Protecting The Princess - Nadine Millard Page 0,50

profusely, though quietly, as pain radiated through his toes.

“What are you doing here?” she spat.

He gazed at her in affronted amazement before his temper rose to match her own.

“I’m rescuing you,” he spat right back.

Her brow rose in superior disbelief, making him feel like an imbecile.

“Oh really?” she sneered. “Thank goodness you were here to watch me climb down a tree. However would I have managed without you?”

Jacob rolled his eyes at her sarcasm.

“If you would have just waited for someone to rescue you, you wouldn’t have had to climb down the damned tree,” he bit out, uncaring that he was swearing at the Crown Princess.

“Well, four days seemed long enough for a supposed elite agent of the Crown to manage to enter one house to rescue one person, so forgive me if I wasn’t in the mood to wait.”

“I didn’t know you were here until yesterday,” he shot at her, annoyed and embarrassed by her singularly low opinion of him. “And when I found out, I came as quickly as I could to—”

“To watch me rescue myself,” she interrupted, her voice saccharine sweet. “My hero,” she drawled sarcastically.

“You are the most ill-mannered, ungrateful person I’ve ever rescued,” he sniffed, mortally wounded by her attitude.

Her jaw dropped as she scowled furiously up at him.

“You haven’t rescued me,” she screeched even in a whisper which, he grudgingly had to admit, was rather impressive. He could only imagine the volume would make his ears bleed if she were free to yell.

“And you’re not going to,” she continued, her chest heaving with outrage. “You might have tricked me into allowing you to interfere with my getaway, Jacob Lauer. But you will not stop me from rescuing myself. Now, get out of my way.”

She made to stomp past him, but Jacob shot out a hand and clasped her upper arm, gently but firmly.

He was not going to allow her to mess up her own rescue. It was as simple as that.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, every inch the princess. “Unhand me at once.”

“No,” he said simply, preparing for her outrage.

“You – I – you – how dare you?” she spluttered, pulling against his hold. All she managed to do was tire herself out.

“Let’s just get out of here.” He tried to coax her into being agreeable, at least until they got to safety.

“I’m not going with you,” she insisted, and the mutinous set to her lips told him that she was serious. “My brother—”

“Your brother is waiting at a safe place nearby for me to bring you back,” he interrupted. “They both are.”

She frowned then blinked in surprise.

“Alex is here?”

“Yes. He is,” he said evenly. “And both of your brothers want you out of here safely, just as much as I do.”

“Christopher sent you.”

Was it Jacob’s imagination, or did she sound ever so slightly disappointed?

“Well, tell him thank you, but I can find my own way out of this without interference from him, or you, or anybody else.”

Jacob closed his eyes and prayed for patience.

She would turn his hair white before he got her the hell out of here.

“I can’t do that,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Why not?” she demanded.

“Because,” he snapped, his temper fraying. “He didn’t want me to be the one rescuing you in the first place, and if I go back without you, he’ll very likely put a bullet in me.”

“Oh,” was all she said, but Jacob could practically see the wheels turning in that baffling head of hers. Then she frowned.

“Why didn’t he want you rescuing me?”

They really didn’t have the time to be standing here discussing this.

Yet Jacob couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk to her without her yelling at him or worse, crying over him.

He laughed, but it was a harsh and humourless sound.

“Because,” he said dully. “I’m the reason you’re here in the first place. I was supposed to be protecting you, Harriet. Not—” He swallowed past a lump in his throat. “Not seducing you and hurting you. Sending you off straight into the enemy’s clutches.”

She was quiet for an age, and Jacob found himself desperately wondering what she was thinking.

“It’s not your fault,” she finally mumbled grudgingly. “I chose to leave with Althea. I wouldn’t let you take me home.”

“You chose to go because of me. You know it. I know it. And the prince knows it.”

“But you’re here,” she said, a look of consternation and something he couldn’t quite decipher lighting her eyes.

“Yes, I am.”

“So, he changed his mind?”

“I can’t say that