Gwendolyn felt as though she hadn’t seen Alexi in months rather than days. Just behind the house with faded white paint and aged wood, the crown prince of Belegovia and Hank’s former girlfriend waited in the pale light of dawn. As the tires of Hank’s dually crunched through knee-high weeds already turning brown in the late-spring heat, over the rutted path of gravel and dirt, she leaned forward in the seat for her first sign of the prince.
Yes, she wanted to shake him until his perfect teeth rattled. She wanted to yell at him like a fishwife, asking him what he was possibly thinking to run off like that. But she would do neither. She would hold her tongue and save her anger for later, when they were safely on the private jet back to Belegovia.
On the plane, flying away from Hank…She could barely imagine leaving so abruptly. Her stomach felt queasy as the truck swayed from side to side. Tension speared her neck and shoulders as the bumper of a pale blue car appeared behind the corner of a peeling red barn, shaded from the slanting rays of morning sun by a large tree.
“They’re here,” Hank said, his knuckles white as he gripped the steering wheel. He frowned as fiercely and intensely as he did with everything. He could become angry just as quickly as he could laugh, and his moods might seem volatile to some people. But Gwendolyn knew Hank cared about those who were awarded with both his teasing and his frowns.
With one last look behind him to make sure he hadn’t been followed, he turned behind the house and parked the dually beneath the large tree, next to the compact car.
Gwendolyn didn’t wait for Hank to shut off the engine; she opened her door and jumped down from the truck. Alexi stood with his arms draped around the petite blond waitress Gwendolyn had met at the truck stop a lifetime ago.
“I had planned to save my lecture for later, when we were alone, but I cannot hold my tongue,” she announced as she strode toward the couple. “Of all the irresponsible stunts you’ve pulled over the years, Alexi Ladislas, this one is the worst, do you hear me?” she hissed as she stood in front of the somber couple. Her voice rose to a screech. “What were you thinking?”
“Hello, Gwendolyn,” the prince responded calmly to her theatrics. “You remember Kerry, don’t you?” He looked beyond, his gaze dark. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure of meeting my alter ego.”
“I’m not your alter ego, you inconsiderate son of a—”
“Hank!” Gwendolyn took one look at his clenched fists and grabbed his arm before he marched right up to Alexi and punched his nose.
“You don’t think much of me, I know. Well, we don’t have time to go into our differences at the moment,” Alexi said calmly, rubbing his hand up and down Kerry Lynn’s arm. The young blonde looked as though she was trying to be poised in the face of two irrational combatants and a supreme diplomat. “The truth is, I can’t completely explain my actions.” He looked down at Kerry with such a tender expression that Gwendolyn’s breath caught in her throat. My God, he’s in love with her. She closed her mouth and stared.
“Kerry Lynn, are you okay?” Hank asked, shaking off Gwendolyn’s hand.
“Of course I’m okay,” Kerry said, raising her chin and glaring at him. “Now, try to be nice while we drive to San Marcus, will you? If you’d give Alex a chance, you’d like him.”
“Fat chance. He’s caused too many people too much trouble for me to be civil to the guy.”
“Hank, please,” Gwendolyn said, placing her hand on his arm again. “I know you’re angry, but Kerry’s right. We don’t have time for arguments. We must get our stories straight. I’ve decided we’re going to have a ‘meeting’ of the two of you later today, so you have one more acting challenge in front of you.”
He looked down at her, his expression fierce. “I’m doin’ this for you, not for him,” he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the prince. “For all I care, he can dig himself out of the mess he’s made.”
“Oh, that’s just great, Hank McCauley,” Kerry Lynn said, pulling away from Alexi and glaring at the cowboy. “You know what? This isn’t about you. I don’t want my mother and sisters to read tacky comments and downright lies about me in the papers. If you care anything at all about me, you won’t make me go through that.”
“Dammit, Kerry, you should have thought of that before you ran off with the guy,” Hank said, shaking his finger at her. “If you were a few years younger, I’d turn you over my knee and blister your bottom.”
“You’d do no such thing, you big fraud. Now, quit trying to sound so fierce and calm down. We don’t have that much time left,” she said, looking up at Alexi with longing.
“Yes, let’s be off,” Gwendolyn said before more harsh words could be exchanged. “We must work out the details so there won’t be any lapses in front of the cameras or microphones.”
“All right,” Hank said, sounding like a little boy whose toys had been temporarily taken away, “but I’d better be hearin’ an apology to Lady Wendy for all the problems your runaway prince has caused.”
“He’s not my—” Kerry started to say.
“Gwendolyn, I truly am sorry for the problems my impulsive actions caused,” Alexi said. He looked as though he wanted to take her hand, as he often did when he was being sincere and charming, but Hank’s venomous glare stopped him.
Hank McCauley was one of the few people in the world who had the ability to make Prince Alexi of Belegovia back down. The sight was awe-inspiring, Gwendolyn thought as she glanced from one man to the other. Yes, they looked alike in a superficial manner, but they were worlds apart in disposition, background and goals.
Suddenly, Gwendolyn realized what had been eluding her since she’d met Hank. The main difference was that Hank knew what he wanted from life: his ranch, training horses and living among friends he cared for and who cared for him. Alexi, on the other hand, despite being a prince and heir to a monarchy, hadn’t yet found his own personal goal. His random and occasional outbursts of irresponsibility were his way of seeking a personal life, separate from the royal family.
Her anger deflated. She reached forward and took Alexi’s hand as she hadn’t done in years, since they were school chums back in England. “I understand, truly I do. And I’m sorry for yelling at you.”
“Wendy, don’t start apologizing. You had a right to be angry,” Hank said indignantly.
“Yes, I did. And now I have a right to accept his apology and get on with things. Come along, then. We have a lot to accomplish and only about half an hour before we meet Milos and Mr. Boedecker.”
The men stared at her as though she’d gone daft, but she didn’t have time to explain her revelations.
“Great idea. Come on, guys,” Kerry Lynn said, tugging the prince toward the pickup truck. “I’ll bet you’ve never ridden in the back seat of a dually.”
He gazed fondly at her. “No, I haven’t.”
Gwendolyn watched Hank glare at their retreating backs. “Please, try to be considerate,” she said. “I think your anger at Prince Alexi may hurt Kerry Lynn more than help her.”
Hank turned to face her, still frowning. “Is that what you think this is about? Kerry?” He shook his head. “I’m madder than a wet hen because of the way he treated you, not Kerry.”
“I’m fine, really.”
“You deserve more than his irresponsible actions and a halfway sincere apology.”
“He truly is sorry, Hank. I’ve known him for years, and believe me, I can tell more about what he’s thinking and feeling than you.”
“So that’s supposed to reassure me?”
“No, I’m just explaining. Alexi and I are old friends, much like you and Kerry. I care for him as a friend, and yes, he’s hurt my feelings before. I’ll get over it.” She swallowed and put on her best professional smile to hide the fact her heart was ripping in two. “What I won’t be able to forget is your anger. I don’t want to part like this.”
He looked at her blankly a moment, as though her words made no sense. “You’re not gone yet.”
“No, but I will be. Things will progress rapidly today, and I’m afraid we won’t have time alone.”
“Wendy, don’t—” He reached for her, but she headed for the truck.
“And we will need to keep to a strict schedule to assure the press the prince is recovering from his cold, and you and Kerry were together all along, and you’ve just met the prince when the two of you shake hands for the photographers.”
“Don’t leave like this. We need more time.”
“I’m sorry,” she said as she kept on walking, unshed tears burning her eyes, “but our time has run out.”
HANK COOLED HIS HEELS at the Dairy Queen in San Marcus with Kerry Lynn while the prince showered, shaved and dressed in his designer clothes. He was bound to look different than he had this morning, when they’d met up behind the barn. Hank had the strangest feeling he was looking in a mirror, seeing the prince dressed in jeans and a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up, with his arm around Kerry Lynn.
“How much longer?” she asked after taking a long sip of her Oreo Blizzard.
Hank glanced at his watch. “Five minutes.” He ran his hand over his bristly jaw. “I sure wish Wendy would have let me shave. I feel like the back end of a porcupine.”
“The scruffy look makes you seem different from the prince.”
“I know, but I’d be a heck of a lot more comfortable in clean clothes and no beard.”
“We’ve had a wild weekend, remember? You’re not supposed to look well groomed.”
He looked at her long and hard, like he would a sister who’d spent four days with some guy she’d just met. “Is that what you and the prince had—a wild weekend?”
“None of your business,” she said, slurping the last mouthful of Blizzard from the cup.
“What does your momma think about all this?”
Kerry suddenly looked uncomfortable. “We haven’t had time to talk. She’d already left when I took Alexi by the Café. You know I didn’t see her after the graduation ceremony, mainly because I knew you would find me and I’d have to explain everything. I didn’t want to get into all that in the crowd.”
“She was worried about you when I went to see her at the Four Square Café Friday.”
“I’m a grown woman, Hank, not some silly teenager. I’ve worked damn hard the past ten years and I deserved this short vacation.”
“Is that all it was?”
She sat her empty cup in the drink holder, her expression pained. “That’s all it can be, Hank. He’s a prince. Do you realize how far apart we are in every way that matters?”
He gripped the steering wheel to keep his fists from clenching. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
Kerry looked up at him with those big green eyes of hers. “Because of you and Lady Gwendolyn?”
He took a deep breath and looked away. “I suppose. But like you said, we’re worlds apart.”
“Maybe she’d stay if you asked real nice.”
“I asked. She wasn’t buying.”
“I’m sorry. Maybe it’s for the best, though. I mean, she’s an English lady and she’s used to the life she has at the palace in Belegovia and in those drafty old manor houses back home. She’d probably last a month in Texas before she went running back to Europe.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right.” But he sure as hell would have liked a chance to find out.
They sat in silence for a moment, then Hank reached for the keys and cranked the engine. “Let’s get going. Sittin’ in the Dairy Queen and commiserating on our troubles is too depressin’.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s get this show on the road.”
He pulled the dually out of the parking space and headed back to Ranger Springs.
His greatest acting challenge hadn’t been convincing the governor of Texas that he was a foreign prince, nor had it been pretending to converse with an Italian contessa. No, his greatest acting challenge would be to hide the fact he was in love with Lady Gwendolyn Reed.
THE GAZEBO ON THE TOWN square in Ranger Springs was draped in red, white and blue crepe paper. The Fourth of July Festival committee had been pressed into service early this year, stapling and taping the annual decorations in place in the middle of May. A microphone had been positioned inside the gazebo for speaking to the crowd of citizens and reporters who had gathered. On one of the benches inside the gazebo, Travis’s friend and neighbor, Hank McCauley, sat beside Kerry Lynn Jacks, who didn’t look real happy to be here this afternoon. Hank looked kind of scruffy, as though he’d just gotten out of bed, which was strange. Hank never appeared in public without a good close shave. Something odd was happening here besides a royal visit.
Frankly, Travis thought as he gazed out at the audience, there were more reporters than curious spectators. He hadn’t seen that many cameras since he’d taken his niece and nephew to Disney World. There were two news crews with video equipment, one from San Antonio and one from Austin. He suspected there would have been more except for the hurried nature of this visit.
Mrs. Jacks stood nervously near the entrance to the gazebo. Dr. Ambrose Wheatley and his wife Joyce stood beside her, and Thelma Rogers tested her own voice into a black cassette recorder she held in one hand.
Police Chief Ethan Parker looked very official despite the fact his wife Robin leaned against him. Dr. Amy Wheatley walked over and began a conversation, and Ethan laughed. Grayson Phillips, Dr. Amy’s husband, walked over from his silver Lexus and joined the group.
Travis was glad he didn’t have a woman leaning on him, although he had to admit that everyone looked very happy. Still, some men were cut out for happily ever after, and some weren’t. He’d tried and failed; he wasn’t ready to get tied down again.
Just when he was getting real restless, thinking about all the couples surrounding him, a buzz started in the crowd. A black Land Rover drove up, the tinted windows making it difficult to see who was sitting in the back seat. Judging from the snap of the cameras, there wasn’t any doubt—this was the prince of Belegovia and his entourage.
Paparazzi rushed forward, crowding against the thin barrier of rope strung up to make a walkway from the curb to the gazebo. Ethan Parker’s two patrol officers stood nearby, ready for crowd control, just in case any of the European photojournalists got too pushy.
A real pretty, real classy lady got out of the left side of the Land Rover’s back seat. She wore a dark suit and black pumps. A small man, a real spiffy-looking guy who looked like he might be a butler, got out of the front. Then the other back door opened and the man everyone had come to see stepped onto the concrete sidewalk of Ranger Springs, Texas. Dressed in a dark suit, red tie and shiny Italian shoes, he looked like a model for GQ.
Travis glanced over at Mrs. Jacks. She looked like she might faint at any minute. Maybe he ought to stand beside her, just in case. The woman had a serious case of royal fascination. He pushed his way through the crowd as Prince Alexi walked in front of his entourage toward the gazebo.
He was a good-looking man. Of course, he could have been Hank’s twin, so he was bound to be handsome as the devil. He didn’t have Hank’s laughing eyes and easygoing grin, though. This man looked tall, lean and powerful in every sense, as if he knew he’d been born to money and position. Which, of course, he had.
The prince stopped in front of the mayor and city leaders, shaking hands and speaking softly while the cameras continued to click away. The citizens of Ranger Springs had joined in with their disposable cameras, ancient 35 millimeters, and even a few Polaroids. The next-day photo service at the drugstore was going to be real busy tomorrow.
Travis glanced up at Hank and found him standing, grim-faced, beside a nervous Kerry Lynn. Nervous? Why in the world would she be nervous? Travis seriously doubted meeting a prince, even one as single and handsome as Alexi Ladislas, would cause concern from the feisty waitress. And why wasn’t Hank putting on his good ol’ boy charm? Something was seriously wrong here, but now wasn’t the time to ask.
Finally, the prince made his way up the steps to the gazebo. Hank stepped forward and shoved his hand at the visiting dignitary. The prince smiled and clasped it. Travis got the impression the two men were each trying to crush the other’s hand. Again, he couldn’t figure out why. They finally parted and Kerry Lynn stepped forward, extending her hand. Damn, she looked like she was going to cry. Instead of shaking her hand, the prince leaned forward and kissed first one cheek, then the other, in the European manner. He seemed to linger a little too long, though, and Kerry Lynn’s eyes got all misty.
Was the prince putting the moves on Kerry Lynn, right in front of Hank? And why was Kerry Lynn with Hank if he’d been off with another woman for four days? None of this made any sense.
The natty little man stood to one side, but the good-looking classy woman stepped forward. She stood straight and fairly tall. With brisk movements she extended her hand, first to Hank, then to Kerry. Hank looked tense enough to chew nails.
Something strange was happening inside that gazebo.
The mayor stepped up to the microphone and droned on about how happy everyone was to welcome visiting royalty. He then introduced Lady Gwendolyn Reed, public relations director for the monarchy of Belegovia.
The tall woman advanced up to the microphone. She looked real professional, but a little tense also.
“Good afternoon. Thank you for coming today to our impromptu trip to the heart of the Texas Hill Country.” Her accent was British upper class rather than European.
A murmur of excitement and approval swept through the crowd before she continued. “As you may know, Prince Alexi of Belegovia has been on a visit to your wonderful state. Unfortunately, he has suffered from laryngitis and a cold during the last few days. His doctor recommended he rest his voice and recuperate at the hotel in Austin. During this time, certain unprofessional journalists erroneously reported that the prince was not in his hotel room.”
Another murmur went through the crowd. Even Travis knew about the tabloid story that had stated that the prince was having a torrid affair with a Texas gold-digger. A grainy photo of Hank and Kerry Lynn, taken off some Internet Web site, had appeared with the story, along with more recent photos of Hank going into the Four Square Café, looking a bit shifty.
“In addition to visiting this lovely town, the prince would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight. It is my privilege to introduce His Highness, Prince Alexi of Belegovia.”
A round of applause and a few whistles went up from the crowd. The cameras started clicking again. Mrs. Jacks looked real pale. Travis put one hand under her elbow just in case she decided to pass out on the grass.
“Thank you,” the prince said, putting up his hands to stop the applause. He smiled, flashing white teeth and a winning grin. “I am very happy to be with you today,” he said, his voice still raspy. He placed a hand on his throat. “I hope you don’t have any trouble understanding me because I truly am hoarse.”
The crowd applauded. The prince smiled, then continued. “We are often plagued by rumors and false reports from certain disreputable journalists. As a member of the royal family, I have learned to tolerate this. However, the tabloids have now involved an innocent young woman, and this I will not tolerate.”
A huge cheer went up from the crowd of spectators. The professional photojournalists continued to click away. “I have just met a man who looks enough like me to be my twin, Mr. Hank McCauley. Also, I have learned that Miss Kerry Lynn Jacks, who is a friend of Mr. McCauley, has recently returned to town from a trip to visit relatives.”
Although his voice seemed to have lost the hoarseness he’d begun with, he seemed to have a sudden relapse. When he began speaking again, he sounded more gravelly. “As you can see, the resemblance between myself and Mr. McCauley has led to some unfortunate speculation from the media. I sincerely regret the inference that Miss Jacks is involved.”
Suddenly, everything made sense. Hank leaving the ranch. The prince getting laryngitis. The tabloid reports.
Another big cheer rang out. Prince Alexi had obviously won the hearts of the Texans watching. As Travis glanced at Kerry Lynn, he got the distinct impression he might have won her heart, too. When he looked at Hank, he saw a man hurting…and watching the pretty, classy English lady like she was tearing him apart.