A Prince's Ransom: Kidnapped by the Billionaire (16 page)

A touch of panic flared in those blue eyes—kinder than her brother’s—and the girl looked apprehensive. “Katherine… you don’t understand the effect you have upon Eric. You should stay …” she tried faintly.

“The effect I have on Eric? What effect? The moments when he’s amused because I’m an uncouth American girl with no manners and no experience in any part of this? You’ve said yourself that you don’t know if I can trust him.”

“I never said—”

“What you did say was close enough and you know it! I can’t trust him, and if I stay here, the chances of me getting hurt are too big to ignore. I don’t want to get hurt this way. He has all of me and he knows it and I
can’t
be hurt that way. Please help me leave, Élise.”

The princess was obviously torn, looking on Katherine’s desperate, tear-strewn face for a long, silent moment. “Maybe you can’t trust my brother. I do not know, when all is said and done, since we are so very far apart from one another. But I think you should stay. I think he will surprise you. If you can’t, if you really feel like you need to leave… then yes, Kat, I will help you.”

Katherine faltered. Was it really so easy as that? All she really had to do was ask?

“But of course you cannot leave in that, the younger girl continued. “Go change into something more practical and I will make up some excuse for going out with you.”

“Thank you!” Katherine gasped, quickly hurrying over to hug her. She knew Élise wasn’t happy, that she didn’t want to do this, but she couldn’t stay here and let her heart get ripped out. Her hug ended as quickly as it had started, then she quickly moved away again. “I’ll go get dressed and meet you downstairs, then?”

“Yes, I will meet you downstairs. I must come up with an adequate excuse first, though, something believable so no one asks too many questions, but I will meet you downstairs,” Élise agreed quietly, reluctantly, and then Katherine hurried out of the room before anything else could be said. She didn’t want to hear anything else right now, no more arguments or reasoning—nothing that would make her change her mind. She knew some things might. Remembering the way Eric touched her, or how he had ridden the horse with her the day before, trying to help her get over her fear of heights. That had still been mean, but there had been something endearing in it too, hadn’t there been?

Even as she had the thought, she shook her head and moved faster down the hall, coiling her fingers tightly into her skirt and taking a deep breath. Eric didn’t deserve that place in her heart when he had drawn her into this hornets’ nest without her permission—and when he knew that she wasn’t equipped to handle it. He had admitted that it was her lack of experience with a royal court that had made him choose her for this project of his. He knew she couldn’t deal with any of this, and she refused to stick around to let him see how far he could string her along with the promise of being with him.

Such thoughts left her almost shaking when she finally made it back to her guest room, and she took a deep breath—even though she was stripping out of her ball gown practically before she’d even gotten into the door. At least corsets weren’t really in style anymore. She wouldn’t have needed one, but the laces of the dress—and the way Élise had tied them up—had left her ribs a little tender. Next was her strapless bra, because screw strapless bras and their annoying, pinchy cups digging into her midriff. Heels were abandoned, jewelry on loan from the princess discarded, then she moved to the wardrobe that held all her new clothes.

She was tempted to stuff some of them into a bag or something and steal them, because they were beautiful and insanely expensive and they fit her perfectly, but Katherine didn’t have time for that right now. Instead, she grabbed a pair of khaki slacks and one of her favorite shirts—dark blue, with dozens of little sequins and gems sewn into a moon and stars, and long, loose sleeves—and pulled it on. Her cellphone was supposedly somewhere in the palace, probably in Eric’s room, but she had no idea where and she didn’t want to try and find it. She had never even seen the inside of the prince’s room, which probably should have told her where she really stood.

Making sure she was leaving nothing behind, Katherine raked a brush through her hair and made sure her mascara wasn’t smeared anymore before heading out. At the very least, Eric still had to keep up appearances for a few more hours; he wouldn’t be able to go check on her when the ball had just started and there was still a dinner. That gave her some time, but all the staff and guards knew she wasn’t supposed to leave without an escort. That was what Élise was for, right? Maybe she wasn’t supposed to go out alone, but she wasn’t alone if she had a princess for company.

Glancing through the halls furtively, she headed calmly toward the main entrance, even though her heart was pounding and she felt a little bit dizzy. Once she made it downstairs, she recognized the hall with the portraits along one side, the hall she’d seen on her tour. That was where she had first seen Eric, where Tara had told her about who he was, and she had… god, where she had made a joke about how she would jump his bones.
Wow, thrilling now that I got that wish
, she thought caustically to herself. Now, she would give just about anything to never have seen him in the first place. Those few moments where she could believe Eric wanted her, cared about her, she wasn’t certain if they were real to begin with.

As she stood in the entrance hall, her gaze kept furtively returning to the stairs where Élise would be coming down. “C’mon, Princess, please hurry up,” she muttered anxiously.

She hadn’t figured out how she would explain all of this when she got back to her tour group, particularly since she wasn’t coming back battered and abused like they would have expected a kidnapping victim to look. The boots she was wearing—not her choice, since her one pair of shoes had mysteriously gone missing while she out shopping—cost as much as her flight. Élise hadn’t even blinked when Katherine had picked them out. God, where was that girl?

“No, no, no,
s’il vous plaît
, I promised Katherine that we would go out to that little ice cream shop in the city,” the princess’s voice echoed from the upper level overhead. “It is my favorite! No matter how good the ice cream in the kitchen is—it will only be half an hour, a full hour at most.”

Katherine looked up toward the top of the staircase where Élise was convivially trying to reassure her bodyguards of going out at this hour; they look unconvinced, but her smile was completely charming and her blue eyes earnest. One of the men glanced down into the main hall, and Katherine waved up at them slightly; he sighed a little bit and shook his head. “Very well, my lady, although I do not see why this could not wait until tomorrow.”

“Ice cream is always better at night,” Élise replied with a laugh, and then all but skipped down the stairs, feigning enthusiasm. As she got closer, her worry was more noticeable in the way she, too, glanced around to make sure they weren’t seen. But Katherine didn’t say anything, turning around with the princess and heading to the front door. “Has the car already been brought around, like I asked?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Ah, good,
merci,
” Élise giggled, and one of the bodyguards moved to open the door for the two girls, allowing them out onto the chilly pathway that led to the palace. The restaurant, further up the road, was obviously still open, although noticeably less busy tonight with all the cars gathered in the path for the ball guests. Even better, right now. The car was the same one they had taken to go shopping, so Katherine noticed it immediately and moved toward it, smiling at Élise a little bit as they all piled into the back. Considering the purpose of the car, the back had two rows of seats even though it wasn’t a very large car; Élise and Katherine sat where passengers normally sat, while one bodyguard sat in back with them, facing toward them. The other bodyguard climbed into the passenger seat up front, and the driver started off toward the entrance of the royal estate. Katherine’s heart was pounding a little bit as the gates slowly opened, and after a few moments she relaxed only a little as they pulled out onto the main street. She turned her head enough to see the bright palace behind them before quickly turning to the princess.

“So, this ice cream place is really your favorite?” she started the conversation vaguely, grasping onto the bits of excuse Élise had made to be able to get them out of the palace.

“
Oui
, I have never had ice cream so smooth or so creamy. I am not certain what the translation would be in English, but it hardly matters. You get to pick the sort of toppings and extras they actually put into the ice cream, not just on top. It is heaven,” she explained with a smile, much more convincing in her belief of where they were going than Katherine was. But then, the bodyguards only really cared about Élise; they were watching Katherine at Eric’s behest, but to them she was undoubtedly just a silly American girl they didn’t want to be babysitting. They probably didn’t know why they were, and didn’t care.

Idle, generic conversation continued during the car ride. The bodyguards were right there within earshot and neither of them wanted to talk about what they were actually doing out of the palace grounds right now. Maybe she would try some of the ice cream before she made her escape. Maybe they should have coordinated how she was going to make her escape before actually being at the point where she needed to flee. Whatever, they would figure it out. Élise was a clever, resourceful girl—a lot like her brother, in some ways, but mostly just more clever than Katherine was.

The driver obviously knew exactly where the ice cream shop was. Katherine imagined that it had more to do with the princess’s fondness for the ice cream than familiarity with the city. As they chatted, Kat’s gaze was fixed out the window, the bright city lights making it easy for her to try and figure out where she was when she escaped. She needed to be able to get back to the hotel and yet she still had no idea how she was going to explain all of this.

The words “international incident” flashed through her mind, making her a little queasy. Dr. Walker had probably called the Montavian police, maybe even the American Embassy. Tara was probably freaking out and desperately trying to call her, even after a few days. She had probably called Katherine’s parents, too. They were roommates, they had been told to give the other person emergency contact numbers just in case. Hopefully her parents hadn’t flown to Montavian. She needed an explanation, but she didn’t have one. How was she supposed to say that the prince of the country had kidnapped her and held her captive for a few days? No one would believe her, regardless of the fancy clothes and makeup she was now carting around. Maybe just something simpler. Something like, she had met a guy and gotten sidetracked as he showed her the city. And lost her phone.

There was no doubt that everyone would be furious with her for that explanation, calling her even more of a slut than they already did and accusing her of being completely irresponsible. It was the only thing she had, though, because she wasn’t going to try and implicate Élise in dealing with that, and it was more important that Eric had no reason to try and find her. She had to believe he wouldn’t try after she’d managed to get away, and with his sister’s help no less.

After fifteen minutes outside of the palace, they were finally pulling up to what was obviously the ice cream shop. It looked obscenely busy for how late it was—but then, this was a city that seemed to thrive on being awake after hours, if her attempt to have fun in a club had proven anything. Had that really been only a few days ago? It felt like years. The shop looked nice, though—packed, but clean and smelling of sugar as they pulled up to the curb and the bodyguard got out to open the door for the girls. Katherine smiled at him a little bit, realizing that they were attracting attention with the official-looking car and the big burly men. That wasn’t good.

What was worse was the attention they suddenly got when Élise stepped out. Though she was clearly used to it, Katherine gasped when there were suddenly shouts alerting the rest of the crowd to the fact that their princess was getting ice cream where they were. A surge of panic made Kat duck desperately behind one of the bodyguards. She couldn’t be seen. She couldn’t be recognized. She couldn’t be put on a cover of a tabloid so that someone she knew might actually realize what had happened.

She felt a rising panic even as Élise smiled and waved at the dozens of camera phones that took her picture. They hadn’t dealt with this when they’d gone out the day before for clothes, but in all likelihood that was because they had only gone to high end places no normal, star-struck tourist would ever be. Katherine swallowed, and reached out to tug the princess’s arm. “Uh, um… I’m gonna go find a restroom. Should have gone before we left, heh…”

Élise blinked, and then nodded a little bit. As nonchalantly as she could, and trying to keep her head down and face obscured as much as she could, Katherine darted inside the ice cream shop. A few people glanced at her, and a few people probably got some pictures of her as she moved, but she was no one to them. They didn’t even seem to care that she’d gotten out of the same car as the princess, and she let out a breath. Inside the packed interior of the shop, she wedged her way through while Élise drew the attention of the crowd, muttering “excuse me” and “pardon me” as they scowled at her briefly.

Finally, she managed to get past the bulk of the crowd, stepping out by the front counter where there was a sign for the restrooms. No one else noticed as she hovered near the door, looking around for a way out. Maybe there was a window in the restroom big enough for her to climb through, but it would be unlikely and she would risk being seen. This place wasn’t a restaurant, it didn’t have a kitchen, but it probably had a back store room or something, maybe a door for employees to go out back.

Her brow furrowed nervously as she peered around people for such a door. It was possible she would be able to just sneak out around the bodyguards; they were glaring furiously at the people who got close enough while Élise took her place in line with everyone else. Some people tried to offer her their spot, but she politely declined them.
Thank you, Élise, for giving her more time
, Élise thought, but then she smiled a little. … Élise was just being the kind of princess who would never jump to the front of the line just because she could.