by Raye Morgan
“Yes.” She said it softly, loving him, thinking of the child they had made together. If only she could tell him about that. Would he be happy? Probably not. That was just the way things were going to be. She loved him and he felt something pretty deep for her. But that was all they were destined to have of each other. How she would love to spend the next fifty years in his arms.
If only he weren’t royal and she weren’t tied to this place. If only he didn’t care so much about Ambria. They could have done so well together, the two of them. She could imagine them walking on a sandy beach, chasing waves, or having a picnic by a babbling brook, skipping stones in the water, or driving around France, looking at vineyards and trying to identify the grapes.
Instead, he was planning to invade her country. And that would, of necessity, kill people she cared about. How could she stand it? Why hadn’t she turned him in?
“Why does it matter so much to you, Monte?” she asked at last. “Why can’t you just leave things alone?”
He looked up, his eyes dark and haunted. “Because a very large wrong was done to my family. And to this country. I need to make things right again. That’s all I live for.”
His words stabbed into her soul like sharp knives. If this was all he lived for, what could she ever be to him?
“Isn’t there someone else who could do it?” she asked softly. “Does it have to be you?”
Reaching out, he put his hand under the water raining down from the fountain. Drops bounced out and scattered across his face, but he seemed to welcome them. “I’m the crown prince. I can’t let others fight my battles for me.”
“But you have brothers, don’t you?”
He nodded. “There were five of us that night. Or rather, seven. Five boys and twin girls.” He was quiet for a moment, remembering. “I hunted for them all for years. I started once I enrolled in university in England. I studied hard, but I spent a lot of time poring over record books in obscure villages, hoping to find some clue. There was nothing.”
He sighed, in his own milieu now. “Once I entered the business world and then did some work for the Foreign Office, I developed contacts all over the world. And those have just begun to pan out. As I think I told you, I’ve made contact with two of my brothers, the two closest to me in age. But the others are still a mystery.”
“Are you still looking?”
“Of course. I’ll be looking until I find them all. For the rest of my life if need be.” He shrugged. “I don’t know if they are alive or not. But I’ll keep looking.” He turned and looked at her, his eyes burning. “Once we’re all together, there will be no stopping us.”
She shook her head, unable to imagine how growing up without any contact with his family would have affected this young Ambrian prince.
“What was it like?” she asked him. “What happened to you as a child? It must have been terrible to grow up alone.”
He nodded. “It wasn’t great. I had a wonderful family until I was eight years old. After that, it was hit or miss. I stayed with people who didn’t necessarily know who I was, but who knew I had to be hidden. I ended up with a couple who were kind to me but hardly loving.” He shrugged. “Not that it mattered. I wasn’t looking for a replacement for my mother, nor for my father. No one could replace either one of them and I didn’t expect it.”
“Why were they hiding you?”
“They were trying to keep the Granvillis from having me killed.”
“Oh.” She colored as though that were somehow her fault. “I see.”
“We were all hidden. From each other, even. You understand that any surviving royals were a threat to the Granvilli rule, and I, being the crown prince, am the biggest threat of all.”
“Of course. I get it.”
“We traveled a lot. I went to great schools. I had the sort of upbringing you would expect of a royal child, minus the love. But I survived and in fact, I think I did pretty well.”
“It wasn’t until I found my brother Darius that I could reignite that family feeling and I began to come alive again. Family is everything and I had lost mine.”
“And your other brother?”
“A young woman who worked for an Ambrian news agency in the U.S. found Cassius. He was only four during the coup and he didn’t remember that he was royal. He’d grown up as a California surfer and spent time in the military. Finding out his place in life has been quite a culture shock to him. He’s trying to learn how to be royal, but it isn’t easy for a surfer boy. I only hope he can hold it all together until we retake our country.”
The old wall clock struck the time and it was very late, well after midnight. She looked at him and sighed. “You must go,” she told him.
He looked back at her and wondered how he could leave her here. “Come with me, Pellea,” he said, his voice crackling with intensity. “Come with me tonight. By late morning, we’ll be in France.”
She closed her eyes. She was so tired. “You know I can’t,” she whispered.
He rose and came over to kiss her softly on her full, red lips. “Then come and get some sleep,” he told her. “I’ll go just before dawn.”
“Will you wake me up when you go?” she asked groggily.
“Yes. I’ll wake you.”
And would he show her his escape secrets? That was probably a step too far. He couldn’t risk it. He had to think of more lives than just their two. So he promised he would wake her, but he didn’t promise he would let her see him go.
She lay down in her big, fluffy bed and he lay down on her long couch, which was almost as comfortable. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t let him sleep beside her. She seemed to have some strange sense of a moral duty to Leonardo. Well, if it was important to her, he wasn’t going to mess with it. She had to do what she had to do, just like he did. Lying still and listening to her breathe on the bed so near and yet so far, he almost slept.
CHAPTER NINE
THE MOMENT PELLEA WOKE, she knew Monte was gone. It was still dark and nowhere near dawn, but he was gone. Just as she’d thought.
She curled into a ball of misery and wept. Someday she would have his child to console her, but right now there was nothing good and beautiful and strong and true in her life but Monte. And he was gone.
But wait. She lifted her head and thought for a moment. He’d promised to say goodbye. He wouldn’t break his promise. If he didn’t tell her in person, he would at least have left a note, and there was nothing. That meant…he was still somewhere in the castle.
Her heart stopped in her throat. What now? Where could he be? Dread filled her since, surely, he would get caught. He would be killed. He would have to leave without saying goodbye! She couldn’t stand it. None of the above was tolerable. She had to act fast.
Rising quickly, she went to the surveillance room with the security monitors and began to study them. All looked quiet. It was about three in the morning, and she detected no movement.
Maybe she was wrong. Maybe he had gone without saying goodbye. Darn it all!
That’s when she saw something moving in the museum. A form. A tall, graceful masculine form. Monte! What was he doing in the museum room?
The tiara!
She groaned. “No, Monte!” she cried, but of course he couldn’t hear her.
And then, on another panel, she saw the guards. There were three of them and they were moving slowly down the hallway toward the museum, looking like men gearing up for action. There was no doubt in her mind. They’d been alerted to his presence and would nab him.
Her heart was pounding out of her chest. She had to act fast. She couldn’t let them catch him like this. They would throw him in jail and Leonardo would hear of it and Monte’s identity would be revealed and he would be a dead man. She groaned.
She couldn’t let that happen. There was only one thing she could do. She had to go there and stop it.
In another moment she was racing through the hallways, her white nightgown billowing behind her, her hair a clou
d of golden blond, and her bare feet making a soft padding sound on the carpeted floors.
She ran, heedless of camera positions, heedless of anyone who might step out and see her. Who would be watching at this time of night anyway? Only the very men she’d seen going after Monte. She had one goal and that was to save his singularly annoying life. If only she could get there in time.
The museum door was ajar. She burst in and came face to face with Monte, but he was standing before her in handcuffs, with a guard on either side. Behind them, she could see the tiara, glistening on its mount inside the glass case. At least he didn’t have it in his hands.
She stared into Monte’s eyes for only a second or two, long enough to note the look of chagrin he wore at being caught, and then she swung her attention onto the guards.
“What is going on here?” she demanded, her stern gaze brooking no attitude from any of them. She knew how to pour on the superior pose when she had to and she was playing it to the hilt right now. Even standing there barefoot and in her nightgown she radiated control.
The guards were wide-eyed. They knew who she was but they’d never seen her like this. After a moment of surprised reaction, the captain stepped forward.
“Miss, we have captured the intruder.” He nodded toward Monte and looked quite pleased with himself.
She blinked, then gestured toward Monte with a sweep of her hand. “You call this an intruder?” she said sternly, her lip curling a bit in disdain.
“Uh.” The captain looked at her and then looked away again. “We caught him red-handed, Miss. He was trying to steal the tiara. Look, you can see that the lock was forced open.”
“Uh.” The second in command tugged on the captain’s shirt and whispered in his ear.
The captain frowned and turned back to Pellea, looking most disapproving.
“I’m told you might have been dancing with this gentleman at the ball, Miss,” he said. “Perhaps you can identify him for us.”
“Certainly,” she said in a sprightly manner. “He’s a good friend of Leonardo’s.”
“Oh.” All three appeared shocked and Monte actually gave her a triumphant wink which she ignored as best she could. “Well, there may be something there. Mr. Leonardo, is it?”
Just his name threw them for a loop. Everyone was terrified of Leonardo. They shuffled their feet but the captain wasn’t cowed.
“Still, we found him breaking into the museum case,” he noted. “You can’t do that.”
“Is anything missing?” she asked, looking bored with it all.
“No. We caught him in time.”
“Well then.” She gave a grand shrug. “All’s well that ends well, isn’t it?”
The captain frowned. “Not exactly. I’m afraid I have to make a report of this to the General. He’ll want to know the particulars and might even want to interview the intruder himself.”
Not a good outcome. Monte gave her a look that reminded her that this would be a bad ending to this case. But she already knew as much.
“Oh, I doubt that,” she said airily. “If you have some time to question him yourself, I think you will find the problem that is at the root of all this.”
The captain frowned. He obviously wasn’t sure he liked the interference being run by this know-it-all from the regime hierarchy. “And that is?”
She sighed as though it was just so tedious to have to go over the particulars.
“My good man, it was a ball. You know how men get. This one and Leonardo were challenging each other to a drinking contest.” She shrugged elaborately. “Leonardo is now out cold in his room. I’m sure you’ll find this fellow…” She gestured his way. “…who you may know as the Count of Revanche, isn’t in much better shape. He may not show it but he has no clue what he’s doing.”
The guards looked at Monte. He gave them a particularly mindless grin. They frowned as Monte added a mock fierce look for good measure. The guards glanced away and shuffled their feet again.
“Well, miss,” said the captain, “What you say may be true and all. But he was still found in the museum room, and the lock was tampered with and that just isn’t right.”
Pellea bit her lip, biding for time. They were going to be sticklers, weren’t they? She felt the need of some reinforcement. For that, she turned to Monte.
“Please, Your Highness, tell us what you were doing in the museum room.”
He gave her a fish-eyed look before he turned to the guards and gave it a try.
“I was…” He managed to look a little woozy. “I was attempting to steal the tiara.” He said it as though it were a grand announcement.
“What on earth!” she cried, feeling all was lost and wondering what he was up to.
“Don’t you understand?” he said wistfully. “It’s so beautiful. I wanted to give it back to you so that you could wear it again.”
She stared at him, dumbfounded at how he could think this was a good excuse.
“To me?” she repeated softly.
“Yes. You looked enchanting in it, like a fairy-tale princess, and I thought you should have it, always.” His huge, puppy-dog eyes were doing him a service, but some might call it over the top for this job.
“But, it’s not mine,” she reminded him sadly.
“No?” He looked a bit puzzled by that. “Well, it should be.”
She turned to the guards. “You see?” she said, throwing out her hands. “He’s not in his right mind. I think you should let me take him off your hands. You don’t really want to bother the General with this trifle, especially at this time of night. Do you?”
The captain tried to look stern. “Well, now that you mention it, miss…”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, I’ll just take him along then.”
They were shuffling their feet again. That seemed to be a sign that they weren’t really sure what they should be doing.
“Would you like one of us to come along and help you handle him?” the captain asked, groping for his place in all this.
“No, I think he’ll be all right.” She took hold of his hands, bound by the handcuffs, and the captain handed her the key. “He usually does just what I tell him,” she lied happily. She’d saved him. She could hardly contain her excitement.
“I see, miss. Good night, then.”
“Good night, Captain. Men.” She waved at them merrily and began to lead Monte away. “Come along now, Count,” she murmured to him teasingly. “I’ve got you under house arrest. You’d better do what I tell you to from now on.”
“That’ll be the day,” he said under his breath, but his eyes were smiling.
Once back in her courtyard, they sat side by side on the garden bench and leaned back, sighing with relief.
“You’re crazy,” she told him matter-of-factly. “To risk everything for a tiara.”
“It’s a very special tiara,” he reminded her. “And by all rights, it belongs to my family.”
“Maybe so, but there are others who would fight you for it,” she said, half closing her eyes and thinking about getting more sleep. “You almost pulled it off,” she added.
“Yes.”
She turned to look at him. “And you actually seemed to know what you were doing. Why was that? Have you been moonlighting as a jewel thief or something?”
He settled back and smiled at her. “In fact, I do know what I’m doing around jewelry heists,” he stated calmly. “I apprenticed myself to a master jewel thief one summer. He taught me everything he knew.”
She frowned at him for a long moment. It was late. Perhaps she hadn’t heard him correctly. But did he say…?
“What in the name of common sense are you talking about?” she said, shaking her head in bewilderment. “Why would you do such a thing?”
He shrugged. “I wanted to learn all I could about breaking into reinforced and security-protected buildings. I thought it would be a handy talent to have when it came time to reassert my monarchy on this island nation.”
She stared at him in wonder, not sure if she was impressed or appalled. But it did show another piece of evidence of the strength of his determination to get his country back. This was pretty obviously an ambition she wasn’t going to be able to fight.
Sighing, she shook her head and turned away. “Well, maybe you should go back for a refresher course,” she noted.
He raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
She looked back at him. “Well, you didn’t get the tiara, did you?”
“What makes you say that?” He smiled and reached back and pulled something out of the back of his shirt and held it up to the light, where it glittered spectacularly.
“You mean this tiara?” he asked her.
She stared at it as it flashed color and fire all around the room. “But I saw it in the case in the museum.”
“You saw a copy in the case.” He held it even higher and looked at it, admiring its beauty. “This is the real thing.”
She was once again bewildered by him. “I don’t understand.”
“What you saw was a replica. My grandmother had it made years ago. I remembered that my mother had it in a secret hiding place. I went over to that side of the castle and, lo and behold, I found it.”
“That’s amazing. After all this time? I can hardly believe it.”
“Yes. It seems that most of my family’s private belongings were shoved into a big empty room and have been forgotten. Luckily for me.”
She shook her head. “But now that you have the tiara, what are you going to do with it?”
“Take it back with me.” He tucked it away and leaned over to take her hand in his. “If I can’t take their most beautiful woman from them, at least I can take their prized royal artifact.” He smiled. “And when you think about it, the tiara actually belongs to me. Surely you see that.”
She laced her fingers with his and yearned toward him. “You’re just trying to humiliate them, aren’t you? You would have preferred to do it by stealing me away, but since that’s not possible, you take the tiara instead.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “The answer is yes.”