The Lost Prince Read online

  He also wrote a separate letter verifying that he had secretly married Katy. It also named any offspring of their relationship as his heir.

  His education in banking came in handy for once as he drafted the legal documents. At least he hoped they were legal. They’d no doubt come under challenge when they were revealed to whatever government held Baraq at the time. He did his best to anticipate the loopholes and word them in such a way as to leave no doubt about his sanity or his intentions regarding his wife and possible child.

  He read through the drafts in the last remnants of twilight that trickled down to him and made a few changes here and there. In the beginning, his plan had only been about having a baby. But now his concern was also for Katy, to leave her financially secure and able to find happiness on her own terms. Funny how his perspective had changed in so short a time. It was not just about himself and his legacy anymore. Now it was about another human being, too. Apparently old dogs could learn new tricks if put under sufficient duress.

  Katy was trudging back down into the city after a long day, worn out both physically and emotionally. The smells of dinner cooking swirled out of doorways, and the sounds of everyday life wrapped around her.

  It was really hard sometimes to keep up a good front for Nick when every time she saw him she wanted to cry. What a tragedy that the people of Baraq would never come to know him the way she had. Men didn’t come any more honorable than him. His courage in the face of his healing nose and fading bruises—and what they represented—was remarkable.

  Even if the two of them didn’t succeed in creating an heir, she would find a way to tell his story someday, not to let his final gift to the Baraqi people be forgotten.

  A hand touched her arm and she jolted in surprise. A veiled woman stood beside her. “Hanah and her friend send their greetings. Could you come with me for a moment?”

  Katy blinked, startled. “Uh, sure.”

  She followed this new woman into a small pharmacy. They strolled down a row of first-aid supplies that was becoming alarmingly depleted. The usual Western brands were conspicuously absent. Was Sharaf outlawing foreign products now, too? What would be next to go? Baby formula?

  The woman leaned near to whisper, “We have found a route out. Now we must find a passenger.”

  Katy turned her head to stare directly at the woman. “You’re sure it’s safe?”

  The woman nodded.

  Hope flared in Katy’s chest. Was it possible? Was there a way to get Nick out of Baraq alive? At this point, she was willing to entertain any ideas on that subject, no matter how crazy they might be.

  “How?” she murmured as she picked up a bottle of something that might be cough syrup except it was tar-thick and black. What it was, she didn’t want to know.

  “The how is not important right now. What’s vital is that we find him.”

  Katy caught the gaze of the man behind the front counter upon them. She nodded at her companion and smiled pleasantly as if they were chatting about the weather.

  The woman continued, “We know he was in the palace when it fell. He was seen going down. But after that he disappeared. It is believed impossible that he escaped the palace. His last known position was overrun too quickly for that. We believe he may be a prisoner of war.”

  Katy glanced sideways at the woman and picked up a random box off the shelf. Good grief. It looked like an enema kit. She put it back hastily.

  “What do you want from me?” she muttered.

  “Check the prisoner records. See if he’s among them.”

  “I can assure you, if Nikolas Ramsey were listed in our records, he’d be long dead by now.”

  “Then you must search among the prisoners.”

  “And what do I do if I find him?”

  “Tell us. We will do all the rest.”

  Right. Whoever we was. For all she knew, this woman was a spy sent by Sharaf to see what InterAid knew and wasn’t telling him. Katy had no way of knowing if this woman was legit or not. The woman could have tossed out a couple names of suspected Ramsey loyalists to throw Katy off and could be, in fact, a hardcore Sharaf supporter.

  What a mess. Even if someone wanted to and maybe even could help Nick, she had no way of distinguishing them from those who wished Nick ill.

  She grabbed what she thought was a bottle of aspirin and headed for the checkout with it. The way the proprietor had been eyeing them, she figured she better buy something or else the guy would surely report her to Sharaf’s men. And that was the last complication Katy needed right now. Her life was already messy enough.

  The man wrapped her purchase in a piece of brown butcher paper and gave her a handful of change. She kept her eyes downcast, as was expected nowadays, as she took her change and mumbled her thanks. Sheesh. What a demeaning way to have to live. It only took a single moment of being forced to act like this to erase any doubts in her mind about the rightness of what she was doing with Nick.

  She might have chosen the more dangerous path, the one that led to certain heartbreak. But it was also the path free of regrets and filled with the satisfaction that she hadn’t sat by in the face of suffering and injustice and done nothing.

  The next two weeks settled into a routine for Nick. He started growing a beard in hopes that it might buy him a day or two. He slept and ate. And he lived in a slow motion of suspended animation until Katy came to him, and then the minutes flew by at light speed until she had to go again. With her InterAid partner’s help and the cooperation of the guard Riki, they managed to grab a few extra minutes together here and there. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it was sufficient to keep him from going stark raving mad. And hopefully it was enough to have planted a baby in her womb. He chose to believe they had succeeded at that because the alternative was unthinkable.

  Katy didn’t know how Nick kept from losing his mind. She lived on the ragged edge of losing it herself—and she had plenty of work to keep her busy in the times between her visits with him.

  Her life was divided into Nick and everything else. Everything else was a gray fog that she waded through unconsciously until it was time once more to go bask in the bright sunlight of Nick’s love for her.

  She measured the passage of time by how long it had been since she’d seen Nick and how long it was until she’d see him again. She made mental notes of all the details around her so she could describe them to him. She picked out her clothes with Nick in mind. She brushed her teeth for him. She ate and slept for him. Breathed for him.

  He was an addiction in her blood. She knew it was dangerous to be with him. She knew their relationship could get them both killed. She knew it was inevitable that he would be discovered. But none of it mattered. The more she was with him, the more she craved him.

  Her feelings for him grew past love. Past obsession. She felt as though she were gradually becoming one with him. When she was away from him, she imagined that she could feel his aches and pains, the hard, cold ledge he slept on, the coolness of water in his throat when he drank.

  The guards grew accustomed to her routine, and nobody seemed to question the extra time she spent with Prisoner 1806 each day. Thankfully the veil hid her face when she emerged from his cell. She didn’t think she was capable of hiding the ecstasy of making love with him or the agony of leaving him.

  It was after one such leave-taking when Katy was surprised to see Don Ford walk up to her in the gloomy corridor, and not Larry.

  “Ah, there you are, Katy,” he said politely. “The invisible aid worker.”

  Katy blinked, alarmed. Uh-oh. What did her boss want? She cast back over her reports and forms. She was pretty sure she’d been doing all her work as she was supposed to.

  Don took her by the arm and escorted her past the phalanx of guards and out into the city. “Walk with me,” he ordered.

  They strolled through the bazaar, dodging blankets on the ground with wares spread on them. It smelled of spices, greasy food and animal dung. It was intriguing and repellent at t
he same time.

  “What’s going on with you?” Don asked her abruptly.

  “What do you mean?” Katy replied carefully. “Is there something wrong with my work?”

  “Not at all. Your work’s fine. Larry tells me you’ve forged a relationship with one of the prisoners. How’s that going?”

  “Fine,” she mumbled, begging her face not to blush.

  “Learning anything interesting?”

  Katy choked. She’d been learning some very interesting things indeed. Nick was nothing if not an inventive lover. Nick had also done as he’d said he would and learned bits and pieces about how the other prisoners were faring. How he did that, she had no idea.

  “Uh, the last few interrogations of prisoners have been more violent than usual.” Katy glanced around for soldiers before she continued under her breath, “Apparently the regime’s having some internal troubles or maybe has gotten wind of something among the prisoners it doesn’t like.”

  Don gave her a sharp look. He leaned over to look at a carved clay pipe and murmured as he passed close to her, “Your contact is right. I don’t know what it is, but the Army’s got a burr up its—er, they’re hot and bothered about something.”

  Panic flitted in Katy’s breast. Oh Lord. What if they’d heard a rumor that Nick was still alive? If random strangers on the street were whispering to her about it, odds were the Army had heard the rumor, too. Could the Army have renewed its search for him? Over the past week that had seemed to die down a bit.

  “Do you have any idea what it could be that’s got the Army so worked up?” she asked, her heart in her throat.

  “None. I was hoping you could tell me.”

  She never had been able to lie worth a darn. Nonetheless, she gave him her best innocent look, shook her head and hoped he bought it.

  Don murmured, “I can tell you this, though.” He spoke so quietly she had to turn her ear to his mouth to hear him. “I’m having to jump through hoops and negotiate my butt off to keep the regime from slaughtering the prisoners wholesale. I just spent two hours talking General Sharaf out of it. Again. This is the third time he’s declared he’s going to kill them all, down to the last man.”

  Sick dread settled in Katy’s stomach. Sharaf knew. The general knew Nick was alive and masquerading as a common soldier among the prisoners. Why else would he abruptly decide to kill them all?

  “Did you have any indication the regime would take such a hard line with the prisoners when we first came to Baraq?” she probed.

  Don shook his head. “That’s what’s so strange. They seemed interested in having us here and in establishing themselves as a legitimate and reasonable government. That’s why this one-eighty turnabout is so troubling.”

  Katy stumbled over the edge of a blanket and Don caught her arm, steadying her. He stopped and turned to face her.

  “Katy, do you have any idea at all what could have brought about this sudden change of heart in the Army?”

  She stared down at the ground, her heart torn in two. If she told Don the truth—that the Army was trying to eliminate Nick—Don could save the other prisoners. But to do so, he’d have to reveal Nick’s identity.

  Her heart and her conscience wrestled within her, shredding what little composure she had.

  She knew what Nick would want her to do. He’d tell her to save his people. He was going to die anyway. It was only a matter of time.

  Except she just didn’t want his time to be up yet. She wasn’t ready to let him go!

  Unable to keep her eyes from filling with tears, she replied, “I’ll talk to my contact and see what he says. Maybe he’s heard something from one of the other prisoners.”

  Don nodded solemnly. “Thanks. I appreciate it. And Katy?”

  She looked up at his blurry face.

  “A piece of advice. You’re going to get hurt if you get too involved with these prisoners. You’ve got to pull back emotionally.”

  As if she could do that!

  He continued, “Frankly you’re already too involved. I ought to pull you out and send you home right now. But I need what your contact knows.”

  He scuffed his feet and looked at her candidly. “I’m walking on a razor’s edge here. Two thousand men’s lives depend on me talking a mob of power-drunk soldiers out of massacring their prisoners. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off Sharaf.”

  “You’ll find a way. I know you will.” She added desperately, “You have to.”

  Chapter 8

  Katy stood outside Nick’s cell door, staring at the ancient wood in dread. Her heart said not to tell him. Her head told her in no uncertain terms to tell him everything. Except if she told Nick the Army wanted to kill all the prisoners to get him, he’d call a guard instantly and reveal who he was.

  Telling him the truth was the right thing to do. The honorable thing. The noble thing. But, dammit, she didn’t want to be honorable or noble! She wanted Nick to live a few more days. She needed a few more stolen hours in his arms. She hadn’t stored up enough memories of him yet to see her through an entire lifetime.

  She was being selfish. Worse, she was jeopardizing the lives of two thousand men. She’d met many of them in the course of doing her job. Knew them by name. Knew about their families, how afraid they were, how badly they just wanted to get out of prison and go home.

  The choice was tearing her in two. She wanted to crawl into bed and bury her head beneath a pillow until it all went away.

  Riki pushed the door to cell 1806 open while her internal battle raged. Glumly she stepped inside and listened to the door clang shut behind her.

  Nick stepped forward with a smile that faded as soon as he looked her in the eyes. “What’s wrong?” he demanded.

  “Nothing,” she mumbled.

  “Bull.”

  She froze. Busted.

  But he let her off the hook. He leaned back and looked down at her fondly. “Have I told you today that I love you and you’re beautiful?”

  She smiled in spite of herself. “You haven’t and I’m not.”

  “I do and you are. I love your smile.”

  She gazed back at him sadly. “I love your smile, too. And your eyes. And your heart. And your sense of humor. And your honor….”

  Fortunately he didn’t seem to notice the way her voice caught on that one. He led her over to the ledge and urged her to sit upon it. He knelt, took off her shoes and socks and commenced rubbing her feet.

  “Relax, darling,” he murmured.

  She groaned in pleasure as the heel of his hand dug into the arch of her foot. His hands drifted higher, to her ankle and lower calf, kneading away a long day spent mostly on her feet. Inch by inch, he moved higher, gradually melting away every last bit of tension in her body. At some point he invited her to lie down on her stomach and he proceeded to give her the most amazing back rub she’d ever experienced. She was completely boneless by the time he finished.

  She rolled over on her back to gaze up at him. The bruises on his face were fading to yellow. Like leaves on the trees, the changing colors marked the coming end of their brief summer together. She knew the swelling of his nose under the bandage to be almost gone. Once the black eyes went away, he’d look almost like his normal, gorgeous self again. And then someone would realize who he was.

  “Are you displeased with what you see?”

  She blinked. “Are you kidding? If you weren’t a king you could be a male supermodel. You’re turning into one of the most handsome men I’ve ever seen.”

  “Aah. And that’s the problem. I’m starting to look like myself again. Thank you for the compliment, by the way.”

  She reached up to stroke his cheekbone above the short beard covering his jaw. He wasn’t shaving in hopes that the beard might buy him another few days. “You’re such a good person,” she murmured.

  “Me? Until the last few weeks, my greatest accomplishments in life have been the scoreboard of fast women and fast cars I’ve collected and crashed. I’ve do
ne a whole lot of things I’m not proud of and very few I am proud of.”

  “Maybe, but in the end you did the right thing. You came home when your father died and you took up your responsibility.”

  He laughed with scant humor. “Yeah, and look where that landed me.”

  “Oh, Nick,” she cried out softly. “If only we had more time together. It’s just not fair!”

  He gazed down at her, wisdom far beyond his years glowing in his golden eyes. “Life is rarely fair, my love. You just have to take what comes and make the best of it.”

  “And what’s the best thing for you? For us? Is it right that you’re going to die because of who your father was? You never even got a chance to be king. If you were a despot and oppressed your people, a coup would be one thing. But you’re not like that at all. It makes no sense for you to die.”

  Nick rolled to his side and gathered her close in his arms. “You’ll drive yourself mad if you try to make sense of this, Katy. Nothing about this situation is sensible. We just have to accept what is.”

  “Why? What if you found another way to disguise yourself? There are people outside these walls trying desperately to find you so they can help you escape. Let me contact them and tell them you’re alive.”

  “No!” he said sharply. “You must not tell anyone I am here.”

  “Why not?” she retorted. “Let me help you live.”

  “I will not run away from the situation again. If and when the Army recognizes me, I will stand up and take my fate like a man.”

  Dear God. Was she responsible for his determination to die? If she’d turned him down, said no to his outrageous proposal, would he have fought to preserve the Ramsey line by finding a way to survive this ordeal?

  “Dammit, Nick. This isn’t about being a man. It’s not about proving how brave and noble you are or punishing yourself for your past by letting them kill you. It’s about surviving!”

  Jaw set, he responded with stony silence. But she wasn’t ready to give up yet. She flung more words against the stubborn fortress he’d built around himself.