Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch

by Carla Cassidy

  She wasn’t quite ready for palace life yet, with all its studied formality and protocol. To her surprise, she’d found the royal family more than accommodating—even the queen, who’d found new strength in the news that she would soon have a grandchild. Her condition had turned for the better. She was determined to see the baby born.

  Since the princes often visited Maltmore Castle, her nearest neighbor now, keeping an eye on restorations, they had plenty of company. The country was calm, and she hoped it would stay this way forever. The general was dead, the rebel forces dispersed. She tried not to think of the few remaining dissenters or the Freedom Council and the three powerful men who formed it, none of whom had been unmasked yet. Miklos was working on that still. And she had full confidence in her husband. He was the most wonderful man she’d ever known. She loved her life here.

  Truth was, Judi was being spoiled rotten. The princes fawned over her and flirted with her outrageously, sometimes just to get Miklos’s goat. The queen treated her like the beloved daughter she’d never had.

  Her head spun from this sudden large loving family. They truly were extraordinary, in every sense of the word. She hoped the little stunt she’d just pulled wouldn’t get any of them mad at her.

  “What?” Miklos caught the look on her face immediately.

  “I just…” She hesitated. “How does Benedek feel about meddling?”

  “In what?” Miklos’s eyes narrowed.

  “His love life,” she said on a thin voice, thinking that what she’d done might not have been the best idea she’d ever had.

  “What have you done?” Miklos held her closer.

  “The renovations on the Royal Opera House are done.”

  “Correct.” He watched her closely.

  “And it needs a fitting opening night.”

  “Since when are you interested in the opera?”

  “Since I asked Rayne to give the opening performance.” She held her breath.

  “Rayne Williams?”

  She nodded, impressed that he would know the woman’s last name. The reigning diva of opera had gone by first name only in the past decade. At age forty, she was hailed as the biggest sensation of the century. Her beauty inspired movies and lines of cosmetics. And apparently a young European prince.

  “Do you think Benedek will kill me? He’s had a crush on her forever.” Which he tried to keep a secret, but couldn’t quite hide. Not when he would drop everything and fly wherever she was to see each of her new performances.

  “If she still traveled, he would probably have invited her himself. Don’t be too disappointed if she says no,” Miklos warned.

  The diva’s paralyzing fear of flying was public knowledge. Five years before, her mother and brother had died in a plane crash. The only reason she hadn’t been on the plane was because of a vocal-cord injury that had needed immediate medical assistance. Her manager had switched her flight to the next one, then rushed her to a specialist. She didn’t make that flight, either, nor any other since.

  “She’s doing much better,” Judi reassured him.

  “And how do you know this?”

  “Aunt Viola.”

  “Is she ever coming to Valtria?”

  “Maybe for the christening. She’s still too nervous to go before the queen. She thinks she might be reprimanded for neglecting her duties around me for the last two decades.”

  Miklos’s only response was rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. “How does Aunt Viola know Rayne?” he asked then, as if on second thought.

  “Rayne’s mother was a good friend to her. They were on some charity boards together. She kept in touch with the daughter.”

  “I thought her job in the U.S. was to watch over you, not to socialize.”

  “I hardly needed full-time supervision.”

  A dark eyebrow lifted slightly. “I beg to differ. You’ve certainly been a handful ever since you got here. I can’t take my eyes off you for a second.”

  She nudged an elbow into the solid wall of muscle behind her.

  “Okay.” He gave up teasing her. “If Aunt Viola can get Rayne to come to Valtria and make my little brother happy, I’ll have an official letter of pardon issued by the queen for all her past and future sins.”

  She turned in his arms and caught her breath at the full-of-love look he gave her.

  “Hey, it’s turning out to be a pretty good year.” He dipped to brush his mouth over hers. “The queen is feeling better than she has in a long time. We managed to stop a rebellion. I found the love of my life, and Benedek’s about to get a chance at his, and Istvan—” He snapped his mouth shut.

  “What about Istvan?”

  “I just meant that he’s about to become an uncle. All my brothers are. And they’re all very excited.” He nibbled her lower lip.

  And almost distracted her enough to forget what they were talking about. Almost.

  She pulled back. “What about Istvan?”

  He looked uncomfortable. “I’m not supposed to say.”

  “He’s in love, too?” The man was such an introvert. She would be curious about the woman who brought that one to his knees. He spent most of his time in museums and writing historical papers for the Royal Academy. He did some digs, too. He was sort of like Indiana Jones, but much more handsome, and much, much more geeky.

  “Love? God, no.” Miklos looked at her in horror. “She would have to be at least a thousand years old and come in a sarcophagus in mint condition to get my brother interested.”

  “He found something?” she guessed.

  He nodded reluctantly. She’d seen that look before.

  “This wouldn’t have something to do with the mysterious Brotherhood of the Crown, would it?”

  He gave her an infuriating, noncommittal grin.

  “Let me guess, he found the graves of the original princes.”

  “Oh, we know where those are. In the catacombs under the Abbey.”

  “He found their legendary swords?”

  Regret clouded his eyes immediately. “Those are still lost.”

  Her eyes went wide with her next thought. “He found the jewels?”

  According to legend, which she’d had plenty of time to research lately, the original Brotherhood’s romantic conquests were secondary only to their fighting skills. And the ladies who were in love with them, supposedly numbering in the thousands—although she found that hard to believe—tended to gift them with tokens of their appreciation, mostly a piece of their jewels, as keepsakes or good-luck charms or whatever. By all accounts, the hoard they’d accumulated had been considerable.

  They’d planned to finance an army with it and push out foreign invaders, but they were betrayed and killed, and their treasure disappeared.

  “He found the jewels?” she asked again when Miklos wouldn’t respond.

  “He found some papers that might lead him to the jewels,” Miklos admitted at last, reluctantly. “You know how part of the ceiling came down in the guardhouse at the base of the South Tower during the fight?”

  “I’m not likely to forget that, since I was right under it.”

  His arms tightened around her. “Istvan went out there the day after, looking for clues of medieval construction and hoping he might find some broken tools or weapons that had been walled in. He found a leather pouch with some papers.”

  “Well, what do they say?”

  “Nothing. Mold had about eaten all the way through them. But he’s convinced he found a clue.”

  He would be. Istvan was nothing if not optimistic about the slightest find, no matter how trivial. Of course, he would think it was some important clue. And he was probably equally convinced that he could restore those papers somehow and read them. The man had singular focus when it came to his work.

  “Don’t tell them you know about this.” Miklos kissed one of her eyelids first, then the other. “The Brotherhood’s supposed to be our secret thing,” he said in a tone as if he were talking about mischievous kids. Like it wa
s all his brothers’ doing. Like he didn’t get a huge kick out of their secret meetings and all this.

  She smiled. God, she loved her valiant, secretsociety prince. “My lips are sealed.”

  He kissed her. “Could we wait with that for a few more minutes?”

  DEFENDING THE CROWN

  continues in May 2010 from Dana Marton and

  Mills & Boon® Intrigue!

  Available in March 2010

  from Mills & Boon® Intrigue

  Expecting Trouble

  by Delores Fossen

  &

  Prince Charming for 1 Night

  by Nina Bruhns

  The Colonel’s Widow?

  by Mallory Kane

  &

  Cavanaugh Pride

  by Marie Ferrarella

  Natural-Born Protector

  by Carla Cassidy

  &

  Saved by the Monarch

  by Dana Marton

  Second Chance Cowboy

  by BJ Daniels

  Vanished

  by Maureen Child

  Sentinels: Jaguar Night

  by Doranna Durgin

  Mills & Boon® Intrigue brings you

  a sneak preview of…

  Carla Cassidy’s The Rancher Bodyguard

  Grace Covington’s stepfather has been murdered, her

  teenage sister the only suspect. Convinced of her

  sister’s innocence, Grace turns to her ex-boyfriend,

  lawyer Charlie Black, to help her find the truth.

  Although she is determined not to forgive his betrayal,

  the sexual tension instantly returns as their

  investigation leads them into danger…and back

  into each other’s arms.

  Don’t miss the thrilling final story in the

  WILD WEST BODYGUARDS

  mini-series, available next month from

  Mills & Boon® Intrigue.

  The Rancher Bodyguard

  by

  Carla Cassidy

  As he approached the barn, Charlie Black saw the sleek, scarlet convertible pulling into his driveway, and wondered when exactly, while he’d slept the night before, hell had frozen over. Because the last time he’d seen Grace Covington, that’s what she’d told him would have to happen before she’d ever talk to or even look at him again.

  He patted the neck of his stallion and reined in at the corral. As he dismounted and pulled off his dusty black hat, he tried to ignore the faint thrum of electricity that zinged through him as she got out of her car.

  Her long blond hair sparkled in the late afternoon sun, but he was still too far away to see the expression on her lovely features.

  It had been a year and a half since he’d seen her, even though for the past six months they’d resided in the same small town of Cotter Creek, Oklahoma.

  The last time he’d encountered her had been in his upscale apartment in Oklahoma City. He’d been wearing a pair of sports socks and an electric blue condom. Not one of his finer moments, but it had been the culminating incident in a year of not-so-fine moments.

  Too much money, too many successes and far too much booze had transformed his life into a nightmare of bad moments, the last resulting in him losing the only thing worth having.

  Surely she hadn’t waited all this time to come out to the family ranch—his ranch now—to finally put a bullet in what she’d described as his cold, black heart. Grace had never been the type of woman to put off till today what she could have done yesterday.

  Besides, she hadn’t needed a gun on that terrible Friday night when she’d arrived unannounced at his apartment. As he’d stared at her in a drunken haze, she’d given it to him with both barrels, calling him every vile name under the sun before she slammed out of his door and out of his life.

  So, what was she doing here now? He slapped his horse on the rump, then motioned to a nearby ranch hand to take care of the animal. He closed the gate and approached where she hadn’t moved away from the driver’s side of her car.

  Her hair had grown much longer since he’d last seen her. Although most of it was clasped at the back of her neck, several long wisps had escaped the confines. The beige suit she wore complemented her blond coloring and the icy blue of her eyes.

  She might look cool and untouchable, like the perfect lady, but he knew what those eyes looked like flared with desire. He knew how she moaned with wild abandon when making love, and he hated the fact that just the unexpected sight of her brought back all the memories he’d worked so long and hard to forget.

  “Hello, Grace,” he said, as he got close enough to speak without competing with the warm April breeze. “I have to admit I’m surprised to see you. As I remember, the last time we saw each other, you indicated that hell would freeze over before you’d ever speak to me again.”

  Her blue eyes flashed with more than a touch of annoyance—a flash followed swiftly by a look of desperation.

  “Charlie, I need you.” Her low voice trembled slightly, and only then did he notice that her eyes were red-rimmed, as if she’d been weeping. In all the time they’d dated—even during the ugly scene that had ended them—he’d never seen her shed a single tear. “Have you heard the news?” she asked.

  “What news?”

  “Early this afternoon my stepfather was found stabbed to death in bed.” She paused for a moment and bit her full lower lip as her eyes grew shiny with suppressed tears. “I think Hope is in trouble, Charlie. I think she’s really in bad trouble.”

  “What?” Shock stabbed through him. Hope was Grace’s fifteen-year-old sister. He’d met her a couple of times. She’d seemed like a nice kid, not as pretty as her older sister, but a cutie nevertheless.

  “Maybe you should come on inside,” he said, and gestured toward the house. She stared at the attractive ranch house as if he’d just invited her into the chambers of hell. “There’s nobody inside, Grace. The only woman who ever comes in is Rosa Caltano. She does the cooking and cleaning for me, and she’s already left for the day.”

  Grace gave a curt nod and moved away from the car. She followed him to the house and up the wooden stairs to the wraparound porch.

  The entry hall was just as it had been when Charlie’s mother and father had been alive, with a gleaming wood floor and a dried flower wreath on the wall.

  He led her to the living room. Charlie had removed much of the old furniture that he’d grown up with and replaced it with contemporary pieces in earth tones. He motioned Grace to the sofa, where she sat on the very edge as if ready to bolt at any moment. He took the chair across from her and gazed at her expectantly.

  “Why do you think Hope is in trouble?”

  She drew in a deep breath, obviously fighting for control. “From what I’ve been told, Lana, the housekeeper, found William dead in his bed. Today is her day off, but she left a sweater there last night and went back to get it. It was late enough in the day that William should have been up, so she checked on him. She immediately called Zack West, and he and some of his deputies responded. They found Hope passed out on her bed. Apparently she was the only one home at the time of the murder.”

  Charlie frowned, his mind reeling. Before he’d moved back here to try his hand at ranching, Charlie had been a successful, high-profile defense attorney in Oklahoma City.

  It was that terrible moment in time with Grace followed by the unexpected death of his father that had made him take a good, hard look at his life and realize how unhappy he’d been for a very long time.

  Still, it was as a defense attorney that he frowned at her thoughtfully. “What do you mean she was passed out? Was she asleep? Drunk?”

  Those icy blue eyes of hers darkened. “Apparently she was drugged. She was taken to the hospital and is still there. They pumped her stomach and are keeping her for observation.” Grace leaned forward. “Please, Charlie. Please help her. Something isn’t right. First of all, Hope would never, ever take drugs, and she certainly isn’t capable of somethin
g like this. She would never have hurt William.”

  Spoken like a true sister, Charlie thought. How many times had he heard family members and friends proclaim that a defendant couldn’t be guilty of the crime they had been charged with, only to discover that they were wrong?

  “Grace, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m a rancher now.” He wasn’t at all sure he wanted to get involved with any of this. It had disaster written all over it. “I’ve retired as a criminal defense attorney.”

  “I heard through the grapevine that besides being a rancher, you’re working part-time with West Protective Services,” she said.

  “That’s right,” he agreed. “They approached me about a month ago and asked if I could use a little side work. It sounded intriguing, so I took them up on it, but so far I haven’t done any work for them.”

  “Then let me hire you as Hope’s bodyguard, and if you do a little criminal defense work in the process I’ll pay you extra.” She leaned forward, her eyes begging for his help.

  Bad idea, a little voice whispered in the back of his brain. She already hated his guts, and this portended a very bad ending. He knew how much she loved her sister; he assumed that for the last couple of years she’d been more mother than sibling to the young girl. He’d be a fool to involve himself in the whole mess.

  “Has Hope been questioned by anyone?” he heard himself ask. He knew he was going to get involved whether he wanted to or not, because it was Grace, because she needed him.

  “I don’t think so. When I left the hospital a little while ago, she was still unconscious. Dr. Dell promised me he wouldn’t let anyone in to see her until I returned.”

  “Good.” There was nothing worse than a suspect running off at the mouth with a seemingly friendly officer. Often the damage was so great there was nothing a defense attorney could do to mitigate it.