Defending the Duchess

by Rachelle Mccalla

  After King Thaddeus settled the tiara into place on her head, Monica stepped forward. The plan had been for her to place one hand on Julia’s shoulder and offer a few words of blessing, but they ended up embracing and using the formal scarlet kerchief from King Thaddeus’s pocket to dry their happy tears.

  The familiar notes of the Lydian national anthem filled the ballroom, and all those assembled sang the ancient song together. Julia was glad she’d taken the time to learn the words, memorizing the lyrics by singing along to a video she’d found online. The royal siblings looked pleasantly surprised to hear her singing confidently with them, and when Julia glanced at the former king and queen, Elaine winked at her.

  Julia nearly faltered then and felt her throat swell with tears. But Linus held one hand over hers where she grasped his arm, and he gave her hand a slight squeeze, reassuring her.

  She made it through the song, and somehow through the recessional, with everyone who’d come in ahead of her exiting before her. Through it all Linus stood at attention in his place, ready to lead her wherever she needed to go. He stood beside her in the receiving line as dignitaries from area nations shook her hand, or nodded or bowed according to their custom.

  When he disappeared for a moment, she felt a surge of fear that something might have happened. She glanced at the guards along the walls, but they looked as stoic as ever. And then Linus returned to her side. “Thirsty?” He held out a full glass of punch.

  “What would I do without you?” She accepted the glass gratefully.

  After an informal hour of hors d’oeuvres presented by circling wait staff bearing trays, the orchestra began to play, and Monica cornered her to ask if she was ready to dance.

  “Dance?” Julia felt sure she’d have remembered that part if she’d been warned ahead of time.

  But Monica only laughed off her fears and pointed her in the right direction.

  “Do you know how to dance?” Julia asked Linus in a whisper as he led her to the center of the floor.

  “I have three older sisters,” he explained with a wry smile. “They used me as a practice dummy. Just don’t ask me to jitterbug. Things might get a little crazy.”

  His words brought a smile to her lips and eased her fears. Once she had the rhythm down and the cameras eased their most frantic snapping, she relaxed and took advantage of a moment to chat. “You’ve got your earpiece in,” she noted. “Anything happening?”

  “Everything’s been quiet so far. I hope your theory was right. Klein and Roland should know better than to try to get to you at such a populated event.”

  “I’m grateful for that. I’d hate for anything to happen with all these people here. There’d be too great a chance of someone getting hurt. But still...” Her words drifted off as more flashbulbs snapped, distracting her.

  “Still?” Linus asked after they’d circled the floor for a few smooth moments.

  “I don’t want to sound like I’m asking for trouble, but I almost wish something would happen while we have extra security in place. We’re prepared for them, or as prepared as we’ve ever been. And I want so much for all of this to end. It won’t end until we catch them, and I can’t see how we’re going to catch them if they don’t make another move.” She’d no sooner spoken than she apologized. “I don’t want to put anyone in danger, but we’re all in danger as long as the killers remain at large.”

  * * *

  Linus heard the heartfelt note in Julia’s voice. It struck a chord inside him, echoing with the same guilty resonance that had struck him when he’d realized the senseless scrawlings he’d picked out from the burnt papers were really key clues to solving the case.

  “Don’t apologize for wanting to see justice served,” he murmured near her ear as the music changed and their steps slowed to match the rhythm.

  She drifted closer to him, and he was glad to have her there, though he cautioned his heart not to leap with too much joy, because she wasn’t his, not even for a moment. “If anyone needs to apologize, I do.”

  “Why?” Julia’s surprise seemed sincere.

  “I didn’t recognize the names of the other companies Motormech bought out.”

  “I’m sure very few people outside of the Seattle area or technology fields would have recognized those names.”

  “But I had the brochure. I could have made the connection two days ago—”

  “What do you mean by that? You picked out those names from the burnt documents, when I’d pored over them and spotted nothing but random letters. You didn’t get in the way, you moved the case forward.”

  Linus wanted to make her understand, but he realized at her comments that he blamed himself for more than just missing the clue. She was royalty now, and he was just her guard. He couldn’t act on his feelings toward her. He didn’t even have a right to raise the issue.

  “You’re right,” he rushed to apologize. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Julia pulled slightly closer, her perfume swirling around him as they twirled across the floor. “I’m not upset—” Her voice broke.

  Alarmed, Linus pulled back far enough to get a clear look at her eyes. “Julia,” he tried to soothe her, tried to keep them dancing smoothly across the floor, but her steps faltered and he realized she was no longer up to dancing.

  They’d made it through the first couple of songs, anyway. Could they slip away?

  “I’m all right,” she said with a sniffle, not sounding the least bit all right.

  “Let’s step out for some air.”

  Julia didn’t answer out loud, only sniffled more as she leaned on his arm and he led her from the dance floor.

  “Everything okay?” Simon’s voice buzzed in his earpiece.

  As they escaped to the relative privacy of the hallway, Linus replied. “The duchess just needs a little air. Everything okay on your end?”

  “All clear here. Tell the duchess to enjoy her evening.”

  “Sure thing.”

  They reached the interior courtyard and strolled toward the gardens, where the fountain was lit with colored lights, and strands of tiny white bulbs encircled the topiaries, casting a romantic glow across the flowers and hedges.

  Julia inhaled the fresh air. “It’s a lovely night.”

  To Linus’s relief, Julia sounded calmer. The tranquil garden had a soothing effect on him as well, and he breathed out the tension he’d been feeling. After all the preparations they’d made, fearing for the worst, it seemed the night was going to go off without a hitch. The sounds of the orchestra filtered out through the open palace windows, and Linus imagined the swirling couples they’d left behind on the dance floor.

  Suddenly his earpiece snapped to life again. “Get the duchess to a secure location. We’re locking down the ballroom.”

  “What’s the situation?” Linus asked as he guided Julia swiftly back in the direction of the palace.

  “We have visual confirmation on the west wall. Two men have breached the perimeter. They knocked out the guard who tried to intercept them.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “It’s unclear,” Simon responded, his attention clearly on learning the answer to that exact question. “I have running figures in the garden, but it’s too dark to say if they’re friend or foe.”

  Linus rushed Julia toward the shallow steps to the cobbled courtyard.

  “What is it?” Julia asked, holding her long gown up above her feet with one hand as she bounded up the stairs, clinging to his arm with her other hand for balance.

  “Perimeter breach. They may be in the garden.”

  Julia glanced behind them and gasped. “It’s Roland,” she said, then shrank against Linus. “He has a gun!”

  SIXTEEN

  Julia shrank against the marble column as Linus covered her.<
br />
  She didn’t hear the sound of shooting, but hardly found its absence reassuring.

  Linus spoke in low, urgent tones into his earpiece as he held her tight against the cold pillar. “We have one armed perp in the garden. He’s north of the fountain, skirting the hedges slowly. I don’t think he knows we’ve seen him.”

  Julia could only guess that the splashing water from the fountain, combined with the orchestra music still pouring out of the palace, had kept Roland from hearing Linus. And with the cover of the many blooms and hedges, perhaps the man hadn’t spotted them yet.

  Or perhaps he only wanted them to think he hadn’t seen them.

  “Let’s get inside,” Julia said as she clung to Linus’s lapels, feeling exposed in the wide open courtyard.

  “They’ve locked down the ballroom to keep the intruder out,” Linus explained.

  Julia closed her eyes, knowing it was for the best. From what she’d heard of the plans being laid in the past two days, if there was any breach of security, the palace would be locked down, but the events would continue on schedule to avoid panicking the crowd. The people dancing in the ballroom were likely oblivious to the fact that the doors had been locked all around them, and that an armed intruder was creeping along the hedges just outside.

  “The executioner’s escape,” she whispered to Linus, who seemed focused on whatever updates he was receiving via his earpiece. “If we stay low on the stairs, the balustrade will shield us until we get inside.”

  She felt Linus’s nose brush her ear as he spoke in an urgent whisper.

  “They’ve got the gunman on camera. He’s moving to the left.” Linus changed tones, addressing his fellow guards. “Tell me the moment his back is turned, and we’ll make a break for it.”

  Julia tensed, holding her long skirts well off her feet, poised to run the instant Linus got the signal.

  The courtyard seemed deceptively peaceful. If she hadn’t seen the gunman with her own eyes, she would have had trouble believing that any threat could be lurking in the verdant gardens.

  “Now!” Linus darted for the stone steps, ducking low as he ran with one arm looped around Julia’s waist, half shielding, half carrying her as they bounded together up the stairs, taking the shallow steps in twos and threes.

  Julia couldn’t see her feet, but trusted that Linus’s steady grip would keep her from falling. Far more than a tumble down the stairs, she feared that the man behind them would see them in time to get a shot off in their direction.

  To her relief, more columns shielded them from view as they paused at the blank wall of stones that camouflaged the secret entrance. “How did we open this last time?” she whispered, frantically searching with her fingers for the protruding stone that had served as a handle.

  Linus found it first and gave it a tug just as Julia heard plinking against the columns behind them. He shoved her through the opening and followed, pulling the door closed tight behind them.

  “He’s got a silencer on his gun.”

  “Those were bullets hitting the pillar?” Julia panted hard from the combination of their sudden sprint and the surging fear she felt.

  “I’m afraid so,” Linus said as he wrapped his arm around her again. “He spotted us.”

  “Is there any way to lock that thing behind us?” Julia couldn’t see anything in the pitch black of the stone chamber.

  “Not that I know of.” Linus fumbled with something, and a tiny penlight pierced the darkness with its slender beam. “We’ve got to keep moving.”

  Julia wanted to ask which way he thought they should go, but Linus was back to talking into his earpiece again, instructing the other guards to apprehend the man in the courtyard. Knowing how many extra soldiers they had on duty that night, Julia reassured herself that the man would be quickly apprehended, and the guests in the ballroom would never have to know about the danger just beyond the palace walls.

  But Linus tensed beside her. “What? No.” He spoke into the earpiece. “We have a gunman in the courtyard.” He sounded upset.

  “What is it?”

  “The guards are caught up containing the protests of irate guests who believe they should be allowed to leave the ballroom. With a greater potential for loss of life, their immediate safety takes precedence over going after the gunman.”

  “No,” Julia moaned, but her voice was buried under the sound of stone grating on stone.

  A beam of light filtered in behind them.

  “The stairs,” Linus whispered as he scooped her up again, bounding up the spiraling stairs with his arm slung around her waist.

  It was all Julia could do to keep her skirt free of her feet. As they came to the third floor landing, she instinctively leaned toward the panel that would take them outside.

  “No,” Linus cautioned her. “To the roof!”

  But a bullet ricocheted through the stairwell chamber, and Linus quickly changed his mind. “All right then.”

  Julia realized as Linus leaned into the blank wall with his shoulder that they’d never figured out how to open the passageway. His phone had rung while they’d been exploring, and they’d never made it past that point. She didn’t know what lay beyond.

  The false wall gave way under the pressure of Linus’s shoulder and he pushed her though the opening, pulling the wall closed after them.

  “Shh.” He buried his face in her hair so that he spoke directly into her ear with the softest of whispers. “He may not know which way we went.”

  Julia tensed, grateful for Linus’s arms around her. Just beyond the pounding of her heart, she heard a slight, shuffling echo as Hugo Roland scurried up the stairs. The sound faded upward, and Julia tightened her grip on Linus’s arm, praying Roland would miss them, praying the other guards would catch him before he realized where they’d gone.

  “Is the third-floor courtyard balcony clear?” Linus inquired into his earpiece.

  But a moment later, the scuffling sound was back, growing louder as the steps drew closer, pausing at the landing where they’d pushed through the wall. Then a soft scratching indicated the man was feeling along the wall for the way through.

  Linus didn’t speak, but Julia gathered the guards must have told him that the courtyard was clear, because he swept his fingers along the outer wall, searching for a latch before shoving against the stones with his shoulder.

  The wall cracked open in front of them just as the partition behind them gave way.

  Julia squeezed through the narrow space, hoping to pull Linus out after her, but he recoiled back into the narrow space between the doorways, and she realized with desperate fear that he was going to try to take out the gunman by himself.

  “Stay clear—get down!” Linus instructed her as he dived back toward the armed man.

  * * *

  Linus knew he’d only have the advantage of surprise for a split second. He couldn’t waste it. More than that, he couldn’t allow Roland to follow them out onto the balcony. There would be nowhere to hide, no way to shield the duchess except with his own body—and if the gunman brought him down, Julia would have no protection at all.

  Instead he threw himself at the false wall between them the moment the man started through the opening, leading with his gun drawn.

  Crack!

  The stones caught Roland in the shoulder, squeezing him between the facade and its frame, but at the same moment, he squeezed the trigger.

  The shot went wild. Linus grabbed Roland by the arm and slammed his hand against the wall, trying to knock the gun from his hand. When that didn’t work, he tried to pry it from his fingers.

  But with both hands on the gun, Linus couldn’t keep the man from squeezing into the tiny room between the two false walls. With desperate urgency, he forced the gun from Roland’s hand.

  It clattered against the s
tone floor.

  The man was through the door now, and there was hardly room in the narrow space for Linus to pull back his arm, let alone swing his leg around to kick the man. Instead he tackled him, lunging atop his shoulders and trying to force him back the way he’d come. But his oversize attacker only pushed his way forward, slamming Linus against the wall.

  Linus slid low, trying to punch his attacker, to push him away, but there wasn’t room to maneuver. Roland slipped one arm up and got him in a headlock, tearing at his hair, his ears, and the wire to his earpiece, which he tore free and flung away, taking the microphone with it.

  “Linus!” Julia gasped from the doorway.

  He turned his head to shout at her, to urge her to get away, but even as he spotted the figure behind her, the man spoke.

  “Freeze!”

  It was Tom Klein. He swung the stone door open wide as he prodded Julia forward with the barrel of his gun.

  Beyond them, in the rosy glow of the fountain’s lights, Linus glimpsed his fellow guards stealthily approaching the courtyard from the garden. From what he could tell, their attackers were unaware of the guards approaching.

  But they were too late. Klein shoved Julia hard against Linus, stepped in after her, and closed the false wall tight behind them. “Upstairs,” he grunted, and Julia stifled a tiny gasp which could only mean he’d prodded her again with his gun. “To the roof.”

  Roland had taken advantage of the interruption to reclaim his gun from the floor. The moment he had the barrel pointed at them, Julia made a tiny wincing sound, and Linus angled his head around just far enough to see Klein slip a pair of handcuffs around her wrists.

  Linus would have lunged toward them, but he was too far from the gun. Anything he tried now would likely only endanger Julia. A moment later, the man stepped past her, jerked Linus’s arms behind his back, and cuffed him, as well.

  Linus’s heart sank. If he’d had any shot at overpowering the two armed men, of gaining the upper hand during a moment of distraction, his hope was lost now. Without the use of his arms or hands, any fight he might try to start would be over quickly, and then he and the duchess would be only that much worse off. There was nothing for it but to do what the men said, and to pray. The words of the twenty-fifth Psalm cycled furiously through his thoughts.