Protecting The Princess - Nadine Millard Page 0,45
her home?
The prince hadn’t sent Lady Althea to retrieve Harriet.
And if she’d known to come here, that meant she was the informant in the palace.
They’d always known, or at least suspected, that Tallenburg was behind the attempt. It made sense.
He was mercenary in the extreme and driven by a vendetta against the Wesselbachs that went back a century.
The assassination would have been an attempt to throw Aldonia into chaos, force Prince Christopher to focus more on the politics of home and less on the lucrative business interests of the royal family in Tallenburg.
But they hadn’t been able to figure out how the duke was getting his information before Jacob had been sent after Princess Harriet.
But now he knew—it was Althea Furberg. And he also knew that Prince Christopher could have no idea, for he hadn’t mentioned it.
“I need a fast horse,” he said to the messenger, who was standing mutely beside him. Jacob knew the gelding he’d bought from the farmer would be less than useless at anything more than a slow trot.
The young man merely stared back.
“Where’s your horse, dammit?” Jacob yelled.
He knew he needed to calm down. Knew he was on the verge of panic.
But he couldn’t help himself.
Lady Althea was obviously in league with the duke. And they had Harriet.
Chapter Twenty
As far as kidnappings went, this was one of the most boring Harriet had ever heard of.
Her cousin, the duke, was a disappointing villain. In all of Harriet’s gothic novels there were tales of debauchery, and sword fights, and crazed men locking poor, unsuspecting heroines up left and right.
But this? This was nothing like that.
Her cousin was treating her—well, like royalty.
She wasn’t locked in a tower. She wasn’t being starved or beaten or left in a dank dungeon.
In fact, if she wasn’t here against her will, and if she didn’t have to suffer the company of her cousin and the traitorous Lady Althea, it might be quite pleasant.
There was, however, the small matter of her being unable to leave.
Augustus had guards around both the modest country house in which she was being kept and the rather sizeable grounds.
He’d informed Harriet during one of the dinners he forced her to attend that the house had been a recent purchase. A base from which to carry out his plan.
She wasn’t allowed out onto the grounds. She wasn’t allowed to even spend more than a few minutes alone.
Even now, she only had this time to herself because she’d dashed to the library when Lady Althea wasn’t looking and had been hiding behind a heavy brocade curtain ever since.
But Althea would find her, of course.
Harriet felt a now-familiar spurt of anger when she thought of the other lady.
She’d never wanted Christopher to marry Althea. She’d never thought the statuesque woman was good for Christopher.
But what if he’d loved her? He wasn’t given to displays of emotion, but still—he’d trusted her, of that Harriet was certain.
Althea had spent days now bragging to Harriet about how she’d managed to get information of Harriet’s whereabouts from the prince.
It would appear that the lady had moved from simply sending messages to her lover, to blatantly stealing Christopher’s private correspondence.
Which is how she’d found out about Harriet’s presence here.
Harriet knew she should be worried about her safety.
She knew she should be worried about relations between Aldonia and Tallenburg, and how far her cousin would go to get what he wanted.
But now that she knew her family was relatively safe, she couldn’t help but worry more about Christopher than anything else.
Had his heart been engaged with Lady Althea? Would he be heartbroken?
With Alex happily married, was it the destiny of the other two siblings to be miserable when it came to love?
Christopher had been about to propose to Althea—a lady who betrayed him, not only as a man but as a prince.
And Harriet—Harriet had had her heart broken by a man who had pretended to care for her just so he could stay close and do his job.
A white-hot anger, swift and furious suddenly rose up in her.
Anger was better than sadness. Gritted teeth better than tears.
How dare ghastly Althea Furberg treat Christopher thusly? Harriet simply wouldn’t stand for it.
Althea had such grand plans. She hung on Augustus’ every word, convinced that Christopher would immediately hand over the deeds to every mine Aldonia owned in Tallenburg. Convinced that she and Augustus would run off together and be blissfully happy spending Aldonian money in Tallenburg.
Well, Harriet simply wouldn’t allow it.
Was she furious at Jacob? Absolutely. But her feelings