’d said only minutes ago. The words were embedded in her head, as bright and fantastical as the fireworks they lit at the palace on every royal birthday and occasion.
And she couldn’t even begin to process how she felt about them.
He loved her. He loved her!
And she loved him, too. Desperately.
In spite of the hurt, the anger, the sense of betrayal.
She loved him.
But right now, she could happily wring his neck.
And truth be told, it sounded as though the feeling was mutual.
What sort of person professed his love for a lady and then proceeded to berate her?
“If I had done what I was told? Who are you to order me about?” she demanded hotly. “I was managing just fine without you. Yet still, you felt the need to swan in here and then kiss me as though we had time for that, and now—”
“Silence!”
Harriet had quite forgotten her cousin was there.
She peeked out from behind Jacob’s oversized shoulder to see Augustus staring at them both as though they should be in a lunatic asylum.
“Now, I’d like to know what you’re doing here, Mr.—?”
Harriet wondered how Jacob would handle the situation.
Would he pull a weapon of his own? Reason with her captor?
But, no. To her amazement, he held a hand up to Augustus as though the gun in the man’s hand were of no significance.
“Hold on a minute,” he told her cousin, who stared at him, jaw agape.
In the next instant Jacob had turned to face her, his face a mask of barely bridled fury.
“I kissed you because I love you, you impossible woman. And I have never felt a fear like what I’ve felt with you gone. Even when I didn’t know you were in danger, I was miserable. It felt as though my very soul had left my body when you walked away.”
Harriet’s heart stuttered at his words.
She searched his shockingly blue eyes for a trace of subterfuge, but all she saw was a blazing blue fire. A fire that set off an answering blaze in her.
“Turn back around at once.”
The duke’s jarring, nasally voice interrupted Harriet’s thoughts.
With a frown of irritation, she leaned around Jacob.
“Oh, hush, Augustus,” she snapped. “This is important.”
“But the assignment—” she began, hardly daring to believe what he said.
“The assignment was just that. An assignment. Something I wasn’t particularly happy about. And on the first day, I still wasn’t particularly happy about it. But every day, every second since then were the happiest of my life.”
“Jacob.” Harriet felt her eyes fill as her feelings overwhelmed her.
This was the most romantic—
The distinctive sound of a revolver being prepared for firing interrupted her thoughts. And the moment.
“This is all very touching,” Augustus said sarcastically. “But I’m afraid my cousin is needed. So, if you’ll be so kind as to come with me? I’d hate to have to kill you.”
Jacob rolled his eyes as though the threat of bodily harm were a mere inconvenience.
He turned to face Augustus. Harriet barely saw him move. Hardly heard a sound.
Yet within a split second, Augustus screamed in agony, and his revolver clattered to the ground.
He clutched his hand as he dropped to his knees, and Harriet was amazed to see a small, silver dagger protruding from the flesh.
“Did you—?” She gaped in awe.
“Well, he wouldn’t stop talking and making threats,” Jacob answered, sounding defensive.
“Harriet.” He stepped closer, his arms reaching for her. “There are things we must discuss. Obstacles in our way. And I know this cannot come to anything. But—”
A sudden burst of sound and light rent the air as Tallenburg’s guards came rushing toward them.
“Bloody hell, can’t a man get a word out around here?” Jacob bellowed before turning to face the charge. “Get inside and stay there until I come for you,” he said urgently.
Harriet opened her mouth to object to his harshly given orders.
But then he turned to look at her.
“Please, love,” he said softly, his eyes tender and pleading.
Without another word, Harriet nodded then ran toward the house.
Outside she heard shouts, clashes of blades, and even a shot or two.
It sounded almost as chaotic out there as she felt inside after Jacob’s wonderful words.
Almost, but not quite.
Jacob made light work of Tallenburg’s first wave of guards.
By the time the next group of guards arrived, he’d been joined by Hans and the two princes who, he was pleased to see, were exceptionally skilled as swordsmen and pugilists.
Prince Christopher seemed to take great delight in dragging his cousin inside once the fighting had ceased.
And Prince Alexander looked like a child with a new toy as he rounded up fallen soldiers, in various states of ill-health, locking them up in a drawing room until the aid that Hans left to acquire arrived.
This particular incident would take an age to clean up, Jacob knew.
Relations between the Tallenburg duchy and the Aldonian crown would take no small amount of delicacy to sort out.
Thankfully, Prince Christopher said over the furious swearing and empty threats from his cousin, the younger Tallenburg seemed imminently more sensible than the elder.
Jacob had watched the prince carefully while Lady Althea made a spectacle of herself. First throwing herself at the apprehended duke, wailing and declaring her love in a most embarrassing fashion.
When the man dismissed her and her face paled dramatically—no doubt as the reality of her situation sank in—she threw herself at the prince, this time begging for mercy and claiming innocence.
The prince however, barely flinched in the face of such a vulgar and emotional display.
Jacob was quite sure that even if the man had intended to wed Lady Althea, his heart hadn’t been involved in the decision, and it certainly wasn’t affected now.
When the magistrate arrived with a bevy of men to assist, the prince ordered the lady be taken away with the rest of the prisoners, impervious to her caterwauling and the obvious discomfort of the portly magistrate.
All that was left now was for a carriage to be prepared. Something Prince Alexander ordered Tallenburg’s household staff to do at once.
“He tried to use our sister as a piece of property to be traded,” the prince said. “The least we can do is steal a carriage and a few horses. Oh, and—” He signalled to a footman, who seemed as dazed and shocked as the rest of the servants. “We’ll also steal whatever you can pack up from the kitchens. And the wine cellar,” he finished.
When the room emptied of everyone but the princes, Hans, Jacob, and Harriet, a stilted silence fell.
Jacob had so much he wanted to say. So much he wanted to do. Namely, take Harriet in his arms and never let her go.
But hell would freeze over before he’d ever get that opportunity again.
He knew it. And yet he could not regret that he’d confessed his feelings. Could not regret the love he’d discovered with her, and the short time they spent together.
Even though the hurt it caused now was almost killing him.
If he’d never loved the princess, he’d have been spared this pain.
Yet he would endure it for the happy times he’d known with her.
Prince Christopher stepped toward the princess, bending to speak swiftly in her ear. She nodded once, and he reached out and pulled her into a tight, short hug.
Next, Prince Alexander stepped forward and hugged her more freely but just as fiercely.
Jacob wanted so much to be the next to take her in his arms, yet he kept his distance. For what else could he do?
A footman arrived to inform His Royal Highness that the carriage was prepared, as was the food, as requested by His Highness.
“Come, Harriet.” Prince Alexander took Harriet’s hand and placed it in the crook of his arm. “I cannot wait to get back to Chillington Abbey and tell Lydia all about this. It’s like something from one of her books.”
Jacob watched helplessly as she was swept from the room with only the briefest of glances in his direction.
“Gentlemen, I would like to clo
se out this matter as soon as possible. Mr. Maylt, can I trust that you will remain here and take care of this? I’ll see you in my office in two weeks hence to discuss any loose ends.”
Hans dutifully nodded.
The prince turned and walked swiftly to the door.
Before he stepped through it, however, he turned and looked directly at Jacob, his expression guarded and watchful.
“Lauer, I’d like to speak to you alone. Once you can leave this in Maylt’s hands, see me directly. At the palace.”
It wasn’t a request, yet Jacob nodded all the same.
He’d known when he’d insisted on being the one to rescue the princess that he was opening himself up to this.
He didn’t regret it, however.
Though arguing in the garden in the middle of her rescue hadn’t exactly been his plan, Harriet was safe.
And at least he’d gotten to kiss her one last time.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Harriet stood in her favourite spot of the palace, watching the goings on of palace life through the glass of her tunnel.
The courtyard was bustling as it ever was.
And there were Mother and Father, safely strolling in their garden once more.
Christopher would be in his office, she knew.
And Alex had left just that morning for the docks, anxious to get back to Lydia in time to see the babe.
Harriet had promised to come and stay just as soon as news arrived of the baby. She didn’t mind travelling to see them as long as it was of her own free will!
“Your Highness,” Ansel’s voice sounded behind her. “Here you are again.”
Harriet turned slightly to smile at the butler before turning her attention to the courtyard once more.
She knew that Ansel was growing concerned for her. It was evident in his constant presence, and in the gentle tone he had taken to using when speaking to her.
“I’ll leave shortly, Ansel,” she assured him without turning back. “I’m just—”
A flash of movement caught her eye, and she looked to the side.
There he was.
Jacob strode purposefully through the courtyard, his blonde hair glinting in the spring sunshine, even under the beaver hat atop his head.
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