Princess Annie Read Online Free PDF Page B

dilettante was concerned—watching Lucian smile at Annie, like a young cavalier. He made a mental note to warn him off later, using threats if necessary, for the girl had been safer on the parapet of the south tower than she would be if she succumbed to Lucian’s practiced charms.
    Ignoring his brother completely, Lucian nodded to Annie as he sat down across the table from her. “I’m glad to see that last night’s adventures have left you unmarked, Miss Trevarren. Indeed, you are as beautiful as ever. Perhaps more so, for the joy of surviving.”
    Rafael’s irritation intensified at those words, and redoubled when Annie, the little fool, beamed a smile as warm as sunlight at Lucian. “Thank you,” she said.
    The prince laid down his napkin and the legs of his chair made a scraping sound on the stone floor when he pushed it back. “Come along, Miss Trevarren,” he said briskly. “I don’t have all day to sit in this dining room, watching you eat.”
    To Rafael’s delight as well as his chagrin, Annie blushed from the hint of cleavage visible in the lacy V of her bodice to the roots of her hair. She made a great show of pushing her plate away, although in fact she had shown precious little interest in the food, and stood.
    “Please excuse me,” she said to Lucian, in a crisp and somehow confidential tone, as though excluding Rafael from the conversation. “The prince has decreed that I am not to be out of his sight this whole day.”
    Lucian’s temper flared visibly in his eyes; Rafael watched without emotion as his brother suppressed his anger. “What is this about?” he asked, coldly polite. When Rafael did not reply, he added, “I want an explanation.”
    Rafael sighed. “Do you? What a pity you aren’t going to get one.” With that, he took Annie’s arm and hustled her toward the doorway, walking so fast that she had to hurry to keep up with him.
    Typically, Lucian did not follow, but Rafael could feel his brother’s gaze boring into his back. No love lost there, the prince reflected, with only minor regret. The estrangement between himself and Lucian pained him sometimes, but he had learned to accept it.
    Annie did not attempt to break away—her dignity was of the regal variety—but she was tight-lipped and silent. He had the impression that, on some level, she was enjoying the drama of the occasion, just a little. She was an enigma, that much was certain, and so were his own reactions to her.
    Rafael wished, as he ushered Annie along the passageway toward his study, that he’d eaten a small portion of crow, along with his breakfast, and let her off with a mild scolding. Now, there was no going back.
    Two of his cabinet ministers were waiting when they entered the spacious chamber from which Rafael managed an unmanageable government.
    Annie slipped out of his grasp and swept grandly over to the fireplace, her dress a flash of sunshine in the otherwise gloomy room. There, with a gentle and graceful billowing of petticoats and skirts, she sat herself down in a high-backed chair and serenely folded her hands.
    The elderly gentlemen looked surprised to find a woman in counsel chambers, but neither of them questioned Annie’s presence. Instead, they took their places in front of Rafael’s massive desk, one of the oldest and most ornate pieces of furniture in the keep, and pretended she wasn’t there.
    Rafael cleared his throat and ran one stiff, sore hand through his hair. It served him right, he thought, for behaving like an idiotic despot, handing down decrees. He had important matters to deal with and Annie was a distraction to say the least.
    “What news do you bring from Morovia?” he asked the visitors, his voice a little louder than normal, and a bit gruffer, as well.
    Morovia, the country’s capital, overlooked the Mediterranean Sea, as did St. James Keep itself, and was just a short ride down the coastal road. Though the palace was there, and the formal seat of the Bavian government,