She really must have fancied her English stud if she would go to such lengths as to drown her sorrows in wine over him. What man was worth it?

"Your Highness?" Alexa murmured carefully, making sure.

There was no response.

Her heart thumping, Alexa reached down and gently brushed back some of Her Highness's wild raven curls, revealing her tear-stained face.

The princess was in dreamland, just like her guards soon would be.

Alexa's pretty face hardened. Perfect. Now all she had to do was smuggle the princess out of the palace. Thanks to Colonel Knight's revelation of the secret tunnel leading out of the wine cellar, Alexa knew the route to take. She had investigated it earlier on her own, making sure her plan would work.

It was not going to be easy tugging her friend along through that dark, rocky tunnel, but once they reached the stable, she could easily spirit Sophia away in the back of her curricle. The drugged royal was in no shape to fight her.

"First things first," she said to herself under her breath. Obviously Sophia could not go out in her dressing gown.

Alexa shook Sophia by her shoulder, rousing her from the depths of her slumber. She knew she would have to help dress her mistress for their excursion, just as she had a.s.sisted her so many times before-only more so this time, thanks to the laudanum.

If anyone saw them making their way down to the wine cellar, Alexa planned to insinuate that Her Highness was drunk. No one would have any trouble believing that, given the fireworks display between Sophia and Colonel Knight earlier today. Most of the courtiers had witnessed their pa.s.sionate lovers' quarrel, and tonight the palace still buzzed with the gossip; Alexa did not think anyone would find it all that strange that the outrageous princess had spent the evening trying to forget the lover she had banished with a bottle or two of expensive champagne.

That, indeed, would be Alexa's explanation for anyone who saw them heading for the wine cellar, with herself acting the part of the dutiful companion, watching out for her distraught highborn friend in her state of intoxication.

Some of the kitchen staff might still be on duty tonight when the ladies pa.s.sed through on their way to the wine cellar, but Alexa trusted that, like good servants, they would see nothing.

By morning, it would be too late for them to report the ladies' visit to the wine cellar, for, by then, the two of them would be long gone. Alexa supposed that the truth of her guilt would be known as soon as the bodyguards woke up, but she could not think about that right now.

Her new life in France would be worth it.

She shook Sophia's shoulder again, determined to get this unnerving night over with. "Your Highness, wake up!"

The dose of laudanum she had poured into the wine was too strong to restore Sophia to a state of clarity, but Alexa's efforts to rouse her finally succeeded in bringing the princess to a groggy state of semiconsciousness.

"What's the matter?" Sophia slurred. Her eyes focused enough to make out Alexa. "What do you want with me? I'm not speakin' to you."

"I know you're angry," Alexa said with an angelic look. "But I've come to make it up to you! You must get up, get dressed! Lord, how much did you drink?"

Sophia growled at her and started to roll over to go back to sleep. "Leave me alone."

"You don't understand-Colonel Knight is waiting to see you!"

"Gabriel?" she breathed, dragging one glazed eye open in question.

"Yes, he sent me to fetch you! He wants to see you, Your Highness. He's waiting to apologize."

"Oh...Gabriel," she uttered in a plaintive moan.

"You won't disappoint him, will you? We must go to him."

"Where is he?" Sophia mumbled in confusion.

"He's waiting for you just outside the castle grounds. The soldiers won't let him through the gates now that you've dismissed him. He is distraught over you, the poor man!"

"Oh, Gabriel."

"Will you let him speak his piece? Your Highness, he said if you do not come to him at once, then he will know you do not love him-"

"But I do!" she whispered with a bleary stare full of misery.

"I know you do. I realize that now. That's why I want to help the two of you, to make it right. Sophia, he said if you do not go to him tonight and give him some shred of hope that you care, he will know he means nothing to you and will never seek you out again."

"Never?"

"That's not what you really want, is it?"

"Oh,...no." Sophia struggled to sit up, rubbing her head with one hand as she wove unsteadily. She looked so helpless and uncertain, in all, so un-Sophia-like in her drugged state, that Alexa was nearly overcome with guilt. "I love him," the princess uttered barely audibly.

"And he loves you." Alexa chased off her momentary faltering, reminded anew of how unfair her own life was.

It wasn't enough that Sophia got a crown and half the world bowing and sc.r.a.ping to her; she also got the devotion of a man like Gabriel Knight. Alexa did not feel at all sorry for her royal mistress in that moment.

Instead, she reserved her pity for herself alone. "Come. We have to get you dressed so you can see him."

"Yes. Let us go. Oh, Lord-I'm drunk, I fear. The wine gave me such a headache tonight! I feel so strange..."

"You didn't eat any supper," Alexa reminded her. "You were too upset."

"I s'pose you're right. Help me, Alexa. The room is spinning."

"Of course," Alexa murmured, helping her wobbly friend to rise from her bed. "I've already got your clothes ready."

She dreamed she was in Gabriel's arms and he was rocking her slowly like that night in his bed...

She could almost taste the salt of his skin, or perhaps it was the flavor of the tears that streamed down her face as he made love to her, whispering that he'd never leave her again.

The dream changed.

She was locked in an icy castle, banished alone beyond the sea, screaming his name from the highest tower. She paced the battlements with a sword in her hand like a warrior queen, heedless of the piercing cold, but she was frantic with the fear that she would never see her mate again.

The urgency that invaded her sleep tightened her body, her head jerked against the unfamiliar-smelling pillow, and all of a sudden, the distant but still piercing cry of a bird awoke her decisively.

At once she winced and brought one leaden hand up to her head. She was thoroughly groggy, her skull throbbing as though someone had clubbed her. Her mouth was painfully dry.

The salty smell from her dream still lingered.

As she dragged her eyes open, it took a moment for her fuzzy gaze to focus. G.o.d, how much wine had she ended up drinking?

She did not remember giving way to quite so much intemperance. But as her vision cleared, she stared without recognition at the cramped wooden s.p.a.ce in which she found herself. Another bird's cry pierced the stillness and made her flinch from her headache.

Was that...a seagull? She furrowed her brow and suddenly realized the whole world was rocking.

Oh, my G.o.d. Where am I?

She sat up suddenly, ignoring a wave of nausea from the pain in her head.

What's happened? What's going on? She quickly pressed her fingers to her skull and felt around for any sign of dried blood, but there was no sign of a bruise or a wound of any kind.

She shoved herself to an upright position and saw that she was in a kind of cot built into a small, cramped s.p.a.ce.

The rocking...she heard the rhythm of waves slapping against a wooden hull. With pure horrified confusion choking her, she forced herself up from the berth and steadied herself against the ship's motion.

Someone must have drugged me.

The last thing she remembered with any clarity was weeping in her pillow over Gabriel. She seemed to remember Alexa talking to her, but looking down at herself, she did not know how she had come to be wearing her dark blue pelisse.

With fingers turned to ice, she felt for her knife by her thigh, but it was gone. There were sc.r.a.pes and bruises on her knees, but she could not remember how she had got them. Panic rose. She closed her eyes and fought with every ounce of her will to steady herself as she realized what had occurred.

She had been kidnapped. Her enemies, whoever they were, had succeeded. G.o.d, please help me.

She had to find out what was going on.

Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and crossed the narrow, grubby cabin to the low door. To her relief, it was unlocked. She opened it and stepped out into a slim pa.s.sageway. Though the boat's slow rocking made her b.u.mp into first one side and then the other, she made her way down the pa.s.sage until she came to a ladder.

She looked up at harsh, gray daylight. She heard voices up there, but she had no idea of who or what she might find. Her heart pounding, she forced herself to climb the ladder with a white-knuckled grip, moving up each rung.

Coming up on deck, she saw seagulls fluttering around the masts and dingy sails. She looked toward the bow at the same time a dark-skinned man with black eyes like polished coal noticed her from across the decks.

He flashed an arrogant, mocking smile.

She wanted to scream but refused to cower. Instead, she kept her chin high and scanned the decks, discovering a whole variety of lethal-looking, swarthy fellows like Barbary corsairs, armed to the teeth. The nearest one had a curved dagger tucked into the broad length of cloth tied around his waist.

Suddenly, her scan of the decks stopped when she spotted Alexa. Sophia let out a low gasp and started forward instinctively. Dear G.o.d, they had captured Alexa, too! Her poor friend had a bad case of the mal de mer, puking her guts out over the rails.

"Alexa!" she called anxiously.

"Well, well, look who's awake," someone said nearer to her in French, grasping her arm.

Sophia shrieked and tried to pull away, cowering from a red-haired man with pale, hate-filled eyes.

He clutched her arm in his left hand and yanked her off balance. "Remember me, madam royal? I hope so, for it was you who left me with this parting gift." He nodded toward his bandaged right arm. "I almost lost my hand because of you, you little b.i.t.c.h."

A small whimper escaped her as she tried to back away.

"Ah, what's wrong? Not so bold now?" He smiled at her while across the decks, Alexa finally managed to gather herself enough to pull her blond head back over the side of the boat.

"Alexa! To me!" she called protectively, but when her green-faced friend glanced over at Sophia, her eyes instantly filled with tears.

Alexa started bawling and turned away, as if she could not bear to look at her.

Standing there, even now, it took Sophia a long moment to comprehend the truth.

Alexa had betrayed her.

"That's right, ma pet.i.te," the red-haired man said in mocking satisfaction. Her mind was reeling with heartbreak, terror, and disbelief, but his grip on her arm jerked her back to attention. "You're ours now."

Her gaze homed in on the necklace he wore. The metal was worked into the same squiggle shape she had seen on the blade of that curved dagger they had found, the one they had given to the Turkish amba.s.sador to investigate.

She fought for all her worth to stay calm and keep her wits about her. "Who are you and where are you taking me?" she demanded.

"In due time, Your Highness. You will see. But if I were you, I wouldn't be in too great a hurry to find out."

She recoiled from his cold laughter, but when she glanced toward the stern of their fast frigate, she saw England fading in the distance.

CHAPTER.

SIXTEEN.

G abriel hadn't gone far.

It had been quite a battle between the two of them, but after being ousted from the castle, he had swung up onto his white horse and retreated only a few miles down the road to regroup and decide on his next move.

He had taken lodgings for the night at the first travelers' inn he had come to, but he was awake again before dawn, hurriedly readying himself to return to the castle. As he dressed in plain civilian clothes with swift efficiency, his mood was one of stoic resolve.

Today he would go back and make it right.

He had any number of reasons to be angry at himself, but Sophia's opinion of him was what mattered. Perhaps having had some time to cool off, she would be ready this morning to hear him out.

His message was simple: She was not getting rid of him that easily. The night he'd spent tossing and turning had helped to make up his mind.

It didn't matter if she didn't love him. It didn't matter if she did not want to be his friend. He didn't need the official post as her head of security; he would still protect her.

Tender words and romantic gestures had never been his forte, but if he had to station himself outside the castle gates like her d.a.m.ned guard dog, he would do it.

The bottom line was that he could not live with himself if anything happened to her.

As he finished strapping his sword and pistols around his waist, ignoring the lumpy bed behind him where he had barely slept and the breakfast he had ordered but could not force himself to eat, he heard a commotion of clattering hoofbeats and shouts outside.

He frowned toward the window.

"Colonel!"

"Colonel Knight!"