The Secret Princess

by Beth Harbison

  Like the time Will’s fiancée, Ella, was lost in a skiing accident. He had spent months plunged in a deep depression, blaming himself for the accident. If he had only chosen a different day, a different mountain, if he’d stayed on the easier slopes with her instead of agreeing to meet at the lodge later, if…if…if…There were a million of them, a million ways in which her death was his fault.

  Letty and Christian had tried everything to cheer him up, even going so far as to stage an “accident” in which Will could “save” Letty. They had set up a ladder by the door to the kitchen right about the time Will came in for his morning coffee. Letty had perched on top of the ladder, waiting for Will to come through the door, when she would “fall” off the ladder and into his arms, saving her from certain death. Or at least harm.

  Unfortunately for them, Christian had forgotten something in the kitchen and, failing to warn Letty, had been the next one through the door instead of Will. Letty had fallen on the poor hapless old man, and they had both required a doctor’s attention.

  Yet in an odd way, their plan had succeeded in bringing Will out of his stupor. He’d realized that any man who had friends so loyal was lucky, and any ruler with subjects so loyal had a duty to serve them.

  And that was when it had first occurred to him that he could better serve Letty and Christian—and thousands of others—as a civil servant and not as the royal figurehead.

  This, he decided, would be his purpose in life. He wasn’t destined to be a husband or a father. Perhaps he didn’t deserve such precious responsibilities. But he could use whatever power he had left in his body and mind to help his fellow countrymen. Maybe—just maybe—he could make a positive difference for others.

  So he’d immediately set about trying to find Princess Lily. Several months of research had led him to the sad fact of her death, but it wasn’t long after that that he had managed to find her daughter. Amé. Amé.

  He’d thought it would be easy. Just sweep into town, tell this fortunate young woman that she had won the ultimate lottery—that she was the rightful heir to the throne of Lufthania—and take her back to a joyful nation, where he could step out of the limelight.

  He hadn’t planned on her being so suspicious. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t that she was suspicious so much as she was intelligent. And honest. A less honest person might have taken the crown regardless of whether or not she believed she deserved it. But not Amy Scott.

  It was one of the things he really admired about her.

  Which led to another problem. He hadn’t planned on admiring her so much. He hadn’t planned on having any personal feelings for her whatsoever. She was young, for heaven’s sake, a good ten years younger than he was. And she was bullheaded. Not sweet and acquiescent, as Ella had been. As all the women he’d dated had been. Amé challenged almost everything he said. That would make him crazy very fast if they had a relationship.

  But they weren’t going to have a relationship. Not of any kind. Just a cordial acquaintance. Perhaps the occasional meeting when she began her reign, just so he could help her transition smoothly into her role.

  In fact, he thought, kneeling down to the phone jack to repair the wire Christian had broken, he wasn’t even going to do that much unless she asked for his help specifically. She would have plenty of advisers telling her what to do if she needed help.

  He twisted the wires together and made a mental note to send someone up with electrical tape to finish the job. There was no need for him to come back to her bedroom, especially not tonight.

  He lifted the receiver. The answering tone told him his job was done, so he bent back down and used a pocket penknife to screw the jack back on. He was just finishing up when he heard the door open and Amy, presumably, came in, humming “Edelweiss.”

  “The telephone is working now,” he said, standing up just in time to see Amy’s back as she draped her dressing gown across the wing chair by the closet.

  Amy whirled around, clapping her hands across her nightgown-covered chest.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, approaching her with his arms outstretched.

  “What are you doing?” She stepped back.

  “Getting this.” He took her dressing gown from the chair and quickly draped it over her shoulders. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “Oh, my God.” She put her hands over her face. He was horrified to see that her shoulders shook with what must have been terrible sobs.

  “I’m so sorry.” Gingerly, he put his hand on her shoulder, then took it off, thinking if he was the problem, then touching her could only make it worse.

  She looked up at him, tears streaming from her eyes.

  Guilt clenched his stomach. He had never had this particular effect on a woman, and he had no idea what to do. Should he leave? Stay and try to make it better? Call for a chaperone?

  “Amé, I assure you, I wasn’t going to…” He searched for the words. “Make an advance on you.”

  “I know.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks and he realized, suddenly, that she was laughing. “You should have seen the look on your face.” She dissolved into laughter again.

  “The look on my face?”

  She nodded. “You startled me, and I guess I startled you. You looked like I’d caught you with your pants down.” She wiped her cheeks again. “I’m sorry, I must be punchy from jet lag.”

  He didn’t know what to say.

  For the first time in his life, he didn’t know what to say.

  She straightened her back and put on a serious face. “I guess it isn’t proper to tell a prince he looks like he’s been caught with his pants down.”

  “It isn’t something I’ve heard before,” he said carefully.

  She smiled. “It’s just an expression. And one more illustration of what a terrible princess I’d make for your country.”

  “I don’t know. People might find you refreshing.”

  She tightened the sash of the dressing gown. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

  “I mean it.” He caught her gaze and held it. “I find you refreshing myself.”

  She blinked. “You do?”

  He nodded and resisted the urge to touch her. “Very much so.” The air around them suddenly felt thick. One more moment of looking down into her blue eyes and he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from kissing her. Again. He stepped back. “As I said, your telephone is working now. Were you able to contact your parents?”

  She pushed her hands into the pockets of her gown and took a step away herself. “Yes, I was. Fortunately, they’d figured my first hours here would be busy, so they weren’t too worried.”

  “Good.”

  Silence shuddered between them.

  “Then I’ll see you in the morning,” he said.

  “Great.”

  “The doctor will be here to administer the blood test directly after breakfast.”

  She nodded. “Fine.”

  He nodded, too. “So I’ll see you then.”

  “Okay. Good night.”

  “Good night.” He let himself out the door and closed it behind him, then stopped in the hall. When had he become such a stumbling idiot? Something about Amy made him as nervous as a young boy with a crush.

  Maybe it was the fact that she was so much more outspoken than the women he’d known. One wrong move on his part and she would call him on it. No one had ever done that before.

  As for her candid way of speaking to him…well, he’d told the truth about that. It was refreshing. All of his life, people had either pandered to him because he was the prince, or they’d cowered before him because he was the son of those who had taken over the throne. There didn’t seem to be anyone who would just treat him like the man that he was. Even Ella had been eager to please him, even at the expense, he thought, of her own desires.

  That was one of the reasons he’d felt so guilty about her death. She wasn’t a very good skier, and he suspected she didn’t like the sport even though she wouldn’t admit i
t. When he’d tried to tell her it was all right that she didn’t share that hobby with him, she’d insisted that she wanted to, and she’d come along on the trip.

  He shook the memory from his mind. It didn’t bear thinking about now. He’d learned from his mistake, that was enough. Whether it was his personality or his position that caused the problems, there would be no women in his future. At least not long-term relationships with women, he conceded, granting that occasionally one did need warm companionship on a cold night.

  He would not fall in love.

  Especially—he couldn’t help the thought—with a forthright, fearless, bright-eyed American who was taking over his role on the throne.

  His family had conquered hers a quarter of a century ago, and he would make right that wrong. But he would not let her conquer his heart in return.

  Amy lay on the plush feather bed, blinking in the darkness. The cotton sheets were as soft as satin, the down comforter thick and warm, yet she shivered through the night.

  At first she told herself it was jet lag. She’d been awake for a long time and had gone from the comfort of home this morning to a new country and culture this evening. It was hard to process all at once, that was all.

  But now, as she lay in the luxury of a royal bed, she knew that wasn’t all there was to it. There was something both sweet and haunting about this place. She felt at home. Yet something was missing.

  Maybe it was just the arching rooms and long, echoing halls that made her feel that way. She thought of Will, living here all alone. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, of course. There was a healthy-size staff living on the premises, but that wasn’t the same as having your own family with you.

  He must be lonely, Amy thought, with sudden compassion.

  Or maybe he liked it that way. After all, he was a good-looking man. One might even say he was a great-looking man. Obviously he could have his choice of women. Yet for some reason he had, one could only assume, chosen to remain alone, apart from several meaningless dalliances that the magazine article she’d read had referred to.

  He wasn’t an easy man to figure out. And, really, there was no point in her trying until she knew whether or not she was going to be staying for longer than the brief amount of time it took to conduct the test.

  When he’d first approached her with his story, she’d found it unbelievable. Even now she felt silly trying to think of herself as a princess. But his evidence had been fairly strong. More than that, when she’d looked at the picture of Princess Lily and seen the resemblance, she’d been shocked.

  Then again, Will might have seen the photograph of Amy in the newspaper, noticed the resemblance himself, and drawn his conclusions from there, letting the evidence fall into place as it suited him. There were plenty of people in the world who bore a striking similarity to one another without being related at all.

  Until she got the test results, Amy felt she had to protect herself from the hope of having found her family by reminding herself of that. She should just enjoy this strange, magical journey for what it was, she told herself repeatedly.

  Just in case the clock struck midnight soon and it all ended.

  She woke in the morning to Letty entering the room with a breakfast tray. The scent of strong coffee wafted across to Amy, and she sat up. “What time is it?”

  “After ten, my dear.” Letty set the tray down on the table by the bed. “I didn’t want to wake you, but the doctor will be here in an hour.”

  “After ten?” Amy looked at her watch in disbelief. “I can’t believe it.”

  “You had a long day yesterday, dear.” Letty poured coffee out of a silver pot into a thin china cup. “Do you take cream and sugar?”

  “Just cream, thanks.” Amy pushed her hair back off of her forehead and tried to get her bearings.

  “Just like your mother.” Letty chuckled. “She didn’t like sweets. Except for chocolate. She loved my hot chocolate.” She handed Amy the cup.

  She took it and sipped the full-bodied coffee. It was delicious.

  “It snowed again overnight,” Letty was saying in thickly accented English, as she put a croissant on a plate along with a small dish of butter and raspberry preserves. “It’s quite lovely out. Shall I open the drapes?”

  “Sure,” Amy said, taking the plate from Letty. “Thanks a lot.” She ripped the croissant in half and smeared butter and preserves onto it. When she bit into it, the whole thing seemed to just melt in her mouth. “Wow, this is great.”

  “Annabelle made it,” Letty said, drawing back the heavy drapery. The sun came streaming through the crystal-clear window, bringing the beautiful dusty-pink-and-gold room to life. “She’s the prince’s favorite pastry chef.”

  Amy paused with her coffee cup halfway to her lips. “He mentioned that on the plane,” she said, sounding more prim than she’d intended.

  Letty turned to her with laughter in her eyes. “There is nothing more to it than that.”

  “It’s none of my business.” She sipped her coffee again, and tried to swallow the pride that kept her from asking Letty if the prince did have a girlfriend. It was just idle curiosity, and truly was none of her business, except that he had kissed her. If he’d done it while he had a girlfriend, that really made him a rat. But if she asked him about it…well, it was probably best to keep her mouth shut instead of inviting speculations about her own feelings for Will.

  “Shall I get your clothes for you?” Letty asked, going to the walk-in closet.

  “I haven’t even unpacked yet.” Amy threw back the sheets and got out of bed. “Everything was so crazy last night I didn’t have time.”

  “I took care of that for you, dear.” Letty came out of the closet holding Amy’s denim dress. “How about this?”

  “That’s fine. Thanks so much for unpacking for me.” Amy wasn’t used to that kind of service. In truth it made her a little uncomfortable. “You really didn’t need to do that.”

  Letty gave her a knowing smile. “Anything to make you more comfortable.”

  The woman looked so pleased with herself that Amy didn’t know how to tell her that service like that made her uncomfortable, so instead she just smiled.

  “Have you thought about what you’ll wear to the ball?” Letty asked.

  “I beg your pardon?” She must have misheard.

  “The annual winter ball next Saturday evening,” Letty explained. “Surely Prince Wilhelm told you about it.”

  “No.” A winter ball. In the castle. This really was a fairy tale. “I don’t think I’m included in the guest list.”

  Letty laughed. “The princess not included in the guest list? Indeed you are not, my dear. You are the hostess.”

  Amy’s jaw dropped. “The hostess!”

  “But of course!” Letty splayed her arms. “You are the princess.”

  “Well, no, Letty, we don’t know that.” She didn’t mean to sound cold. “In fact, I don’t think I believe it. I wish you wouldn’t get your hopes up.”

  Letty stepped back, looking appalled. “You don’t believe that Princess Lily is your mama? Surely you don’t mean it.”

  “I’m sorry, but—”

  “Have you not looked in the mirror, child? Do you not see the likeness?”

  “I suppose there is some likeness, but—”

  “More than some, dear. You are her image.” Letty came over to her and pulled her into a warm embrace. “Besides that, I would know you anywhere. I held you as a babe, and cared for you as I did your mother before you. I would have known you anywhere.”

  She looked so sincere that Amy didn’t have the heart to disagree with her. Instead, she said, “We’ll have the test results soon enough.”

  Letty gave her a skeptical look. “It breaks my heart that you cannot remember your time here, or your dear mother. But I suppose it’s to be expected. You were such a small thing when they took you away.”

  A lump formed in Amy’s throat. “It was a long time ago,” she agreed noncommittally. Then
, to change the subject, she added, “I should get downstairs so I’m ready when the doctor arrives.”

  “Indeed,” Letty agreed, holding the dress out to her.

  Amy took it and stepped into it, modestly removing her nightgown when the other dress was covering her. She buttoned the front and stepped over to the mirror to straighten her hair.

  Letty appeared behind her and touched her hair. “You are her image,” she said, for the second time. “There is no doubt. Welcome home, Amé. It has been far too long.”

  Amy was so moved by the look in the older woman’s eyes that she turned around and impulsively gave her a hug. “Princess Lily was lucky to have you, Letty,” she said. “You must have been a great comfort to her.”

  “Not enough, I’m afraid,” Letty said ruefully. Then her expression changed. “But everything will return to normal now. It will be exactly as it should be.” She gave a wide smile. “Are you ready?”

  “I just need my shoes.”

  “Oh! They are here!” Letty hurried to the closet and returned with the shoes that Amy always wore with this particular dress.

  She didn’t even bother to ask how Letty had known. She simply put the shoes on and followed the older woman through the long hallways and down the cold, wide stairways to the reception room on the first floor.

  The first person she noticed in the room was Will. He wore a dark sweater and faded blue jeans, and looked more like a construction worker on the weekend than a prince, which made him all the more appealing.

  Okay, she granted, maybe appealing was just a little bit of an understatement. The truth was that she had already seen the regal side of him, the proud prince who commanded the attention and respect of those around him. This rugged boy-next-door look took her by surprise and drew her to him even more.

  Amy was astonished at her feelings upon seeing him. Everything that was happening around her was confusing, but just seeing him lifted her above the fray. It was as if all the noise and frenzy receded into the background and they were the only ones in the room. The memory of their kiss on the plane came back to her in full technicolor.

  Did he think about it, too?

  She pushed the thought from her mind. This was silly. She was transferring all kinds of feelings to Will because she was a stranger in a foreign land, going through a process that could change her whole life. It made sense that she looked to the one person here that she’d known—or met, anyway—back home as an island in a vast sea.