The Runaway Princess

by Patricia Forsythe

  “Like Gil and Rocky?” Alexis asked in a mild tone. She had heard about Jace’s overdeveloped sense of responsibility from Jace himself, but it was interesting to hear Luke’s views, as well.

  “Among others.” Luke grinned and drained his glass. He waved off her offer of more and set the glass on the railing by his hip.

  Alexis liked him. He was a tall, rangy cowboy, not as powerful in the arms and shoulders as Jace, but was whipcord lean instead. Beneath the brim of his recklessly tilted black cowboy hat, she could see that his hair was a dark auburn. Like Jace, he had a deep tan and lines raying out from the corners of his eyes. He was more easygoing, though, with a grin that came and went heart-stoppingly fast. He was a charmer, all right, and she could just imagine that somewhere in his past lurked a Mississippi riverboat gambler.

  She could tell that he liked Jace, and so she liked Luke right away.

  “Tell me about your nephew, Luke. Do you expect him to be arriving soon?”

  “Probably this week.” Luke launched into the odd history of his eight-year-old nephew’s life, his many changes of homes and schools as his mother took him from one part of the country to another, changing jobs, changing boyfriends, changing her mind.

  “Raina is…restless,” Luke concluded, and sadness filled his face.

  “It can be hard for kids when they have no say over what happens to them,” Alexis said sympathetically.

  “Or about who raises them,” Luke responded. “Like Jace,” he added, and Alexis caught a shrewd look in his eyes.

  She couldn’t resist the bait. “What about Jace?”

  She saw a quietly satisfied gleam in Luke’s eye as if she’d done something to please him. “His mother left these mountains when he was only ten. She couldn’t live with the isolation anymore so she moved to town. She tried to take Jace with her, but Jace’s dad wouldn’t let her. She only got him on weekends and holidays. It was an unusual arrangement for the time, but the judge was a crony of Tom McTaggart’s, so the old man got what he wanted.”

  But what had Jace wanted? she wondered. Sadly, Alexis formed a mental picture of Jace as a little boy, dark hair falling into brown eyes that watched the world cautiously.

  “It was rough on Jace,” Luke went on. “Being shuttled back and forth between his parents and raised mostly by his father wasn’t easy. He was a demanding perfectionist. He had to be right about everything. I think that’s one of the reasons Jace puts up with Gil and Rocky. They can’t do much, but he praises them like crazy for anything they can do. Then, when they screw up, he feels responsible.” Luke shook his head. “Funny guy.”

  Alexis had more questions about Jace, but Luke tilted his head suddenly and said, “Speak of the devil.”

  “What? Oh!” She looked across the school yard to see Jace emerge from the head of the path that led to his house. He was riding Hondo, who cantered easily across the ball field and came to a stop at Alexis’s porch.

  “Luke,” he said with a nod. “I didn’t know you’d still be here.”

  Luke chuckled. “Oh, I’ll just bet.”

  The tips of Jace’s ears took on a definitely pink hue that delighted Alexis. He ignored his friend and looked at her. “Thought I’d better check on your eye. Is it all right?”

  Automatically self-conscious, she lifted her hand to her eye, which Luke had been gentleman enough not to mention. The swelling had gone down and it looked better than it had that morning, but it was still sensitive. “It’s better. I’ve decided to use it as a creative writing exercise—‘How Miss Chastain Got Her Black Eye,’” she told them ruefully.

  “I want to read Billy’s story,” Luke said, pushing away from the porch railing. “It’s bound to be exciting.” He set his glass on the tray beside Alexis and said, “I’ll be going now. Expect my nephew in a week or so, Alexis. Thanks for the lemonade. See ya, Jace,” he said casually as he walked to his horse.

  As he mounted and rode away, Alexis looked expectantly at Jace. “Would you like some lemonade?” she asked, then felt foolish for some reason. She had been perfectly comfortable offering it to Luke, but with Jace, well, it somehow seemed as if she was begging him to stay.

  “Thanks,” he said easily, dismounting and leaving Hondo to graze on the grass that edged the porch. He climbed the steps, removing his hat and brushing it against his thigh to knock out the dust. He took Luke’s place on the porch railing while Alexis went inside for another glass. As she reached into the cabinet, it struck her that he was the most welcome guest she’d had in her little temporary home. She was delighted that he’d come to visit her, and to see about her black eye, even though she realized that he probably only saw her as another of his responsibilities.

  When she came out of the house, she saw his long-legged figure perched precariously on the railing and said, “I’m sorry there’s only one chair.”

  She didn’t offer it to him because she knew he was too much of a gentleman to accept.

  He lifted an eyebrow at her in a look that was both rueful and humored. “I’m the one who should be sorry,” he said. “We should have provided some porch furniture for you.”

  She smiled as she handed him his glass and seated herself. She stretched her legs out, reveling in the freedom and comfort she felt. “It doesn’t matter. I’m usually here alone.”

  He frowned and she swiftly added, “I’m not lonely, though. It’s nice being on my own.” If he only knew how nice.

  “This kind of quiet and solitude isn’t for everyone,” he said, looking around at the pine and aspen that edged the clearing.

  “But it’s right for you, isn’t it, Jace?”

  He turned his head and gave her a steady look. “It’s where I belong.”

  “The luckiest people in the world are the ones who learn early on exactly where it is that they belong,” she murmured.

  “Sounds like you’re quoting someone.”

  “My mother,” she admitted with a tremble of longing in her voice. She took a sip of lemonade to steady herself. “She died when I was fifteen.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “My mother is alive, but she lives in Tucson, so I don’t see her much. She’s not too crazy about these mountains.”

  Although she already knew that, Alexis hoped he would tell her more, but he fell into a reflective silence. “Then this wasn’t the place where she belonged.”

  “How about you?” he asked suddenly. He leaned forward and set his glass down. “Where do you belong?”

  Here, she almost said, then realized with a shock that it was true. Or, at least she wanted to belong here. She loved the quiet, the easy pace, the interesting, challenging work that was so much more to her liking than smiling her way through a reception for the ambassador from some country whose politics she abhorred.

  Her heart sank with the realization that she would be gone in only a matter of months, back to standing up to her father in the matter of a suitable marriage, to trying to fight the battle of better schools for Inbourg, to the life she had always known, and would always know. She looked down, sadly aware that there were certain duties she could never escape.

  Most of the time she didn’t resent the life that was ahead of her. She was proud of her family and her heritage, proud to be a member of a family that had ruled at least passably well for three hundred years. But there were times, like now, when she could have given it all up.

  It shook her to the core to contemplate the thoughts that were going through her head. There was no indication that Jace felt the same way about her, but she had the inevitable feeling that she was falling in love with him.

  Shakily, she set her glass down, rattling the ice cubes, sloshing the liquid over the rim and onto her hand.

  For days she had let her mind flirt with the idea of her attraction to Jace, but this was more than attraction she was feeling now—and it was completely inappropriate.

  In slow motion, she lifted her hand to lick off the tartly sweet drink.

  “Alexis?” Jace sa
id, and she lifted her stricken eyes to see that he was standing in front of her. She hadn’t even heard him move. “What’s wrong?”

  His rugged face was full of concern as he knelt down, his knees widespread, his backside resting on his heels. He looked at her for several long moments as if he was trying to see into her mind, then he reached out and grasped both of her hands.

  “What’s the matter, Alexis? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  Lips pressed together, she shook her head because she couldn’t speak without saying something foolish. The feel of his hands, big and callused, wrapped around hers was making her even more confused.

  Gently he pulled, scooting her forward from the chair, and into his arms. He sat, drawing her with him until he was sitting with his back against a wooden post.

  Surprised and elated, she went willingly, feeling his strength surround her.

  “I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said, his voice a low rumble in the quiet air.

  “You didn’t…I…” Alexis looked into his warm brown eyes and her heart jolted into a rapid beat. “I was just thinking that I wished I belonged here in Sleepy River.”

  She saw something flare in his eyes, but it was quickly damped down as if he intended to keep hope in check. “You don’t think this is the place for you?”

  She shook her head as her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t have the freedom to say that.”

  “What do you mean? It’s a free country. You can go wherever you want. Stay wherever you want.”

  Her lips trembled. “Some of us are more free than others.”

  “Alexis, I…” His words failed as he reached up and brushed away a tear that trailed down her cheek.

  Faced with this endearing uncertainty from such a strong man, Alexis felt something tremble and break inside her. She was dangerously close to falling in love with him. It was exhilarating and terrifying and she didn’t think she could tell him about it, but there it was.

  Acting on her feelings, she leaned forward, slipped her arms around his neck and did what she’d been wanting to do. She placed her lips on his and kissed him.

  His mouth was firm, as strong as the rest of him, and yet soft and giving as if the generosity of his nature had a physical outlet.

  After the first few moments of shock, Jace gathered her to him and took over the kiss. It was frightening and powerful and wonderful to have him holding and kissing her. Alexis’s heart pounded against her throat with such excitement she thought it might burst through.

  “Alexis,” he murmured, trailing kisses across her face, tenderly placing one on her bruised eye. “You’ve been driving me crazy since the night you tried to burn me out.”

  “I didn’t,” she countered on a laughing protest. She drew away to see the teasing light in his eyes. “That dry grass just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  He grinned, then his smile smoothed into a puzzled look. “I don’t know anything about you but I can’t stop thinking about you. I ask you questions, but you won’t tell me anything about your background and family.”

  “Because you’re a man who doesn’t like surprises and deceptions,” she responded. Her mouth had gone dry and dread was settling into her stomach.

  He went very still. “No, I don’t.” His gaze searched her face, an easy task since it was only inches from his.

  Alexis felt that everything was rushing in on her, that she was helpless to stop the next words that would be coming from her mouth. She took a deep breath. “Jace, have you ever heard of a country named Inbourg?”

  Jace stared at her, dumbfounded. “A princess? You’re a princess?” It wasn’t the first time he’d said it. Or the second.

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “Royalty? Heir to the throne and all that?”

  Alexis answered with a tiny shrug. “Only if, God forbid, something should happen to Anya and her son Jean Louis, and my other sister, Deirdre. I’m only fourth in line.”

  He had felt numb at first when she had carefully and succinctly told him what he’d wanted to know about her family and background. Now his curiosity was satisfied, but he felt something else growing inside, something that felt unpleasantly like betrayal.

  What had he been thinking, he mocked himself, that she would stay on after her job was finished? Stay with him? What a joke.

  Before he could make an even bigger fool of himself, he set her away from him, turning from the sudden dismay in her eyes.

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this when you first came?” He got to his feet, then because she looked so small and vulnerable sitting on the porch floor, and he felt guilty for putting that distress on her face, he reached down and pulled her to her feet, as well, then let go of her and stood back. Because he couldn’t meet her eyes, he turned and paced away from her, down the length of the shabby porch. He crossed his arms over his chest and waited.

  “I didn’t know you,” she stammered, holding out her hands, palms up. “And our first meeting wasn’t all that…comfortable.”

  She stepped away from him to the other end of the porch, and it seemed as if she’d leaped to the other side of a chasm. He had pulled himself away from her warmth and he felt chilled without it, but she hadn’t been honest with him. It was a huge stumbling block to him. She was right, he didn’t like surprises and deceptions. It reeked of what he’d once heard from his parents so long ago, “Don’t tell your father, but…” or “Your mother doesn’t need to know about this, son….”

  He thought he’d left all that, and all his resentments behind him, but somehow it hurt more coming from Alexis.

  He knew she was alarmed by the severe look on his face, but he couldn’t seem to change it. Hondo had kicked him in the stomach once when he’d been a colt and Jace felt that same breath-stealing sickness now.

  She stumbled on with her explanation. “There are other issues, too, Jace. There are other people I don’t want to know I’m here.”

  “Who?” he asked, feeling a spurt of jealousy. “Jet-setting boyfriends?”

  “Tabloids,” she shot back, throwing her hands wide. “They would love to get a story about me teaching in a one-room schoolhouse in the mountains.”

  Somehow that struck him as the greatest betrayal of all. “I’d think you’d like that kind of publicity. Magnanimous princess teaching the isolated children of backwards mountain folk.”

  Hurt flared in her eyes, followed by fury. She drew herself up and gave him the look he thought was probably described as being the royal freeze. “If you think that,” she said in a tone her ancestors must have once used to send men to the gallows, “then you know less than nothing about me.”

  “You’re damned right about that.” Seething, confused, and feeling like a fool, he snatched up his hat and turned toward Hondo. His boot heels pummeled the wooden stairs as he descended them. He grabbed Hondo’s reins so suddenly the gelding started and whinnied, but Jace vaulted onto his back. “Thanks for the lemonade,” he said. “And the buggy ride.” Pulling his horse’s head around, he nudged him with his heels and galloped for home.

  “Oaf!” Alexis shouted after him, richly furious. “Idiot!”

  She went into the house and slammed the door. “Ooooh,” she ranted, taking several quick turns around the room. She’d known he wouldn’t like what she had to tell him. He didn’t like dishonesty in any form. However, she hadn’t expected him to act as if she had betrayed him. She had always thought he was a fair man—look at what he put up with from Gil and Rocky. She had at least thought he would listen to her explanation.

  Her fury drained away and disappointment filled her. She sat down heavily on the old sofa and propped her chin in her hands. She felt betrayed, too, because she had misread him. It was obvious that she understood him far less than she thought she did, not that her experience with the opposite sex had been vast enough to give her much insight.

  In spite of what the rest of the world thought, she and her sisters weren’t the jet-setter
s they were often portrayed to be. Their father had sheltered them, especially after the death of their mother, Princess Charlotte. In fact, if he’d given them more freedom, Anya might not have married the first exciting man she met, Deirdre might be less of a flirt, and Alexis perhaps wouldn’t have grown up so determined to go her own way and be her own person.

  Even during her college years, her activities had been restricted by what people would think. Her presence at the university in Phoenix had been kept quiet, her social life limited.

  Still, she thought as she pushed herself to her feet and returned to the porch to retrieve the lemonade tray, she’d thought she had enough understanding of human nature to know how Jace would react to what she had told him.

  Obviously, she’d been wrong.

  It seemed as if this entire adventure had been blighted from the beginning. First she’d had to be less than honest with her father about her real reason for going to Arizona. She needed to confront him, tell him she had no intention of marrying any of his candidates. She should tell him, in the most loving possible way, of course, to stick to running Inbourg and let her run her life.

  She was reluctant to do that, though, because he would be hurt. He saw his interference in his children’s lives as his duty, the act of a loving parent.

  Alexis reached up and rubbed her forehead with her fingertips, then carefully tested the tender area around her eye. Thank goodness the bruise would be healed by the time she reached home or she would never hear the end of the questions from him.

  She would certainly have a talk with him about his need to micromanage her, but right now, she had things to do. Straightening her shoulders and holding her head up, Alexis gave a regal nod. She had many things to do.

  The first week of school had been hard—okay, it had been nearly impossible—but she was determined to improve. Let Jace be angry with her all he wanted. Let him think she had betrayed him somehow. He wasn’t going to be able to say she hadn’t done her job.