Along Came A Prince

by Carlyn Cade

  “Safer?”

  His father snorted. “Why are you surprised? You don’t regain control of your country by playing it safe. That’s why I have Sonny at my helm.”

  “Isn’t it time to slow down and enjoy what you have?” Clay asked, his anger erupting inside him. “You’re too old to march into war. Have you stopped to think what Mother would do if something happened to you?”

  “I don’t expect you to understand what is not a burning passion inside you. The best I can do is build you a safe haven, which I have done here at SwissDen. The only other thing I can do is not involve you, and I never have. I’ve allowed your mother’s influences to shape you into the man you’ve become, and I’m proud of everything you are. But don’t try to change me. It’s too late for that.” His father held his arm up in the air, as if he were making a vow, and Clay knew he was. “I will rule my country again...and soon.”

  “At all costs?”

  “At all costs,” his father confirmed.

  ♥♥

  Stacia didn’t know the entire story of what happened to her stalker. When Ryan had called her, he’d been very vague about the details. He’d said the stalker’s name was Al Jordan, the son of the man who’d been involved with two others in Audra’s kidnapping, rape and murder.

  Ryan also told her Jordan had been killed recently in a shootout with the mafia. When she’d tried to press her brother for more information, he clammed up and would only say, “It’s over, Stace. You’re safe now, and that’s what counts. So, let’s get on with our lives.”

  She could go home now and back to work. But why didn’t she want to? The easy answer to that question was Clay. But it was more than him. It was SwissDen too. Outside of SwissDen, she knew the media blared the story of the stalking and murder, and the world consumed the gory details. Yet inside this safe cocoon in her pink and lavender-ruffled suite, she felt sheltered and protected from the ugliness of life.

  And Clay? What about him? They’d just spent a week together, and he’d been a perfect gentleman. And she’d been the perfect friend. Is that all the relationship she wanted with him? To be friends? Did she want some other woman loving him, caring for him, marrying him, sleeping with him and having his children? No...absolutely not. She didn’t even want some other woman kissing him.

  She wanted all of him...all to herself. She remembered Josie saying Ryan was her twin flame, the ultimate gift according to Josie, that destiny reserved for only the most privileged soulmates to renew and reuse each lifetime and through eternity. Why did she feel like Clay was her twin flame too?

  But even if they were soulmates, what could she do about it? And how could she kick the notion out of her mind that she shouldn’t marry?

  There was only one solution. To get home as fast as she could and finish working out all her problems with Josie’s help. Maybe if she dug deep enough inside her psyche, she’d find out her feeling was wrong. Then she’d be free to marry, and she’d make sure Clay got his second chance to see her in her packed-away green outfit. We’ll see how much self-control he has then.

  A knock at her door sent her hurrying to answer it. She knew Clay was on the other side waiting for her. They had such a small amount of time left to be together, and she wanted each precious moment to be indelibly sketched in their minds.

  “Hi,” she said, a smile lighting her face. “I’m ready for whatever it is we’re going to do.”

  He matched her smile before putting his arms around her and holding her close. “I remember an offer I received not long ago that sounded very much like that too,” he whispered in her ear before he kissed her.

  The remembered ecstasy of his previous kisses hit her full force once again. But as quickly as the kiss started, it ended. He let go of her and took a step backward.

  “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea,” he said. “That was a friendly victory kiss for the battle you just won. The war is over, and the enemy has been defeated. Your world is safe once more.”

  “Friendly? We must not be using the same dictionary. I wouldn’t define that kiss as friendly.”

  He held his arms out to her, and she walked into them. As he closed his arms around her, he kissed her once more.

  “I love you, you know. I can’t help myself. I try to stay within your boundaries, but it doesn’t work all the time.” He kissed the tip of her nose, her cheek, her closed eyes, then her forehead and kept going down the other side until he reached her mouth. His lips rested there. He pulled back a little. “What are we going to do about us? Are you ready to move on to the next step?”

  “What is the next step?” She looked at him, knowing the magical romantic moment they had just shared had ended.

  He let go of her, shrugged his shoulders and stuck his hands in his pocket. “I don’t know, but it might involve more than sporadic kisses.”

  “I agree with you, but I also know I can’t change the final outcome of any love we might feel for each other.”

  “What are you talking about? What final outcome?”

  “That isn’t so easy to explain. It gets into gray areas I’m not especially comfortable sharing with you.”

  “You’re doing it again, Stacia. Adding more bricks to your wall. I can’t tear them down as fast as you build them.”

  “Okay, you might as well know that besides having dreams I don’t understand, I also have this feeling inside me that destiny will never let me marry, or allow me to be happily married if I did. Something will happen to one of us. I don’t know where it comes from. I only know it’s there, and I’m stuck with it, unless Josie can help me get rid of it.”

  “You run away from love because of a feeling?”

  “A feeling should nudge you, not possess your heart and soul with demands like this one does. I can’t forget it. All I can do is believe it. Anyway, it’s stronger than a feeling. If you know something, you just know it,” Stacia concluded, resigned as always to her fate. She went over to the sofa and sank down in its plush cushions.

  Clay sat next to her and leaned over, resting his arms on his legs. “Why do you think you have the power to see into the future?”

  “I don’t need any power. It’s an indisputable fact to me.”

  “What does Josie say about it?”

  “She understands. She’s trying to help me. If she can’t, then her mother is a hypnotherapist, and she’ll regress me to see if we can figure out if a past life has anything to do with it.” She sat up, put her hand on his arm and turned him toward her, so she could see directly into his eyes. “Now you know everything. You’ve torn all the bricks down.”

  He smiled at her, then turned serious. “You’ve taken a big step forward by telling me what’s going on inside your mind. It’s a good start. How long do you think it’ll take to work through this? Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist.”

  “Josie’s mother is a psychiatrist, along with using hypnosis in her therapy. Believe me, no one wants to get rid of this feeling more than I do. If I need her mother, I’ll gladly see her.”

  “In the meantime...”

  “I plan on going home tomorrow or as soon as it’s convenient for you.”

  Clay picked up her hands and tenderly kissed her fingertips. “I don’t want you to go home at all.”

  “Seconds before you knocked on my door, I admitted to myself that I didn’t want to go home either.” She looked around the room. “I feel so comfortable here and safe.”

  “Then why don’t you stay?”

  “Because I have a lot of steps to climb. I have to get back to the studio. I have a contract, and I’ve held up production long enough. I also need to work hard with Josie to see if I can get destiny to change its mind...or my mind...about my future.”

  “I’ll be waiting for you at the top of those stairs, you know, with my heart in my hand.”

  Stacia grinned at him. “Then I’d better hurry home and get climbing.”

  “I can fly you home tomorrow in the G650 non-stop. That way you can
avoid the media as long as possible, since you happen to be their favorite news item right now.”

  “Since I met you, that conclusion does seem to apply.”

  “There’s one bigger event I’d like to share with them.”

  “And what’s that?” Stacia asked.

  “I’ll tell you when the time is right.” Clay gathered her into his arms and kissed her in a way he could never again describe as friendly.

  ♥♥

  Once home, Stacia found the following month to be one of the most hectic she’d ever experienced. Days were spent filming, which helped her readjust to life outside her home once more. Nights were reserved for long-distance calls between Clay and her, connecting them together in the only way possible at the present time.

  When Clay had asked if he could come to California to be with her, she suggested he wait until London Affair was finished. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate on her role if he was with her, distracting her every moment with his sexiness and creating havoc with her self-control and desire for him.

  The demands of having to be on the set for every scene sucked her energy level almost dry. But whenever she’d return to her dressing room, she would close the door and shut out the world and the stalking with her meditation.

  And it did help her to relax and relieve her stress. She was also calmer and more focused. Each Sunday afternoon, Josie would teach her more about exploring her inner self.

  “I think you’re ready to try a little past life regression, Stacia,” Josie had said yesterday at the start of their session.

  “I’ve been waiting to hear you say that,” Stacia had replied.

  “We’ll start off meditating like always, and then we’ll go a different direction. Relax now.” Josie led the meditation as she had before until Stacia was at her special place. “Now, I want you to stand up and walk away from your safe place. Don’t be afraid. You’ll still be protected because you have white light surrounding you as a shield. You’re now walking down a path in a forest.”

  That was easy for Stacia because her waterfall was in the middle of the woods at SwissDen. She started down a path through the trees.

  “Look around and admire the beauty the Universe is offering you. Keep walking until you see a cave hidden in a hill. Enter the cave feeling as if it holds a key to what you want to discover. As you’re walking through the cave, you see some stairs leading down to the bottom. Begin to descend them, and as you do, count backwards. Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. You’re at a landing now. Be certain you want to continue down the steps, knowing that in an exploration such as this, not everything you see will necessarily be good.”

  Stacia stood on the landing. Her hands touched the railing as she gazed over the bottom of the cave. It seemed friendly enough, lit by an almost iridescent candle glow. Did she want to continue? Yes.

  “Remember, any time you don’t like what you’re seeing, you can always open your eyes, and you’ll be back in your living room. Now count backwards again. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. You’re now at the bottom of the cave. Begin walking again until you’ll see a tunnel in the side of the cave. Walk through that black tunnel, and you’ll find yourself outside. You’re now in a past life, Stacia. Look around. Where are you? What do you see? Take your time and explore everything.”

  Stacia stood next to a wishing well in the arms of a man she knew was her lover. “This will bring us luck, and love will keep us together forever,” he said as he tossed a coin into the well.

  “Forever means nothing if the present means we cannot be together,” she said.

  “I will be free soon.” He tightened the hold he had on her to bring her closer to him.

  “But you are royalty. I am not. They will never let us be together.”

  “You are my princess, and whatever I am, we share. They can’t keep us apart. Not now. Not forever.”

  But she knew in her heart he was wrong. They were not meant to be together. Not now. Not forever.

  “Time to move on,” Josie said quietly as she entered Stacia’s space. “You must walk again until you see a building up ahead. Walk to it. Open the door. Go inside. What do you see?”

  Stacia saw a woman sitting on a stool in a darkened pub. Shadows intensified the glow surrounding her from a single light bulb strung from the ceiling on a long, black cord. Candlelit darkness encompassed the singer.

  Soldiers filled the room, and their voices, mixed with laughter, vibrated throughout the pub as they clinked their steins of beer together. Their shouts of “Cheers” resonated in her ears.

  How happy they sounded. Why? she thought. They’d soon be back on the front lines fighting for their lives in this world war, and some would be losing theirs…like her lover had.

  A tear slid down her cheek as her piano introduction began. She started to sing:

  ‘One man, one man forever,

  One love locked deep in my heart…’

  Shivering and with her voice shaking, the woman she’d visualized at the wishing well bowed her head and stopped singing while the music played on. Slowly, she seemed to gain some control. Finding her place in the song, she continued:

  ‘Two hearts soaring together,

  Crashed in the dark of the day.

  Now he’s lost to the heavens,

  And I’m alone, left here to stay…’

  Unable to go on, she buried her head in her hands and started crying.

  …and so did Stacia.

  “It’s okay, Stacia,” Josie broke in. “Come back. Come back slowly. Walk through the tunnel. Count as you walk up the stairs. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. You’re at the landing now. You’re safe and away from whatever hurt you. Keep walking up the steps. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. You’re back at your own special, private place. No one can harm you. Relax. Take your time. Come back when you’re ready and open your eyes.”

  Stacia opened her eyes, her tears still misting her vision. “I knew it, Josie,” she said sadly. “I knew I was never meant to be married. To be loved forever by my soulmate.”

  “That’s not true,” Josie soothed. “You’re one of the lucky ones in life. You were able to face a past life. Not everyone can do that, or wants to. Others who have your same desire can only pick up smidgens of a past life. Some achieve nothing. In each lifetime there are lessons to be learned. That’s why we choose to come back and be around the persons we loved or hated in a past lifetime. The key to everything is to take what you can of what you saw and apply it to this lifetime.”

  “What I saw in my past life regression fits with the dreams I have. How can this be happening, Josie?”

  “It’s all out there, or perhaps I should say in there, for anyone to tap into. It’s just easier for some than others. I think you’re trying to solve a problem in your life, so you’re calling upon what’s inside your subconscious to help you.”

  “Actually, I did just solve my problem, and now I know I’ll never marry. Not Clay. Not anyone.”

  Josie looked horrified. “Don’t say that. Pretend you’re going to work on a jigsaw puzzle. You have the pieces spread out on the table in front of you. You just have to fit them together to get the entire picture. In the end, the puzzle turns out to be beautiful, and you feel a sense of accomplishment because you finished it. That’s what’s happening in your life right now. Your subconscious is furnishing you with all the pieces you need to complete the beautiful picture of your life. What you learned in previous lifetimes, combined with what you need to know in your present one, will glue everything together. If you take on negative energy by saying never, you’ll end up losing the most important pieces to the puzzle of your life.”

  “In the lifetime I just experienced, if that’s what it was, I was in love with someone who was royalty, the same as this lifetime. When I told him I wasn’t royalty and they wouldn’t let us be together, he said I was his princess and whatever he was, we’d share.”

  ”And how did this make you feel?”

  “I knew he was wrong
.”

  “Do you suppose that’s the idea you’re fighting now in this lifetime?”

  “You mean why fate won’t allow me to get married? Are you saying I can’t move on in Clay’s and my relationship because of something that happened in a previous lifetime?”

  “Do you think that could be true, Stacia?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t thought much about reincarnation, until all these things started happening.”

  “And...”

  “It’s pretty hard not to believe everything’s connected somehow. My dreams, and now being regressed and finding out more information. I just wish there was some concrete proof somewhere.”

  “And would proof make you feel better? Would it give you faith?”

  Stacia laughed. “I hope you don’t start quoting from the bible, ‘Oh, ye of little faith,’ etc. But my answer to your question is simple enough. If you have proof, it’s easier to believe.”

  “It’s too bad the word, faith, isn’t in your vocabulary. You need faith in your beliefs, or your beliefs aren’t worth believing...and I’ll bet you can’t repeat that.”

  “I do understand what you’re saying, but I still would like some proof.”

  “Well, Stacia, I hope you get it.”

  “So do I, Josie. So do I.”

  ♥♥

  Nathan and Arthur were elated with how the film was progressing, even with the delay the stalking caused. The studio allowed Entertainment Tonight on the set for an exclusive interview, which included shots from a short scene both from the remake and the original juxtaposed. Nancy O’Dell, as she’d promised her audience almost two months earlier, got her interview with Stacia. In the end, Rob Marciano spoke with Farrell Fontaine.

  “Farrell,” Rob began, “can you tell us the differences you’ve observed in the filming of the two movies now and over sixty years ago?”

  “I’d say the movie screen Stacia has to act in front of alone. Back in the old days, of course, we didn’t have large TV screens on the set either. Other than that, everything else is similar. At times, I feel as if I’m reliving part of my life.”