Broken Ties (13 page)

Before he could decide what to make of the man’s cold, blank stare, Sidra appeared on the porch behind Teddy. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, a bright blue sweater, and white-and-blue sneakers. Her lips were painted a soft pink and her eyes lightly lined and shadowed. She looked like the typical, sexy girl next door rather than a princess.

The man and woman stared at her in stunned silence for what seemed like an eternity before the woman finally snapped out of her shock and moved.

“Sidra!” she exclaimed as she marched around the vehicle, her hands outstretched. “Darling, it’s been so long since we’ve seen you.”

She pulled Sidra into her embrace, although Sidra appeared a bit reluctant to allow it.

“Don’t you remember us, darling?” the woman asked, pouting a little when Sidra shook her head. “I am Miriam De Leone. Your mother, rest her soul, was my cousin. And this is my husband, Gabriel.”

“Of course,” she said hoarsely as she stared at him. “I remember you.”

“Really?” The woman’s voice was sharp as she looked from Sidra to her husband. “You remember Gabriel? How odd. He and I had not been married long before your abduction.” Whatever Sidra remembered about him obviously wasn’t something she intended to share. Instead, she motioned to the door, saying, “Let’s all go inside where we can talk. Between the two of you and Philippe, maybe we can get the whole story instead of bits and pieces that don’t really tell us anything.”

“Philippe?” Gabriel exclaimed. “He’s here? In America?”

“Yes. he’s been here for a week or two, but he just found me yesterday.” Sidra led them to the table, her eyes searching the kitchen for Philippe, who was nowhere in sight.

“Where is he?” Teddy asked.

“He was right here.” She went to the hallway and shouted his name up the stairs, but there was no answer.

Drawing his gun, Levi rushed upstairs, searching each empty room.

“He’s not here!” he called down as he pulled the last door shut behind him.

Sidra was rushing out the front door, yelling for him at the top of her lungs. Her words echoed across the yard, and Levi came out to stand beside her on the porch.

Across the yard, the door to the garage where his father kept the tractor and lawn equipment stood open, and he pointed toward it.

“I’ll check the garage. You stay here.”

He didn’t know why he expected her to listen to him. She might be an efficient, dutiful secretary, but she was the most hardheaded woman he knew. He wasn’t really surprised when she trotted along behind him, so close she was nearly stepping on his heels as he ran toward the garage.

The interior of the garage was dark and smelled of diesel fuel and engine oil. He flipped on the light, illuminating the interior, and quickly ascertained there was no one inside.

“He has to be here somewhere,” Sidra insisted as they walked back out. “Doesn’t he?”

“I don’t know, Sid.” He pushed the door shut behind them. As he turned, the sun glinted off a small metal object, and he bent to scoop the coin up from the ground.

He held it up for Sidra to see. “Either your boyfriend was out here, or someone else from Medelia was.”

“It has to have been Philippe, but where could he be now?” She sounded genuinely worried, even when she added, “He is not my boyfriend.”

“Did you find him?” Teddy called from the porch.

“No.” Levi started toward the house, grabbing Sidra’s arm and pulling her with him. “He’s vanished into thin air.”

“He could be lost in the woods, or hurt. What if he’s injured and can’t call for us?” She tried to dig in her heels, but he kept moving.

“He isn’t.”

“How could you know that?”

“Believe me, Sid. I can almost guarantee you that man did not go traipsing off into the woods by himself. I’d be surprised if he actually made it to the shed by himself, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“Do you think he was abducted?”

He took hold of her arms, his eyes burning into hers.

“No, I don’t. I know he’s gone, but he is a grown man, and there is absolutely no evidence that he left against his will. For all we know, he’s taking a walk and will be back later.”

“You just said he wouldn’t have gone into the woods.”

He shrugged. “I could be wrong about that, and downtown isn’t far at all. Let’s just wait a while and see if he shows up.”

She looked as if she wanted to argue, but she remained quiet as he turned back to the house.

“Come on, Sid. It’s time to hear what your family has to say.”

****

Sidra’s heart was racing with worry and dread as she took a seat on the plush loveseat in the Tanners’ den. The cozy hominess of the room underscored all she had never had and made her even more aware she was about to find out why. At least she hoped she was.

Levi sat next to her and laid a protective, comforting arm across the back of the seat. His fingers barely grazed her hair, seeming to invite her to snuggle up against him, but she resisted and sat stoically straight in her seat.

Miriam and Gabriel sat side by side on the sofa across from them. Although mere inches separated them, they seemed worlds apart from each other, and Sidra wondered what sort of relationship they had. Something nudged at her conscience: a day she barely remembered, a wedding in an ancient chapel, Miriam dressed in white silk and lace, a veil shadowing brown eyes made red from weeping.

Her mother’s soft voice said, “You don’t have to do this, Miriam. Rupert will find a way to smooth things over.”

“He can’t, Jeanne. You know it as well as I do. My fate is sealed.” She straightened, dabbed at her eyes, and in a voice shaking with dread said, “Perhaps it won’t be so bad. Perhaps we will even come to love each other in time.”

“This madness must stop,” her mother had hissed. “I will never force Sidra to give herself to a man she doesn’t love, a man as cruel and biting as the winter winds.”

****

“Sid?” Levi’s questioning voice brought her back to the present. “Your cousin asked you a question.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, offering Gabriel an apologetic smile. “I suppose I was woolgathering for a moment.”

Unfazed by her smile or her apology, Gabriel simply stared at her with intense disapproval.

“What do you remember about your life in Medelia?”

“Nothing besides the kidnapping, really,” she said. “Philippe confirmed the few things I did remember.”

She had no intention of telling him she remembered his conversation with her mother, the dizzying ride on the carousel, or her cousin’s dismay at having to marry him.

“Do you remember your parents?”

“Only vaguely. Until I arrived here and Teddy showed me the picture you left with him, I had no idea if the woman I remembered was my mother or someone else.”

“That picture was taken only a few weeks before you were kidnapped,” Miriam injected. “It was the afternoon of your sixth birthday. Your mother and father had thrown a huge party in the garden, complete with a carousel and—”

“Cotton candy,” Sidra finished, as the smell of sweet spun sugar filled her memory.

“Yes, do you remember it?”

She shook her head. “Not really, no.”

“After the party, a group of men your mother had hired came to begin decorating for Christmas. There were many strangers at the castle that year. Even though they were all approved by the security detail, there was always speculation that one of them came back for you.”

“Philippe said there was never a ransom note.”

“I assume he told you about the crown, and the lock of your hair.” Gabriel shifted in his seat, turning his body away from his wife and toward Sidra ever so slightly.

“Yes, but he wasn’t certain if it contained a note.”

“It contained no communication, nor did it need any. Your parents took it as it was obviously meant to be taken.”

“They believed I was dead.”

“Yes.”

“My parents died thinking I was dead?”

“No. At the time your mother died, she had come to believe you were alive.”

“What? Why?”

“She received this picture of you in the mail.”

He pulled a snapshot from his jacket pocket and placed it on the coffee table. Sidra stared at the image of herself, taken without her knowledge, as she crossed the nursing home parking lot. Her hair was pulled back in its usual Saturday afternoon ponytail, and her face was devoid of makeup. She had no idea when it was taken, although her slightly tanned skin seemed to hint at summer. Her skin crawled at the idea of someone spying on her, watching her while she was completely unaware of it.

She was so spooked it took a moment for the implications of the picture to hit her. She had been going to the nursing home. Whoever was watching her knew she would be there. Did they know Carlotta was there, that she was more to Sidra than an elderly resident of the nursing home where Sidra volunteered? Would they try to make her tell them where Sidra was?

“Who took this?” Levi asked Gabriel.

“I have no idea.”

“Bullshit.” Levi’s voice was deathly quiet, but it filled the space between them with thick distrust.

Gabriel said nothing, only studied him like he was a bug under a microscope. A familiar lump of fear settled in her stomach as those cold eyes turned to her.

“Cut the crap, Gabe,” Teddy told him. “Start from the beginning, and tell us exactly what you know.”

Gabriel continued to stare at her, ignoring both of the glaring Tanner men. She met his eyes, hoping he couldn’t see the nausea that suddenly rolled through her or the uneasiness that followed.

Chapter Fifteen

“You were born the crown princess of Medelia on December twelfth nearly twenty-seven years ago,” Gabriel began. “Your full name is Sidra Deleon Maria de Marin. Your mother was Princess Jeanne Maria Batiste de Marin. Your father was Prince Rupert Charles de Marin. You had one brother, Prince Andres Charles de Marin. All are deceased. Your mother’s mother, Queen Marie Elizabeth Batiste, is the only immediate member of the royal family still living, besides you.”

“My grandmother?”

“Yes, she is growing old and frail, but she is alive and looking forward to meeting you soon.”

Sidra could imagine nothing past her recent memories, and after all the years of believing herself abandoned by her family, it was difficult for her to grasp the fact that someone still waited for her to return home.

“You disappeared on December twenty-third, just after your sixth birthday. Medelia is a matriarchal kingdom. The crown is passed down from oldest daughter to oldest daughter. If there are no female offspring, the crown passes to the next linear female. Should you not return to Medelia, or should you have no daughters yourself, the crown will pass to Miriam and then to our daughter, Estella.”

Sidra looked toward her cousin, who seemed untouched by the words or the thought of being queen. She held herself regally, her back straight, her face devoid of emotions, and Sidra deduced that Miriam’s wedding day wish had not come true. Love had never grown between her and the man she married. Judging from her own experience on the carousel, it wasn’t hard to deduce that her mother’s dire words about cruelty pertained to Gabriel. Had Miriam walled herself off from the world to protect herself from the man she married?

“And that fact had nothing to do with Sidra’s disappearance or the attempts on her life?” Levi asked now, gaining her attention once more.

“Of course not.” Gabriel sniffed. “With Queen Marie still alive, it would make no sense at all to kill Sidra.”

“But with Sidra out of the picture, it would only be a waiting game for you.”

“I have no interest in being queen,” Miriam told him, seeming so sincere that Sidra was surprised by Levi’s disbelieving scoff.

“Maybe not, but I’m pretty sure Gabe here wouldn’t balk at the chance to be king. Would you, Gabe?”

Gabriel simply stared down his nose, making no acknowledgment of Levi’s suspicions as he continued talking.

“At the time you disappeared, there were three separate lines of suspicion. First, as my wife explained, was the belief that you were taken by a stranger, someone who had come to the palace to prepare it for your birthday or the approaching holidays, and a ransom note would be forthcoming. The second was that you were stolen away to be held until you were old enough to be forced to marry someone other than Philippe. Someone who would become King of Medelia someday.

“The third was a little-held suspicion that you were taken by one of Medelia’s few enemies. During the autumn and winter of your disappearance, tensions were high between our country and several others due to international shipping disputes. However, as tensions died down and problems between us were solved, there was never any proof or reason to believe they had you. When your parents received what they feared was proof of your death, the suspicions did turn to us for a while. For the most part, those suspicions died down as your mother continued breathing.”

Sidra cringed at the way he spoke the words, and Levi’s hand covered hers.

“This photo was sent to her a year before her death, and she sent us to find someone who would keep you safe until it was time to make it known that you had been found. Because someone was obviously aware of your existence and your whereabouts, we felt we could take no chances by making contact with you or taking you home. We located Mr. Tanner, and he made contact with you. Once we had gathered enough information to ascertain your identity, we returned to Medelia.”

“We believed you would be safer in America until the time came for you to be reintroduced as the Crown Princess and for your marriage to Philippe to take place. Once you were married and began to produce daughters, you would be safe enough.

“Your mother feared telling the Queen about the picture might shock her badly and cause some harm to her health, so she put it off for nearly a year. At some time just before her death, she must have told her, because following Jeanne’s death Queen Marie was desperate to believe the girl in the picture truly was our princess. Because your time to marry is nearly upon us, she sent us back to the States to bring you home.”