"How did you learn of this?"
"It was the story my grandmother told my mother when she gave her the locket and the story my mother told me when she gave me the locket. You see, Lord Templeston made provisions for his mistresses and their offspring in his will. If ever they were in need, they were to present this locket to the current Lord Templeston." Giana smiled. "My grandmother and my mother were fortunate to have married for love and been well provided for. There was never any need to present the locket." Giana knelt on the bed beside him and watched as he replaced the miniature of her grandparents, hiding the likeness of the marquess of Templeston, before he handed it back to her.
"Why haven't you presented the locket to the current Lord Templeston?"
Giana fastened the locket around her neck. "I intended to," she answered. "As soon as I reached England, but the newspapers were full of stories of my disappearance and Victor's accusation that Max was responsible." She looked up at Adam. "The papers kept reporting that Queen Victoria's government was assisting Victor in the search for me and the apprehension of Max and his band of anarchists, and that the queen had appointed her adviser, the marquess of Templeston, to act as liaison between the Court of St. James and the Court of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya. I was afraid to present the locket until I knew Max was safe and until I discovered if the British government wanted the iron ore and timber more than it wanted me on the Karolyan throne. I could not be sure the marquess would believe my claim or that he was not in league with my cousin..."
Adam reached out and touched the gold locket, then the silver pin on her chemise. "Until you are safe, we can never do this again." He turned to kiss her.
Giana looped her arms around his neck and returned his kiss with a passion equal to his own. "And once I am safe, we may never be able to do this again."
"I know," he said, "but nothing is worth risking your life.
“Or the life you may be carrying within you. Agreed?" Adam pulled on his waistcoat and jacket.
"Yes." George inhaled, then placed her hand on her abdomen.
He smiled at her and their gazes met and connected. Desire sparked and Adam regretted his earlier words.
"Adam?" she asked, almost as if she had read his mind. "Have you any regrets about this morning?"
He shook his head.
Her eyes sparkled with a sheen of unshed tears. "I apologize for our deceptions and for the delays we caused to the lodge. But we knew we were safe here and we had no where else to go." She walked him to the door.
"There is no need for you to go anywhere," he said. "You can stay here where we can protect you."
Giana gave him a sad smile. "I can only stay until Queen Victoria comes to Balmoral on holiday. She is my godmother. I shall need to see her and explain. Max will not be safe until I've spoken with her..."
Adam nodded his understanding.
"I cannot ask anything of you ..."
"Yes, you can," he answered. "You can ask anything."
"Then, I have two requests."
"Name them."
"I should like to continue our stay here until the queen arrives in Scotland. Their positions here have given the staff a purpose and work to do, something to keep their minds away from the fear and the desire to be home instead of far away in Scotland."
"Done." Adam scratched his chin. "But you might as well know that there are many times when I think your staff leaves a lot to be desired. I've seen you working harder than any of them."
Giana chuckled. "Only because they are barred by Karolyan law from performing any task that might interfere with their traditional duties to the sovereign. While they may work for wages, they must attend to my needs before anything or anyone else."
Adam made a face. "I suppose that explains why my schedule is never followed."
She nodded. "When royalty is in residence, the household staff must attend to them first and to everyone else second."
"Royalty does have its rewards," Adam teased.
"Those rewards always come at great personal sacrifice. Everything has a price."
"And your second request?" Adam asked.
"Will you give thought to my offer?" she asked. "I may not be able to choose, but if I am able to choose, I would choose to have you by my side."
"George, I don't thi—"
"Shh!" She put a finger to her lips. "Do not answer yet. Take the time to think about it. There is much to consider. And your sacrifices would be enormous ..."
"Are you asking me to marry you?"
She smiled. "I am asking you to accept the role of prince consort of Karolya if I am able to offer it to you ..."
"I'm a commoner and an American. Is that possible?"
Giana shrugged her shoulders. "It should not be impossible, but I am a woman and it will not be easy ..."
One sat on the fit lie stool in front of the dressinq table staring into the mirror long after Adam left.
Giana thought that she must be losing her mind. She had asked Adam McKendrick to marry her. She could not imagine what she had been thinking to do such a thing. Giana frowned at her reflection in the mirror. That was a lie. She had known exactly what she was thinking when she asked Adam to consider her offer to become her Prince Consort. She had been thinking how nice it would be to wake up in his arms every morning for the rest of her life.
She had been selfishly thinking only of herself. Not of Adam. Giana reached up and touched her lips with her fingertips. How could she ask him to give up his home in America and the Scottish hunting lodge he was working so hard to make a success? How could she ask him to forfeit his businesses in order to take on her problems? How could she ask him to give up his freedom, his way of life, to accept the yoke of a lifetime of obligation and duty to the people of a country not his own?
Giana sighed. She knew better than anyone, the sacrifices Adam would have to make in order to build a life with her. Marrying her would force him to give up everything he loved. Would she be enough for him? Could she give him enough to make up for all he would lose if he decided to accept her offer?
She would be making a sacrifice as well. But Adam didn't know that. And she didn't want him to know. There would be plenty of time to tell him later—if he decided to accept her offer of marriage. Giana bit her bottom lip. She would be heartbroken if he didn't take her offer, but she refused to relinquish all her pride and bribe him to marry her.
Although the Karolyan Charter had abolished the Salic Law prohibiting females from ascending the throne, members of Parliament had added provisos that limited her power to rule.
According to Karolyan law, the heir-apparent had to be married in order to ensure succession. But a princess lost power in the marriage because Karolyan law granted her husband legal jurisdiction over her. By virtue of their marriage, Giana's husband automatically gained equal rights, and in some cases more rights, to everything his wife owned except the hereditary title of Prince. Adam would become prince consort, but a prince consort with more legal rights than his wife.
If she married Adam, Giana risked losing her power over her own country. She wanted to tell him about the Female Provision in the Karolyan Charter, but she was afraid. Afraid that knowing he could gain control of her country might induce Adam to agree to marry her.
Giana didn't know if she could live with the knowledge that the man she had chosen, the man she loved, wanted the role of Prince Consort more than he wanted her. How would she ever know?
Chapter 28
The Princess of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya must never doubt that the decision she makes is right. She must never show hesitation or weakness.
—Maxim: 519: Protocol and Court Etiquette of Princesses of the Blood Royal of the House of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya, as decreed by Her Serene Highness, Princess Rosamund, 1782.
Okay boyo it’s time for a talk.” OOBrien burst into the library later that afternoon; waving a newspaper he'd gone into Kinlochen to buy. He found Adam seated behind a desk covered w
ith papers.
Adam shook his head. "Not now."
"I'm beginning to think you've found another boon companion," O'Brien teased, "and are avoiding me."
"It's nice to know that you can take a hint." Adam frowned at him. "Besides, I've got work to do."
O'Brien walked over to the desk and picked up one of the papers Adam was laboring over. "I thought you sent out invitations to the private opening of the lodge two weeks ago." He tossed the letter back on the desk.
"I did," Adam confirmed. "And now I'm sending out more."
"Announcing that the opening of the lodge has been postponed?"
"Not postponed, just rescheduled." Adam held up a letter. "I've written to invite the queen," he said. "I hear she'll be coming to Balmoral soon."
O'Brien frowned. "I thought you'd decided—"
"I did. But now, I've changed my mind." He glanced around to see if any of the workers were working close by.
O'Brien followed Adam's gaze to where one of the paper-hangers working in the room across the hall, hovered beside the door of the library. He slapped his thigh. "I met Josef as I was returning from the village, sir, and he asked me to ask if you intended to ride out today."
Adam stood up and grabbed his hat. "I could use some exercise," he said. "And I need to take a look at the progress on the links."
A half an hour later, Adam and O'Brien rode out of the stable yard.
"Were are we headed?" Murphy asked.
"The links," Adam answered. "We can talk there."
They rode in silence until they reached the eighteenth hole of the golf links. They dismounted near the clubhouse and allowed their horses to graze as they walked about what would soon become the putting greens.
"Is she or isn't she?" O'Brien asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer.
"She is."
O'Brien nodded. "That's the rumor in the village as well. The news of her disappearance didn't mean much to a tiny Scottish village, but now that the renovation on the lodge is under way, people are beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together." He paused. "The people we've hired to work in the lodge are keeping pretty closemouthed, but there are others who are beginning to believe that the princess is being held hostage against her will at the lodge. And it doesn't help that Prince Victor of Karolya has offered an enormous reward for information leading to her safe return. It won't be long before someone decides to claim it."
"Prince Victor wants her dead."
"Prince Victor is the one paying for her safe return," O'Brien corrected.
"Prince Victor committed regicide," Adam told him. "He wants George returned so his assassins can finish what they started. The only reason she escaped them the night her parents were murdered was because she wasn't in the capital city. Her father got wind of an assassination plot and sent his heir to safety. Nobody except Maximillian knew where she was."
"Shit!" O'Brien took off his hat and began fanning the air with it.
"That about covers it," Adam responded, dryly.
"The newspapers are pointing a finger at Max," Murphy said. "They've named him as the man who organized the anarchists and engineered her kidnapping."
"There were no anarchists and there was no kidnapping. Victor made it all up so nobody would look too closely at what he was likely to get out of having his uncle and his uncle's family murdered."
"What does he get out of it?" O'Brien asked. "As far as I can tell, he's acting as regent for Princess Giana because he can't inherit."
"Control," Adam answered. "Control of George and control of Karolya's iron ore deposits and thousands of acres of timber. He's already trying to broker deals. And the reason Victor is eager to identify Max is because Max witnessed Prince Christian's murder. He recognized one of the assassins as one of Victor's followers." Adam related the story Giana had told him.
"That may all be true, and Max may be entirely innocent of the crime Victor's accusing him of, but how long do you suppose it will be before someone decides to turn Max in?" O'Brien exhaled slowly. "Prince Victor has covered his tracks very well. And Princess Giana is correct. The papers are reporting that the British government is helping him in the search. Although the queen refuses to recognize him as ruler, my sources tell me that Karolya's prince regent is in Scotland to meet with Her Majesty."
"What?" The idea sent a shudder through Adam.
"I telegraphed the New York Pinkerton office for information and received word that the German papers carried the story that the Karolyan government is announcing that His Highness Prince Victor, regent of Saxe-Wallerstein-Karolya has left Karolya in order to pay a visit to Great Britain. There's speculation that the queen has given up hope that Princess
Giana is alive and will use this visit as an opportunity to recognize Victor as Karolya's rightful ruler."
"Damn!" Adam swore. "Part of the reason George has been hiding here is because Queen Victoria is her godmother. George was planning to use the queen's holiday at Balmoral as an opportunity to present herself and explain the circumstances of her disappearance."
O'Brien shook his head. "She can't go to Balmoral. Not if Victor has taken it upon himself to pay the queen a visit." O'Brien paused, then stared at Adam. "You did say Victor wanted to sell Karolya's iron ore deposits?"
"Yes, but Prince Christian opposed it."
O'Brien was silent for a moment. "I heard several men at your sister's reception talking about buying iron ore."
Adam felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Marshfeld. Kirstin mentioned it and Prince Victor, but I didn't connect it with anything at the lodge."
"Marshfeld isn't the only one. There are others. They were forming a business whose sole purpose was to provide a market for the imports."
"Son of a bitch! I can't help feeling that this is all my fault," Adam admitted. "They were safe at the lodge until I arrived and began a massive and very public transformation of the place from an isolated hunting lodge to a fashionable gentlemen's club."
"You couldn't have known that a princess on the run for her life would choose to hide in the hunting lodge you won from a rich Englishman in a poker game," O'Brien pointed out. "And they couldn't have known ownership of the place would change hands or that you would decide to use the property for anything other than what it had been used for. It was fate, my friend. And you can't change fate."
You cannot save me from my duty, Adam. Or protect me from my fate. Giana's words came back to Adam in a rash of emotion. "She wasn't fated to die, Murphy. If she had been fated to die Max wouldn't have been able to save her from her cousin's assassins. No matter how it happened, the fact is that she was safe until I showed up. My job is to keep her safe."
"This Bountiful Baron business has gone to your head, my friend," O'Brien told him. "I know this one is blond and beautiful, and she's definitely been betrayed, but she is also a princess. You're in over your head, Adam. You cannot save them all!"
Adam stared at his friend. "I have to save this one. She's my future."
"Not necessarily," O'Brien protested. "You said it yourself, Adam, and you were right. This one may be the death of you."
"So be it." Adam caught O'Brien's gaze and held it with his own. "I would gladly die for her. She's worth it. But if that happens, promise me you'll keep her safe." He looked around—at the clubhouse situated at the end of the golf links, then back at O'Brien. "This is the safest place on the estate. It's stone and it has a wine cellar. If Victor should happen to find her, bring her here and keep her safe. Promise me you'll stay with her as long as she needs you."
"We're not just talking about protecting a princess here, are we?"
Adam shook his head. "We're talking about protecting the woman I love."
He loved her. Adam had no trouble coming to terms with that. But he couldn't help wondering: would his love be enough?
She had asked him to think about taking on the role of prince consort, if she was able to offer it, but Adam wasn't sure that was something he
could do no matter how much he loved her.
One morning of loving did not make a marriage—no matter how wonderful it was. And marriage to a princess came with a set of problems all its own. Even when the prospective bridegroom was a prince—and Adam was no prince.
Marriage to the sovereign head of a nation required a huge sacrifice on the part of the spouse, and Adam knew that in some ways his sacrifice would be greater still because it meant giving up his homeland. It meant leaving everything that was Adam McKendrick behind and becoming someone else. It meant giving up his freedom.
And giving up his freedom was a sacrifice Adam wasn't sure he could make. He wasn't the same man he was a month ago. He was different and the new Adam McKendrick had fallen madly in love with a woman of incredible strength, love, courage, and an awe-inspiring loyalty to the people she loved. But even the new Adam McKendrick quaked in his boots at the thought of everything he would have to give up in order to be with George.
But he couldn't ignore his responsibility to George any more than she could ignore her responsibility to her country. He knew that in order to offer George some measure of protection, he ought to marry her, but marriage to the heir apparent of a country is not something any man with a healthy measure of self-respect and self-preservation would choose. And he had both. Marrying George meant forfeiting his American citizenship, and giving up control of everything he had worked so hard to gain. It meant allowing someone else to manage not only his property but also his life. Adam frowned. It meant living in Karolya, far away from his family and friends, giving up everything he'd ever known in order to occasionally stand at George's side, but more often than not, it would mean standing in the background, playing second riddle to George and to any children they might have for the rest of his life.