To Charm a Prince (6 page)

“Karl!” the prince shouted.

A moment later, a dark-haired man appeared. “You have returned, Your Highness,” the man said by way of a greeting. “I expected you to—”

“Bring us something to eat in the dining room,” the prince ordered. “Send Boris and Elke to me.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Rudolf escorted Samantha down a corridor to the dining room. The room’s understated opulence reminded her of His Grace’s dining room. A dark mahogany, rectangular table and chairs sat in the middle of the room. A matching sideboard perched on one side of the room, and crystal chandeliers hung over the table. An elaborate, gold-framed mirror hung over the fireplace mantel.

Rudolf seated Samantha beside the chair at the head of the table. No sooner had the prince sat down when his three retainers appeared. They carried slices of cold roast, cheese, bread, and a bottle of spirits.

Samantha judged Karl to be in the vicinity of the prince’s age. Boris and Elke appeared to be approaching midlife.

“We have just escaped Igor,” Rudolf announced, drawing surprised looks from all three retainers. “Vladimir arrives in London tomorrow or the next day.” He looked at Boris and Elke, instructing them, “Pack my mother and daughter. Karl will drive the four of you to my ship. Inform the captain that I have ordered you to return to Sark. He and the ship must also remain there.” He turned to Karl as the couple left the room. “Pack supplies for us, and bring the coach around.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Karl left the chamber.

Rudolf turned to Samantha, asking, “Do you know someplace where we can hide?”

“I cannot go into hiding with you,” Samantha cried. “My reputation will be ruined.”

“Your reputation is worth less than your life,” the prince said. “I would prefer somewhere in the opposite direction from where I am sending my mother and daughter.”

The prince had a good point. What good was an untarnished reputation if one was dead?

“Won’t they be safer with us?” Samantha asked.

“Vladimir will look for me first. In case he finds us, I want my mother and daughter in a different location. I have sent for my three younger brothers, but they won’t be here until spring.”

Recalling her sister’s words about Sweetheart Manor, Samantha suggested, “We can pass the night at my old cottage and leave for Scotland in the morning.”

“Scotland?”

Samantha nodded. “My family owns Sweetheart Manor near Dumfries. As a wedding gift for my sister, my brother-in-law had it renovated and refurbished.”

“We shall go there.” Rudolf poured the colorless liquid into two small glasses and passed one to her, saying, “Gulp this down in one swig.”

Samantha lifted the glass and sniffed its contents.
No smell.
How strong could it be?

Lifting the glass to her lips, Samantha glanced at the prince before drinking and caught his smile. She gulped the liquid down in one swig. Her blue eyes widened as it burned a path to her stomach.

“Eat this,” Rudolf ordered, handing her a piece of Swiss cheese.

Samantha ate the cheese and gasped. “What is that drink?”

“Vodka.” Rudolf gulped the contents of his glass and took a bite of cheese. The spirits seemed to have no effect on him.

His retainers appeared at that moment. Boris carried a sleeping, blond-haired girl. Elke had her arm around a dark-haired woman who seemed confused.

The prince rose from his chair and spoke to his mother as if she were a child. “Mother, I need to leave London for a few days,” he said, his voice soft. “Boris and Elke will take you home to Sark and I will join you there later.”

“Where are you going?” she asked.

Rudolf raised his mother’s hands to his lips. “I have business in Scotland and will feel better about leaving if you are in residence at Sark.”

His mother smiled absently and nodded. Her gaze fell on Samantha. She pointed like a child and asked, “Who is that?”

“My friend, Samantha.” Rudolf turned to the sleeping child and smiled with obvious love and tenderness. He traced a finger down one of her cheeks. “Take good care of my family,” he told Boris.

“We will guard them with our lives, Your Highness.”

“Once the ship has left,” Rudolf said, turning to Karl, visit three or four dockside taverns and let it be known that you work for me, and I am on my way to Scotland.”

“I will return shortly,” Karl said. Then he led Boris, Elke, and their charges out of the room.

“Do you want your brother to find us?” Samantha asked.

“I wish to lead him in the opposite direction from my family in the event he intends to give chase,” Rudolf told her.

Samantha nodded in understanding.

“Where is this cottage?” Rudolf asked, sitting down again.

“The cottage lies on the far side of Primrose Hill,” Samantha told him. “How long will we need to stay in hiding? I must write His Grace and my aunt a note to explain what happened.”

“No notes,” Rudolf told her. “The more people who know where we are, the better the chance of Vladimir finding us. That is why I have given the order that my ship will remain at Sark. No one knows I have an estate there.”

Samantha glanced at her star ruby. Its color had lightened. Apparently, her aunt did possess unusual abilities. Could she have foreseen—? That notion was too absurd even to consider.

“What is wrong with your mother?” Samantha asked. “She seemed a little—” She searched for the proper word.

“Vacant?” Rudolf supplied, a bitter edge to his voice. “You would be vacant, too, if your husband had locked you in an insane asylum for almost fifteen years.”

Samantha had never considered there were worse things in life than having one’s father swindled out of his fortune and needing to rely on the generosity of others. Even her limp didn’t seem too bad a handicap.

“Why did he do that?” When he looked at her, Samantha read the anguish in his black gaze.

“My father locked her away when her childbearing days ended,” he told her, his voice filled with raw emotion.

Samantha didn’t know what to say. She wanted to offer comfort, but the words eluded her. “I-I’m sorry.”

Rudolf reached for her hand and lifted it to his lips like he had done to his mother. “That was a long time ago,” he said. “As you can see, I rescued her and brought her home to England.”

When he returned, Karl walked into the dining room and handed the prince a cloak. “I saw them safely boarded. The coach awaits you.”

“Lady Samantha, this is Karl,” the prince said, rising from his chair. “He will serve you as he serves me.”

“I am pleased to make your acquaintance,” Samantha said, rising from her chair. “My cottage lies beyond Primrose Hill.”

Leaving the mansion, Rudolf helped her into the coach. He joined her inside after giving his man directions.

Samantha remained silent. She wished she hadn’t suggested they stay at the old cottage tonight. Now the prince would see how poor she really was. Saying one was a pauper wasn’t the same as seeing the poverty.

“What are you thinking?” Rudolf asked.

“Perhaps, we should go to His Grace’s,” Samantha said. “I’m certain the duke will help—”

“I do not need the duke’s help with Vladimir, only time to consider my strategy,” Rudolf said in a voice that told her the point was not debatable.

Samantha said nothing. Less than an hour later, their coach started up Primrose Hill. “Stop at the top of the hill,” Samantha called to Karl. When the coach halted, she said, “Let’s get out for a minute.”

Rudolf climbed out and then helped her down. She turned to look at London and said, “I watch the fireworks every year . . . Look!” In the distance, colorful fireworks lit the night’s sky.

“Happy New Year, little one,” the prince said, his voice husky.

Samantha smiled softly. “Midnight on New Year’s Eve, a time that is not a time.”

The prince’s face inched closer until his lips claimed hers in a gentle kiss. It lingered into another more demanding kiss.

Samantha no longer felt the night’s cold. She gave herself up to the feeling of his mouth pressed to hers, persuading her lips to part.

“Can we leave now?” Karl called. “My sturgeon is freezing.”

Prince Rudolf broke the kiss and said, “I cannot think of any other woman with whom I would wish to hide.”

“I’m flattered.” Samantha turned toward the coach, saying, “Shall we go, Your Highness? I wouldn’t want Karl’s sturgeon to suffer frostbite. What’s sturgeon?”

“Fish,” the prince answered.

“Karl has a pet fish?” she asked in surprise.

Rudolf laughed out loud. “Karl does love his sturgeon.”

Climbing into the coach, Samantha worried. What would the prince think when he saw how humbly she’d lived for most of her life? She couldn’t change the fact that Charles Emerson had swindled her father and left them paupers. However, accepting another’s poverty was easier when one was not faced with the grim details.

The coach halted in front of the pink and white stucco cottage, the last one at the end of the hamlet’s only lane. Without waiting for his man, Prince Rudolf climbed out of the coach and helped her down.

“There’s a place in back to shelter the horses,” Samantha said, her gaze on the cottage instead of the prince.

“Take the coach around back,” Rudolf instructed his man.

Samantha led the way into the dark cottage. She lit the lantern on the table and announced with a blush, “This is where I grew up.”

“You should never be ashamed of your origins, little one,” Rudolf said. “There are worse things in life than poverty.”

“Your sentiment is kind,” she said, raising her gaze to his, “but those words are easily spoken when one has never known a day of want.”

Samantha glanced around the cottage. All was as she’d left it only a few weeks earlier. She tried to imagine seeing it through the prince’s eyes.

The cottage consisted of a main room with a hearth at each end, one for cooking and one for heating. There were chairs and a table on one side of the chamber and a settee near the second hearth where she and her sisters had passed many an evening wondering whom they would marry. Three small chambers, no larger than closets, were located off the main chamber.

“I lived here from the age of seven until last June when the Duke of Inverary invited us to live with him,” Samantha told him.

“How generous of His Grace,” Rudolf said.

Samantha slid her gaze to the prince. There was something in his voice when he mentioned the duke. Was it a tinge of sarcasm?

“His Grace was my father’s best friend and wanted to help us,” Samantha said.

“Ten years is a long time to wait to offer help.”

“His Grace couldn’t find us. When my father died, Aunt Roxie contacted him, and the very next day, the ducal coach appeared at our door.”

“I would have liked to see you as a young girl,” the prince said, changing the subject, a smile touching his lips. Which room was yours?”

Samantha pointed to the first door, saying, “I shared it with my sisters.”

Rudolf opened the door and peered inside. “This closet is hardly large enough for one person,” he said. “I suppose the other two rooms were for your aunt and your father?”

“Yes.”

Karl returned then. He immediately set to work lighting a fire in the hearth.

“The hour is late,” the prince said, reaching out to caress her cheek. “Sleep in your old chamber and know, as you do, that I am guarding you.”

Samantha nodded, walked into her old bedchamber, and closed the door behind her. In spite of the room’s chill, she removed her blue gown and neatly placed it on one of the other cots. Wearing only her chemise, she wrapped herself in her cloak and lay down on her cot. She could hear the prince and his man talking in quiet tones but couldn’t make out their words.

How long would they need to hide in Scotland? What must her aunt and her sisters be thinking? They probably assumed the prince had abducted her.

Samantha knew she should be thinking about Alexander, but the prince’s reappearance in her life confused her. Yearning swelled within her breast, and her heart ached for what could never be.

Her good reputation was permanently tarnished by now. Maybe she should relax and enjoy herself, steal a few days of happiness in an otherwise bleak future. When this adventure ended, she would pass the remainder of her life as a social outcast. Not that her flaw hadn’t already set her apart from others.

Though bone weary, Samantha could not fall asleep but then realized what was wrong. She hadn’t completed her usual day’s ending, thanking God for some blessing she’d received that day.

“Thank You, Lord, for saving my life tonight,” Samantha whispered, kneeling beside the cot. “And, thank You for sending the prince to call upon me, though he was a bit tardy in arriving.”

Samantha climbed back on the cot, but sleep eluded her still. Intending to count sheep, she only managed to conjure the prince’s image in her mind’s eye. She fell asleep counting Russian princes, and each one of them looked exactly like Prince Rudolf.

Chapter 3

He dreamed of English ladies, and each one of them looked like Samantha Douglas.

Rudolf perched on the edge of her cot and studied the woman who had haunted his dreams the previous night. Even in the predawn gray, she appeared ethereal and much lovelier than any woman he had known. Or was it her inner beauty that made her so attractive? Her face framed by ebony hair cascading to her waist, Samantha Douglas possessed a hauntingly delicate beauty, far different from Olga’s striking blondness.

Banishing his lost wife from his thoughts, Rudolf concentrated on the sleeping woman. He leaned closer and inhaled deeply of her scent, reminding him once more of roses and jasmine. Rudolf reached out to touch her cheek but stopped a hairsbreadth from her skin.

He wanted her. Badly.

Anticipation made him smile. Oh, yes, he would have her before their journey ended. He would touch every inch of her silken skin and know her body better than she did.

Loving, forgiving, nurturing. Samantha Douglas was everything he had ever wanted in a woman, everything he had thought he was getting with Olga.