Seize the Fire Read Online Free PDF Page B

hum. But I am not an Englishwoman. I'm actually—" She hesitated, and lowered her head. "I'm actually what the world is pleased to call a—a royal per-
    sonage. King Nicolas of Oriens is my grandfather."
    The poker clattered against the hearth.
    "It's true," she said.
    "Good God." He stood up straight. "Good God. Do you mean you're a bloody princess ?"

Two
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    Yes." Olympia sat up straight on the horsehair sofa and stared ahead, her hands tightened into fists. She pressed them tightly together. "And I have received a communication. My people wish me to return to Oriens."
    It was a small lie, saying that her people wanted her. Actually, she hadn't meant to say that, but somehow to admit her complete impotence to a man of action like Sir Sheridan Drake was too painful. And as if that fib weren't shameful enough, with a kind of detached horror she heard herself expanding on it.
    "I've been told that I am needed for the cause," she said. "To help lead the revolution which will bring them to freedom and establish democratic principles. So I must return."
    Sir Sheridan blinked at her. "To lead a revolution?"
    Olympia nodded.
    "What a singular notion," he said.
    She moistened her lips and hung her head. "You will think I'm the greenest of greenheads, of course. To ever hope that I could achieve such a noble end! But please, Sir Sheridan—if you can only conceive of what it is like. You've fought in the cause of freedom and human dignity; you've risked your life. But can you understand what it has been for me? To be kept here like a bird in a cage, in exile"—she lifted her head scornfully—"for my safety, they say, and so I'm coddled and nursed and hedged about while my people suffer oppression—and I, who am morally responsible because of my position alone, have done nothing to aid them!"
    He cleared his throat, frowning at her as if she were a navigational chart that had proved to be grossly inaccurate. He started to say something, stopped, then shook his head. "You've floored me."
    "I know it must seem quite mad."
    He laughed. "Rather."
    "I suppose you need not believe it, if only you will help me."
    For a long moment he looked at her, and then shook his head again with another soft chuckle. He leaned one arm against the mantel and toyed with a misplaced inkstand, smoothing his forefinger down the fringe of a feather quill. "I believe it."
    "Then you will help—"
    "Ah—let's not proceed so fast, Miss St Leger. Or is that your real name?"
    "Well, to be more precise, it's Olympia Francesca Marie Antonia Elizabeth. The St Legers have ruled in Oriens since Charlemagne."
    He gave the quill another meditative stroke and slanted her a look, as a lazing wolf would cock an ear to a distant sound—not alarmed, but almost imperceptibly more intent. "Oriens lies in the French Alps, does it not? Why go to Rome if it's Oriens where you're wanted?"
    Olympia kept her back straight. "The Alps of Oriens are not French."
    "Nevertheless," he said, "they're a considerable distance from Rome."
    "I must pass through Rome for another reason. I told you, I am under coercion."
    "What kind of coercion?"
    She looked down at her lap. "Will you help me?"
    In the long pause, the fire hissed softly.
    "We are at an impasse, ma'am. I'm not in the habit of committing myself to dubious positions on questionable information."
    She considered that, sorting the reproof from the important thing, which was that he wasn't dismissing her out of hand. Of course he would want to know everything. And it wasn't as if she couldn't trust him. He was a champion of freedom. He'd risked his life in the fight to rescue the Greeks from their degrading slavery under the Ottoman Empire. He'd proved his love of liberty by action under fire—which was far more than Olympia herself had ever done for the cause of democracy.
    No—it wasn't his integrity that made her hesitate; it was her own cowardice. Her own miserable cowardice and shame that she could not cope alone with