Protecting The Princess - Nadine Millard Page 0,54

from this distance, Harriet could see a sadness behind the expression.

Before she could react, he was gone.

“Ah, Lauer. Have things progressed sufficiently with Tallenburg?”

Jacob struggled to get his mind on the meeting at hand and away from the solitary figure of Princess Harriet, clad in pink, standing in the window.

Even from a distance, her beauty had taken his breath away.

Being this close to her, yet so far away in every way that mattered, was torture.

And Jacob wanted, quite desperately, to get away.

“Hans has things well in hand, Your Royal Highness,” he answered, taking a seat when the prince resumed his behind the oak desk.

“I’m glad that we’ve managed to keep it relatively under wraps,” the prince said. “The Furbergs will keep their title, and Althea will avoid gaol. I think that should be enough incentive for them to remain discreet.”

Once more, Jacob was amazed by the prince’s stoicism.

If he’d discovered that Harriet had betrayed him in such a way, he’d have been destroyed.

Yet Prince Christopher spoke as though the lady were nothing more than a troublesome stranger.

“I expect that Hans will be done by week’s end, Prince Christopher. And no doubt ready for his next assignment.”

“That brings me to your next assignment.”

Jacob’s heart thumped heavily, yet outwardly he remained calm.

He wanted this, he reminded himself. He wanted to be sent away from the agony of being close to Harriet and not able to make her his wife.

“So soon,” he managed to say when the prince remained quiet. Watchful.

“I’m afraid the matter is something of a delicate nature.” The prince leaned back, steepling his fingers and regarding Jacob with an assessing, black gaze.

A delicate nature.

That was how he’d referred to the assignment of protecting Harriet.

Jacob couldn’t even claim he’d done a good job of that.

Yet, if the prince were already assigning him something else, he clearly didn’t hold Jacob’s behaviour against him.

Truth be told, he had thought he’d be coming here to answer deuced uncomfortable questions and then be thrown out on his arse.

“Forgive me, Highness,” Jacob said. “I thought that perhaps, after Gant. After the princess,” he prevaricated slightly before deciding that bluntness was his best option. “To be frank, I wasn’t sure if you’d trust me with a delicate matter.”

“Yes, well as to that, I believe this assignment can only be carried out by you.”

Jacob frowned in confusion.

“The princess,” Prince Christopher began and this time, Jacob was sure he hadn’t managed to keep his face expressionless given the small smile that played around the prince’s face. “It’s as I thought then,” he muttered more to himself than to Jacob.

“The princess has decided that she’d like to travel to England. Lydia, that is to say the Countess Huntsforth, is expecting.”

It certainly wasn’t common for gentlemen to discuss such things, yet Jacob was too intrigued to worry about propriety, and clearly the prince had no scruples about it.

“Princess Harriet wants to be there to see the babe. And you and I both know that forbidding it will only put her in danger.”

Wasn’t that the truth? Jacob shuddered to think of what she’d manage to get herself into trying to sneak to another country.

He’d rather lock her in that tower he’d threatened her with the night of her sort of rescue.

“Indeed,” he managed, for the prince seemed to be awaiting an answer.

“I need someone to escort her. To keep her safe. To take care of her. And that someone has to be you.”

Jacob’s heart soared before it plummeted.

Spending all that time alone with Harriet was like a gift from the gods.

But it didn’t change the fact that the second son of a count wouldn’t ever be able to have her.

“Forgive me, Your Highness. But why does it have to be me?” he asked, torn between taking the prince up on his offer before he changed his mind, though it was more order than offer, and running as far and as fast as he could.

“I cannot allow Harriet to flit off to other countries alone,” the prince said frankly. “Yet, I know her stubbornness well enough to know that I cannot really stop her.”

Jacob couldn’t stifle his quick grin.

The prince knew his sister.

“The Crown Princess cannot be on a boat for weeks on end either alone or with a man, even if he is there as her guard. I spoke to my father. We are in complete agreement.”

Now Jacob was confused again. Did the prince not want him escorting Harriet?

“Lauer, I’m going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer. Not