Protecting the Princess Read online

  “You’re holding together well,” Kirk observed.

  Stasi tried to nod, but a spasm of loss and terror clenched at her stomach. Was her family gone? Were they dead? All of them? As the boat rocked up and then down, Stasi leaned over the side, losing what was left of her lunch into the sea.

  A moaning sob escaped her lips.

  “It’s all right.” Kirk grabbed a towel from somewhere.

  Stasi wanted to correct him, to assure him that nothing was right, or ever would be again, but all she could do was grab the low rail that edged the side of the boat, gagging and heaving nothing from her empty stomach.

  “You’ll be all right.” He dabbed the corners of her mouth with the towel before she leaned forward and retched dry air toward the salt sea.

  She shook her head and gasped for breath. Couldn’t he see? “I’m not.” She gripped her stomach as it threatened to lurch again. “Not all right. Nothing is all right.” She panted, trying to catch her breath and settle her shuddering stomach.

  “Shh.” Kirk’s head bent suddenly close as he soothed her. “Deep breaths. Don’t gulp air. You’ll only make it worse.”

  She shoved him away and took a step back. “How can I make it worse?” Her voice rose as she looked up at him. “How can I possibly make it worse?”

  But rather than give her the space she desired, he stepped closer this time, his voice low, his hazel eyes flicking to the skyline and back to her. “Keep your voice down. If you get caught, I guarantee things will get worse in a hurry.”

  Fear shot through her sorrow, deflating it somewhat. “Caught?”

  A patient look settled across his features as he worked with the sails. “The rebels behind the attack this evening.” He spoke so quietly, she found she had to step closer just to hear him. “You don’t think they’ll be content to just scare you off, do you? That wasn’t a demonstration by an unhappy fringe group, in case you were wondering. No, that was a coordinated attempt, and I fear they may have the military on their side.”

  His words were in plain English, the official language of Lydia, yet she couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. As Kirk untied the line that held a sail, Anastasia followed him. “The explosions?” She ducked as he swung a jib around past her, then stepped closer again as he used it to catch the breeze. “You think the military attacked the royal motorcade?”

  Kirk remained silent as he tied a complicated knot that held the rope taut.

  “My father is the head of the military.” She tried to sort out what had happened, as though it was a game of hide-and-seek like they’d played as children, and if she could just solve the riddle, her family would reappear. “You said you’d heard rumors. An uprising?” She followed him back as he unlocked the rudder, aligning the small boat with their altered course. “Kirk—talk to me. What do you know?”

  “Nothing for certain.” He took the steps down to the cabin and ducked out of sight.

  Infuriating. The silent man would yield no more answers today than he had six years before when she’d asked him about her brother. She followed him below, but rather than answer her question, he stepped past her and went back on deck, still busy sailing the boat.

  “Kirk!” She followed him back into the open air.

  “Shh!” This time his face bent so close to hers their foreheads nearly touched. “I told you to keep your voice down.”

  Stasi glanced around at the open sea. Yes, there were boats in the area, but they were far enough away and none of them seemed to be paying them any extra attention, and it was unlikely they’d be able to hear her unless they were listening closely.

  But what if they were listening closely?

  Chastened, she gripped her stomach before it could spasm again. “Kirk, please.” Her voice trembled slightly, but she didn’t care. “I don’t understand what happened. My family—” She gulped a breath, her words cutting in and out in a high squeak of emotion. “I don’t know what happened to my family. I don’t know where we’re going or who’s after me.” Tears flowed freely at the thought of her family members being injured or killed. “I don’t even know if I can trust you.”

  “You can trust me. Have I ever hurt you before?”

  “You took my brother away.”

  “I didn’t take him away. He left. I simply kept my promise not to tell anyone where he went.”

  “So Thaddeus is alive?”

  “He was last I checked.”

  Stasi nodded, though Kirk’s words did little to reassure her. She’d never understood why her brother would go away and not give them any proof of his survival. Another sorrowful spasm racked her stomach, and she moaned.

  “Here.” Kirk extended a silver-wrapped piece of gum toward her. “Peppermint. To settle your stomach.”

  “Thank you.” Stasi doubted the little stick of gum could overcome the unsettling effects of all she’d witnessed, but she appreciated his gesture. She popped the gum into her mouth, thinking if Thaddeus really was alive, she wasn’t completely alone.

  Kirk altered the course of the boat again, weaving them in between small islands. “You can trust me. I didn’t betray your brother, not even during his murder trial. And I won’t betray you.”

  “What does that mean?” She held his arm, a thick, strong one, feeling his muscles flex as he worked the ropes of his one-man sailboat. “You didn’t betray my brother?”

  The chameleon color of his hazel eyes picked up the bloodred of the sunset, its deadly hue an ill portent that stained his words. “I promised your brother that I would keep his whereabouts a secret from everyone.”

  “Thad wanted you to hide him?”

  “Yes.” Kirk turned his back to her, busy with the tasks of sailing the craft in a zigzagging pattern through the islands. Stasi studied his back, for the first time considering her brother’s disappearance from this new angle he’d shown her.

  Perhaps Kirk was a man of integrity after all. Perhaps he was actually the bravest, most honorable person through that whole messy trial. He’d taken the stand and insisted that Thaddeus wasn’t dead, but to every demand for proof, he’d simply responded, “I can’t tell you.”

  It had driven her father nearly mad. She’d been present for much of it, furious with Kirk through almost all of it, but at the same time, she’d sensed there was something more to the story just below the surface, if only Kirk would break his infuriating silence.

  The man seemed determined never to tell more than was absolutely necessary. But she needed answers, now more than ever. “Where are we headed?”

  “Dorsi.”

  Stasi startled. “But it’s forbidden. It’s dangerous.”

  “Not as dangerous as what’s behind us.”

  She absorbed his words. He had a decent point there. “But—”

  “It’s the last place anyone will come to look for us. Everyone knows to visit the Island of Dorsi is to take your life into your own hands.”

  “And for good reason. No one has ever visited Dorsi and returned alive.”

  “I have.”

  Stasi stepped back with the sway of the boat and shook her head slowly. “Travel to the Island of Dorsi has been banned for nearly a century. The walls are crumbling away and there are land mines everywhere.”

  “For the record—” Kirk’s face bore a smile that was just enough of a smirk to irritate her “—I’ve been visiting Dorsi for over a decade and never witnessed a crumbling wall or any falling rocks that I did not personally dislodge. And as far as I can tell there is no substance behind the rumor about the land mines. I suspect your grandfather’s government didn’t want to deal with the liability of tourists visiting the island. If they came in droves, they really could start the walls crumbling. The land mine story was likely invented to keep people away.”


  The smirk had faded from his lips, replaced by a serious expression. “For our sakes—” his tone grew solemn “—I’m quite glad they did. Now, I’ve got to bring the boat in, and it’s tricky enough in full daylight, so in this darkness you’ll have to excuse me.”

  While Kirk focused on steering the boat toward the island, which loomed ominously above the water in the waning light of the setting sun, Stasi stood back and tried to absorb all he’d told her.

  He’d been visiting the island for over a decade? She couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to visit the dangerous place, let alone return there. As she watched, the boat pulled closer through the lapping waves. Kirk guided the craft past jagged rocks and the signs warning them in various languages and morbid pictographs just what might happen if one ventured too close.

  She shuddered as the rocks slid by. It seemed likely they would hit one, but Kirk’s steady hands never faltered, and the boat slid past rock after rock. The sun spilled its dying light over the sea, and in its red glow Stasi spotted the narrow inlet Kirk had pointed them toward.

  To her amazement, the nimble sailboat slipped into the restricted space, past rocky cliffs that protected a secret cove, traveling around a bend to where a soft, sandy beach stretched out behind the rocky promontory, beyond the sight of anyone traveling past the island.

  “How did you know this was here?” She followed Kirk as far as the rail. Then Kirk hopped out of the boat with a rope, splashing through the shallow water and pulling the prow onto the sand before securing the rope tightly around a large jutting rock.

  “Thad was always curious about the place. He found a book in the king’s library that had a map. It was a few centuries old, so we didn’t know if any of this would still exist. But obviously, it does.” He stood beside the boat and reached his arms out toward her.

  Stasi hesitated. She knew he was only offering to help her down, and she appreciated his thoughtfulness, but she was wary of having contact with the man she’d spent so long despising. In spite of his reassurances, she still wasn’t certain he was someone she wanted to trust.

  But she also didn’t want to stay on the boat alone, so she jumped down and his hands caught her about the waist, settling her effortlessly on her bare feet on the dry sand, just beyond the lapping water.

  He held her just long enough for her to gain steady footing, but she still felt herself flush from the contact. She knew he was only being polite, but he’d always been a handsome man who’d somehow grown more attractive while she’d been ignoring him.

  “Are you all right?” he whispered before he let her go.

  She looked into his face, but with the high rocky walls blocking the low sun, she could make out neither honor nor deceit in his expression. “Fine.” Her legs felt rubbery after the dipping boat ride. When she tried to take a step back, away from him, her knees dipped and she wobbled, flinging her arms wide in an attempt to catch herself.

  “Your Highness!” Kirk’s strong hands steadied her waist, keeping her upright, while she overcorrected her careening dip and smashed back into his chest. “Careful, now.” The words rumbled below her ear.

  She caught a note of something in the undercurrent of his comforting words, and she kept her cheek pressed against him as she tried to think what it was. In contrast to the fear and grief she’d felt all evening, Kirk’s undertone carried something like warmth or affection, maybe even longing.

  Longing?

  No, that couldn’t be it. “I’m fine now.” She pulled away from him and stood on her own two feet.

  “This way.” He turned and took off up a curving path as though in a hurry to leave their close brush behind.

  Still barefoot after having removed her high heels on the boat, Stasi picked her way up the soft sand after him. By the time the sandy path blended into rocks, Kirk was far ahead of her.

  The rocks felt sharp against her unaccustomed feet, and though she lifted her long skirt up to her knees, she could hardly see anything of the path in the darkness. Trying to gauge how much farther she had to go, she looked ahead just in time to see Kirk disappear around a bend in the path.

  Loneliness washed its heavy hand over her, and she bowed under its weight. Uncertain whether or not the reverberations of her voice would send rocks crashing down, she called out quietly, “Kirk?”

  The silence felt a little too hollow and the darkness too deeply shadowed in this forgotten place where the cliffs blocked the setting sun. The fear and grief she’d been battling all evening began to get the upper hand again, and she tried to sniff back her tears.

  Then Kirk leaped back into sight in front of her. “Yes?”

  Her sense of relief at his reappearance surprised her with its intensity. Had she been that afraid of being alone? Or was she simply that glad to see him again? She fumbled for words. “My feet.” She pointed her naked toes toward him. “The rocks—”

  Without another word he scooped her into his arms, cradling her like an infant in her evening gown, and clambered up the path, carrying her as though she didn’t weigh a thing.

  She tried not to think too much about how being in his arms made her feel, but there was that warmth she’d felt a moment ago. Kirk was so strong and capable—one of the strongest members of the royal guard, with a promising future ahead of him before he’d tarnished his reputation with a murder trial.

  Still, he was winsome and charismatic. It would be all too easy to trust him. And after everything that had happened, she knew she was emotionally vulnerable. Surely the sudden yearning she felt to place her head on his shoulder had nothing to do with any real feelings between them. It was merely a result of the monumentally trying events of the evening.

  Kirk traveled easily up the path, and moments later a limestone tower loomed ahead, cast in a golden glow by the light of the sinking sun. Without hesitating, Kirk swept her over the threshold, through an arched doorway into a wide stone room.

  THREE

  The last of the sunlight blocked by four walls and a ceiling, Stasi blinked against the darkness and tightened her grip on Kirk’s shoulders. “Where are we?”

  “Through here is the queen’s chamber. Thad and I found it all on the map. There are stairs up to the tower—it’s got a glorious view all the way to Sardis. But right now I’m taking you to where Thaddeus stayed.”

  At the mention of her brother’s name, Stasi was reminded of all the unanswered questions regarding his disappearance. “When did Thad stay here?”

  “Six years ago.” Kirk carried her into a smaller room and stopped.

  “Before he—?” She let the question linger, unsure how to phrase what had happened.

  Kirk settled her onto a stone bench before turning his back to her. “Before he left, yes. He was actually situated here until shortly before the trial. At that point we decided it would be best if he stayed far enough away that, no matter what they did to me, he wouldn’t be tempted to return.” Kirk fumbled with something in the darkness, and a moment later Stasi saw the light of a small flame in his hands.

  When he turned back toward her, his face was lit by the warm glow of a candle. “This room isn’t visible from the sea, so you’re safe to use a light in here. But we don’t want anyone to see the light and come investigate, so don’t take any flame with you if you decide to explore further.”

  Stasi had little interest in exploring the spooky ruins, but she was eager to hear more about her brother. “Why was it so important that he not return?”

  To her surprise, Kirk brought the candle over to the stone bench and sat down beside her. The glow of that tiny fire enveloped them in a small circle of light, and Stasi had to fight the urge to lean closer to him. She watched his face carefully as he spoke.

  “Your brother doesn’t want to be found. He and your parents had a disagreement.”

>   Stasi tried to accept what Kirk told her, but it didn’t make any sense. “I disagree with my parents all the time. I don’t hide from everyone I love because of it.”

  Kirk leaned back against the stone wall behind them and closed his eyes. In the flickering light of the candle his face looked older than his almost-thirty years, and weary. “It’s his story to tell. I can’t share it with you any more than I could have told anyone else.”

  She placed a tentative hand on his arm. “But everyone thinks you killed him. If he’s not dead, why doesn’t he show his face to prove them all wrong?” She couldn’t stand that Kirk had been willing to let her believe he was a murderer all this time if he really wasn’t.

  With a sigh, Kirk opened his eyes and looked at her directly. “If your father knew where your brother was, he’d do everything in his power to bring him back. Thad couldn’t risk that. I’ve told everyone as much of the truth as he wanted me to tell. The rest I promised to keep secret. From everyone, including you.”

  Stasi struggled to absorb the news. Granted, Thaddeus was the oldest and she the youngest child in their family, so in spite of being close to her siblings, there had always been that seven-year distance between them. She’d been only seventeen when he’d disappeared, and she’d taken the news very hard—not only the loss of her brother, but the loss of Kirk as a dear family friend.

  She wanted very much to believe Thad was still alive, and that Kirk hadn’t ever done anything to hurt him. But she had to steel herself against one inescapable reality: Kirk was keeping secrets from her. However well intentioned those secrets might be, the simple fact was he hadn’t told her the whole truth. Beyond his obscure reassurances, she knew nothing of what had become of her brother. Until the gaps in his story were filled, she didn’t dare trust Kirk. Not completely.

  Hoping to push Kirk to reveal her brother’s whereabouts, she met his eyes. “If the rest of my family was killed in today’s ambush, Thaddeus may be the only living relative I have left.”

  Kirk bowed his head over the candle. When he looked her in the face again, she was surprised to see wetness twinkling in his eyes. His voice was rough when he spoke. “If I learn that the rest of your family has been killed, I will take you to him.”