‘Princess Serena?’ Captain Feldmann queried, awaiting his order. He held a bayonet, the sharp point directed toward Karl.
He couldn’t fault them for loyalty. He set her down, giving her a chance to make her choice. Rain poured down over them, dripping past the princess’s hood and soaking her gown.
‘Do you want anything to happen to them?’ Karl demanded of her, beneath his breath.
His bride gripped her cloak, her face crestfallen. He was counting on her to consider the truth of his words.
‘If you want to leave, I’ll escort you myself with my own men.’
She stared at him, and he could see the words of argument forming in her mind. ‘It’s your choice,’ he continued. ‘Go with me. Or return to the palace.’
Her hand went to rest against her throat, and it almost seemed that she was fighting back tears. He couldn’t understand why, but at last she nodded.
‘Return to the palace,’ she ordered her men. ‘Fürst Karl will see me safely to my grandfather’s lodge.’
The captain withdrew his bayonet and knelt before the princess, his knee sinking into the mud. ‘Your Highness, my men will be forced to search for you.’
She offered him her palm, raising him up. ‘Then don’t let them find us. Take them to all the other estates before the lodge. I just … want a fortnight to myself.’
‘You truly wish to go with the fürst?’ Captain Feldmann questioned.
The princess sent him a glance, but to her credit, she nodded. ‘He will not harm me. You’ll be in less trouble if I go with him and his men.’ Despite her calm tone, her face revealed her displeasure at the prospect.
One by one, her guards disappeared into the woods. When they’d gone, Karl took her hand and gestured toward his own coach, which lay waiting down the road. ‘My coachman Samuel will accompany us from here on out.’
The princess stood motionless, staring at her departing servants while the rain drenched them both. ‘I cannot believe I’m even considering this.’
Karl wasn’t about to let her change her mind. Instead, he led her to his own coach, where his footman opened the door. Lifting her inside, he settled her upon the soft cushions. Within moments, his coach changed directions, travelling northwest instead of south.
The rain had soaked through Serena’s cloak and her dark blond hair hung in tangled waves beneath her hood, across her shoulders. She was trembling, and her eyes glittered with anger.
‘Why are you really here?’ she demanded. ‘And don’t tell me it’s because my sister sent you. You didn’t care enough to come and see me more than twice in the six years since we’ve been betrothed.’
‘I think you know why I came, Princess,’ he said smoothly. ‘To make sure you weren’t eloping with some other man instead of me.’ He removed his hat and set it beside him. The cold rain had dampened his face, and his clothing was soaked from the bad weather.
Serena kept her hands folded primly in her lap. ‘Your Highness, let us be honest with one another. We were only betrothed because my father wanted to secure the alliance with Lohenberg. After we are married, what we do with our lives won’t matter. I don’t believe for a moment that you have any interest in me.’
‘You’re wrong.’ He reached out and lowered her hood, brushing his fingertips against her damp cheek. In her eyes, he saw the startled shock. ‘I find you very interesting indeed, Princess.’
He could see from the look on her face that she wasn’t at all looking forward to their union. Whether she disliked him or was afraid of him, he couldn’t be certain. ‘Our marriage can be more than political.’
She turned her face to the window, the melancholy sinking in. ‘Sometimes I wish I could live like an ordinary woman, just for a few days. Free to make my own decisions.’ Her voice held a note of misery, as though she believed herself a prisoner.
‘Is it such a hardship, wearing diamonds and silks?’
‘Sometimes,’ she admitted.
When he saw her shivering, Karl reached beneath the seat for a blanket. He passed it to her, and she huddled within the wool, struggling to get warm. Outside, the rain continued, and he could see his breath within the interior of the coach.
She stared outside the window and said, ‘This isn’t the way to my grandfather’s lodge.’
‘We can’t go there,’ he admitted. ‘If we do, they’ll find you within a few hours.’
Her face paled. ‘Then you really are abducting me.’
‘Yes.’ He made no apology for his actions. ‘You’ll still have your holiday away from the palace,’ he reassured her. ‘And I’ll bring you back within a week.’
As my wife.
The panicked expression that flashed over her face was real, and Karl didn’t understand it. It wasn’t as if he meant any harm toward her. She was simply the means to an end. After they married, he’d let her do as she pleased.
‘Where are you taking me?’
‘To the island of Vertraumen, off the coast of Lohenberg. We’ll take a boat there tonight.’
Her eyes narrowed upon him, as if she expected him to take advantage of her. ‘I am not sharing a room with you. Or a bed.’
‘Not now,’ he agreed.
‘Or later.’ She pulled the blanket around her, as if it could shield every last inch of skin from his view. ‘Just because I’ve decided to continue this journey doesn’t mean that I want anything from you.’ She nodded to him as if he were a servant. ‘You can do as you please, and I’ll stay out of your presence.’
Time was slipping through his fingertips, and Karl was well aware that once his fallen status was revealed, the princess could easily cast him off. What he needed was to elope with her, to coerce her into this marriage before he brought her home again.
But she didn’t even like him. And that was a problem. He needed to find a common ground with her, to somehow bridge the distance of the past six years.
‘No, Princess.’ He leaned forward, and she responded by inching as far away from him as she could. ‘I don’t intend to stay away from you at all.’
Outside, the rain pounded a rhythm against the roof of their coach while the horses quickened their pace. When he crossed to sit beside her, she cowered against the back of the coach, curling up her body tight. The fear in her eyes was completely different from the woman who had argued with him not five minutes earlier. Her hands were clenched in front of her, as if she were trying to shield herself.
Her response was entirely too violent. Something was wrong.
‘Princess,’ he said quietly. ‘What are you running away from?’
Her face had gone so pale, he thought she might faint. Slowly,
