Her mind flashed back to when she’d been a girl and she’d watched him arrive late to military training.
Who would ever have thought that their paths would lead them back to each other, and then away again?
It was Fate. But it was cruel.
Jacob was an agent for Christopher. It was his job to travel throughout Europe, and possibly further, at the prince’s bidding.
And even if he wasn’t, he was the second son of the Count of Dresbonne. A good family name, but not an heir. Her father would never agree to a match.
Could Harriet do what her aunt had done before her? Give all of this up to be with the man she loved?
Already she knew the answer was a resounding yes.
Never had she been happier than those short, blissful weeks she’d spent with him in her tumbledown cottage. She knew that she could live anywhere, be anywhere, and be happy. As long as she was with him.
But they’d been home some days now, and this was the first she’d seen of him.
If he’d wanted to marry her, wouldn’t he have come to her?
If he loved her as he said he did, wouldn’t he have asked her to be his?
Jacob was nearing the edge of the courtyard, and Harriet resisted the urge to press her face against the glass, all the better to see him.
It wouldn’t do, she knew, for the Crown Princess to be pressing herself against windowpanes.
Before he stepped through the doors leading to the royal offices, however, Jacob stopped.
He spun around and looked up at her tunnel of glass, his eyes searching until they found her.
Taking off his hat, he bowed low, that irresistible grin lighting his face. Yet even from this distance, Harriet could see a sadness behind the expression.
Before she could react, he was gone.
“Ah, Lauer. Have things progressed sufficiently with Tallenburg?”
Jacob struggled to get his mind on the meeting at hand and away from the solitary figure of Princess Harriet, clad in pink, standing in the window.
Even from a distance, her beauty had taken his breath away.
Being this close to her, yet so far away in every way that mattered, was torture.
And Jacob wanted, quite desperately, to get away.
“Hans has things well in hand, Your Royal Highness,” he answered, taking a seat when the prince resumed his behind the oak desk.
“I’m glad that we’ve managed to keep it relatively under wraps,” the prince said. “The Furbergs will keep their title, and Althea will avoid gaol. I think that should be enough incentive for them to remain discreet.”
Once more, Jacob was amazed by the prince’s stoicism.
If he’d discovered that Harriet had betrayed him in such a way, he’d have been destroyed.
Yet Prince Christopher spoke as though the lady were nothing more than a troublesome stranger.
“I expect that Hans will be done by week’s end, Prince Christopher. And no doubt ready for his next assignment.”
“That brings me to your next assignment.”
Jacob’s heart thumped heavily, yet outwardly he remained calm.
He wanted this, he reminded himself. He wanted to be sent away from the agony of being close to Harriet and not able to make her his wife.
“So soon,” he managed to say when the prince remained quiet. Watchful.
“I’m afraid the matter is something of a delicate nature.” The prince leaned back, steepling his fingers and regarding Jacob with an assessing, black gaze.
A delicate nature.
That was how he’d referred to the assignment of protecting Harriet.
Jacob couldn’t even claim he’d done a good job of that.
Yet, if the prince were already assigning him something else, he clearly didn’t hold Jacob’s behaviour against him.
Truth be told, he had thought he’d be coming here to answer deuced uncomfortable questions and then be thrown out on his arse.
“Forgive me, Highness,” Jacob said. “I thought that perhaps, after Gant. After the princess,” he prevaricated slightly before deciding that bluntness was his best option. “To be frank, I wasn’t sure if you’d trust me with a delicate matter.”
“Yes, well as to that, I believe this assignment can only be carried out by you.”
Jacob frowned in confusion.
“The princess,” Prince Christopher began and this time, Jacob was sure he hadn’t managed to keep his face expressionless given the small smile that played around the prince’s face. “It’s as I thought then,” he muttered more to himself than to Jacob.
“The princess has decided that she’d like to travel to England. Lydia, that is to say the Countess Huntsforth, is expecting.”
It certainly wasn’t common for gentlemen to discuss such things, yet Jacob was too intrigued to worry about propriety, and clearly the prince had no scruples about it.
“Princess Harriet wants to be there to see the babe. And you and I both know that forbidding it will only put her in danger.”
Wasn’t that the truth? Jacob shuddered to think of what she’d manage to get herself into trying to sneak to another country.
He’d rather lock her in that tower he’d threatened her with the night of her sort of rescue.
“Indeed,” he managed, for the prince seemed to be awaiting an answer.
“I need someone to escort her. To keep her safe. To take care of her. And that someone has to be you.”
Jacob’s heart soared before it plummeted.
Spending all that time alone with Harriet was like a gift from the gods.
But it didn’t change the fact that the second son of a count wouldn’t ever be able to have her.
“Forgive me, Your Highness. But why does it have to be me?” he asked, torn between taking the prince up on his offer before he changed his mind, though it was more order than offer, and running as far and as fast as he could.
“I cannot allow Harriet to flit off to other countries alone,” the prince said frankly. “Yet, I know her stubbornness well enough to know that I cannot really stop her.”
Jacob couldn’t stifle his quick grin.
The prince knew his sister.
“The Crown Princess cannot be on a boat for weeks on end either alone or with a man, even if he is there as her guard. I spoke to my father. We are in complete agreement.”
Now Jacob was confused again. Did the prince not want him escorting Harriet?
“Lauer, I’m going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer. Not because I am soon to be your king, but because I am Harriet’s older brother and I care very deeply about what happens to her.”
Jacob felt that damned cravat-noose tighten once more.
But he held the prince’s gaze, refusing to drop his own.
“Do you love her?”
The question brought his heart to a dead stop.
He waited eons before answering, trying to weigh up what to say and how to say it.
In the end, he knew only honesty would do.
“I do,” he said simply, but with feeling. “Desperately.”
He expected the prince to throw him in the dungeon. Maybe challenge him to a duel. At least land him a facer.
To Jacob’s surprise, however, the other man merely smiled.
“And that is why you are the only one who can carry out this assignment,” he said. “Because what I said is true. Harriet cannot go to England with just a guard. But she can go with a husband.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Harriet sank to the floor with a sigh.
It was ridiculous that she’d stayed here this long hoping to catch a glimpse of Jacob when he left again.
This was precisely why she needed to get out of Aldonia for a time.
She needed to put an ocean between herself and the memories of Jacob.
Oh, but she’d miss him.
The sound of approaching footsteps interrupted her maudlin thoughts, and she looked up to see Jacob striding toward her.
With a gasp, she sprang to her feet, hastily straightening her pale pink skirts.
He kept coming until he was only inches from her, his jaw clenched, his eyes blazing with the brightest blue flame.
“Jacob.” Her voice was breathless, but there wasn’t a thing she could do about it. “A-are you well?” she asked when he didn’t speak.
“I’ve just been in a meeting with your brother,” he said by way of answer. “He tells me you desire to travel to England.”
Harriet rolled her eyes.
“Did he also tell you that I’m going to go whether he ‘allows’ it or not?” she bit out.
Truly, if he was here to lecture her just as Christopher and her father had done, then he could turn around and march right back out.
“He did, as it happens,” Jacob answered.
“Oh.” She blinked. “Well, good.”
“You know, I have been in some of the most dangerous situations you could possibly imagine throughout my career working for your brother,” he said conversationally.
She was surprised at the change in direction of the conversation, so she just stared at him.
“I’ve been stabbed, shot, beaten to a bloody pulp.”
Harriet gasped at the horror of what he was saying.
“None of them have given me as much heartache as having to take care of you.”
Well! That was just downright insulting.
She narrowed her eyes at him, then clenched her teeth as his grin made an appearance.
“And now, I’m told I’ll have to do it all over again.”
She’d been working up to delivering a set down of epic proportions, so it took a moment for his words to sink in.
“Wait. You – what?” she asked.
“The prince has just informed me that my next assignment is to escort you to England. Deliver you safely to your brother.”
“Deliver me safely?” she asked hotly. “As though I am some package to be sent on the mail boat? How dare you? How dare he?”
Jacob leaned back against the glass, folding his arms and crossing his feet as though settling in to listen to her rant.
“When are you—all of you—going to get it through your stupid, overbearing heads that I am a woman grown? That I am perfectly capable of making my own plans and my own journeys. I don’t need Christopher telling me what to do. And I don’t need an overprotective, irritating, immature guard, for that matter.”
To her horror, she felt tears spring into her eyes.
She’d been so happy to see him, yet nothing had changed.
He’d told her he loved her, but still he was treating her as nothing more than an assignment.
It was too badly done.
“I agree.”
His words took her by surprise and stopped her ever-worsening thoughts on the spot.
“You – agree?” she repeated.
“I agree,” he said again. “And what’s more, your brother agrees.”
Harriet could only stare at him while her brain tried to catch up.
“So then—you’re not to come?”
It was foolish in the extreme to be saddened by this. Especially because only moments ago she’d been ranting and raving about having him as her guard.
But the disappointment was acute.
“Sweetheart.” He stepped closer, causing her heart to flutter alarmingly. “Your brother knows you well enough to know you’ll go to England whether he allows it or not.”
Harriet could barely breathe with him standing so close.
She could smell the sandalwood scent that drove her wild, could see the flecks of silver in his eyes.
“And I know you well enough to know you’ll put yourself in mortal danger trying to leave.”
His scowl of disapproval was enough to make her almost feel sheepish. Almost.
“But of course, you cannot travel for weeks on end with a male guard for company. What would people think?”
She didn’t give a hoot what people thought, though of course, she knew she should.
“No, after careful consideration your brother and I—and even your father—are in agreement.”
“You are?” she asked carefully.
“We are.” He nodded. “The only way this will possibly work will be if I come with you, not as your guard—”
He paused, and Harriet felt her stomach clench in anticipation.
“But as your husband.”
His words turned her knees to liquid. It was a very good thing that he chose that moment to wrap her in his arms, for she wasn’t sure she’d have stayed upright otherwise.
“M-my husband?” she stuttered.
“Indeed. Prince Christopher thought it was for the best, given the circumstances.”
“And you?” she asked, hardly believing this was real.
“Me? Oh, I thought it was for the best, since I love you so much the mere thought of not being with you is excruciating. I’d walk through the fires of Hell to be your husband, sweetheart. Crossing an ocean will be child’s play.”
A burst of elation so intense, so pure, exploded within Harriet that she could do nothing but throw her arms around him and hold on as he lifted her from the floor and held her impossibly close.
“Does this mean you agree to your brother’s terms?” he asked, his voice muffled against her hair.
Harriet pulled back so they were eye-to-eye.
“I do.” She grinned. “If only because it saves me having a guard.”
She laughed at his growl.
“And because I love you, too, Jacob. With all my heart.”
At her words, his eyes lit with as intense a love as she’d seen before he bent his head and took her mouth in an explosive kiss.
Indeed, anyone who saw them from the courtyard below was sure to be scandalised. Yet Harriet could not bring herself to care.
When she became lightheaded, he let her up for air, placing her on her feet yet keeping her deliciously close.
“You know, this is to be my last foreign mission. Or mission of any kind, really,” he said, smiling down at her.
“It is?” She couldn’t keep the smile of delight from her face. “But what will you do?”
“You are looking at the new head of Prince Christopher’s special service agents,” he said. “Based right here in the palace. Or wherever else you want to be.”
“I want to be wherever you are,” she answered promptly, earning herself another swift yet fierce kiss.
“So, this is your last assignment?” she asked. “Taking me to England.”
“My last assignment,” he confirmed. “Protecting the princess. And the only assignment I’ll ever care about from here on? Being your husband and spending every day showing you just how much I love my wife.”
“Now that assignment, I’ll allow.” She grinned before reaching up to press her lips once more against his own.
Epilogue
The ballroom sparkled with thousands of candles as the state of Aldonia celebrated the wedding of their beloved princess.
Though there had been speculation amongst the subjects that the next royal to marry after Prince Alexander would be Prince Christopher, there was nothing but joy when Princess Harriet’s betrothal was announced.
And only months later, the wedding occurred.
For the first time since Prince Alexander’s wedding celebration, the entire royal family were in attendance, including Prince Alexander and Princess Lydia, who had arrived with their firstborn, the newest member of Aldonian royalty, Prince Frederick.
Outside the palace, the streets were alive with dancing and music and laughter.
Inside the palace walls, the mood was a little more sedate, but no less happy.
Harriet couldn’t keep the smile from her face as she danced in the arms of her husband.
Though the ballroom was packed with royalty and dignitaries from all over Europe, she felt as though they were the only two people in the world.
“What are you
thinking?” she asked her husband. Husband! How wonderful that sounded.
He stared down at her, looking so besotted that she felt herself blush.
“I’m just wondering how I got to be so lucky,” he answered, his eyes smoldering.
“And well you might,” she answered tartly. “You were really the most impossible man. I don’t know how I put up with you.”
“Me?” he exclaimed. “You were the impossible one! Walking yourself into trees when you weren’t swinging out of them. I don’t know how I kept from strangling you.”
Harriet scowled at him but couldn’t quite keep her serious expression. She was far too happy.
“Perhaps you are regretting your decision?” she suggested.
Jacob pulled her scandalously close and chuckled softly at her gasp.
“The only thing I regret,” he whispered in her ear, setting off a raging storm of longing inside her. “Is not dragging you off somewhere to elope. Just you and I. And a bed.”
Harriet could feel her cheeks burn but she couldn’t deny that right at that moment, nothing sounded better.
“There isn’t long left,” she said, a little breathlessly. “And then we can leave.”
“And you’ll tell me where you’ve decided you want to go?” he asked, pressing a scandalous kiss to her neck before straightening and acting every inch the gentleman. But Harriet could still see the devilment in the depths of his eyes.
“Now that Lydia and Alex are here with little Freddie, England seems a bit pointless.”
“I don’t want to go to England,” she said mischievously.
“And you won’t want to be gone from the baby for too long,” he said, watching her face for clues.
“No, I won’t want to be gone too long. Just a couple of weeks will suffice.”
The dance came to a close, but they didn’t notice. They were too entwined in each other to notice anything else.
“So, what did you have in mind then?” he finally asked. “And how long will it take to get there?” he tagged on, a little desperately.
“An old, run down little cottage in the woods.” She smiled, shivering at the delight and desire in his eyes.
“That’s a two-day journey,” he said huskily.
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