“There is no danger and no threat. Lorcan and I know about the exchange of twins, so we volunteered to come here to guard the man believed to be Prince Rory. But there are things that Prince Graydon will need to oversee in the coming weeks.”
Toby, her hand on the faucet, halted. “Weeks? Why can’t they just exchange back?” She put up her hand before Daire could speak. “Unless something changed to keep them from being identical. Please tell me Rory didn’t ride a motorcycle up the palace steps and break his leg.”
At that Daire laughed, and when he did, his body relaxed. He took the hose from her. “Please sit and I will tell you all. But first, why would I need to share a bedroom with Gray?”
Toby looked at him. “I don’t know Lanconian customs but I can assure you that you’re not sharing a bedroom with me.”
Again, Daire laughed as he turned on the water and began on the rows of flowers along the fence.
Toby didn’t sit but went to walk beside him, pulling weeds as they moved down the bed. He told her how Rory had put himself between the falling king and the marble stairs and had come out of it with a broken wrist. “And Lorcan was bruised,” he said, then he told of her heroic act.
Toby saw the way his face softened when he spoke of the beautiful young woman. “And she is to you …?”
“My student. I have trained her since she was a child.”
The way he spoke made him sound like an old man—which she could see was far from the truth. “That makes you what? Fifty-two, fifty-three?”
For a moment Daire looked shocked, then his eyes twinkled. “My age seems to depend on the day. My hope is that Lorcan will take time off from her training so my old body can have a rest.”
Toby looked at him. It was easy to see that under his clothes was a well-toned body. Like Graydon’s, she thought. “I can see that you are a very lazy man.”
When he looked back at her, his eyes had a slow, easy fire in them that made Toby’s breath catch in her throat. She hastily pulled out three weeds and tossed them onto the pile. Graydon had certainly never looked at her like that, she thought, and suddenly, a surge of anger went through her. This man she’d just met let her know he found her desirable, but Graydon never had! She kept her head turned away. “So what happens now?”
“Prince Graydon needs to stay away from Lanconia until Rory’s wrist heals. We could fit Gray with a cast but the doctors would know. And right now we don’t want anyone knowing the king is incapacitated or that the brothers have …” He seemed to be trying to find the right words.
“Have played some crazy, juvenile trick on the entire country?” Toby finished for him.
“You seem to understand well.”
“Just common sense,” Toby said, then her head came up. “If the king is away, who will handle his duties? I’m sorry but I don’t know much about Lanconia. Are the royal family’s duties all ribbon-cutting or more serious?”
Daire sighed. “If they were only what the public sees, this would be easy, but every visitor who is important to our country wants to deal with royalty. They want to say they negotiated a contract with the king or his son, not with a committee of old men and women. They want to be wined and dined and entertained in the palace.”
“Oh,” Toby said as she sat down on the rim of one of the raised beds. “Graydon could handle that, but from what I understand, Rory hasn’t spent enough time in Lanconia to know all the things he’ll need to.” She looked up at Daire. He was holding the hose and looking down at her. She put her hand up to shield her eyes from the sun behind him. “Graydon is going to have to do the king’s job as well as Rory’s, isn’t he? And all from the other side of the world.”
“I think you do see the problem.”
She couldn’t help smiling at his tone. He sounded as though he was quite proud of her. “Wait a minute! What about the engagement ceremony? Rory can’t do that, can he? And does the woman know about the exchange?”
Daire turned away to hide his smile. Lady Danna was “the woman,” was she? “No, she doesn’t. She has been very solicitous of Prince Rory’s injury and she calls him Graydon. She cannot be allowed to pledge herself to the wrong man, as once the engagement is finalized it is as good as a marriage. But Lorcan and I have planned for this. We will secrete Graydon back into the country the night before the ceremony, then out again afterward.”
“But wouldn’t Rory go see his father in the hospital?”
“It has been publicly reported that the king is relaxing at a spa, so Rory’s unscheduled visit would draw attention to the matter. It is better that no one know of the king’s stroke. After the ceremony, if the king has not shown significant signs of recovery, he will step down and Graydon will take over.”
Toby looked toward the house. Which meant that very soon Graydon could be a king, she thought. “What’s he doing now?”
“Instructing his brother in how to deal with the president of a country few people had heard of until six years ago. A sheep fell down a hole and when they pulled it out, it had four lavender diamonds stuck in its wool. Since then, the inhabitants have ravaged their country looking for more of them.”
“Did they find any?”
“Several,” Daire said. “Lady Danna’s engagement ring contains one.”
“How nice for her,” Toby said but there was no enthusiasm in her voice.
Daire was watching her. “Lady Danna knows nothing about any of this. We are entrusting only you with our country’s secrets.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’m no snitch.”
Daire started to reply, but the back door to the house opened and the formidable-looking Lorcan appeared. She seemed to be glowering in disapproval.
“I believe I am wanted,” Daire said and gave a small bow. “It has been a pleasure.”
“For me too,” Toby said and they smiled at each other.
He took a few steps toward the house, but then turned back. “Perhaps tomorrow we could train together.”
“I’m not very athletic,” Toby said.
“I will teach you,” he replied. His eyes were very dark.
“Yes” was the only thing she could think to say.
“I will give you first choice of weapons.” Turning away, he hurried into the house.
“Weapons?” Toby said as she rolled up the hose, then thought, Maybe Victoria would like a Lanconian wedding. Maybe two lines of these glorious men could form a tunnel of swords and Victoria could pass under them. It would certainly be dramatic.
“You were out there a long while,” Graydon said when Daire entered the dining room, which had been set up as an office.
Rory was on the screen now. “Hey, Daire!” he called out. “How do you like Nantucket?”
Daire moved the screen around to face him. “I haven’t seen much,” he said in Lanconian, “but the streets are nice and wide.”
The two of them laughed together. It would be difficult to find narrower streets than in Lanconia or Nantucket.
“How’s Toby?” Rory asked.
“Truly lovely. She guessed the problem was you and asked if you’d ridden a motorcycle up the palace stairs and broken your leg.”
“I am wounded!” Rory said, his hand to his heart. “Tell her that I was injured while being a hero.”
“Ha!” Daire said. “You were cushioned by Lorcan. If she hadn’t acted so quickly and so well, both of you would probably have broken your necks.”
Rory stopped laughing. “How is she?”
Daire sat down in front of the screen. “Injured worse than she allows anyone to see.”
“Tell her thank you and that I’m sorry Dad is so fat.”
Daire smiled. “I’ll be sure to.”
“I know Gray is worried about all of this.” Rory lowered his voice. “Tell him I’ll do the best I can, but some ambassador from Russia is coming tomorrow. By Naos, I don’t know what I’m doing!”
Daire leaned closer to the microphone. “The man likes vodka and very tall wo
men,” he said quietly, then looked up to see Graydon listening. He raised his voice. “My advice is that you listen to your brother and obey him.”
“That’s what I plan to do,” Rory answered just as loudly and Daire moved away.
“Go to bed!” Graydon said to his brother. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.” He clicked off the screen, then leaned back in his chair and looked at Daire. “What did you talk to Toby about for so long?”
“Why we’re here, sleeping arrangements, that sort of thing. I was surprised that you two have separate bedrooms.”
“She is a maiden and I plan to leave her that way.”
“Then why the hell are we here?!” Daire asked, truly confused.
“I …” Graydon began but couldn’t think of a plausible answer. “I’ve been helping her come up with a theme for a wedding.”
Only Daire’s eyes showed his amusement. “Have you chosen your colors yet?”
“How about black and blue to match what I’m going to do to you when I get you on the field?”
“I look forward to it. Shall we eat? Or have these Americans turned you into a veggen and now you live on tofu and kale?”
“It’s vegan and Nantucketers eat quite well. I’ll go get Toby,” Graydon said, but his—Rory’s—cell phone rang and the ID said it was from the palace. “I have to take this.”
“Then it will be my pleasure to get Miss Toby,” Daire said and he left the room before Graydon could protest.
When Graydon got off the phone, he went to the kitchen and saw Daire and Toby seated side by side at the small table that he had cleaned off, in the room he had cleared out.
The table was covered with food from Lanconia that Daire and Lorcan had brought with them: roasted meat, sausages, pâtés, loaves of multigrain bread, cheeses, olives, pickled grapes, raisins, nuts, and even some Lanconian beer. Since they’d traveled with diplomatic immunity, they’d been able to get everything through customs.
“Try this one,” Daire said, and when Toby had her hands full, he put the tidbit into her mouth.
“Delicious,” she said. “What herb is that? I’ve never tasted anything like it.”
“It grows high up in our beautiful mountains. Maybe someday I can take you there.”
“I’d love that!”
What Graydon felt at the sight of them was the same as on the first night when he’d struck out at Rory for talking about Toby. But now, with Daire, he wanted to go for his throat.
Graydon took a step forward but Lorcan came up behind him. She firmly put her hands on his shoulders and began to massage the back of his neck with her thumbs. Part of her training had been how to deal with the tension before a match and the injuries afterward.
“It is just Daire,” she said into his ear. “He flirts with every pretty girl. It means nothing.”
“Toby is more than just a pretty girl,” Graydon growled.
“I’m sure of it,” Lorcan said and tried not to sound patronizing. Prince Graydon might think of the American as someone unique, but it looked as though she didn’t feel the same about him. Obviously, she went from one man to another easily enough.
Maybe, Lorcan thought, she could get this flirting woman to show her true motives. If that happened, perhaps when Prince Graydon returned home he wouldn’t be so very unhappy.
While Lorcan wasn’t a fan of Lady Danna, she was certainly preferable to this girl, who seemed to like any man who crossed her path.
As for Daire, now with his head so close to the blonde woman’s that they were nearly touching, Lorcan had the idea that his motives might be the same. Perhaps he too wanted to show Prince Graydon what he was risking so much for.
When Toby looked up and saw the beautiful Lorcan with her hands on Graydon’s neck, she realized that Lorcan’s eyes were on Daire. How interesting, Toby thought. She smiled at Graydon and motioned to the chair beside her. “You must be starving. Come and eat.”
When he sat down by her, she could see by his eyes and his silence that he was quite upset. Was he worried about his father? she wondered. Or was his concern about Rory and what he could do to the country with no one there to guide him?
“Try this,” Toby said as she spread a pale yellow cheese on a rye cracker.
“No!” Lorcan said from across the table.
It was the first English word Toby had heard her say. “What’s wrong?”
Lorcan said something in Lanconian.
“She says Prince Graydon does not like that cheese,” Daire said.
“Oh. Sorry.” Toby looked from one face to the other and finally understanding came to her. Daire’s flirting, his questions about bedrooms and his obvious surprise, Lorcan’s sneering, and now Graydon’s silence had nothing to do with Lanconia. All of them had made assumptions about her, and they were showing the conclusions they’d reached. As far as she could tell, the two newcomers thought she was some sort of femme fatale who was trying to lure their beloved prince away from his country and his duties. While Graydon … It was hard to believe, but he looked as though he were jealous! Did he think she was about to run off to bed with the beautiful Daire?!
Toby put the cracker down and pushed her chair back. “You know, I think I’ve had enough to eat. I’ll leave the three of you to discuss business.” She got up and went to the front door.
When she left the house, she didn’t know where she was going. She just knew that she had to get out.
It had started to rain, a nice, quiet summer shower, which meant that no trees were coming down and no roofs were flying off. On Nantucket, “storm” was a relative term.
Toby stood outside the door for a few seconds, but when she heard a sound behind her, she hurried toward the lane. When she reached it, she saw that the door of the big old house across the road, the one Graydon’s relatives had under contract, was wide open. She didn’t think anyone was there, which meant that someone hadn’t closed the door properly. The wind and rain were sure to get inside. Besides, Toby wanted a place to go, somewhere where she could think.
The rain pounded at her as she ran toward the house and inside. The marble floor of the foyer was wet. Grabbing the door, she pushed it closed.
For a moment she leaned against it. Before her were doors to her right and left, with a wide staircase in the middle. She chose to go up.
At the top of the stairs were two open doors. A flash of lightning showed a bedroom to her right, so she went in there. The room was dirty, with cobwebs and thick dust, and in the center was a huge mahogany bed frame. The size of it made her think that to remove it, it would have to be sawn in half. A wide fireplace was on one side of the room, its wooden hearth carved with swags of roses and leaves.
At the end of the room were two doors and Toby instinctively went to the one on the left. She found herself in what looked to have been a library. It was a small room. Cozy.
There was a little fireplace against one wall and it was surrounded by bookshelves. The two flanking walls also had shelves, all of them empty and very dusty. In the fourth wall was a double window and beneath it was an old sofa with a curved back.
With the rain outside, it was dim in the room, but there was something about the place that made Toby feel calm. When she sat down on the old sofa a cloud of dust went up around her, but she didn’t mind.
She put her head back, and as she looked about her, she could almost imagine the room as it had once been. The shelves would be full of leather-bound books, the fireplace would have a cheerful little blaze in it, and she would wear a long dress of white cotton. In spite of the fire, it was cool in the room and she drew her shawl closer to her. She knew it was of red paisley and someone—Captain Caleb?—had brought it back from his last voyage to China. Smiling at the clarity of the image, Toby closed her eyes and drifted into sleep.
She dreamed of someone touching her hand, kissing it, and holding it to his whisker-stubbled face. She smiled a bit, for she knew he was someone she loved very much.
“Toby,” said a deep voice.
She opened her eyes to see Graydon bending over her, his face full of concern. For a moment she couldn’t seem to clear her mind. Her dream had been so vivid she was surprised to see that there were no books on the shelves, no fire in the fireplace, and she didn’t have on a white dress with a beautiful red shawl over her shoulders.
She sat upright. “Go away.”
Graydon stepped back and his whole body stiffened. “If that is what you wish,” he said formally and turned toward the door, but he stopped and looked back at her. “Toby, I—”
When she looked up at him, there were tears in her eyes. “Do you realize that they think I’m a woman of low morals who is trying to make you desert your country? Or maybe I’m a spy trying to wheedle classified information out of you. Whatever it is, I’m judged to be the guilty one!”
“I know,” he said softly. “I will straighten this out. I will take the blame for every bit of it.”
She looked up at him. “I can’t figure out anything that’s going on in my life right now. Since the moment I met you, everything has been turned upside down. My friend Lexie suddenly left the island, I was given a huge event to plan, and my day job was taken from me. And there you were through all of it. It’s like you made everything happen.”
Graydon was standing by the door and his posture seemed to stiffen with every word she spoke.
“But why?” she said. The tears were running down her cheeks. “What is between us? For days you were like the best girlfriend in the world. We went places and did things together. I loved every minute of it. But there was nothing …” She took a breath. “There was never even a hint of intimacy between us. Nothing physical, no sharing of secrets. Not one bit of real closeness. For all that we’ve been living together, we are strangers.”
At that, Graydon’s stiffness—his protection from the world—left. “Is that what you think?” he said, and he sounded both shocked and offended. “I have never shared what I have with you with anyone else, not even my brother.”
She stood up. She’d not been aware of it but anger had been building in her for quite a while. “That’s not how I see it.”