Prince Incognito Read Online Free PDF Page A

pleaded, her voice trembling. “Let him be. We can leave him at the next port.”
    But the man looked angry, and regarded him with a scowl.
    Straightening to his full height, he returnedthe man’s glare. He couldn’t remember who he was, but he was nearly certain he could take the older man if it came to a fight.
    The man must have realized it, too, because he stepped aside, his mouth set in a grim line.
    She pushed him ahead of her, down the stairs, and guided him into a comfortable-looking full-size berth and en-suite bathroom.
    He spotted a waterproof chair andslumped down on it.
    “Lily?” The older woman was at the door again. “What are you thinking, letting that man in your room?”
    “He’s too big for the guest room. And this way, he’ll have his own private bathroom.” Lily left the door open a crack and addressed her through the gap. “I’m just going to re-dress his bandages. I’ll move to the guest room for tonight.”
    “Fine.” The womanshrank away with a resigned sigh, and Lily closed the door.
    He caught his breath as Lily approached him, her movements cautious.
    “Do you mind if I remove your bandages?”
    “Please.” He sat still as she peeled the soaking wet red-stained gauze from his head.
    “I need to run upstairs and get the first-aid kit. I’ll be right back. If you feel light-headed, you can lie down.”She disappeared, and returned quickly with a suitcase-size first-aid kit. Perching on the edge of the bed beside his chair, she gingerly dabbed his face with ointment, her touch gentle.
    “Your name is Lily?” He repeated the name he’d heard the other woman use.
    “Lillian Bardici.”
    He tried to think. Bardici. It sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place it. But then, he didn’teven know who he was. Everything had happened so quickly, and he had far more questions than answers. “Do you know who I am?”
    “No. Don’t you remember?”
    He closed his eyes and tried to think, but the throbbing in his head drowned out all his thoughts. “I don’t. The last thing I can recall is being thirsty, and you gave me a drink. How did we end up in the water?”
    “My father threwyou overboard. I jumped in after you.”
    “To rescue me?” He couldn’t imagine that the slender woman would have had much success dragging him aboard if he hadn’t awakened, but at the same time, he felt grateful that she’d tried.
    “Yes.” She squeezed more antibacterial ointment from a tube. “To try, anyway.”
    “Why did your father throw me over?”
    “It’s kind of a long story.” Lilliansighed as her gentle hands eased the salt-sting on his wounds. “My parents and I have been living on this boat for the past month—that’s a long story, too. We sailed from New York to Lydia to visit my father’s older brother, David. He’s a general in the Lydian Army. I don’t like my uncle at all. He’s extremely bossy, and he pushes my dad around. My uncle told my parents that we needed to leaveLydia before the state dinner tonight.”
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know.” Lillian wiped ointment from her fingers onto a towel before trimming a length of clean gauze to cover his injury. “At the time, I just thought he was being controlling. But maybe he had some inkling about what was going to happen.” She looked at him thoughtfully.
    He studied her face, trying to read what she was thinking.Her blue eyes were streaked with pale gray and green, giving them an almost aquamarine undertone, stunningly beautiful, like the Mediterranean Sea.
    Lillian shrugged and continued her story. “I wanted to see the royal motorcade pass by. The kingdom of Lydia has a royal family, but news about them rarely reaches the United States. I’ve seen pictures of the princesses—they’re so elegant, andalways promoting humanitarian causes—but the rest of the royal family is fairly private. I just wanted to catch a glimpse…”
    “Did you?”
    “Hardly. Soldiers pushed everyone back, and then