Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch (26 page)

“Queen and country!” the soldiers in front of the mess hall shouted as the fight for the base, and for Valtria, began.

S
HE HAD COME TO VALTRIA
for a fun vacation and found herself in the middle of a war. Hours after she’d made love with a prince.

Life could not get stranger, Judi thought as she sat in the cab of yet another military truck with Miklos. He’d left the taking back of the base to those who’d remained on his side, taking as many as he could, the ones whose loyalty he could personally vouch for—a hundred soldiers—to save his family.

The general had escaped ahead of them.

The wind hadn’t blown the snow clouds this far east yet, so the sky was clear, the full moon reflecting off the sparkling white snow that covered everything.

They were crossing a valley, and as she took in the hillside, she spotted a beautiful building with turrets and towers. It all looked so peaceful that hope leaped into her heart. Maybe there would not be a fight after all. Maybe the general had figured out that he could not stand against Miklos. Maybe he and his traitorous troops had cleared out already and everything was well.

God knew, Miklos was in no shape to lead any liberating forces. He was badly banged up, and she couldn’t remember the last time he might have slept.

“Is that Maltmore?”

Miklos flashed her a funny look, considered her for a long moment as the truck rattled over the frozen ground. He took a minute between giving orders over the radio. He’d been organizing the upcoming fight since they’d left the base. “That’s your castle.”

She stared at him. Okay, obviously, life could get stranger, in fact.

“I don’t have a castle.”

“It’s the Marezzi ancestral seat.”

That took a second to digest. “Why don’t I know about this?”

“You’ll inherit it upon marriage.”

“If this is a trick,” she said before she remembered that he’d already told her that he didn’t want to marry her, so he couldn’t be using this as a bribe or something. Man, but it was hard to think straight under the circumstances.

“Or on your twenty-ninth birthday,” he added. “It’s been held in a trust since your father’s death.”

“I turn twenty-nine next week.” The very thing that had brought her here. She’d wanted to discover her roots. From where she was sitting right now, roots were way overrated. The trip had been a nightmare.

Except for Miklos.

“Then your father’s Valtrian barristers,” he was saying in all seriousness, “will be contacting you with the details next week. You can count on that.”

Okay, then. Sheesh. Why didn’t she think of that? Maybe because inheriting and owning castles fell a tad outside of her life experience. Just a tad.

“Who lives there now?” she asked, marveling that her brain even worked.

“An Austrian nobleman. He’s been a very good tenant.”

“You kept track of that?” How sweet.

“The chancellor usually included a brief note in his annual reports about you.” His face darkened.

And so did her heart at the mention of the strange old man. But she still couldn’t take her eyes from the hillside. Her castle. Seriously. Like nobody in the past twenty-nine years of her life thought she needed to know about this? Aunt Viola had a lot to answer for.

She looked over the white limestone of the walls that seemed to glow in the moonlight. Her. Castle. The place looked like something straight out of a fairy tale.

“How old is it?”

“Five hundred plus. Older than the country you’ve been living in.” He flashed her an amused look.

And she could have cried that she was only now realizing that she had this kind of heritage. Not the money, but the whole country, the people. She often felt alone and lonely in D.C., having no relatives beyond Aunt Viola anywhere near. And now she found out that she had all this ancestry here. It wasn’t the same as having living grandparents and cousins, but it was something.

Then the valley widened and they came upon a castle ten times as large and majestic in the distance.

“Maltmore Castle,” he said.

About to come under siege, she realized as she took in the tanks and military vehicles that surrounded it. She flinched as the first weapons were fired.

“I want you to stay here and stay hidden,” Miklos said as he had the driver pull out of the convoy and stop the truck. “I’ll leave the men with you.”

He got out, and she went after him. Half a dozen members of his platoon were in the truck’s bed. The rest rode in the other vehicles.

“No.” Not that she was heroic. But truth be told, she felt safest with him. He hadn’t let her down yet.

“I’m sorry, princess.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly.

In front of his men.

Some of whom made embarrassing noises.

He glared at them when he pulled back. “That’s not up for negotiation,” he told her. And then he was moving away from her and getting into the back of another truck.

Oh, hell no. He was so not going to leave her behind. She lurched after him, but was caught in quick order. “I’m going with him. Let me go!”

His buddies, every bit as obstinate as the prince himself, wouldn’t release her.

“Do not leave me here!” she shouted after him.

He didn’t even look back.

Fury came first. Then she felt defeated for all of about five minutes. Then looked over her guard. They looked as unhappy as she felt.

For a second, she considered whether to go with nice or nasty. She didn’t feel nice at the moment.

“Boy, you guys must be bad.” She sneered at them. “I guess when it comes to a fight, he really doesn’t want you to be watching his back.”

The men glowered at her. They were big and brawny and more than a little intimidating. She ignored all of that.

“Would this be like a demotion?” she pushed.

Their lips thinned.

“I’m not royal,” she pointed out. “I don’t even feel all that Valtrian. I’m American.”

The look in their eyes told her what they thought of that. Probably that her father was rolling in his grave. She bit back a sigh. It couldn’t be helped.

“What happened to all that Queen and country stuff? Shouldn’t rushing to the Queen’s aid be your first priority?”

If their jaws were any tighter, their teeth would start breaking, she reflected. Murder glinted clearly in a number of eyes. They all wore camouflage gear and were armed to the teeth.

“You’re not going into the fight,” the one Miklos had called Vince said.

“We could go together. You could keep an eye on me and help the Queen.”

“Not going to happen.”

She sulked for a full minute. “I could get away from you, you know.”

“No, you couldn’t.” Vince didn’t look amused.

She took in the six of them. He was right. She couldn’t. “We could pretend I did.”

They went back to glowering.

“I got away from your precious prince.” She wagged her head. Okay, from the inn. And Miklos hadn’t been there at the time, but still, it counted.

She saw at least two sets of lips twitch, and one blond eyebrow shot up before it was brought under control.

“The point is, since I got away from him, he would believe that I could get away from you. So you wouldn’t get into trouble.”

It was a testament to how miserable the men felt at having been left out of the fight that they looked like they were considering her plan.

“If the Queen and the princes are killed, it’s not going to matter whether or not I stay alive,” she said quietly, a dull pain spreading in her chest at the prospect.

If anything happened to Miklos…

He’d left her behind. Oh, he was insufferable. What did she care? Except that she did, and it went beyond not wanting to see anyone get hurt.

Miklos, for all his faults, had reached a spot inside her heart that nobody had ever been able to touch before.

She caught that thought and tried to breathe.

Oh God. She was going mad. She’d only known him for days. It wasn’t possible to fall for someone in such a short amount of time.

Except that she’d felt the connection between them from the first moment.

The sound of gunfire filled the air at the castle.

A battle. She was standing on the edge of the battlefield and desperate to go in there. What was wrong with her? She had lost all reasonable thought. There could be no doubt about that.

She didn’t care.

“Please?” she asked with all the desperation in her heart. “I distinctly remember that Valtria has a history of warrior princesses.”

Their story was one her father had told her when she was little, her favorite, not one she would ever forget. And it occurred to her all of a sudden that they could very well have been the inspiration for her princess video games without her ever having made a conscious connection.

“Remember the warrior princesses?” she demanded.

The men simply glared at her again. They were nothing if not consistent. They were clearly not impressed with her knowledge of the past. In fact, Vince looked annoyed enough to wring her neck himself.

“What will he do to you if you disobey?” she taunted.

“Court martial if he doesn’t like you as much as I think he does,” Joe told her. “If he’s in love?” He shrugged. “He’ll kill us dead.”

“He doesn’t love me,” she protested. The idea was completely ridiculous. “He doesn’t even want to marry me. He told me that.”

They didn’t look convinced.

“You have two choices,” she explained with a patience she didn’t feel. “You don’t go after him to help, and he gets killed. Or you go after him and save him, but he’ll be mad at you and he might come after you. What’s more important, your life or the prince’s? I’m not afraid for my life. Are you that afraid for yours?”

And it looked like she had finally reached them, at last, and she hadn’t underestimated their devotion to Miklos.

After a moment of silent communication between the men, Joe and Vince moved toward the cab.

“Get in the back,” Vince snapped.

H
E KNEW
G
ENERAL
R
OSSI
had to be somewhere at the castle, and Miklos was impatient to catch up with the traitor, but he hadn’t seen the man yet. The general had sent his troops to fight Miklos and his soldiers back at the base, and used the chaos to leave. But, at least while his men were kept busy back there by those who were still faithful to the crown, they couldn’t be coming here, providing backup for the general.

At least Judi was safe, away from all the fighting. Ignoring the pain in his knee, Miklos lunged forward from the cover of his truck and took aim, shot, hit his target. They were making progress. In a few minutes, they would reach the gate.

They had enemies inside, too. The sounds of fighting in the castle yard were unmistakable. That was the enemy he was worried about. The ones closest to his family. They fought with the loyal servants and guards on the inside, while the soldiers who’d gone over to the general’s side were holding off Miklos’s rescue forces.

He aimed and picked off another man.

The last time the castle had seen any fighting was in World War II. A couple of employees had fathers who’d fought to defend this very gate and these very walls, first against the Germans, then the Russians. He couldn’t
stand the thought that the castle could fall to an internal enemy after all it had survived over the centuries. He couldn’t stand the thought of his family in mortal danger in there, while he was out here, making painfully slow progress.

A bullet pinged off the hood of the truck, and he ducked. He limped around the vehicle and saw the sniper on a parapet. His handgun wasn’t up to a job like that, so he swung his rifle off his shoulder.

He’d just finished off the sniper when he turned, his instincts alerting him that someone was coming up behind him.

Judi.

He swore under his breath and glared at his men, who were holding a protective formation around her. “I’m going to shoot you myself,” he told them and had the pleasure of watching those battle-hardened men pale.

Vince shot him a pleading look. “There was no holding her back.”

He shook his head, not that he doubted the truth of the statement. He turned the glare on Judi.

She pulled herself straight. “I’ve got two words for you. Warrior princess.”

And damn if she didn’t look it at the moment. Her eyes flashed with determination, her hair pulled back, her fingers closed around the gun he’d left with her.

“You don’t know how to shoot,” he reminded her, feeling trapped by the moment. She should never have come here.

“You taught me. The safety’s off. All I have to do is
pull the trigger.” She lifted the gun and motioned as she talked.

His men ducked.

He caught her arm and pushed it down. “When the safety’s off, the gun is always pointing to the ground, except when you’re shooting.”

A second of embarrassment flashed across her face, but then she stuck her chin out. “I knew that.”

Defiant to the last,
he thought. And then he thought,
I could fall in love with this woman.

But as the fighting intensified around them, he didn’t have much time to ponder that. And he sure wasn’t going to make any comments on any possible future relationship between the two of them while she had a loaded gun in her hands.

“Keep down, and keep out of trouble,” he told her.

“We’re in the middle of a siege,” she pointed out.

He glared at her. “I know that.”

Then a shout drew his attention, and he realized that the gate had been breached. The truck behind which he’d hidden to shoot moved forward. He, Judi and his men followed in its cover.

“When we reach the inside, there’s a little stone guardhouse tucked into the base of the South Tower. I’m personally locking you in there.”

Which was a good plan, but it didn’t happen that way. He was hit the second he stepped through the gate. The bullet went through his right hand. The gun he held disappeared. But he could see plenty of blood and shards of bone, and in that instant he knew that was the end of the hand and his military career.

His men shoved him into the guardhouse, too hard. Being hit had already thrown him off balance. As he lurched forward, his head cracked against the wall. His ears were ringing as he slid to the ground.