Protecting The Princess - Nadine Millard Page 0,51

I gave him much of a choice,” Jacob answered.

He knew what she was thinking; Prince Christopher’s choice was the only choice.

Jacob had a decision to make. He could try to charm her, coax her, distract her from her questions.

Or he could come clean. Tell her the truth, even though it wouldn’t make a difference.

“The prince knew I would have come anyway, Harriet. Regardless of whether he allowed it or not.”

“And disobey his orders?” She frowned. “Why on earth would you do that?”

Jacob took a steadying breath and looked straight into her eyes, the eyes that had haunted his dreams for the past four nights.

“Because I needed to be the one to make you safe,” he said. “Because I wanted to be here with you. Because I never wanted to be parted from you in the first place.”

He stepped closer until nothing was separating them, until she had to tilt her head to look up and see the sincerity of his words in his face.

“Because,” he said softly. “I love you.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

“Well, isn’t this cosy?”

Before Harriet’s world even began to right itself after Jacob’s words, another voice sounded in the darkness, and she found herself being moved, quick as a flash, until she was standing behind Jacob.

He was facing away from her, his shoulders tense, all of his focus on the duke, who was strolling toward them.

His appearance wasn’t enough to frighten Harriet.

The revolver he had trained on them, however, was a different matter.

“Now, see what you’ve done?” she whispered furiously to Jacob’s back, since it was the only part of him she could currently see.

“What I’ve done?” He sounded incredulous and furious, though he still didn’t turn around. “We would have been out of here if you had just, for once, done what you were told.”

Harriet hadn’t forgotten what he’d said only minutes ago. The words were embedded in her head, as bright and fantastical as the fireworks they lit at the palace on every royal birthday and occasion.

And she couldn’t even begin to process how she felt about them.

He loved her. He loved her!

And she loved him, too. Desperately.

In spite of the hurt, the anger, the sense of betrayal.

She loved him.

But right now, she could happily wring his neck.

And truth be told, it sounded as though the feeling was mutual.

What sort of person professed his love for a lady and then proceeded to berate her?

“If I had done what I was told? Who are you to order me about?” she demanded hotly. “I was managing just fine without you. Yet still, you felt the need to swan in here and then kiss me as though we had time for that, and now—”

“Silence!”

Harriet had quite forgotten her cousin was there.

She peeked out from behind Jacob’s oversized shoulder to see Augustus staring at them both as though they should be in a lunatic asylum.

“Now, I’d like to know what you’re doing here, Mr.—?”

Harriet wondered how Jacob would handle the situation.

Would he pull a weapon of his own? Reason with her captor?

But, no. To her amazement, he held a hand up to Augustus as though the gun in the man’s hand were of no significance.

“Hold on a minute,” he told her cousin, who stared at him, jaw agape.

In the next instant Jacob had turned to face her, his face a mask of barely bridled fury.

“I kissed you because I love you, you impossible woman. And I have never felt a fear like what I’ve felt with you gone. Even when I didn’t know you were in danger, I was miserable. It felt as though my very soul had left my body when you walked away.”

Harriet’s heart stuttered at his words.

She searched his shockingly blue eyes for a trace of subterfuge, but all she saw was a blazing blue fire. A fire that set off an answering blaze in her.

“Turn back around at once.”

The duke’s jarring, nasally voice interrupted Harriet’s thoughts.

With a frown of irritation, she leaned around Jacob.

“Oh, hush, Augustus,” she snapped. “This is important.”

“But the assignment—” she began, hardly daring to believe what he said.

“The assignment was just that. An assignment. Something I wasn’t particularly happy about. And on the first day, I still wasn’t particularly happy about it. But every day, every second since then were the happiest of my life.”

“Jacob.” Harriet felt her eyes fill as her feelings overwhelmed her.

This was the most romantic—

The distinctive sound of a revolver being prepared for firing interrupted her thoughts. And the moment.

“This is all very touching,” Augustus said sarcastically. “But I’m afraid