The Surprise Princess

by Patricia McLinn

  It was Coach here now, watching. Brad completed his drive to the basket, laying up the ball with restraint, even tenderness.

  Or maybe that was with exhaustion, since he’d been at this for hours.

  He’d been up late, talking with C.J. and Carolyn. Then he’d been up even later, hoping he’d hear from Katie. The way she’d kissed him by the stream… But maybe he’d misread that. When she’d asked him to leave and what she’d said about clearing her own trees, he’d thought… But then why hadn’t she called or come?

  “Spence,” C.J. called from the entryway where Katie had stood a day ago. “Someone’s waiting for you.”

  He knew from C.J.’s voice it wasn’t Katie, so he didn’t hurry wrapping a towel around his sweaty neck, putting the final ball into the old-fashioned wooden basketball cart, picking up the cell phone he’d had out … just in case.

  As Brad approached he saw C.J. looking at the court almost mistily.

  Using a dose of offense as a defense against C.J.’s pity, Brad asked, “What’s with you? See a ghost.”

  C.J. grinned. “More like a vision. Carolyn and I once had an interesting discussion on a court not too different from this one. Your visitor’s in the office.”

  Brad swung open the office door, checked slightly when he recognized the King of Bariavak as the man standing in the tiny office, then pulled the door closed behind him and kept his voice remarkably even. “Your Majesty.”

  King Jozef nodded absently. He also frowned, but that appeared to be for his surroundings. “This facility is not of the standard of your Ashton University.”

  Brad started to breathe again. The king wasn’t here to tell him Katie wanted nothing to do with him. His brain said she’d never have handled it that way, but his lungs were just getting the message. “No it’s not.”

  “Is that a result of the difference between a university and a program for young people?”

  “Mostly it’s the result of indifference – the indifference here to whether kids get to play basketball or not.”

  “Bariavak does not have the resources to devote to developing NBA players.”

  “How about the resources to let kids have some fun? Because this program sucks.”

  They glared at each other.

  “I will give this program resources,” King Jozef said. “You will leave the Princess Josephine-Augusta alone.”

  “You think I’d trade her?”

  “It is separate. I will provide resources for this program. That is done, complete.” He gestured to one side. Then he brought his open hands back in front of his heart. “And here is my granddaughter’s future. Her potential. Without you. So you will not see her or talk to her from this day forward.”

  “No.”

  “I demand it.”

  “You can’t. Only Katie can. She can tell me to get lost, but not you. And if you force Katie to say it when she doesn’t mean it, I’ll know.”

  “You have no right—”

  “I have the best right there is. I love Katie. I loved her before Princess Josephine-Augusta came on the scene. I didn’t know it, because I was an idiot – I have that on good authority.” The phone call had come at midnight Chicago time ... shortly after Carolyn and C.J. left him. “I love her now. And I expect to always love her.”

  “She is my granddaughter. My family. My only family. I love her as you cannot.”

  “Do you? Do you love Katie? As a person? As your granddaughter? Or only as your restored princess?” He let the moment stretch before he added, “Your Majesty.”

  ****

  The king came out of the gymnasium, his bodyguards falling in behind him.

  April exchanged a look with Hunter as he got out of the backseat of the car where they had been sitting and held the door for King Jozef. Hunter closed the car door and got into the front seat beside the driver – on the other side of the privacy barrier.

  The king looked straight ahead. “You are the only other person who knows me as a grandfather, at least an ersatz grandfather.”

  “I told Katie you’d practiced with me. But you treated me solely as a granddaughter. Was that because you knew from the start I wasn’t the princess?” Concentration drew her brows down. “I also told her what you’d shared with Hunter about regretting not focusing earlier on life, love, and family.”

  They rode in silence some minutes before he spoke. “Perhaps the hardest thing in being a king is you must command people to tell you what you do not want to hear. Or else become ever weaker from not hearing those things.” He faced her. “What more would you say to me, April?”

  “Are you focusing on life, love, and family with Katie?” she asked immediately.”

  “She is a princess. In a great sense her family is all of Bariavak. That cannot be denied. Or changed.”

  “It can be changed,” April said quietly. “Katie can change it. She can renounce the title and all that goes with it.”

  Outrage flared, then sank as he said, “Including me?”

  “Are you making it a package deal?” When he didn’t answer, she added gently. “Which is more important to you, a princess or a granddaughter?”

  ****

  King Jozef of Bariavak shifted his position on the side of the bed that had been his daughter’s.

  Since recovering from surgery at the beginning of the year he felt much stronger. Alas, the surgery had done nothing to ease the aches in his bones. Or his heart.

  He knew who had entered before he heard sound or caught the change in the currents of air.

  Without turning to face her, he said, “He would not pledge to leave her alone.”

  A click of her tongue scoffed that anyone would have been so unwise as to have expected—or hoped – otherwise.

  “The princess royal of Bariavak, married to a coach of basketball – no! I will not have it.”

  He rose and strode to the window. Between his hands he felt the silk of the embroidered square his granddaughter had given him last night.

  Behind him, Therese made a sound. He would not have stood for it if the sound had held pity. But this held exasperation.

  On second consideration, pity might have been better.

  Silence followed, and after moments of it stretched out, he acknowledged even exasperation would have been preferable.

  “She is breaking my heart,” he said.

  Again the click of her tongue. “You are breaking hers, as your father did yours.”

  His head snapped up. And then he could not look away from her, away from the truth of their past.

  “As you did to Sofia,” she added softly. “Sofia was enough your daughter, Jozef, to rebel, to push and prod and madden you. But in the end, she needed your love too much to stay away, and she married, Leopold, as you required.”

  “She loved him. He was a good husband to her.”

  “Only she knew if either or both of those statements were true. But I will tell you this, your Katie does not depend on your approval or your love as Sofia did. She will not make trouble for you as Sofia did. She does not need to. Because she can leave here. She can leave you.”

  “I am her only family.”

  “She does not see family as you do, as ties of blood. Consider that what she thought were ties of blood held little love or attachment. Why should she value them now? She has, however, another life, another country – indeed, a family, she does value.”

  “And so?”

  She came to him. They sat on the settee under the windows, both her hands in his.

  She released a long breath. “And so you cannot win her as a granddaughter by making the same mistakes you made with her mother.”

  He looked at their intertwined hands, at the heavy ring he wore, at the precious silk square.

  He rose and picked up the phone from the bedside table. “Inform the princess that I would like to see her in Princess Sofia’s suite. Immediately.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  After another round of solo shooting dr
ills, Brad took a long, mostly lukewarm shower – the hot water was long gone. Another issue with this facility. Not that it was his problem.

  He had enough other ones. With each minute that passed without hearing from Katie…

  After dressing, he came out of the dinky locker room and found her standing with her arms crossed and her chin set belligerently. Apparently it was his day for disputes with the royal family of Bariavak.

  He’d known where he was with the king. This was shakier ground.

  “Katie,” he said neutrally.

  She shattered neutrality. “I’ve had a really rough couple of days, Bradford Spencer. Not all of that’s your fault, but a lot of it is. Starting with seeing you so unexpectedly and you saying absolutely nothing to me. Some of it was because of a woman who’s dying, though Madame was right about that. And almost losing that damned tiara last night. Then almost no sleep last night because I was thinking.”

  “About?”

  “You. Me. Trees. Tiaras. The past. The future. Of course when I say a lot of it’s your fault, you’re probably tied with my grandfather, but any way you look at it, it’s been—” She waved a hand. “So, I’m past being polite. I’m not making demands of you or saying you feel this way, but you’ll just have to accept it, Brad. I’m in love with you.”

  “You—”

  “In case you couldn’t tell from the way I kissed you—”

  “I kissed you.”

  “—last night. We kissed each other.” Her crossed arms dropped to her sides and her voice went soft. “We kissed each other. Oh, Brad…”

  He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, then opened them with resolution. “Your grandfather’s right, Katie. You’re a princess. I’m not a prince.”

  “I don’t want you to be.”

  “How the hell could it work? You’d come to games I’m coaching? Sit in the bleachers? Come to tournaments?”

  “Yes.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “When you were Katie Davis—”

  “No.” Her vehemence cut across his words. “You’re wrong. Completely wrong. When you said last night about my being your Katie Davis, I felt something – but it wasn’t until a little while ago I realized – It was like you said, Brad. I haven’t changed. I’ve realized. One of the things I’ve realized is this never could have worked when I was Katie Davis.”

  “You’re saying you never cared about me when you were Katie Davis?”

  “I was crazy for you when I was Katie Davis. That was never the issue. I would have gone on worshipping you, but I couldn’t have let you love me.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Because I never felt … real. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew something was. There were too many lies and pain in my being Katie Davis. All my life I sensed it. That’s what I was trying to put into words last night by the stream. I’m not anybody ’s Katie Davis, including yours, because I’m not that person anymore.”

  “No. You’re Princess Josephine-Augusta.”

  She was shaking her head again. “No. I’m not her, either, not completely. I once told Carolyn that I wasn’t a very good Katie Davis, so how could I possibly be a good Josephine-Augusta. I don’t feel that way now. Katie Davis and Princess Josephine-Augusta are parts of me. I’m at peace with that. I’ve learned that here – it’s why I had to come. But neither one is all of me. For the first time in my life, I know who I truly am, Brad. I am Katie Spencer.”

  He opened his mouth. No words came out.

  She stood taller. “Even if you want an annulment, I’ll keep that name. It’s who I am now.”

  “No annulment.”

  “If you’re going to be technical, a divorce then.”

  “Katie—”

  “Do you want a divorce, Brad?”

  “No, damn it. But—”

  “Good, then it’s all settled.”

  “Katie, nothing’s settled—”

  “Yes it is. My grandfather told me you said only I could tell you to get lost and I don’t—”

  “He told you that?”

  “—want that, so it’s settled. No annulment, no divorce. I’m Katie Spencer. I love you and you…” For the first time she faltered.

  He wrapped his arms around her. “And I love you more than anything. My Katie.”

  ****

  They hadn’t spent all the time kissing. They’d done some talking.

  But they were kissing again when C.J. and Carolyn came around the corner.

  “It’s about time,” C.J. said.

  Katie jumped away from the wall. Brad put his arm around her and held her close to his side.

  “Yeah, I suppose it is,” he said. “And you can be the first to congratulate us and—Carolyn? You’re crying again ?”

  “When was she crying before?” Katie asked.

  C.J. put an arm around his wife. “When we were trying to get this stubborn ass of yours to go to the gala last night.”

  “But why?” Katie asked. Both men shrugged that it was beyond them. “Why were you crying, Carolyn?”

  “I was scared. Scared not only that this wouldn’t work out for the two of you, when I so wanted it to, but also that it might take the heart out of Brad completely. And then, when he was telling us about you being a fairy tale princess, but instead of being Snow White in the woods with dwarves, she was exiled to the Ashton athletic department offices with a bevy of basketball players—”

  “You said that?” Katie looked up at Brad.

  He shrugged. “She make it sound more literary than it was.”

  “He did say it. But more important, he smiled, just a little. And I was so relieved. That’s why I cried then. Because I had hope that even if his heart was broken he’d still be Brad.”

  “Now, you’re crying?” Brad demanded of Katie.

  “Oh, Brad.” She put her arms around his neck.

  He kissed her but before he could do a proper job of it there was another interruption.

  “Oh!” It was April. With Hunter right behind her. “Does this mean—”

  “Yes,” Brad and Katie said together.

  “That’s wonderful.”

  After handshakes and hugs, C.J. added, “What’s also wonderful is we can all stop pretending we don’t know they’re already married.”

  “Oh. Right,” April said in a very different tone. “We were sent to find you. King Jozef wants to see you both. I gather he knows about you being married?”

  Katie put a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. At least I think…”

  Brad tightened his hold around her waist. “It’s going to be fine. But we need to run something past you on the way, C.J.”

  ****

  King Jozef looked only at Katie as the six of them – she and Brad, April and Hunter, and Carolyn and C.J. crossed the room to where he and Madame sat by a trio of windows.

  She released a long breath, then said, “Grandfather, Brad and I love each other. There will be no annulment or divorce. Our future is together.”

  King Jozef turned from her to scowl up at Brad. “You think you will take the Princess Josephine-Augusta away from Bariavak?”

  “No,” he said evenly. “I think Katie and I will go wherever the two of us decide is best for us.”

  Katie broke the tense silence. “And what we have decided is best for us is to stay here for a few more weeks, then return to Ashton in time to prepare for the upcoming season, since he will coach basketball and I will work for C.J.”

  “Out of the question. I cannot protect you there. You will—”

  “Protecting her’s up to me,” Brad said.

  “I don’t need protecting in Ashton,” Katie said at the same time, then added, “And if I did, I’d take care of it myself. But I don’t.”

  “As Princess Royal—”

  “But I won’t be. I’ll just be me. Besides, you are the king, for heaven’s sake, out in the public all the time and you have hardly anyone with you. I know how you slip away from your security detail.”


  King Jozef turned his glare on Hunter, who looked back impassively, but said, “She would still be on our radar.”

  Katie set that aside to be dealt with later and said gently to the king, “It was a long time ago, Grandfather.”

  “It was yesterday. You are only a child. You do not understand—”

  A sound best spelled “Agggh” emanated from Madame, checking King Jozef’s words.

  Katie took advantage of the opening. “However, Brad has an idea, one I don’t completely approve of because he should accept one of the head coaching positions he’s been offered—”“

  “Katie.”

  King Jozef’s gaze shot to Brad at that quiet word.

  “Okay,” Katie conceded. “So, instead of advancing his career as he so easily could and because he says he truly prefers this, Brad has proposed he become a part-time basketball coach at Ashton, a proposal C.J. has said he’ll accept if that’s the only way to keep Brad on the staff and if – and I quote – the damned idiot won’t take a head spot. But—” She had to pull in air after that spate of words. “—that only works if there’s something that would make good use of his talents the rest of the year. And where that opportunity was located would determine where we spend, say, several months a year.”

  The king watched her closely, shot another look at Brad, then came back to her. But he said nothing.

  “Katie, just tell him—”

  Never taking her gaze from her grandfather, she said to Brad, “We agreed I would do this.”

  Again the silence stretched.

  Brad made a sound of exasperation and walked to the window, hitched a hip on the stone sill and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s a damned good thing I tricked her into marrying me, or I can see the stubborn Bariavak blood would have kept her saying no for decades.”

  More silence.

  Madame slowly stood. “Jozef.”

  His gaze flickered but did not leave Katie.

  “Jozef,” Madame repeated. This time his gaze went to her. “You are not a stupid man. But if you make this mistake with your granddaughter as you made with your daughter, I will stab you in the heart to save you the pain of dying from it breaking. Say the words. Now.”