“Sorry, I’m botching this. What I’m trying to say is that you can be yourself with me, Giulietta.”
She looked away with a wince.
“I don’t demand the sort of obedience Saardovan men expect. I want to know you,” he said earnestly. “That is all I meant. Don’t be upset by my question, please.” He captured her chin and turned her face back to meet her fretful gaze. “You fascinate me. I’ve never known anyone like you. But I can feel you holding back. You don’t have to, with me. Surely you know by now that I would never hurt you.”
Minerva looked at him in distress. It was everything a girl could wish for a man to say to her. Only, in her case, it was all wrong.
He thought he was saying them to Giulietta. Wretched with tangled longing and guilt, she said not a word but wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder.
He embraced her tenderly, running his hands up and down her back. She squeezed her eyes shut, wretched with the knowledge of how she was deceiving him.
She couldn’t believe that the so-called barbarian warlord was perceptive enough to notice how she had been holding herself back emotionally. Her poor prince thought she was keeping him at bay because she held some sort of Saardovan grudge against him. The man had no idea she was a fraud. How she loathed herself for this—and loathed Giulietta! She hadn’t seen Diego in three days.
He was off hunting for the real princess among the Gypsies. In the meanwhile, Tor seemed very determined to win her heart, unaware that he was wooing an imposter.
When he lowered his head slowly and caressed her lips with his own, it was more temptation than she could stand. She took his chiseled face between her hands and kissed him in aching desire. A beautiful sunset unfurled across the sky, but they did not stay out on the balcony long to admire it. She took him by the hand and drew him wordlessly into their chamber.
There they proceeded to show each other that somehow, indeed, this had quickly developed into much more than a political match. And as he peeled her gown off her shoulders, Minerva half hoped the real Giulietta might never be found.
“Oh, sister! I have a surprise for you!” Princess Katarina’s voice echoed from the corridor beyond the morning room where she and Tor were having breakfast.
Minerva looked over with a curious smile as the blond princess poked her head in the doorway. “Surprise! Your brother’s come!”
Prince Orsino stepped into view.
She froze as he flashed a rueful smile. “Lady Minerva. Good to see you again. So where is she?” He glanced around the morning room in question.
Minerva’s mind was a blank as both Tor and Kat looked at her in confusion.
“Minerva?” Tor echoed with a decidedly ominous note in his voice.
“He is joking!” she exclaimed, sounding rather shrill as she shot up from her chair. “Of course I’m not Minerva! He’s always teasing. You are so silly, brother!” She hurried over to greet Orsino with a sisterly hug.
He furrowed his brow, but smiled as he hugged her back. “Now who’s joking? Where’s Giulietta?”
Tor suddenly swept to his feet and threw down his breakfast napkin with a curse. “I knew it!”
“What?” Kat murmured.
“Please—I can explain—”
“What’s happened? Where is my sister?” Orsino demanded.
“Oh, Hades,” she whispered, backing away from him, and backing away from Tor as he stalked toward her, his eyes ablaze.
“What is going on here? You are not the Princess Giulietta?”
“Of course she’s not,” Orsino retorted.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Tor growled.
Minerva gulped. “I can explain.”
“Who are you?” her husband demanded.
“Don’t yell at her, Tor!”
“Stay out of this, Kat.”
Orsino took a step toward him. “What have you done with my sister? Has something happened to Giulietta?”
“Don’t try me, Saardovan!” Tor thundered without warning, then he turned back to the cowering Minerva. “Explain yourself,” he said icily.
“It’s true,” she forced out, lowering her head. “I am Lady Minerva de Messina. The general’s daughter.”
He stared at her incredulously. “Why?”
“Please! I didn’t want to deceive you!” she cried, lifting her gaze to meet his imploringly. “The real princess fled the night before the wedding! I promised my father I’d see the treaty through.”
“Fled?” Tor echoed in fury.
“What do you mean, she fled? Where is she?” Orsino exclaimed.
“I don’t know! Her guards have been out looking for her since the morning of the wedding. I dispatched them as soon as we realized she was gone.”
“So you thought you’d take her place?” Tor asked in outrage. “How dare you lie to me? You’d make a fool of me in front of both our nations?”
“I was trying to save the treaty!”
He turned away. “Get her out of my sight. Guards! Throw this imposter in the tower. Saardovan treachery! I should have known! Maybe Father was right about you people.”
“Tor, please!” she cried as they dragged her away.
“Unhand her!” Orsino ordered. “You have no right to do that to a lady!”
“I have every right,” Tor said icily. “The little liar is my wife.”
Minerva’s heart pounded. The big, blond Rydalburg warriors’ hold on her arms was implacable. Try as she might, she could not fight free. As they left the palace proper, she could still hear Tor and Orsino roaring at each other.
All of her pleading with his men had no effect. They were completely expressionless as they half dragged, half carried her up the stone steps of the tower. Before she could collect her thoughts, they deposited her in a room in the highest tower of Rydalburg Castle.
She heard them lock the door. She pounded on it. “Let me out of here!” They ignored her. As it sank in that the stony-hearted guards would not be moved, she turned away, feeling ill. She began to pace the austere stone garret, distraught over hurting Tor. She thought she had made the right decision for the treaty’s sake, but now she wondered if she had only made things worse.
And where was Giulietta? Producing the real princess seemed the only hope of fixing this disaster. All she knew from Diego’s last message was that the Gypsies were moving north. How hard could it be to find them? He should have been back by now!
An hour later, she heard voices in the stone stairwell outside her garret cell.
“Visitor!” the guard called roughly as he unlocked the door. Tor? Orsino? Or might it be Diego, bringing news that he had found the princess?
But when the door opened, Kat stepped in, looking shaken. She lifted her chin, waiting for the guards to close the door behind her.
Minerva’s eyes filled with tears of remorse as soon as they were alone. “I’m so sorry—”
“There’s no time,” she whispered. “I’m not supposed to be here. I insisted the guards grant me a couple of minutes to make sure you’re all right.” Kat stepped over to the cot with a businesslike air and hitched up one side of her dark velvet skirt, producing one of the aerial silks like those used by the acrobats. “I hope you know how to use this thing. I got it from one of your ladies-in-waiting. I thought of stealing a rope for you, but then they’d know it was I who helped you escape.”
“Oh, Kat,” she murmured as her sister-in-law handed over the giant ribbon.
“You have to get out of here and find the real Giulietta, or they’re going to kill each other. Tor and Prince Orsino.”
“What?” she breathed.
“You saw them arguing,” Kat said in a hushed, hurried tone. “Well, it escalated after you left, and now they say they’re going to settle any future conflicts tonight, not with a marriage between our houses, but by single combat. They’re planning a duel to the death!”
Minerva stared at her in horror. “When?”
“Tonight, sunse
t. There’s no time to waste. You have to find the princess and bring her back, Minerva. It’s the only thing that will satisfy Orsino—and our only hope of stopping this madness.”
She was still reeling at the news while Kat marched over to the mullioned window and opened it, assessing the height of it with a slight wince. “You’ll have to climb down. I think if you lower yourself to that roof, and then down to that lower gable, you can reach the ground from there. I left a horse waiting for you at the bottom of the wall.”
“You’re brilliant.” She hugged her. “Thank you for your help. I’m so sorry for putting you through all this.”
“You did it for the treaty. I understand. Besides, I know my brother loves you, and that you love him. I can see it in you both. Whether you planned it or not, you’ve fallen in love. But I must warn you, Tor does not forgive easily. You have to make this work. If you fail, one of our princes will end up dead, and sure as clockwork, the war will start again by morning.” Kat gave her a sudden, sisterly embrace that was quite out of character for any Rydalburg noblewoman.
But the guard knocked again on the door to let her know her time was up.
“Be careful,” Kat whispered.
Minerva quickly hid the silk streamer under the cot. Then the blond princess smoothed her hair and glided out as demurely as she had come in.
When the guard had locked the door again, Minerva glanced over at the window and swallowed hard. She had not swung on an aerial in years, and never from such a height. Never for such stakes.
She dragged the bed, the heaviest piece of furniture in the room, as quietly as possible over to the window. Jamming it against the wall so it could not slip, she then threaded the ribbon beneath one leg of the bed and tied the loose ends into a knot, which she fixed right at her waist.
Climbing up onto the windowsill, she felt the high mountain breeze on her cheeks as she peered down at the earth below in a cold sweat. Here goes nothing.
Checking her knot one more time, she inched backwards out the window, then pushed off and began walking down the wall, the ribbon cupping her bottom and her back, not unlike the seat of a child’s swing. She gripped both sides of the silk streamer and refused to look down as she lowered herself bit by bit.
She prayed no one noticed her. She refused to look down, but if she had glanced earthward, she would have seen there was no one around to see her. It was a nerve-racking ordeal. Her biceps felt shaky by the time she reached the first roof landing.
When her feet stood on its solid surface, she untied the knot at her waist and pulled one end of the silk ribbon free from where it had been looped around the bed above.
It came spilling down from the window above in a tumble of bright fabric. She quickly caught it and repeated the process, this time using an iron gargoyle as her anchor. The second descent was shorter, and before she knew it, she landed breathlessly on the ground. She untied her knot again and pulled the streamer after her, balling it up as she ran to find the horse Kat had promised.
She found the waiting animal tied to a tree just inside the woods across from where she had landed. “Brilliant girl,” she murmured, finding the water canteen and spyglass that Katarina had tucked in the saddlebag. Minerva vaulted up onto the horse’s back and urged it into motion, heading for the rocky country to the north. She had to find those Gypsies and get Giulietta back to Rydalburg Castle by sunset tonight.
For the next three hours, she urged her horse on through woods, up hills, down valleys, and when she came to a river, she followed it. The royal henwit would at least have the sense to stay close to a water source.
Then Minerva began seeing signs of human life in the lonely landscape. A burnt-out campfire. Bits of garbage on the ground. Cantering up over the rise, she spotted the colorful caravan below. Gypsies!
She lifted the spyglass to her, searching their whimsical camp for Giulietta. Somehow the wandering bands of free-spirited Romany folk had managed to stay neutral in all those rashes of conflict between Rydalburg and Saardova. That was not to say that they were necessarily trustworthy. But the Gypsies hadn’t gone terribly far from the castle, she thought. Why had Diego not reported finding them?
Puzzled, she rode on toward the camp, though she still had not spotted the runaway princess. Giulietta might be in one of the wagons or even wearing a disguise, she thought. It was hard to tell from this distance. She needed a closer look. She urged her tiring horse into a canter and hastened to catch up with them. After all, the sun was now directly overhead: high noon.
The Gypsies eyed her warily as she rode into their camp and asked to see their leader.
“Who are you and what do you want?” A dashing, dark-eyed fellow swaggered forward, a veritable Gypsy prince.
He was dressed in a dark brocade vest over a loose white shirt, with black trousers and boots. His long, raven hair was messily braided in a queue, tied with a red ribbon. Which Minerva instantly recognized as belonging to Giulietta. Well, well.
“I am looking for a lady who I have reason to believe has recently been traveling with you, sir.”
“Ah, she wants the troublemaker.”
They all started laughing.
“At least you’re prettier than the last bunch who came looking for her.”
Minerva considered the ribbon in his hair and understood. “She got you to lie to them for her, didn’t she?”
“Forgive me if I am not an upstanding citizen. I don’t like being told what to do. Not by soldiers to whom I owe no allegiance . . . and not by a fair-faced brat, either.”
“I understand, believe me. I’m here to take her off your hands.”
He lifted his chin. “And you are?”
“Her best friend. Please, it’s very important. Do you have her or not?”
“Who is she?” he evaded. “She certainly seems to think she’s someone of consequence.”
“You might say that. Suffice to say she’s a runaway who left disaster in her wake. It’s time for her to go back and face the music, or there will be far-reaching consequences for us all. Please tell me she is safe!”
“More or less. She isn’t here,” he finally admitted.
Minerva gasped. “Did something happen? Was she hurt?”
“Just her pride,” he drawled. Then he gestured toward the hills. “I ordered her out of my camp about an hour ago. We left her by herself back by the caves to the west.”
“By herself?”
He scowled. “I couldn’t take her tantrums and demands anymore! But of course, I don’t wish any harm to befall the chit. She does seem fairly helpless. You’d better go and find her.”
“Thank you.”
The flamboyant but slightly ragtag leader gave her a bow.
Minerva wheeled her horse around and rode off for rugged higher ground, where caves honeycombed the mountain. Blazes, there were too many of these caves to search. She’d never find her. She debated on whether to try calling for her, because if the princess saw her coming, she might decide to hide. Cantering her horse past more caves, peering into each one, she suddenly heard a familiar voice call to her.
“Minerva!”
She reined in and glanced back over her shoulder. Relief washed through her—and a degree of amusement.
There was the glamorous Giulietta—bedraggled, her silk finery smudged with dirt, her famously beautiful eyes full of misery. Minerva noted the princess had also done away with her veil. As Minerva began riding toward her, Giulietta burst into tears.
“Oh, thank the gods you’ve come! I’ve been so wretched—and I’m starving! Please tell me you’ve brought me something to eat.”
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” Minerva jumped off the horse. “That you’re hungry?”
“Well, I am,” she said with a pout and a wide-eyed blink, having learned absolutely nothing from her ordeal, it seemed.
Minerva’s hands fisted by her sides. “Do you have any idea what you have done?”
“I couldn’t go through wi
th it! I’m sorry! But he’s too much of a brute!”
“No, he’s not! You didn’t even give him a chance! You don’t know him.”
“And you do?”
Minerva glared at her. “I married him for you. No, not for you,” she corrected herself. “For our country.”
“What?”
“I tried to save the situation, but now everything’s gone to the devil and you’re the only one who can fix it. You have to come back, Giulietta, you have to. And if you don’t agree, by the gods, I will tie you up and drag you from the back of the horse!” she thundered, reaching for the silk streamer to make good on her threat.
“Minerva, you’ve gone mad!”
“Yes, I have! And who could blame me? As if you’re not enough of a pain in the neck, your brother went and ruined everything! Now he and my husband are going to duel to the death unless you come back and take responsibility for your actions! You have no idea the trouble you’ve left in your wake.”
Giulietta frowned. No doubt, she didn’t want to hear this, but Minerva’s tone conveyed the seriousness of the situation.
“Please, Giulietta. If ever there was a time to act like a true princess, that time is now. You have a duty to your people.”
She winced, eyeing Minerva uncertainly. “What would you have me do?”
“Go back and apologize. Let your brother see that the Rydalburgers have not treacherously murdered you, because that’s what he’s accusing. Then fall to your knees before Prince Tor and beg him to let you carry out the terms of the treaty even now, and pray your beauty has the usual effect.”
“What about you?”
Minerva was silent for a moment. “I am probably going to prison.”
Giulietta trembled visibly and looked like she might faint. “I’ve caused all this?”
“Yes.”
“Minerva, I never meant for any of this to happen—”
“You never do. There’s no time. Come now and make it right.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Very well. There is nothing else for me out here, anyway.” She cast a wistful glance back in the direction of the Gypsy prince’s camp. Then she got up on the horse behind Minerva, and both girls rode back to Rydalburg Castle with all due haste.
Royal Bridesmaids Page 11
