The Prince's Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

she didn’t entirely feel. “What is going on, my lord? Who were they?”
    “It would be best if you knew as little as possible,” he said in an irritatingly firm manner.
    “Then all is well since I know nothing at all,” she snapped. “I did no more than overhear a few comments and the next thing I knew, knives were whizzing by my head.”
    “One knife,” he said absently and fixed her with an intense stare. “What exactly did you hear?”
    “Nothing that made any sense or seemed of any real significance.” She shrugged and repeated what she’d overheard. “Is it important?”
    “No.” He shook his head thoughtfully. “It wasn’t what you heard that makes you a threat but what you saw.”
    “How can I be a threat? I told you I didn’t see anything.”
    “Would you recognize them if you saw them again?”
    “Once again, my lord.” She emphasized each word. “I didn’t see them.” The man might well be handsome and dashing but his comprehension of the English language was questionable.
    “They don’t know that,” he said as if he was talking more to himself than to her, his manner more considering than concerned.
    She stared in disbelief. “Surely they’ll know that if we pretend this whole thing never happened. Once they realize you have no idea who they are—”
    “Who one of them is,” he corrected.
    “Whatever.” She waved an impatient hand. “Once they realize I didn’t identify them to you, they’ll know they have nothing to fear from me and I’ll have nothing to fear from them. There will be no problem. You did say it would be impossible to find anyone wishing to blend into the crowd?”
    “I did.”
    “Well, then we must simply leave it at that.” She stepped closer to him. “You must promise not to tell anyone about this. I never came in here. I never saw them.” She glanced at the knife on the floor and grimaced. “I never saw that. You never saw me. We were never alone here together. You never—”
    “Kissed you?”
    “Kept me quiet.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “It scarcely counted as a kiss.”
    “Perhaps not the first,” he murmured, “but the second—”
    “Promise!”
    “Very well,” he said slowly, “you have my word not to reveal what has happened here unless ...”
    “Unless?” She stared in suspicion.
    “Unless it becomes necessary.” The look in his eyes brooked no argument.
    “That’s something at any rate.” She stepped to the door, then turned back. “Thank you”—she waved a wide gesture at the room—“for everything.”
    “For saving your life?” He swept an exaggerated bow. “It was entirely my pleasure.”
    “It wasn’t a mistake, was it?”
    He raised a brow. “That’s yet to be determined.”
    “Not saving me.” She rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “This whole incident. It wasn’t a case of mistaken identity or anything remotely like that, was it?”
    “No.”
    She sighed. “I didn’t think so.” She started to leave, then once again turned back. “Is Prince Alexei in danger?”
    Beaumont considered her question for a moment, and she wondered if he was deciding how much to tell her or if to say anything at all.
    “Never mind,” she said. “Your silence says a great deal.” She swiveled back toward the door but his voice stopped her in her tracks.
    “I doubt that he’s in any mortal danger. Politically, however ...” She could hear the shrug in his voice.
    Encouraged and more than a little curious, she turned to face him. “Politically?”
    His expression was noncommittal.
    “I have a great number of other questions.”
    “I am not surprised.”
    “You’re not going to answer them, are you?”
    “No.”
    “But it does have to do with the prince, doesn’t it?”
    He didn’t respond.
    “You are ...” She struggled to find the right words although it was probably too late to worry about such details now. “You are not a ... a villain, are you? What I mean to say is that you are to be