“Who are you?” a harsh male voice demanded. The guard who’d come after her? In spite of the darkness of the evening, she was nearly certain it was Linus. The handsome guard’s chivalrous actions the day before—opening doors for her, pulling out her chair, bringing her anything she wanted before she had to ask for it—had left her feeling uncertain of precisely where she stood with him. To her understanding, his gracious behavior was simply part of his job. But at the same time, she wasn’t used to it, and had escaped for her evening run alone in part to distance herself from his unfamiliar courtesies.
Now Linus’s chivalry had him struggling with her attacker, demanding to know the man’s identity and intent.
The masked man didn’t answer, but pulled back far enough to throw a punch, sending a stinging blow across her rescuer’s face before darting away into the shadows of the craggy cliffs.
Rather than chase after him, Linus spun toward her, the concern on his features only easing slightly when he spotted her.
He ran from the shadows toward her, and for the first time she got a look at his face, certain now of his identity.
Linus. The man had a great smile, but right now his lip was bleeding from his fight with her captor, and his expression was one of concern.
“Are you okay?” He bent down beside her.
Julia pointed up the cliffs. “He’s getting away.”
“I called for reinforcements. They’ll catch him. I can’t leave you alone.”
Julia had hold of her bloodied shin. Already a bruise was starting to swell above her short socks.
Linus carefully lifted the injured limb. His touch was gentle, his fingers calloused and comforting as he inspected her injury in the waning light.
“I kicked the cliffs while I was fighting to get away.” Something halfway between a sob and a laugh came from her lips. “I hurt myself more than I hurt him.” Her words were buried under an overwhelming urge to cry. She’d come to Lydia to support her sister, who seemed weighed down by the stress of her new role as queen. How would Monica feel once she found out what had happened?
Julia wondered if she’d been wrong to come to Lydia after all. She’d been unnerved by strange occurrences over the past few weeks. And with her sister in need of a familiar face around the palace, the trip had seemed like a perfect excuse to leave her troubles behind her.
What had happened? Her attack couldn’t be related to her troubles back in Seattle. It just couldn’t. That would mean whoever had tried to hurt her had followed her halfway around the world.
Nobody was that crazy.
Were they?
The man had said he wanted a file. The request fit too closely with the events back home, and yet...which file did he want? And why? What could possibly be so important?
Linus spoke into his earpiece. He quickly relayed what had happened, giving his fellow guards their location and instructing them to try to find her attacker among the cliffs, or on Seaview Drive, the highway that followed the Lydian coast.
Then he returned his attention to her. “Can you walk on it?” Linus bent one gentle arm around her torso as if to help her up.
Fighting back tears, Julia realized there wasn’t time to cry. What if whoever had attacked her came back before Linus’s fellow guards arrived? What if the brute wasn’t alone? Were there other men lurking among the bluffs? She shivered as she tried to stand.
With a tentative hand she reached for the guard. His arms were very muscular, the sweat already drying from the breeze off the sea. She placed her hand on his forearm and felt her heart lurch. What did it mean? There wasn’t time to consider it. Leaning heavily on Linus, she hoisted herself onto her good foot and tested her injured limb.
“Ow.” She winced as her toes touched the sand.
“I need to get you out of here,” Linus cautioned her softly. “Can I carry you?”
“You can try.” She started to protest that she wasn’t as light as she looked, but before she could speak Linus scooped her up, cradling her in his arms as though she didn’t weigh a thing. He turned and trotted down the beach, moving as quickly as she had while jogging.
Tears leaked down her cheeks in spite of her efforts to restrain them. Her ankle throbbed. Somewhere in the craggy cliffs behind them, her attacker was probably escaping.
“Do you have a flashlight?” Julia sniffled back her tears.
“Not on me. Sorry.”
“Shouldn’t we try to find that guy before he gets away?”
“No. We could be outnumbered. That man was a trained fighter.”
The sobs she’d been biting back rippled convulsively through her. Why had a trained fighter attacked her on Lydia’s peaceful beach? She slumped against Linus’s shoulder, grateful he’d intervened.
“I called my fellow royal guards,” Linus assured her, still running. “They’ll look for him.”
“He’ll be long gone.”
“Good. Maybe he won’t ever come back.”
Julia wanted to believe the guard’s assessment. The attack had to have been a fluke, a freak coincidence after the incidents back home. The guy was probably some random weirdo. Surely Linus had chased him away for good.
Right? Just some random weirdo who happened to be a trained fighter.
Who’d jumped out of nowhere when she was the only person around, and asked her for a file, mere weeks after someone had broken into the files in her office.
A random coincidence?
Julia heard a low, pain-filled moan and realized it came from her own lips. She’d come to Lydia to support her sister. But what if she’d brought more trouble to the kingdom of Lydia?
Linus paused at a bench. He lowered her onto the seat as he spoke into his earpiece. “I’m returning Miss Miller to the palace.”
After another brief exchange, he assured her, “Guards are scouring the bluffs.”
“They haven’t found the guy who attacked me?”
“They’re looking for him.” He shook his head apologetically. “It’s dark. Those cliffs have a lot of places where a person can hide. Seaview Drive connects to a number of spur roads into the mountains, besides leading to the border. He could be hiding anywhere.”
Julia nodded and tried not to let her terror show. Her attacker hadn’t been caught after all. He’d gotten away and could return again. Julia shivered, not because of the temperature, but at the thought of her attacker on the loose, somewhere in the vicinity, possibly even watching them from a distance right now. Unable to bear any weight on her bruised ankle, she leaned on Linus and looked past him to the darkness beyond. The sun had set and the first stars twinkled down on them.
The beach looked serene, even in darkness.
But the deceptive darkness hid someone who wanted to hurt her.
TWO
Linus stood panting next to the bench and studied the duchess. A dozen different thoughts warred for attention inside his head, not least among them his concern for Julia’s immediate safety. Where had her attacker gone? Had he been acting alone? Between the darkness and the craggy bluffs, the man could be anywhere.
Why had the duchess been attacked? If the man had meant her immediate harm, he could have knocked her off and run away before Linus could have caught up to him. No, it seemed the man wanted to kidnap her or at least drag her out of sight before enacting his plans.
Linus felt his stomach roil with revulsion. He didn’t want to imagine what the assailant’s plans had been. From what he had observed of her, Julia Miller was a delightful, caring young woman. She hadn’t done anything to provoke the attack. Even now, with her face streaked with sand and sweat and her hair ruffled from its ponytail, she looked sweet. Innocent. Pretty.
He put those thoughts out of mind. He shouldn’t think about how the duchess looked, and he could grill her on possible the
ories later. Right now, he needed to focus on her well-being. That meant calming her fears and determining whether the injury on her leg warranted a trip to the hospital. And he needed to figure out how to get her off the beach. After chasing her all the way from the palace, fighting off her attacker and then carrying her back through the shifting sand, he was beat. He wasn’t sure he could carry her all the way to the hospital, or even to the palace. But he was reluctant to pull any men off the search for her assailant just to fetch them a car.
On top of all that, Linus couldn’t shake the question of why the duchess had deliberately run off without him in the first place. Sure, she’d probably underestimated the risk and just wanted a moment to herself. But she could have explained as much to him and he’d have worked something out so that she could have some space and still be safe.
Didn’t she trust him?
Or was she running from him?
The thought clamped around his lungs with cold fingers and he stopped panting. During their interactions over the past two days, he’d felt an odd frisson, of attraction or aversion, he couldn’t be sure which. But there was something there. He’d told himself not to worry about it, but if it was enough to send the duchess running from the palace without him, then he couldn’t ignore it any longer. It would have to be addressed.
Lowering himself onto the other end of the bench, he faced Julia.
In the light of the rising moon, he saw the glimmer of a streak of tears descending down each of her cheeks.
He swallowed. How was he supposed to raise the question that had suddenly become the foremost on his mind? If she really didn’t want him around, she certainly wouldn’t want to discuss it with him.
“Did I offend you?”
She startled and blinked up at him.
In his exhaustion, his voice had come out a good half octave lower than its usual bass. He probably sounded sinister. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “I’m sorry. You’re supposed to page me if you want to go out.”
“When I go out under guard it seems like such a fuss. I thought it would be easier this way.” The emotion behind her words strained her voice plaintively.
Linus almost felt guilty for pursuing her. But then, if he hadn’t arrived when he did, her attacker would have carried her off. Obviously she wasn’t going to share more of her feelings right now, and he needed to get her to a secure location. He switched topics. “How’s your leg? Do you need a hospital?”
“It’s just a surface injury. I can try walking.” She planted her feet on the ground and started to stand, then winced.
Linus scooted across the bench to her side, ready to help in whatever way he could, but unsure if she welcomed further contact with him. It would be easier if he didn’t find her so charming, if her predicament didn’t bring out every protective instinct inside him, even if he knew where he stood with her.
She rested one hand on his shoulder for just a moment before gulping a breath and letting go, trying again to stand on her own.
A whimper escaped her lips.
“You can lean on me,” he offered. They’d lingered too long. He had yet to hear a report of capture, and that wasn’t a good thing. They needed to get moving. If Julia’s attacker decided to circle around to strike again, he could have easily caught up to them by now, even going out of his way. For all they knew, the man might have accomplices.
“You’re exhausted.” She met his eyes. Tears still pooled among her lashes.
Linus refused to think about how pretty she looked. “Let me help you. If I need to, I will carry you all the way to the hospital.”
Her face puckered and she looked as if she was about to cry. “You don’t need to do that. I can walk.” She straightened and forced herself to take a step.
Her injured leg gave way beneath her.
Linus got under her arm in time to prop her up. The woman was too independent for her own good. For her safety, he had to get her off the beach quickly.
Even if it made her cry.
“Come on. Lean on me.”
“I hate to be a burden.”
“It’s that or I carry you.” To his relief, she relented to leaning heavily against him, half hopping as they made their way toward the boardwalk that led to the marina. From there, they could connect with the sidewalk along the main boulevard.
They made it a few more steps before the duchess sniffled.
“Are we hurting your leg? We can stop.”
“My leg is fine.” Her words came out in a strained whisper.
The shock of her attack was taking its toll on her. And her leg wasn’t fine—he could feel her shudder in pain with every step she took.
“Please let me carry you again,” he requested, unwilling to pluck her up against her will, especially after the way her attacker had manhandled her. He’d only provoke more tears that way. “I’ll get you back to your sister.”
“No!”
Her sudden insistence surprised him, and he stopped walking long enough to look her full in the face. “Your sister, Queen Monica—”
“Don’t tell Monica what happened.”
“She’ll have to know.”
“Please.” Julia’s grip tightened around his waist, and her free hand clutched his wrist. “She’s been through too much lately. She looked so tired today. I don’t want her to worry.”
“The royal guard was dispatched to look for your attacker. Your leg is injured.”
The duchess sucked in a trembling breath. Given his proximity propping her up, Linus felt it ripple through her. She clearly felt strongly about the issue. “Don’t let on to Monica that anything’s happened just yet. There has to be some way around it. I came to Lydia to support her, not to give her more to worry about. We can’t put any more stress on her. She already looks so haggard.”
Linus saw the queen on a regular basis, and while he wouldn’t have chosen the word haggard to describe either of the lovely Miller sisters, he had to acknowledge that Queen Monica hadn’t been her usual radiant self for the past few weeks. “What’s been upsetting her? Her kidnapping was over two months ago. Is it post-traumatic stress?”
“I don’t know.” Julia let out a long breath. She sounded relieved that Linus was taking her request seriously. “But I’ve never seen her look this way and it worries me. She’s had so many sudden changes—not just the kidnapping and fighting to get her son back—but becoming queen, moving halfway around the world. I thought my visit would give me a chance to help her work through all she’s been through, but if she hears what happened tonight it will only make it worse.”
The duchess had a point. Linus couldn’t deny it. He didn’t want to upset the queen further—part of his mission as a member of the royal guard was to protect the royal family, not just physically, but from all harm.
That meant worry and stress, as well. It was the job of the royal guard to worry about safety so that the members of the royal family could focus on their duties without fear. If the queen’s haggard appearance came from feeling unsafe, that meant the guards weren’t doing their jobs. Linus took that personally.
“Okay,” he relented, “I’ll see what I can do for tonight at least. Right now we’ve got to get you back to safety. We’ve wasted too much time. Can I carry you?” He’d rested enough with all their talking that he figured he could handle the exertion again.
Julia looked up at him with her warm brown eyes, and Linus felt that underlying current he’d sensed before, an emotional charge he couldn’t yet identify. Did she suspect that he felt a sense of attraction to her? He had no intention of acting on it, but perhaps she didn’t realize that. Or had he offended her in some way? That might explain why she’d run off without a guard.
She still leaned slightly on his arm, unable to put any weight on her injured leg. As Linus adjusted his arm to better suppor
t her, he couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking.
* * *
The guard had been more than patient with her. Julia realized that. He was also trying his best to be appropriate and respectful, in spite of the circumstances. Instead of hoisting her over his shoulder and trundling her off to the palace, he’d patiently listened to her fears, and even agreed to try not to say anything to Monica yet.
For that, Julia knew she was indebted to him.
On top of that, the man had taken quite a bashing in his fight with her attacker. A trickle of blood leaked from his left eyebrow—that would be a black eye by morning—and his lower lip looked puffy. She examined it in the moonlight perhaps a few seconds too long before she turned her gaze away.
Linus had taken quite a beating on her behalf.
It wouldn’t be fair to cause any more trouble. The way he spoke of safety and the need to return her promptly to the palace, she knew he feared what could happen if they lingered near the beach any longer. And in spite of her best efforts, Julia’s hobbling was painfully slow. So even though she hated being a burden, Julia agreed to let him carry her again.
He cradled her head against his shoulder as he made his way uphill from the beach to the palace. It was a steep climb, enough to make anyone feel winded, even if they weren’t carrying a cumbersome load.
“Is there anything I can do to make it easier?” Julia asked, still feeling guilty after all Linus had done for her.
“If you could relax,” Linus strained, “that would help. When you sit so stiff—” he sucked in two more breaths and glanced around, his dark eyes narrowed as he scanned the storefronts and alleyways “—it makes it harder to carry you.”
“Oh.” Julia hadn’t thought of that. She wasn’t used to being carried and realized she’d been straining ever-so-slightly as though to keep a small distance between them.
It was foolish to resist leaning on him. She was only making things more difficult for him. Reluctantly, she pressed her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes to the embarrassment she felt. She could feel the surging beat of his heart as he strained to move her uphill as quickly as possible. She let out an anxious breath and focused on breathing in slowly.
Defending the Duchess Page 2
