It was a long ten minutes for Will, waiting for the plane to land. But for once it wasn’t because of his anxiety about flying.
This time it was because of the woman sitting in front of him.
Princess Amelia.
He couldn’t believe he had been foolish enough to kiss her. It wasn’t just that personal involvement wasn’t part of his plan—personal involvement was something he was specifically determined to avoid with the new princess. It could jeopardize all of his plans.
Giving up his place on the throne of the country he had loved since birth wasn’t an easy thing for Will. The palace alone would be hard to leave, perched atop a mountainside looking over the beautiful valley of Lufthania—so green in summer, and glazed like a dazzling gem with snow and ice in the winter. He would miss the view of the shadows cutting across the hills when he woke up every morning, and the lights of the village twinkling in the distance like stars when he went to bed at night.
But he would not miss the adoration and respect he felt he had not rightfully earned as prince. He would be far more comfortable working legitimately for the people than he was now.
So it would be with a heavy heart, but steely determination, that he would pass the throne back to Amelia. However, if he made the mistake of getting involved with her personally—even as a friend—it would be even more difficult to leave palace life behind, because from now on that life would include Amelia.
He looked at her profile as she looked out the window. Her nose was straight and just long enough to avoid being called pert. Her chin was strong yet delicate, and her eyes were like clear blue glass. He couldn’t read her expression as Lufthania came into full view, but he sensed her awe.
Who wouldn’t feel awe upon seeing this lovely place for the first time? To this day, Will’s chest filled with pride every time he saw it after a trip abroad. Only today, he felt more than that. Today he had a profound sense of coming home.
It was strange. When he’d imagined what it would be like to bring Amelia back, he’d thought he might feel some sense of loss or of intrusion. Yet she didn’t raise any of those feelings in him.
In fact, as difficult as it was to believe, it was she who gave him this added sense of home this time. It was as if he was clicking the last missing piece into a puzzle and now it was complete.
“What do you think?” he asked her.
“I think I’m dreaming.”
He gave a half smile. “If you are, I’m flattered to be part of it.”
She laughed and shook her head. “I mean I think I’m dreaming of the scene outside, not of you.”
“Give it time.”
She looked at him.
“I mean, give Lufthania time,” he said. “You will see that this is all real. And all yours.”
“Did you ever think of being a used-car salesman?” she asked, unfazed as the plane bumped the ground and taxied rapidly down the runway. “Because I bet you could make a fortune.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
The plane drew to a halt and Will unclipped his seat belt. This was his favorite part of any flight.
Annabelle opened the door and said, “Your car is waiting, sir.”
He looked at Amy. “Are you ready?”
She bit her lower lip. “I’m not sure.”
“Come on, then. Let me try to sell you a country…”
The road twisted and turned through a snow-white fairy-tale forest. And, as in most fairy tales, there was a slightly menacing undertone to the journey. Though the snow was bright, the woods were so thick they were dark in the distance. And the winding road had patches of ice that crackled under the tires of the sleek limousine.
Amy looked out the window and told herself she was crazy for imagining that the landscape was familiar. Yet she couldn’t shake the feeling of having been here before.
“What are you thinking?” Will asked, his voice so low and so close to her ear that it sent chills down the back of her neck.
“That it’s very beautiful here,” she said, though that was only half the truth. “This is a nice vacation, if nothing else.”
“If nothing else,” he repeated. “You are not an easy one to persuade, are you, Amé?”
“Not without cold, hard facts,” she said.
“Cold, hard?” He looked puzzled.
“It’s an expression,” she explained. “Basically it means I won’t believe I’m a princess until you prove it.” And that she was ready, in the meantime, to leave at a moment’s notice, if necessary. She had her passport, her credit cards, and she could do without her luggage if necessary.
“The palace physician will test your blood tomorrow morning, if that suits you,” he said. “It will be tested against your grandfather’s, and you will have the proof you need within a couple of weeks.” He raised an eyebrow. “I know you are expecting it to be negative, but have you considered what you must do if—when—it is positive? You’ll be moving here immediately, I assume.”
She didn’t answer right away. She honestly hadn’t thought of what she’d do if the test proved she was related to the former prince and princess. The notion had been so fantastic that she couldn’t take it seriously.
Now, faced with the question of what she’d do, she realized that she did have to plan for that possibility. Though the idea of being some kind of secret princess was hard to believe, the facts of her life didn’t necessarily point against it. She had been in a car accident with her parents, two people who were never identified. And, apparently, never missed, at least in America, because the police department had put out a nationwide call for missing persons that yielded nothing. It was a sad thing that was better explained by Wilhelm’s theory than by the idea that no one cared enough about them to miss them.
“Amé?”
She turned her attention back to Will. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “If you’re right…So much of my life is in America. My business, my friends, my parents, my apartment.” She shrugged. “My bills. Everything. How could I just abandon all of that?”
“Don’t think of it as abandoning,” he said. His green eyes were so warm he could have convinced her of almost anything. “It is moving on, fulfilling your destiny. It is a great thing.”
Somehow, looking into those eyes and thinking of destiny sent a thrill through Amy. Which, she told herself immediately, was foolish because he was not offering himself but his country. This was not a prince looking for a princess, it was a man looking for a replacement.
“Let’s just see what the test results are,” she said, turning her attention from his handsome face to the brushed-cotton landscape outside. “Then we’ll discuss ‘forever.”’
He leaned back against the seat and mused, “I believe that is the first time a woman has said forever to me without giving me a chill.”
Amy turned and looked at him. “Should I be flattered?”
“Undoubtedly.” The corner of his mouth twisted up into a half smile.
The car drew to a halt by a guard’s station, and Will pushed the button to lower his window. “Gustav,” he said to the middle-aged man inside. “She is here.” He gestured toward Amy.
The guard did not look at her. “Yes, sir.”
“I want security tightened to a maximum. No one enters the property without permission from myself or Franz, is that clear?”
“Yes, sir.” The guard saluted without letting his eyes leave Will.
“Very good.” Will closed his window and the driver continued on.
“Warm fellow,” Amy commented.
Will gave a laugh. “He takes his job very seriously. He was my chauffeur until three weeks ago. Before that, he was my father’s chauffeur. It’s taken some time for him to work his way up to guard.”
“I see.” What she saw was that maybe the people here weren’t going to be as warm to her arrival as Will was. She didn’t want to be a wimp, but part of her suddenly felt homesick and insecure.
It was probably just the jet lag, she decided. She wasn’t usually a nervous person. She loved adventure. And this, without a doubt, was the greatest adventure of her life so far.
She looked back out the window just as they rounded a hairpin turn and came into view of the most magnificent castle she’d ever seen.
“My God,” she gasped. “Don’t tell me that’s—”
“Your new home,” Will finished. “It is.”
“But it’s—when you said this was a small country…that the economy was so bad…I just assumed…” She was speechless.
He laughed. “You assumed what? That it would be a tent somewhere in the woods? Come now, Amé, Lufthania was once a grande dame. This castle has stood for centuries, hosting great nobility throughout the ages.”
She could believe it. The castle was like a gingerbread confection painted with white icing. There were winding spires and tall turrets, and more windows than Amy could count. Despite the snowy, icy exterior, the windows glowed yellow and promised a warm refuge from the cold inside.
“Let them know we’re here,” Will said to the driver, then turned to Amy. “Do you like it?”
“It’s breathtaking,” she said honestly.
“Somehow I knew you’d feel that way.” He smiled and pointed to the building. “You see that room way up at the top?”
“Yes.”
“That was your nursery.”
Sadness filled her suddenly. It was someone’s nursery, anyway. Someone who was sent away, into the cold, in the dead of night.
She was spared having to answer when the car stopped in a snowless brick courtyard in front of a wide wooden door.
“Are you ready?” Will asked Amy.
Part of her wanted to scream “No! Take me home!” but she knew she had not yet finished what she’d come here to do. And if she turned away now—if she even could—she would wonder forever if, by some tiny chance, this really was where she belonged.
She nodded. “I’m ready.”
He got out of the car and went around to let her out, dismissing the attempts of the chauffeur to open the door. He took her by the hand, then offered an arm to escort her in. She was grateful for it. He offered warmth and support and, strangely, a modicum of familiarity at the most intimidating moment of her life.
“The staff will be inside to greet you,” he said quietly. “Don’t worry that you need to make conversation. It is not expected. Just stand and smile as they introduce themselves.”
She nodded mutely.
The doors opened and Will led her into an enormous marble entryway, with a wide, sweeping staircase that put Tara’s to shame and a chandelier that had to weigh at least a thousand pounds.
Lined up directly beneath it were about twenty-five black-and-white-uniformed staff members, all standing erect. No one made eye contact with Amy, and for a moment she feared that they resented her intrusion on the palace.
On Will’s command, they introduced themselves one by one, meeting her eyes as they did. For the most part, their smiles seemed genuine and warm, and Amy’s fears about being an interloper slowly dissolved.
One older man, introduced as Christian, had been there when Princess Lily had fled and had been a faithful servant to her family. “You are the picture of your mother,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.
Amy didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to encourage the belief that she was Princess Lily’s daughter for fear that everyone would be disappointed when the test results came back. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “That is a great compliment.”
“Oh, thank you, ma’am.”
“It will be nice to have Amé around, won’t it?” Will gave the man a smile so kind that it made Amy’s chest feel tight.
“It certainly will,” Christian said. “It certainly will.”
Finally, they got to the last person, a tall, broad woman with gray hair, who was weeping so hard she couldn’t speak.
“This,” Will said, laying a hand gently on the woman’s shoulder, “is Letty. Leticia. She was your nanny.”
Amy barely had time to process what he’d said before the woman came at her with open arms.
Amy fell into the older woman’s embrace and had just a moment of startled confusion before the world went black. Though she later tried to tell herself it was only her jet lag catching up with her, the truth was that something else came over her: a familiarity so strong it overwhelmed her. She couldn’t face it.
When she came to, Amy was on a fussy wooden sofa in what must have been some sort of formal reception room. Will was kneeling at her side, holding her hand in his and looking at her with grave concern, while Letty stood several feet away, kneading a white handkerchief in her hands and saying over and over, “Amé, my Amé.”
“I’m sorry,” Amy said, still groggy. She struggled to sit up. “I don’t know what happened.”
“It’s been a difficult day,” Will said, still holding her hand. “I asked too much of you.”
“No, it’s not that.…” She put a hand to her forehead. “I’m just tired.”
Letty heard her voice and came rushing over. “My darling, darling girl. Are you all right?”
Amy nodded.
The woman’s face split into a wide smile. “Thank God. You are home at last, Amé. We have waited so long. So very long.”
Amy took a sip of the water Will offered.
“We must take her to her room,” Letty said to Will. “She must be made to feel at home right away. Clearly the girl needs her rest.”
“Is her room ready?”
Letty nodded. “I made sure of it.” She turned to Amy and gave a huge, apple-cheeked smile. “Would you like to go lie down in your old room? I’ve prepared it just the way your mother liked it.”
“English,” Will said to Letty. “She doesn’t understand.”
Letty shot him a puzzled look, then said to Amy, “Do you understand me, darling?”
Amy nodded, feeling like she was stepping out of a fog. “Sure.”
Letty looked at Will, but he was staring down at Amy in disbelief. “I thought you didn’t speak German.”
“I don’t.”
“What do you mean? How were you able to answer Letty just now?”
Amy frowned. “I answered in English,” she said, thinking it was a very strange and obvious thing to have to point out.
“Yes,” he said patiently. “But Letty addressed you in German.”
An hour later, when Amy had been installed in her suite and was under the watchful and adoring eye of Letty, Will went to his office to reassess the situation.
This was all more difficult than he had anticipated it would be. He had no doubt that she was Princess Amelia—the large portfolio in front of him held more than enough proof of that. And if that wasn’t enough proof, her inexplicable understanding of German, which she had said she didn’t speak a word of, cemented Will’s conviction.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that she, herself, would be so difficult to convince. Finding her had seemed to be the hard part. It had taken years, scores of investigators and countless false leads before he’d finally found Amy.
Once he had, he’d been so relieved that it felt like the worst was over. He’d fully expected to be able to walk into her shop, tell her what he’d learned and carry her suitcases out to the car for her. When she’d asked for proof—“cold, hard facts” as she’d say—he had been surprised but amused. The portfolio full of papers that he’d had translated into English—in case anyone did have questions—seemed to him more than adequate.
That it wasn’t still baffled him. It was as if Amy was looking for an excuse not to be Amelia, rather than enjoying the fact that she had not only found her origins but that she was, indeed, a royal princess.
Over the years, Will had met more women than he cared to think about who would have given just about anything to be a princess. What was it about Amy that made her resist it?
Whatever it was, it intrigued Will.
He put the portfolio aside and was getting ready to leave his office when there was a knock at the door and his secretary, the real Franz Burgess, entered.
“Pardon me, sir,” said the old man, who had been Will’s father’s secretary before him. “Has the lady been installed in her room?”
“She has.” Will was careful not to give away too much information about Amé, as he wasn’t sure where Franz stood on the matter of returning Amé’s family to the throne.
Franz looked fretful for a moment, then closed the door behind him. “Might I have a word with you?”
Will sat down and gestured toward the seat before him. “Please.”
Franz didn’t sit but stood in front of the desk. “I have heard…rumblings,” he said. “There are those who would prefer that she wasn’t here.”
Will leaned back in his chair and assessed Franz. “Are you one of them?”
Franz straightened his back. “It is not for me to decide it one way or the other.”
Will hesitated. “Franz,” he said steadily. “You know I believe her to be the rightful heir to the throne.”
“I do, sir.”
“I will not tolerate any disrespect toward her, do you understand?”
“Of course, sir.”
Will raised an eyebrow. “And you will pass that word along to the rest of the staff, I trust?”
“Indeed, sir.”
A very light knock at the door caught Will’s attention and he looked at Franz. “Did you hear something?”
Franz nodded. “At the door.” He strode across the room and opened the heavy oak door, revealing Amy standing there, looking very delicate with her long ginger hair pulled back and wearing a green silk dressing gown.
“I’m sorry to bother you,” she said with an apologetic smile toward Will.
“No bother at all,” he said, then, seeing her uncertain glance at Franz, said to the man, “That will be all, Franz. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Franz put his heels together and gave a slight, stiff bow, then left the room.
Amy watched him go, then made a face. “They take you very seriously around here, don’t they?”
He laughed. “And you find this hard to believe?”
Her face went pink. “Oh, no, no, I didn’t mean that. I only meant…well, you’re just so young and so…” Her face went from pink to red.
“So…?” he prompted, curious as to what else she thought of him.
She gazed at him for just a moment, before quickly looking away. “Where I come from no one gets that kind of deference.” She shrugged. “Not even the president.”
“You will get used to it.”
She looked as if she was about to object—and he knew already what her objection would be, that she didn’t know if she would be staying—but she stopped and gave him a look that made his heart trip. “You are persistent, aren’t you?”
“It’s one of my finer traits.”
“Ah, I have more of that than most.” He wanted to go to her and take her in his arms. She looked so lovely in the infernally inadequate light of the castle that it took his breath away. “Why did you come to see me?”
“It’s a little embarrassing, actually,” she said. “I was trying to make a phone call from my room, but I couldn’t get my cell phone to work. Is there some code I should dial for an outside line on one of the palace phones?”
“No, you can dial directly.”
She splayed her arms. “There’s no dial tone at all.”
Most likely it was a loose wire. The castle had plenty of those, as well. He would be able to fix it easily, but he was reluctant to go to her room with her. He didn’t trust himself, and this was no time for him to get close to her.
And she was absolutely the wrong person to start a relationship with.
“I’ll have someone go up and take care of it for you,” he said. “Sometimes the wires need to be manipulated, that’s all.”
She glanced at her watch, looked fretful and said, “Thank you.” She turned to go but he stopped her.
“Wait, Amé.”
She turned back around. “What?”
“Why do you look so worried?”
She gave a brief smile. “Because I’ve never been able to disguise my feelings.” She shook her head. “I’m just anxious to call my parents. With all the excitement when I arrived, I forgot all about it, and I’m sure they’re just insane with worry. Maybe there’s another phone I could use?”
“Absolutely.” He went to his phone and lifted the receiver toward her. “Please. Take your time. And I’ll go up and see if I can fix the one in your room.”
He had heard the expression about twinkling eyes before, but he’d never actually seen what it meant until now.
“Quite a handy prince, aren’t you?” she joked.
“I could send someone up, if you prefer,” he said, his voice stiffer than he had intended. “But it could take a while.”
She put her hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that I wanted someone else to do it instead. It’s just that…well…you’re the prince. I can’t believe you can do telephone repairs.”
Her touch was warm against his skin. He looked from her hand to her eyes, irritated at how disconcerted she made him feel. “I studied engineering at university,” he explained, even though he knew she wasn’t seriously asking for his qualifications.
“Boy, I wish you could come back to my apartment with me,” she said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The wiring there is really funky. I can’t turn on the coffeemaker without turning off the television first. It drives me nuts.”
“Then you should stay here. You’ll never have to worry about your coffeemaker again.” He smiled. “But the telephones don’t always work.”
She smiled back and shrugged. “It’s always something, I guess.”
“I’ll leave you to your call now,” he said. “And I’ll see you tomorrow. In the meantime, if you have any problems, call on Letty or Christian.”
“I will, thanks.”
He left her and hurried to her room so he could fix the problem and leave before she got back.
He should have called on one of the palace engineers, he knew that. It probably wouldn’t have taken them longer than fifteen minutes to get to the phone. But he didn’t want a stranger going to Amé’s room. It was probably sheer paranoia on his part, but after what Franz had told him, he wanted to be absolutely sure that everyone who had close contact with her had her best interests at heart.
Like Letty and Christian.
And himself.
When he reached her room and pushed open the door, instead of the silence of what should have been an empty room, there was a startled exclamation from the other side of her bed.