The Princess and the Bodyguard Read Online Free PDF Page A

mailed right here in Cardinia.”
    “Which is why Father freaked?”
    “I don’t know of any parent who wouldn’t.”
    The third picture wasn’t a photograph, exactly. It was a collage, of sorts, and looked like a child’s cut-and-paste artwork. Rachel’s face, the image from another copy of the first photograph, had been pasted on top of the photo of a nude woman who had been eviscerated.
    “Each evening ebbs, closer to the day of your eradication. No one will weep for you, no one will come for you. I will be effusive in my gift of pain to you. This is what I’m going to do to you. I’ll eviscerate you and scatter your entrails for the vermin. I’m close, so close, and you can’t even see me. But I see you. I see you, and I’m waiting.”
    She handed the letters back to Peter, relieved when he turned them face-down on the file folder.
    “You’re investigating?”
    “Of course, in conjunction with Interpol and the French authorities, we’ve a list of known terrorists, stalkers, and the like. We’re tracking and eliminating the ones we can. No prints could be detected on the pages or the envelopes. So far, no DNA on the glue strip. The magazine pictures could have come from any of hundreds of outlets. The stationery in the third sample and the envelopes are all common stock. Our borders with France and Spain have been put on alert, the border guards have been sent an electronic file of names with photos—people to be watching out for. Beyond that, there’s precious little we can do. Is there anyone you can think of who would want to hurt you, anyone loopy enough to send these letters?”
    “Your opinion of the people with whom I choose to consort is so noted. The truth is that I have few friends.” Not since becoming clean and sober. She hadn’t trusted herself enough to make new friends. Catharine was the first person Rachel had approached in a long time. She must have sensed, somehow, the young woman’s connection to Peter. “I don’t go out much. You’re going to be bored with your guard-dog duty.”
    “You don’t bore me.”
    “Well,” Rachel said, getting to her feet. Off-balance again . The man could teach a course at the university on the subject. Deciding two could play that game, she ignored his comment. “Knowing that there is really nothing you can do about this nutcase certainly makes me feel much better.”
    Peter closed the folder, then stood and moved around his desk, stopping directly in front of her.
    “No one is going to touch you, Rachel. You have my word on that.”
    He looked fierce, like a warrior defending the princess in the tower. She smiled, the only way she knew to reassure him that whoever sent these hateful letters didn’t really frighten her.
    But the sudden image of Peter being hurt defending her did.
     
    * * * *
     
    Alex’s joy soared so intensely within him he didn’t know if he could contain it.
    Only the muted sounds from the palace grounds filtering through the partially opened window disturbed the silence. He couldn’t see the clock beside the bed, but judging from the light outside, he knew it to be late afternoon.
    Snuggled close to him, Hannah lay sound asleep. To have the woman he loved in his bed, finally , was beyond wonderful.
    He’d promised her he would never lie to her again, and he wouldn’t. But he hadn’t yet told her he loved her. He needed the right moment, the right setting for that.
    Stroking her hair, he let his mind wander over the last two weeks. They’d been hell. Loving Hannah and not having her had been the worst thing he’d ever endured. Today, when she forgave him, he felt as if he’d been given the greatest of gifts. Oh, he was quite certain he knew how her mind worked. That little tidbit about being sorry for wasting time told him everything he needed to know. Hannah believed that they had only a few weeks left to be together.
    He had decided never to be without her again.
    So that gave him about three more weeks—until