if the poor lady-in-waiting she’d sent off into the palace with the note to Hugo clutched in her white-knuckled grip hadn’t managed to get through to him? Even if she had, Sadie still needed to tell him...to explain...
What? That she was nothing but a scaredy-cat?
She slid her thumbs away from the screen.
“Done?” the phone owner asked.
Sadie deleted the conversation. She hoped her mother would heed her warning or her cover as a possible axe murderess would be blown.
She solemnly gave him back his phone. “And now I’ll go in your car with you.”
“You’re a brave woman.”
“You have no idea.”
His mouthed twitched and...there. Dimple. Heaven help the women of the world who got to see that thing in full flight.
Not her though.
If her mother had taught her anything it was to beware instant appeal; it had everything to do with genetic luck and nothing to do with character. A handsome smile could be fleeting, and could be used to hide all manner of sins.
With that in mind, it had taken her twenty-nine years to agree to marry Hugo and he’d been her best friend since birth. And still, when it had come to the crunch, she’d run. Something she’d learned from her father.
Sadie felt the backs of her eyes begin to burn as the home truths settled in. But she was done crying. She mentally forced the tears away.
She’d made a choice today. One that had sent her down this road alone. And alone she had to remain if she was to get her head on straight and figure out what the heck she was going to do with the rest of her life. But Grouchy Dimples wasn’t going to leave her alone unless she let him do his knight-in-shining-armour bit and get her safely out of sight.
So Sadie picked her way back through the rivulets of rock and dirt and mud.
The stranger moved around to the passenger side of the car, opened the door, bowed slightly and said, “My lady.”
Sadie’s entire body froze. Only her eyes moved to collide with his.
She looked for a gleam of knowledge, a sign that he knew exactly who she was. But the only sign she got was the return of the tic in his jaw. He couldn’t wait to get rid of her either.
“Sadie,” she said before she even felt the word forming. “My name, it’s...just Sadie.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Just Sadie. I’m Will.”
He held out a hand. She took it. He felt warm where she was cool. Strong where she was soft. His big hand enveloped hers completely, and for the first time in as long as she could remember she found herself hit with the profound sense that everything was going to be okay.
The sensation was so strong, so unexpected, so unsought, she whipped her hand away.
Will held the door for her once more. “Let’s get this show on the road.”
Taking a deep breath, Sadie gathered up as much of her skirt as she could, tucking and folding and looping the fabric under her arms. Then she squeezed backside-first into the bucket seat.
After Will closed the door with a soft snick, Sadie let the fabric go. It sprung away, filling the space right up to her chin. Relief at not being on her feet, on the run, in the open, rolling over her like a wave of bliss.
Will slid into the driver’s seat and curled long fingers over the leather steering wheel. He surreptitiously checked his watch again. He still thought he had a wedding to attend, Sadie realised, and for a fraught second she thought he might simply drive that way.
“You mentioned a village,” Sadie said, pointing over her shoulder in the opposite direction to the palace.
“The village it is.” Will gunned the engine, carefully backed out of the muddy trench, executed a neat three-point turn and drove back the way he had come.
A minute later, Sadie glimpsed the palace through the trees. The afternoon sunlight had begun to cast the famous pink and gold highlights across the sandstone walls which had lent the small principality the beautiful, romantic, quixotic colours of its banners.
Home.
But after what she had done, could she ever go back there? Would they even let her through the door? And what would happen to her mother, a maid who had lived and worked under the palace roof for the last twenty-nine years?
Sadie put the flurry of unpleasant questions to one side and closed her eyes, letting the dappled sunlight wash across the backs of her eyelids. There was nothing she could do about all that right now.
Later. She’d figure it all out later.
* * *
Will leant his elbow against the window of the car, feigning a relaxedness he did not feel as he drove over the bridge he’d navigated not long before. Back in the village, banners still flew. Music poured out into the streets. The roads were now bare, since everyone had moved inside to be in front of their TVs in order to see the bride make her first appearance. Little did they know they were looking the wrong way.
If Hugo hadn’t yet discovered his bride was missing, he soon would. Search plans would be afoot. Containment plans.
Will was forced to admit that his immediate plans would need to become fluid for the moment as well. But first...
As the engine’s throaty growl gave him away, Sadie sat upright. “What are you doing? Why are you slowing?”
“We need petrol,” he said as he pulled off the road and up to a tank wrapped in rose-gold tinsel that flapped in the light breeze.
He used the collective noun very much on purpose. He’d read enough books to know that, in hostage negotiations, making the hostage-taker feel they were on the same side was paramount. Though which one of them was the hostage here was debatable.
He pulled over and jumped from the car. But not before surreptitiously sliding his phone into his pocket.
Meanwhile, Sadie had slunk down so far in the seat she was practically in the footwell. All he could see was acres of crinkled pink and a few auburn curls.
“Can you breathe down there?”
A muffled voice professed, “Most of the dress is organically grown Australian cotton. Very breathable.”
“And yet I’m not sure it was intended to be worn over the face.”
Two hands curled around the fabric and a small face poked out. “Point made.”
She blinked at him through huge red-rimmed eyes above a pink-tipped nose. Her full lower lip was shiny from nibbling. When she wasn’t acting so bolshie and stubborn she was rather pretty.
Will pushed the thought away. He turned his back and splashed a nominal amount of petrol into the tank before heading for the shop. Inside, he gave the guy behind the counter a wave. Then, finding a private
