“You were a kid,” he repeated in a harsh, low voice, not looking at her. “And now you’re a princess. Good-bye, Katie.”
****
She would have given a lot to skip the afternoon’s game. But she had promised to be there.
King Jozef and Madame might talk about royal duty, but it was no different than her job at Ashton. People counted on her, so she would do what she’d said she’d do.
Brad was impossible not to see. But there was no need to talk or make eye contact. He made it easy by never looking her way.
Besides, as she’d told Carolyn, she’d gone through years of pining after him. With all that practice, she could pull this off.
At halftime, she saw April and Carolyn talking earnestly and caught both of them glancing at her … then carefully not looking at her. But neither said anything then or after the game at courtside amid a casual whirl of introductions and greetings among players, coaches, officials, and family members.
She eased toward the edge of the group. How many times had she left such events at Ashton unnoticed? Too many to count. This was a skill she could count on. This was something she knew how to do—
Carolyn slid a hand under her arm as she had yesterday. This time it occurred to Katie the gesture made it hard to get away.
“I’m getting a ride with you again,” her friend said. “Don’t argue and don’t frown. Your driver will tackle me if you keep glaring at me.”
She pasted on a smile, but said. “I don’t want to be rude, but—”
“Good. Here we go.”
In the car, Carolyn wasted no time. “I take it this morning’s conversation with Brad didn’t go well.”
“It was fine. He’s simply not interested.”
“Simply not—? What did he say – no, don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter what he said. He’s an idiot. A tall, good-looking, big-hearted – and, according to his grandmother, brooding – idiot. And—”
“He is not—”
“—so are you.”
“—an idiot. Me?”
“Yes. For listening to him. Words. I love the English language, but sometimes I swear words get in the way. So forget whatever Brad said. Look at what he’s done.”
“Nothing bad, not really bad.”
Carolyn laughed. “I was thinking of things he’s done for you.”
“Oh. You mean the … courthouse.”
She raised her brows. “Is that how you’re referring to it? Well, yes, it’s certainly impossible to miss that the man arranged to marry you so you would be sure to have a passport to come home to him.”
“That’s not—”
“But look at all the other things, Katie. He’s always been protective of you.”
“That’s because he thought I was a kid. He’s that way to everyone. Like the interns.”
“Oh, Katie, really? You know with men like C.J. and Brad you have to look a little deeper. It’s not that they won’t be romantic, it’s that their idea of romantic and ours might not be the same. Did I ever tell you about the brown things C.J. gives me?”
“It’s your favorite color.”
She chuckled. “No, it isn’t. But I like what C.J. gives me that’s brown, because it has significance between us. Yes, I see that skeptical look, but it’s true. When he started giving me brown things I thought it was to annoy me. He’d given me grief about being monochrome – hair, eyes, wardrobe, life. Then he started speculating on exactly what color brown my hair was and he gave me things to try to match it. A teddy bear and ice cream, things like that.” Her smile softened and her eyes brightened. “The first time he said he thought he’d matched it was with the velvet box of an engagement ring.”
“Oh.”
Carolyn nodded. “Face it, our guys are not the kind for a dozen roses.”
“But I don’t think Brad has – I mean other than the courthouse, and of course I could never thank him enough. But—”
“Going on red alert when Hunter showed up. Making sure you were okay afterward. Taking you to Chicago to get you more comfortable with – well, not with this, because I don’t know how anything could prepare you for this, but still, more confident. Introducing you to his grandmother.”
“Oh, that wasn’t—”
“Yes, it was,” Carolyn interrupted firmly. “Making sure he was with you when you met April and her extended family, and then the king so—”
“But that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t ambushed me.”
“Exactly. C.J. and I would have sat back and let you avoid the whole situation. Brad has so much faith that you can handle anything that he pushes you where you wouldn’t go yourself.”
“I don’t know about that.”
Carolyn smiled again. “One word: Trees.”
Click. The sensation was so strong Katie thought for sure it had been audible.
Carolyn nodded. “That’s right. He cleared away the vegetation to let the sun in and to let the world truly see you. Same thing with the DNA and this trip to Bariavak. In a way, it’s the most unselfish kind of—”
“What do you mean with this trip to Bariavak?”
“You know, it’s a good sign you’re asking questions instead of arguing. Who do you think pushed C.J. into changing the team’s itinerary? Who lobbied the NCAA and the administration to get approval?”
“But … why?”
“He didn’t know then that the DNA test would come through so quickly or so definitely. He wanted to be sure you had a chance to explore the possibilities, to see Bariavak, to spend time here. But when the DNA said you are who you are, and then media speculation started about you and Prince Karl, he said he wasn’t coming. He didn’t want to cramp your new style.”
“Idiot.”
Carolyn chuckled. “Oh, yes. Also stubborn. Andy tried and I tried, but the only thing that finally worked was C.J. making it an order from Coach that he come on this trip, and sticking to it.”
“I need to think.”
Carolyn leaned forward, resting her hand atop Katie’s. “Think less, feel more, Katie. It’s the greatest lesson I’ve learned from C.J.”
****
Madame was waiting for them when the car pulled into the castle’s courtyard.
“This can’t be good,” Katie muttered.
Madame gestured imperiously for the driver to remain behind the wheel. She held the door herself as Carolyn exited.
“Remain in the vehicle,” she ordered Katie, then pinned Carolyn with a stare. “The princess has an appointment. Excuse us.”
Carolyn turned back to her. “Katie, do you want me to—”
Madame slid in and shut the door, raising one hand to the driver, who smoothly pulled away.
“I don’t have any appointments on the schedule until—”
“There is a woman I take you to meet.”
“The gala tonight. I have to get ready.” And to find glue to hold myself together. She wondered where they kept glue in the castle. “Another time—”
“Now. We shall return in time. It is short way. Visit will not be long. She is sick. Very sick. She dies soon.”
“The woman you want me to meet is dying?”
“More I wish her to meet you. The woman you knew as Anna Davis was her sister.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Madame began what sounded like a long introduction. Katie caught a few words then was irretrievably lost.
She gave up listening and looked, seeing the resemblance immediately to Anna Davis. Yet there were many differences.
For all the pain of illness evident in the woman’s face there was also a contentment Anna Davis had shown in only the briefest of moments.
Katie suspected this woman’s contentment came from the people clustered around her in the modest room. Two daughters, she thought, And the man in the corner had to be a son. The rest, grandchildren, other relatives.
All the time she’d been growing up so solitary, she’d had all this family. Cousins of one sort or another – No. What was she thi
nking? They weren’t family. Because these people would have been her cousins only if she hadn’t been —
“—Princess Josephine-Augusta, Her Royal Highness of Bariavak,” Madame concluded. Then, more prosaically she added, “Martila speaks enough English. Do not worry.”
“I’m honored to be in your home,” Katie said in the English version of the traditional Bariavak greeting Madame had taught her.
She extended her hand to shake.
To her embarrassment, the woman took her hand in both of hers and lowered her head to kiss it briefly.
“Such honor, such honor,” she said over and over.
Madame said something to her sharply in their native language.
Martila gave Madame a defiant look and gathered herself together. She was in control when she squeezed Katie’s hand, then released it. “I think of this much over all the years. To see at last, the princess my youngest sister steals.”
“But it was only revealed last month.”
“Bah. I know. We know.” She gestured around the circle. “We know her. We know him. The princess is taken. She is gone. He is gone. We know. Her greatest strength is greatest fault. It undoes her.” She added a word in her native language.
“I don’t—” Katie looked to Madame.
“Loyalty,” she translated.
“She is hired before even you are born. So proud to work in the Palace. So exalted, she is. Yes. I imagine that is why he chases after her. Takes her heart, steals her mind.” She looked around at the others and spoke two words – Davogner Bordanic, the name Bob Davis had been born with, Katie realized. The others frowned. “We do not like him. Not from the first moment he steps from the street into this house and our eyes take him in. My mother tries to tell Annika. Tries to warn her.
“But she is a girl, as girls are. So sure their mothers know nothing.” She focused on the youngest of the women in the semicircle, who pursed her lips and glowered.
Turning back to Katie, she went on, “Ah, it is a time of crazy. The unrest bubbling, bubbling. Annika giddy with her new job and that man. And then the fighting starts, and everywhere is madness. The prince is killed and Annika cries and cries and cries for the sorrow of the princess and for the child never knows its father. And worse the fighting gets. Worse and worse. And Annika is coming home less and less. With the princess, she says, but she is seen here and there, not good places. Always with that one.
“And then the princess has her baby. A new princess. And there is hope. The fighting is so close done… Then she is gone. Gone. The princess baby, yes. And also our Annika. Gone, gone, gone. And we know. With shame and horror, we know. She takes our princess’s baby. She does it for that one. She is gone with him. But where? Where?
“She is not bought for money or his beliefs. He convinces her she loves him, and she will not release that. But she leaves you? No. Never, never. So she goes. Always. Everywhere. And is sure you live as long as she lives.
“We know that. We do not know if he kills you both or her alone. Or if all die. We do not know until you are found.” She spread her hands. Then let them drop. “You are found, and we know our Annika is dead. Dead these years. Dead so far away.”
One of the daughters began to cry, rocking in her chair.
“Bah. She is dead to us long, long. When she takes you. When our princess dies of grief, then she is dead in the ground to us.”
“She raised me,” Katie said quietly.
A sound came then, as if everyone had sighed at once.
“She kept … some things. They helped me piece together my history.” She reached in her pocket and touched the silk material.
“Yes, she is like such.” The woman’s gaze dropped to her hands. “Her life…? She hungers?
“No. We always had enough to eat. A house. Clothes. I went to school.”
“She is happy?”
Katie had thought about this. “No, I don’t think she was. After Bob died, I think she was … content.”
The other woman slowly nodded. “She has fear of him.”
“Yes. But… I also think she was frightened for him, too.” Flashes of memories kaleidescoped in her head. “And for me. After he died, I think she was prepared to accept whatever came.”
The rest of the woman’s face remained fierce, but a sheen covered her eyes.
Katie met those eyes. “She worked very hard to help me receive an education. I will always be grateful to her for that.”
A slight smile touched the woman’s lips for the first time. “She has pride of you.”
Katie felt the muscles of her face ease. “Yes, I think she did.”
****
They were quiet on the return trip until the car stopped at the entry nearest Katie’s quarters.
“I don’t know what to think,” she said.
“You are not meant to. Not now. In time.”
“Maybe.” She turned to the older woman. “Whatever I come to think … thank you. Thank you for taking me there to meet her.”
“It was for her. It was better to do for her than go to her funeral.”
Katie laid her hand on Madame’s. “Of course. Still, thank you.”
“You go now. Gala begins soon.”
Impulsively, Katie leaned over and lightly kissed her on the cheek. Madame jolted.
But as Katie exited the car, she could swear she’d caught a glimmer of pleasure in the woman’s eyes.
****
“You’re not ready.”
Brad turned away from the hotel room door he’d opened to C.J. and Carolyn, all dressed up for the gala at the palace.
“Thought you’d be gone by now,” he muttered.
“We were. When we realized you weren’t there, we came back to get you.”
He retreated into the room and resumed his seat on the bed, stuffing the pillow back behind his head to cushion it from the ornate carvings on the headboard.
They both followed him in.
“You think you’re not coming?” C.J. asked.
“I know I’m not.”
“I’ve never known you to not go after something you wanted, Spence. Hardheaded as all get-out about not knowing what was good for you, yeah, but something you wanted, you’d fight and work for all day and all night. I saw that in you from the beginning.”
“And recognized a kindred soul,” Carolyn said softly.
C.J. turned to her, and the look they exchanged made Brad want to pump his fist and drive that fist into a wall. Or maybe into the headboard. It would hurt like hell, but then he’d have a smooth place for his head.
“The professor’s right, of course,” C.J. said, swinging back to face him. “I recognized a kindred soul. That’s why I don’t understand you now, Brad. You not going after Katie. When you – Or am I wrong? Have I misread this? Is it because you don’t want her?”
He didn’t intend to answer. But the man had been his coach, his boss, his mentor, and his friend for too time. “You’re not wrong.”
He saw Katie’s eyes again. The way they’d looked when they’d made love. If he hadn’t reminded himself how many ways this was impossible…
“Then what the hell’s the matter with you? Go tell her how you feel and kick that prince’s butt. Do what you do best – go after what you want.”
“What you’re missing, C.J.,” Carolyn said, “is that what he wants is no longer the most important thing in the world to Brad. What Katie wants is.”
The professor was right, of course.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Katie paused with Karl at the middle of an arched bridge beautifully lit for the enjoyment of those wandering the grounds.
They’d finished with the reception line – no sign of Brad – and slipped away for a break from the social duties. If only she could take off the tiara. But she’d never get it back on securely. “This bridge is so perfect. Everything is so perfect. It’s like none of this is real.”
“It sure isn’t Wyoming,” Karl said. “Or some other dusty plac
es I’ve been.”
“Want to talk about that?”
“Wyoming? Sure.”
“The other places.”
“No.”
Yet she had a feeling the seemingly easy-going man beside her might need to talk about those other dusty places. To somebody. “Let’s see what the bridge looks like from down there.”
“By the stream? What about your dress?”
“I’ll be careful, and there’s a path, see?”
They went a half-dozen yards on the single-file path to a small clearing that provided a private spot for viewing the bridge, complete with bench. Every convenience.
She turned to her companion. “Karl, those other dusty places…?”
“Shouldn’t be brought up in surroundings as beautiful as this. Or with someone as beautiful as you.”
Prince Karl leaned toward her. She knew what was coming. She liked this man. Admired him. Trusted him. Okay and she didn’t entirely dislike the idea that he might want to kiss her, but … Brad.
Always.
Brad.
Sweeping across her mind, through her heart, into her veins. She wanted Brad. His touch. His love. His kiss. Would she ever stop wanting that? Did she want to stop? Could Carolyn be right? And if she was, how could she ever get Brad to—.
Karl’s lips touched hers.
Oh, God, she’d waffled her way right past the point where she could have prevented this.
There was a moment… like a question on both their lips, flavoring both of their mouths while they held their breaths and waited for the answer…
Then simultaneous sighs escaped their mouths. Kurt muttered a word, a curse from the tone of it.He brushed her hair back, giving her a rueful smile. “Nothing? You felt nothing?”
She smiled back. “As much as you felt.”
He sighed again. “It would have resolved so many issues.”
“I know.” She sat on the bench positioned for an ideal view of the bridge. “King Jozef would have—”
“Been ecstatic.” He sat beside her, adding dryly, “I think your friend, the assistant basketball coach, however, would not have been.”
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