The Runaway Princess

by Patricia Forsythe

  “But she’s not coming,” Alexis interrupted, blinking those big green eyes at him.

  Gil and Rocky turned and stared at him as if he’d suddenly begun singing soprano. He ignored them.

  “Not coming?”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you last night. You see, Rachel and I are old friends, college roommates, in fact. On her way here, she came to visit me at the pal…place…at my place, and said she had this job, but was going to have to call and resign from her contract, so I came instead.”

  Jace stared at her for a long moment, trying and failing to take this in. He leaned forward on one elbow and stared at her. In a dead-level voice he said, “She signed a contract. When a person signs a contract, they’re supposed to fulfill it, at least that’s the way the rest of the world does it.”

  “Uh, yes.” A nervous smile fluttered across those full lips. “And she feels really terrible about not being able to fulfill it, but something…came up. Something very important, and she can’t come. I have a letter from her, though,” Alexis added eagerly. “We thought it would get here faster if I brought it rather than depending on the postal system. I’ll go get it.”

  She scooted back in preparation for a dash to her room. As soon as she moved, Gil and Rocky were on their feet to assist her. Another scuffle ensued while they fought over her chair. The tenuous hold Jace had on his temper snapped like a stretched elastic band.

  “Will you two please eat your breakfast and get out of here?” Jace roared. “You’re so jumpy you’d make a snail nervous.” They gaped at him and bounced back into their chairs. “Miss Chastain, why don’t you just tell me why she didn’t come, what came up that was so important?”

  Alexis met his gaze, which was beginning to look mighty scary. This was what she’d been afraid of. Oh, he looked big and intimidating and very, very businesslike this morning. It didn’t help that he also looked virile and manly, and slightly disreputable with a day’s growth of beard shadowing his jaw.

  It would have been so much easier if Rachel had handled this in a professional manner, calling and talking to Jace in person, but she’d been afraid of a lawsuit, of being talked into coming here when her heart had been somewhere else, that she’d ducked her responsibility. So Alexis was covering for her. It wasn’t the first time she’d done it. Covering up for people was an old habit of hers because she hated to see her loved ones hurt. Besides, Rachel was a rare commodity, a true friend who’d never spilled anything about Alexis or her family to a tabloid.

  She drew in a deep breath and looked at the hard, curious face of the man sitting across the breakfast table from her. She had to tell him the truth about Rachel.

  She glanced around the kitchen, at Gil and Rocky, and then back at him. Nope. No way out of it. Finally, she picked up her cup and mumbled something into it.

  “What? She what someone?”

  Alexis took a sip of coffee, cleared her throat, then beamed a high-voltage smile at him. “She met someone.”

  “Someone? You mean a man?”

  “Oh, not just any man. Her soul mate.”

  “Soul mate.” The two words dropped into the atmosphere like stones thumping into mud.

  “At least that’s what she said. It was love at first sight. She couldn’t leave him.” Boy, oh boy did that sound lame, and unprofessional, and well, a little stupid. Alexis sighed. “It’s not as bad as it sounds….”

  “She’s not here to fulfill her teaching contract because she met her soul mate and she can’t leave his side. Does that about cover it?” he asked testily.

  Alexis attempted a smile. “Well, it sounded a little more romantic when she said it.”

  He glowered at her.

  She started to her feet once again. “I’ll go get the letter and you can read…”

  “Sit down,” he growled.

  She plopped back into her chair.

  Gil—at least she was pretty sure it was Gil—dragged his gaze away from her face long enough to ask, “What difference does it make, Jace, as long as we have a qualified teacher to teach the kids?”

  “Yeah,” Rocky agreed. “Miss Chastain here is obviously well-qualified.”

  Jace raised a brow at him. Rocky’s eyes were glued on a part of her anatomy that had nothing whatsoever to do with her teaching ability. Blushing, Alexis crossed her arms over her chest.

  Leaning forward, Jace said, “Why don’t you two go out and get to work? I need to talk to her alone.”

  Alexis saw the twins look at their boss as if he’d suggested they hop in the truck and run over their favorite pet. Jace jerked his head toward the barn.

  Grumbling, his two men cleared their places, took their dishes to the sink, and then trooped out glumly, but over his shoulder, Gil said, “Just don’t do anything stupid.”

  When they were gone, Jace said, “What I don’t like here is the unprofessional way this has been handled, and the fact that I feel that I, and the other members of the school board, are being manipulated.”

  “Um yes, I understand that.” What could she say? That she had jumped at the chance offered by her old roommate because she wanted to get away from home? No, that would really make her sound desperate. And she certainly couldn’t tell him that “home” was a two-hundred room palace situated in one of the most beautiful valleys in Europe.

  “Well, then you understand that you have to leave?”

  She blinked at him. “No, I mean I understand how you might feel manipulated.” Quickly, she leaned forward and placed her hands on the tabletop, palms up in a pleading gesture. “I truly am a qualified teacher. I’m certified by the state of Arizona, I’ve done my student teaching. I can do this job.”

  He lifted a thick, dark eyebrow at her as he shook his head. “No, this won’t work.”

  “School starts in less than two weeks,” she said desperately. “Where are you going to find someone else at the last minute? I’m here. I’m available. I want to do the job. Please let me stay.”

  She had made her plea too heartfelt. Now he was staring at her with open curiosity. “Why do you want it so badly?”

  She paused as her mind scrambled for an answer. Anxious perspiration popped out on her top lip. “Why?” she stalled, giving him her most guileless look.

  He crossed his arms on the tabletop and stared at her. “That’s right. Why? If you’re so qualified, why do you want to work here? And on a job that will only last one semester?”

  Because things will have cooled down at home in four months. Her father would have a new project going and would have the let’s-marry-off-Alexis light out of his eyes. And because Alexis would be at least partly over her anger and disappointment with her father. While Prince Michael had been wrangling with his national council, revising the constitution of Inbourg, she had stayed quietly at home as he had requested, supporting him, helping run the household and taking care of her nephew Jean Louis while Anya and Deirdre had been Prince Michael’s ambassadors to the country and to the world.

  She didn’t do any of the things she had planned like living on her own and working on her master’s degree in education so she could help bring the schools of Inbourg up to a higher standard. As soon as the constitution was rewritten and approved, her father had turned his attention to her and begun making sweeping statements about it being time for her to marry. She was the steady, sensible one who wouldn’t make a foolish marriage as Anya had done with her race car driver, nor would she be a flirt like Deirdre. She knew her father loved her, but she also knew he didn’t see her as the professional she wanted to be.

  “Did you forget the question?” Jace asked, bringing her attention back to him.

  “While it’s true that Rachel and I have gone about this job switch in a somewhat…” She flashed him a glance. “…unconventional way, you have nothing to worry about.”

  Jace raised an eyebrow at her again. He was really very good at that, she thought nervously. He could exhibit rank skepticism with the twitch of a few muscles. />
  “Unconventional?” he asked.

  Realizing she wasn’t getting anywhere with this tactic, Alexis said, “I want to work here because I need the experience,” she said honestly. “It’s a job I’m qualified for.” She stood. “I’ll get Rachel’s letter and my references as well as a copy of my state certification. You can judge for yourself.”

  She sped to her room, grabbed her papers and was back in a flash. Somewhat breathlessly, she handed them to him and while he read them, she hung over his shoulder anxiously. “Rachel’s letter explains everything. She says how sorry she is, and that she knows me and my qualifications, and…”

  “I can read it for myself,” Jace grumbled, giving her a steady look that had her backing off.

  Chastened, she sat down and ate a few more bites of her breakfast and had a couple of sips of coffee. For the first time since the meal began, she paid real attention to the food. The bacon was perfectly cooked and, before they’d grown cold on her plate, the scrambled eggs had been moist and fluffy. Had Jace prepared this meal?

  She glanced up to see the way he was examining Rachel’s letter of resignation. His angular face was lined in a mighty frown. In the long, third floor gallery of her family’s palace there was a painting of an ancestor who’d been rumored to put to death those who disappointed him. Right now, Jace’s face looked a great deal like that painting.

  He put down the letter and picked up the folder with Alexis’s certificate and letters of reference. She bounced up and hurried around the table to hover at his shoulder once again.

  In a hearty voice, she said, “See? I’m fully qualified.” She pointed to the date on her certificate. “For at least the next seven years.”

  Jace answered with a grunting sound and picked up one of the letters.

  “And see?” She crowded him as she pressed forward over his shoulder. “This says that I have specialized training in diagnosing and solving reading difficulties.”

  He gave her another one of those “back-off” looks and asked, “Do you have any training in washing dishes?”

  Alexis stared blankly into his deep brown eyes for a few seconds, then looked at the dirty plates and cups on the table. She straightened immediately. “Oh, of course. Um, you’d like to read these things without me chattering away at you, wouldn’t you?”

  “Yes.” He stood and gathered them up. “And I need to talk to the other members of the school board.”

  Hope flooded her face and joy sparkled in her eyes. “You mean there’s a chance you’ll change your mind and let me stay?”

  “I mean I’ll talk to the other members of the school board.”

  She would have to be satisfied with that, so she swallowed the little lump of disappointment and gave him a bright smile as she held up her hands, palms outward, “Fine. Fine. Go right ahead.”

  “I intend to.” He turned away. “I’ll be in my office.”

  Before he left the kitchen, Alexis took a quick look around. “Um, where’s the dishwasher?”

  For the first time, she saw a hint of amusement in his face. His craggy features rearranged themselves into what must pass for a smile. Taking a step back to her, he reached out and lifted her hand by the wrist. He held it in front of her face and said, “You’re looking at it, kid.”

  She started at the hard warmth of his touch and her gaze flew to meet his. Wide-eyed, she stared at him. Why had he done that?

  The flash of humor she’d seen vanished. Jace looked into her eyes as if he was asking himself the same question. Hastily, he dropped her hand and turned to stride from the kitchen. “I have to make some phone calls.”

  When he was gone, Alexis stared blindly around the room, then moved to clear the table. Why had he touched her? She found it vaguely disturbing. It made her think of him as someone other than a boss, someone she had to convince to let her stay. His touch made her think of him as a man.

  Silly, she thought. She was overreacting, that was all. Just fearful that he wouldn’t let her stay. Pushing her disturbing thoughts away, she began clearing the table.

  “Jace, I think you’re overreacting,” Martha Singleton told him in a flat tone.

  “You do?” Jace sat with his elbows propped on the desk as he talked to the woman who was the regular teacher of Sleepy River Community School—on the years she wasn’t having a baby.

  “Yes. First of all, where are we going to find someone at this late date? If the one we hired didn’t show up and another, qualified teacher did, I don’t see that we have anything to worry about. Check her references. If they’re okay, she’s okay. Believe me when I say qualified teachers willing to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in the mountains for the amount of money we can pay aren’t exactly thick on the ground.”

  Jace scratched his chin. “I guess you’re right,” he said in a reluctant drawl. He paused and he could feel Martha waiting for him to go on. In the background, he could hear her three-week-old son fussing, wanting his mother’s attention.

  “So, what is the problem, then?” she asked.

  Jace knew she was too polite to say so, but he was wasting her time. “No problem,” he said, with more decisiveness than he felt. “I’ll check her references. Sounds like you need to get back to that baby of yours.”

  “Demanding little stinker,” she said fondly. “Tell you what, if her references check out okay, but you’re still worried, I can go watch her teach. If she’s totally incompetent, we don’t have to keep her.”

  It was a slim thread, but Jace grasped it gratefully. “Sure, Martha. That sounds good. We don’t want a teacher who’s incompetent.”

  Only he had a feeling Alexis wasn’t incompetent. Jace hung up the phone and gloomily stared out the window in the direction of the schoolhouse.

  In spite of her tendency to run into walls, back into mailbox posts and set fires, there was something about her that seemed capable of handling anything, even the challenges of their local school.

  Admit it, sucker, he thought. It wasn’t her capabilities that worried him. It was her presence, the way she had looked at him a little while ago as if she’d never seen anything like him. No doubt, she hadn’t. To him, she appeared to be accustomed to much more sophisticated surroundings than Sleepy River, Arizona.

  She disturbed him, had done so since the moment he’d looked into those eyes of hers. Touching her hand had rocked him back on his heels.

  He was reluctant to have her around, but as Martha had said, where were they going to find someone else at this late date? Grumbling, he reached for the phone to contact her references.

  Why did it have to be Alexis Chastain, though?

  Chapter Three

  “Okay, the job’s yours,” Jace said abruptly half an hour later.

  Alexis started and turned from the sink where she’d been rinsing the dishcloth after wiping down the counter for the sixth time. She’d had to fight the temptation to listen at the door of his office. In fact, she’d begun tiptoeing in that direction, but a squeaking floorboard in the dining room had announced itself loudly and sent her scurrying back to the kitchen.

  Resigned to wait, she had instead done the washing up, wiped the table and the counter and swept the floor. Her sisters, and most of the people employed at the palace, would have howled with laughter at the sight. Bevins, the palace manager, who’d been an English butler in another life, would have been appalled. Esther, her lady-in-waiting, would have called for smelling salts.

  “I do?” she asked with a delighted grin.

  “Looks like it,” he responded with a shrug.

  “Thank you. That’s wonderful. I’m so glad.” Alexis stepped forward excitedly and reached out to shake his hand. She’d forgotten to put down the dishcloth, though, so he got a fistful of wet rag. He grimaced and her face flushed scarlet.

  “Oh! I’m sorry,” she cried, turning away to throw it into the sink. They both wiped damp hands on their jeans while she gave him an apologetic look.

  “As I was saying,” Jace nodde
d toward the papers he’d laid on the edge of the table. “Your references checked out, though a couple of them seemed to think it was pretty funny to hear you wanted a job here.”

  Nervousness fluttered in her stomach. Alexis folded her hands and gave him a cautious look. “They did?”

  “Especially one of your professors who said he thought you were in Europe.” He gave her a sharply inquisitive look as he raised a dark brow. Again he reminded her of that painting in the palace’s long gallery. It took her a second, but she finally recalled that ancestor’s name. Hedrick. They’d called him Hedrick the Henchman.

  Her gaze skittered away from Jace’s. If she remembered correctly, Hedrick had been fond of the technology of the time, most significantly, anything to do with the latest thing in torture devices.

  “Were you?”

  She blinked at him. “Was I what?”

  “In Europe.”

  “Oh, that. Yes. Yes, I was. Family business.”

  He gave her another measured look. “Exactly what kind of business is your family in?”

  Alexis’s smile froze. Her mind scrambled over scenes of the past months; her father working with the national council late into the night, her sisters making endless rounds of social gatherings to convince the people of their tiny country that the changes Prince Michael wanted would be the best for everyone. Alexis, herself, shunning the spotlight and staying behind to watch out for young Jean Louis, her nephew, eventual heir to the throne, and an unrepentant con artist and charmer who was able to convince everyone in the palace from his nanny to the guards at the front gates that it was perfectly acceptable behavior for a six-year-old to attempt to hang by his shoe tips from an upstairs window so he could “see everything upside down.”

  “Alexis?” Jace prompted.

  She glanced up. “Public relations…” she blurted. “…and government work. I chose to take a leave from the family business and pursue my real interest, which is teaching.” Inwardly, she winced at the half truth. Her “leave” had actually been a bit less forthright than that since she had told her father she was going to a spa in Arizona for an extended stay.