Not Fit for a King - By Jane Porter Page 0,1
to be normal. Ordinary. Maybe then I could take care of something, make this nightmare I’m in go away.”
The anguish in Emmeline’s voice made Hannah’s chest squeeze tight. “What’s happened, Your Highness?”
Princess Emmeline gave her head the slightest shake. “I can’t talk about it,” she said, her voice breaking. “But it’s bad … It’ll ruin everything …”
“Ruin what, Your Highness? You can tell me. You can trust me. I’m very good at keeping secrets and would never break your confidence.”
The regal princess lifted a hand to her face and swiftly wiped away tears before turning from the window to look at Hannah. “I know I can trust you. That’s why I’m asking for your help.”
The princess took a deep breath. “Tomorrow, switch places with me for the afternoon. Be me and stay here in the suite and I’ll be you. I won’t be gone long—a couple of hours, four or five at the most—and then I’ll return and we’ll switch back again.”
Hannah sat down in the chair next to her. “I want to help you, but I have to work tomorrow. Sheikh Al-Koury doesn’t give time off, and even if he did, I don’t know the first thing about being a princess.”
Emmeline crossed the rich crimson carpet to take a seat opposite Hannah’s. “Sheikh Al-Koury can’t make you work if you’re ill. Not even he would drag a sick woman from her bed. And you wouldn’t have to leave the hotel. I could book some spa treatments for you tomorrow and you could be pampered all afternoon—”
“But I sound like an American, not a Brabant royal!”
“I heard you introduce your sheikh boss in French yesterday at the polo tournament. You speak French perfectly, without even an accent.”
“That’s because I lived with a family in France one year during high school.”
“So speak French tomorrow. It always throws Americans.” Emmeline suddenly grinned. “We can do this. Bring hair color with you in the morning, a blond color for you and your chestnut color for me, and we’ll do our hair and change clothes and think what an adventure it’ll be!”
There was something infectious in Princess Emmeline’s laugh and Hannah reluctantly smiled back. If Hannah had met the princess in school she would have wanted to be her friend. There was something special about Emmeline, something engaging. “It’d only be for a couple of hours, just tomorrow afternoon. Right?”
Emmeline nodded. “I’ll be back before dinner.”
Hannah chewed the inside of her lip. “Will you be safe, going out on your own?”
“Why wouldn’t I? People will think I’m you.”
“But you’re not doing anything dangerous, are you? Putting yourself in harm’s way?”
“Absolutely not. I’m staying in Palm Beach, not traveling anywhere. Say you’ll help me, Hannah, please.”
How could Hannah say no? The princess was positively desperate and Hannah had never been able to say no to someone in need of help. “I’ll do it, but just for the afternoon.”
“Thank you! Merci!” Emmeline reached out and clasped Hannah’s hand in her own. “You are an angel, and you won’t regret this, Hannah. I promise you.”
CHAPTER ONE
Three days later—Raguva
BUT Hannah did regret it. She regretted it more than she’d ever regretted anything.
Three days had passed since she’d switched places with Emmeline. Three endless days of pretending to be someone she wasn’t. Three days of living a lie.
Hannah should have stopped this yesterday before heading to the airport.
She should have confessed the truth when she could have.
Instead she’d boarded the royal jet and flown to Raguva as if she really was Europe’s most celebrated princess instead of an American secretary who just happened to look like the stunning Princess Emmeline …
Should have, could have, would have …
Hannah held her breath, trying to contain her panic. She was in serious trouble now, and the only way she—and Emmeline—would survive this disaster intact was by keeping a cool head.
Not that remaining cool and calm would be easy given that she was just about to meet Princess Emmeline’s fiancé, the powerful King Zale Ilia Patek, a man rumored to be as brilliant as he was driven, in front of his entire court.
Hannah knew nothing about being royal, or European. Yet here she was, squeezed into a thirty-thousand-dollar couture gown with a delicate diamond tiara pinned to her artificially lightened hair after having spent a long, and very frantic night cramming everything she could learn about Zale Patek of Raguva into her head.
Only a fool would appear before a king and his court, pretending to be his fiancée.
Only a fool, she repeated, knowing