12 Stocking Stuffers

by Beverly Barton

  When she asked if they’d seen Sonia, they said no but offered to help in the search. It was agreed they would start with the staircase to see if by any chance Sonia was playing there with Thor.

  The second the elevator arrived at the main floor, Kristin flew out the doors and proceeded to collide with a rock-solid male body.

  “Eric—” she gasped.

  He clutched her to him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Sonia and Thor are missing. When I woke up, they were gone—” she cried out in agony. “The concierge has notified the police, but I thought, I prayed, they were with you.”

  He held her tighter. “No. I’ve just arrived. We’ll find her. I swear to you we’ll find her.” His voice shook with barely restrained emotion.

  She leaned her head back so she could look into his eyes. “Do you promise?”

  His dark brown gaze pierced through to her soul. “Yes. I’m a prince. When I make a promise, you can believe it. Those were your words to Sonia last night. Remember?”

  Kristin fought not to break down. “I do.”

  “Wherever she is, Thor will protect her with his life.” He reached for his cell phone and made several calls. At this point the concierge rushed over to them.

  “We have staff and security searching every floor, every room, Your Highness. So far we haven’t found her.” The bad news brought a moan to Kristin’s lips. As Eric slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against him, the police arrived.

  Eric rapped out orders to the lieutenant to search every lane and street in Brobak, starting with Badeparken, which he explained to Kristin was the fjord-side park where he’d often walked Thor.

  “Come on.” He grasped her hand. “We’ll search the Bathavna area.”

  Kristin knew that was Brobak’s boat harbor. She hurried with him through the hotel to the rear entrance and climbed into the limo. By now the whole area swarmed with security and police. Eric gave his driver instructions and they drove off.

  She clung to his hand. “The sun won’t be up for several more hours. Anything could happen to her if someone hurt Thor and she’s wandering around alone.”

  “Shh.” Eric leaned over and silenced her with his lips. “We’ll find her.”

  “Oh, Eric—she’s so precious. If I lost her, I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “We’re not going to lose her. She has so much faith in Thor, she probably told him to take her for a walk.”

  “But he can’t open doors.”

  “He’s smart enough to lead her to one so she can open it herself. Those two have uncanny radar. It’s a gift we lose by the time we’re adults.”

  “We need it now,” she half sobbed the words. “What I don’t understand is how she knew where to find all her clothes? She didn’t see me hang up her parka. She had no idea where I put everything.”

  Eric hadn’t wanted to alarm Kristin, but he’d asked himself those same questions the second she’d collided with him in the foyer and had told him Sonia and Thor were missing.

  His instructions to his own security men had been to treat this as a kidnapping which would put the whole town on the highest alert. He phoned Eva and told her the police would be scouring the grounds and the road leading up from the town for any sign of Sonia and Thor.

  For the next two hours he and Kristin walked every square inch of the harbor area and marketplace, exhausting all possible areas where she might have gone with his dog.

  Kristin kept calling out to her niece in the darkness until she didn’t have a voice left. It ripped Eric’s gut apart to witness her pain. In truth, he’d never experienced this kind of agony before either.

  Little Sonia had stolen her way into his heart. The thought of anything happening to her terrified him, but he had to remain strong for Kristin. He’d made a promise to her, one he’d keep or die trying in the attempt.

  He’d already received phone calls from his sister and his brother who’d just heard the news from one of his bodyguards. Knute and their mother were on their way back from Germany to help in the search.

  Kristin vacillated whether to let her father know what was going on. But in the end she used the phone in the limo to call him and tell him Sonia and Thor were missing. Eric thought it was wise to alert him just in case she was found too late to make the flight home.

  His admiration for Kristin escalated when she remained calm while reassuring her father everything possible was being done to locate Sonia. “The Prince himself is helping me look for her, Dad, so don’t worry. We’re going to find her. Say a prayer for us.”

  Eric crushed her against his side, his emotions raw.

  Kristin finally hung up the phone. “Dad’s amazing. He says he knows we’ll find her. Oh, Eric—where do you think Sonia could be?”

  His mind had been replaying various conversations with her. “She was so fixated on my crown, maybe—”

  “Maybe in her child’s mind she met someone and asked them to drive her to Midgard—” Kristin blurted. “It’s worth looking into.”

  “I agree.” He got on the phone to security and told them to follow up on that lead. Then another idea came to him and he called Sofia at the palace.

  “Have you found her?” Knute’s wife cried.

  “Not yet.”

  “She’s an engaging child, Eric. Last night I really fell in love with her.”

  “Sonia has that effect on everyone. Do me a favor and put both boys on different extensions. I need to talk to them.”

  After a few seconds, “I’m here, Uncle Eric.” It was Knute’s voice.

  “So am I,” Jan piped up.

  Eric pushed the monitor button which acted like a microphone so Kristin could hear everything.

  “Listen, boys. This is vitally important. As you know, we can’t find Sonia or Thor. While you were playing with her last night, did she talk about something she wanted to see or do before she left Frijia? Think really hard before you answer.”

  Kristin clung to his arm while they both waited for a response.

  “We asked her if she wanted to play fort. She said she wanted to be the cowboys and we could be the Indians,” Jan explained.

  “Let me explain,” Knute cut in. “We told her it was a Frijian fort and we were fighting the enemy.”

  “Yeah,” Jan inserted. “She didn’t know we have forts too.”

  “I was talking, Jan,” Knute said. “I told her we needed to sink a big ship so we could escape with our country’s gold, she got really excited and said she didn’t want to be the enemy, but she wanted to be a Frijian too.”

  Eric’s eyes closed for a minute. “So what else did she say?”

  “She said she wished she could see that fort. I told her it was a museum now. She asked if people could visit it.”

  “We told her yes,” Jan finished the rest.

  “Eric—” Kristin clasped his arm tighter without being aware of it. “Maybe that’s where she went.”

  He hated to take away any hope from her, but Kristin didn’t realize Sonia would have to ride the ferry to reach it. Though there’d been a breakthrough last night about her guilt over the accident, that didn’t mean she’d ever be able to set foot on a boat again.

  “Can you think of anything else?”

  “No,” they both said at the same time.

  “Thank you, boys. Will you put your mother back on?”

  “Eric?” Sofia said. “I don’t recall any other conversation either.”

  “Thank you, Sofia. It’s been a great help. We’ll keep in close touch.”

  “Tell Ms. Remmen we’re all thinking of her and Sonia.”

  “I will.”

  One of the security men knocked on the door of the limo which was still parked at the harbor. He’d brought them coffee and rolls.

  Eric thanked him, then urged Kristin to eat with him. “We have to keep up our strength.”

  While he phoned the head of security to cover the car ferries and all of the area around Niflheim fortress on the
off chance Sonia might have asked someone to take her there, he watched in relief as Kristin ate a roll and drank her coffee.

  Only good news would do something about her pallor. Yet she was one of those women with a classic beauty that needed no artifice.

  Yesterday she’d caught her hair back. This morning the honey-blond silk tumbled about her shoulders in attractive disarray. Minus any lipstick, her light blue eyes sodden with pain, she looked almost ethereal in the semidarkness of the interior. He wanted to take that pain away.

  “Better?” he asked when they’d both finished the last of their coffee.

  “Much. Thank you.”

  “Are you ready for another trek around the village?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll stick to the smaller lanes where cars can’t go. Sonia may have fallen asleep somewhere and Thor’s keeping her warm.”

  Anything was better than sitting here waiting for the phone to ring. He didn’t want to entertain the possibility Sonia had been kidnapped. But the longer time passed without word of her, his fear foul play was involved grew greater.

  In the next half hour the sun had come up, but their search proved fruitless. They’d just reached the parked limo when Eric answered another call on his cell phone.

  “Did they find her?” Kristin cried.

  He clicked off. “No. We’re going back to the hotel. The police want you to help them choose some of Sonia’s belongings from the room. They’re going to make a door-to-door search with bloodhounds, hoping to pick up her trail.”

  “Dear God—to think it’s come to this—”

  Eric crushed her in his arms and held her for the short trip to the hotel. “We’ll find her, Kristin. You have to believe that.” He rained kisses in her hair.

  “I do. It’s just that Sonia might have been gone a long time. It’s always night to her. Who knows when she left the room.”

  The limo pulled up to the back entrance which had been cordoned off to everyone except the police. Eric grabbed Kristin’s hand and they rushed toward the door of the hotel.

  “Aunty Kristin!” a familiar little voice cried out.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  KRISTIN and Eric both spun around in time to see Thor and Sonia climb out the back of a medium-size van parked next to the building. It had the hotel’s logo painted on the side.

  The dog rushed to greet Eric joyously. Sonia was right behind him and ran into Kristin’s arms.

  “Thor and I have been waiting and waiting for you.”

  “Sonia!”

  Kristin swung her niece around and around, laughing and crying at the same time. “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in all my life.” Her gaze flew to Eric’s. His handsome face radiated joy and relief as great as hers.

  “To think she’s been here all the time,” he whispered against her ear before biting the lobe gently. Then he gave his attention to Sonia.

  “Where did you go, elskling?”

  “I wanted to see that lady before we went to the airport.”

  “What lady?”

  “The one that rows mommies cross the water cos they’re going to have a baby!”

  Eric burst into laughter and pulled her into his arms. “You mean Jacobine, the harbor mistress. It’s the statue on Hovedgata we passed just minutes ago,” he explained to Kristin.

  Dazed, she stared at him, then Sonia. “But how did you even know about it?”

  “That tour lady told us.”

  “You’re a very intelligent girl to remember something like that,” Eric exclaimed before giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Why didn’t you tell your aunt you were leaving the room with Thor?”

  “You were asleep, and Thor needed a drink. We went outside and I fed him some snow. Then we went to see the statue. We weren’t gone very long.”

  “Sweetheart—didn’t you know I would worry if I woke up and couldn’t find you?”

  “Yes, but we came back fast and then I couldn’t open the door. So we got in that car and I locked it so nobody could get in.”

  She pointed to the van. “It was cold in there, but Thor got on the floor with me and kept me warm.”

  Eric murmured, “The police must have assumed that if they couldn’t open the doors to the van, she couldn’t either, so they didn’t make a thorough search of it.”

  Kristin nodded. “Sonia? When you could hear people talking out here, why didn’t you ask one of them to let you in the hotel?”

  “Cos they were policemen. I was afraid they’d get mad at me.”

  “How did you know they were policemen?” When Kristin thought about it, she couldn’t understand how Sonia even knew the van was there to climb into.

  Eric slid his other arm around Kristin’s shoulders and pulled her close to him and Sonia. “You can see again, can’t you, elskling?”

  Sonia’s sparkling brown eyes smiled into Eric’s like a full-sighted person’s. “Yes.”

  With that revelation, Kristin reeled. “You can honestly see?”

  Her niece nodded, causing her disheveled brown curls to dance.

  “When did it happen?”

  “When I woke up. Thor was panting cos he was thirsty. I saw his big black head.”

  Eric roared with laughter. “Did you know the whole town has been looking for you?”

  “It has?”

  “You’re more famous than my brother.”

  “You mean Jan and Knute’s daddy?”

  “That’s right.”

  Sonia turned toward Kristin with a trembling lower lip. “The boys didn’t want me to leave. I wish we didn’t have to go home today.”

  “You can’t go home today,” the man kneading Kristin’s shoulder declared with a triumphant ring. “Your plane already took off. How would you and your aunt like to spend Christmas at my house?”

  “Oh—” Sonia made a sound of utter bliss. “Can we, Aunty Kristin? Please?”

  Two pairs of pleading brown eyes gazed soulfully at Kristin. Three if she counted Thor’s.

  “Please?” Eric whispered. “It’s one of the wishes I put on my list for Christmas.”

  Whether he’d made that up or not, right now the blessing of sight had returned to Sonia because of Eric’s inspiration, making it impossible for Kristin to think beyond this moment.

  She lifted tremulous eyes to him. “We’d love to spend today with you, but we’ll have to leave first thing in the morning.”

  “How come?” Sonia cried mournfully.

  Kristin reached for her niece, but she grabbed Eric around the neck and wouldn’t let go. “Because your grandpa’s still too sick to fly here. We wouldn’t want him to be all alone on Christmas, would we?”

  Sonia’s expression sobered. “No. He would cry.”

  “That’s right. So we’ll have to fly home tomorrow. But we’ve got today to enjoy ourselves.”

  One more day…

  Sonia patted Eric’s cheeks. “Can we go see your crown?”

  A chuckle escaped his lips. “I don’t see why not. While I stay here to talk to the police, why don’t you and your aunt go to your room and call your grandpa to tell him you’re safe. Then we’ll leave.”

  “Okay. Come with me, Thor.”

  As the dog trailed after her, Eric brushed his mouth against Kristin’s lips. “Hurry.”

  With her heart pounding out of control, Kristin rushed inside the hotel after Sonia. Since the moment she’d discovered Sonia was missing, Kristin had let her guard down with Eric. They’d both been emotionally upset which accounted for their familiarity with each other.

  But though she didn’t doubt his attraction to her was genuine, that’s all it was. An attraction that couldn’t possibly go anywhere.

  Eric had girlfriends, but Kristin couldn’t consider herself one of those.

  If her father hadn’t sent in Sonia’s picture for that contest—and if Princess Maren hadn’t been put on bed rest—Kristin would never have met Prince Eric.

  This whole chance experience had been a co
mplete fluke from start to finish.

  One day when he decided to marry, the woman he chose would have to be from a family of royal lineage like Sofia’s or Stein’s.

  For that reason, Kristin was doubly thankful she could use her father’s illness as an excuse to fly home in the morning. She needed to meet that deadline before she did something really stupid like believe that maybe Eric had fallen in love with her too and didn’t want her to leave.

  There’d be time enough when she returned to Chicago to wonder how she was going to exist for the rest of her life without him. She didn’t even want to think about Sonia’s reaction.

  “This church sure is big!”

  “It’s very old and beautiful,” Kristin said in a quieter voice, hoping Sonia would lower hers.

  Her niece walked between them holding their hands, still overly excited from flying on Eric’s small private jet where they’d eaten a fabulous brunch on board.

  But the whole time they were touring the medieval cathedral in Midgard, Kristin was aware that if Eric hadn’t granted his sister a favor yesterday, he would have flown Bea in that same jet to Kvitfjell today for some skiing and very probably a night of loving.

  “This is the room where they keep the crowns, elskling.”

  Kristin marveled to think they could view them in private behind the glass partition. Her eyes widened like Sonia’s when she saw the various crowns. They were fabulous.

  “Which is yours, Eric?”

  “Why don’t you guess?”

  Sonia walked back and forth. “This one.” She pointed to a tall jeweled masterpiece with gold bands and white stones leaping out against red velvet. On top was an amethyst cross.

  He grinned. “How did you know?”

  “Cos it looks the heaviest.”

  “Like I told you earlier today, you’re a very intelligent young lady.”

  His comment made her giggle. “Put it on.”

  Kristin sensed his hesitation. “Since we’re locked in this room, I will for you, but don’t tell anyone.”

  “I won’t.”

  “It will have to be our secret. Promise?”

  “I promise,” she said solemnly.

  He reached for it and lifted it on to his head. “How do I look?”