Pregnant with the Prince's Child (9 page)

“We met in Pierria. We both worked there. I was with the Granvilli intelligence, and you were…well, I never understood exactly who you worked for or why. But we fell in love. Crazy in love. And we got married on a wing and a prayer, hardly knowing what we were doing. And then…”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “And then we had a terrible fight. I ran from our little house to my brother’s apartment. And I never saw you again.” She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “Until yesterday, when I…”

Her voice faded away as she realized he was asleep.

“Mykal!” she cried, but he didn’t budge. She stared at him and then she began to laugh until tears filled her eyes. Here she’d painfully revealed it all to him, and he wasn’t even listening. “Oh, Mykal.”

She rose from the bed and looked down at him, shaking her head. She heard voices out in the foyer. The ambulance had arrived. They’d come to take him to the castle.

Well, things had changed. She’d said she was leaving, but now she was going to stay with him. This was her husband and he needed her. There was no way she was going to stay behind.

She picked up her satchel and turned, looking at the wooden box. Should she take it along? She didn’t like leaving it here. But did she have the right?

“Nuts,” she said to herself. She was married to the man. Of course she had the right. Moving quickly, she opened her satchel and put the box inside it. She’d barely completed the move before Kylos came rushing in the room and stopped abruptly as he saw her fastening her satchel.

“What are you doing?” he asked suspiciously.

“Getting ready to go to the castle,” she said, trying hard not to look guilty. For a second, she thought he was going to ask her to empty out her bag so he could take a look at what she had in there. But the moment passed and he turned to look at Mykal.

“Where’s the medication?” he asked her. “How much is left?”

“It’s in the bathroom,” she said, frowning. “I don’t think he’ll need it. They’ll surely prescribe their own preferences once they examine him.”

“Hmm.” He looked at her sideways, then disappeared into the bathroom at the same time the paramedics appeared in the doorway.

She turned to look at Mykal. This was it. Who knew what would happen once they got to the castle? She took a deep breath and said a little prayer. It was time to go.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“T
HE
first thing you’re going to do,” Queen Pellea said as she swept into the personal royal library where she’d told Janis to meet her, “is tell me all about my brother-in-law, the new prince.” She took Janis’s hands in hers and beamed at her. “Tell me everything you know.”

Janis held on as though she were a life raft. She was overwhelmed by it all—the gorgeous castle, the sumptuous décor, the beautiful queen who looked like she’d stepped right out of a Renaissance painting. She’d helped bring Mykal in and she’d even had a chance to talk to one of the doctors about his symptoms over the last few hours. And then she’d received the message from the queen and had hurried here for a meeting.

“So you’re sure of it?” she asked, wide-eyed. “He is the lost prince?”

Pellea shrugged. “The wise men won’t say as yet, but I’m sure of it.” She smiled impishly. “I just peeked in at him in the examining room. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Janis smiled back, but the mood that filled her heart was melancholy, because she knew what that meant. “You may have to talk him into it,” she told the queen. “He’s grumbling about loss of freedom and that sort of thing.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. We’ll have him singing a different tune soon enough. I’ll have Monte deal with him,” she added, referring to her husband, King Monte, oldest brother of the new prince. “Come, let’s sit down and talk.”

Janis followed her to a pair of comfortable chairs situated in front of a wide stone fireplace.

“And I’ll tell you the second thing we’re going to do,” Pellea went on, eyeing her askance. “We’re going to get some decent clothes for you and get you out of that blue jumpsuit.” She shuddered. “Is that a uniform for something?”

“Sort of.” Janis drew in a shaky breath. She hadn’t expected this question to come up so quickly. It threw her off balance. She couldn’t lie to the queen—especially after looking into her calm, kind eyes.

“Where did you get it?”

Wishing she could disappear, she whispered, “Prison camp.”

“What?” Pellea said, leaning toward her and frowning as though she hadn’t heard.

“Prison camp,” she said aloud. Might as well own it. “I’ve been in a Granvilli prison camp for the last two months. I just got out.”

“Oh!” Pellea sank back into the chair and stared at her. “Oh, my.”

Janis drew in a sharp breath. She’d known this would make all the difference. The queen had been anxious to meet with her, but now they would throw her out. And who could blame them? You couldn’t let a recently released prisoner hang around in the castle. True, at least she’d been in a Granvilli camp, not one run by the royals. But still. Her heart sank. She should never have come here.

Even if the queen were ready to hear her side of things, what could she say? There was no easy excuse. She could still hear her brother Rolo’s voice hissing in her ear, “You really screwed this one up, Janny. You botched things so badly, your own husband turned you in.” But she couldn’t tell Pellea about that.

If she got up and walked out right now, could she avoid the humiliation of being escorted out by an armed guard? She eyed the doorway nervously.

But, though shocked, Pellea wasn’t through with her yet. “What on earth did you do to end up there?” she asked sternly.

Janis shrugged. Was there really any point in going on with this? Why didn’t the queen just call for the guard and get it over with? She took a deep breath and decided to give it a try. It was the least she could do, she supposed.

“You have to understand what it’s like in the Granvilli territory right now. Society is falling apart. Everything is in chaos. People are reacting out of fear and anger. I don’t really know why I was arrested. And I don’t know why they let me go when they did.”

That much was true. She knew what had angered Mykal, but she didn’t think that had anything directly to do with the reason she was held. If he really had been the one to turn her in, what reason had he given them? She didn’t have a clue.

Pellea frowned, searching her eyes. “You were never charged with anything?”

Janis made a face. “That would require a functioning court system. They don’t have that over there at present.” She hesitated, ready to get up and go. “I know this is a shock to you.” She began to rise. “I should have told you before.”

“No.” Pellea’s voice had the unmistakable tone of command. “Sit down right now and tell me all about it.”

“But why would you believe anything I say?” she protested, trying to be realistic about it.

Pellea tossed her head. “Talk,” she ordered firmly. “Start with what happened once you were arrested. Where did they take you and what did they tell you?”

That wasn’t as easy to do as it might seem. Janis licked her lips, remembering her conversation with the warden and trying to think what she could tell the queen about it.

“What is my crime?” she’d cried desperately.

The warden had stared coldly. “Espionage.”

Espionage. That was what they paid her to do. How could they arrest her for it? “What kind of espionage?”

The warden’s gaze didn’t waver. “Illegal espionage.”

That was all she was ever told. She was taken to the makeshift camp near the border, stripped of all her clothing and possessions, along with her dignity, and given her blue jumpsuit to wear. The next two months had been a nightmare. The food was terrible but not plentiful, so hunger was more important than quality. She lost twelve pounds, but she wouldn’t have recommended it as a diet experience. The work assignments were uniformly disgusting. And every night she had to fight off the prison guards. Luckily the army had given her some good basic self-defense moves and she held her ground, leaving the guards to go after easier pickings. But just the fact that she’d had to maintain that struggle night after night was enough to make her bitter.

What of all that could she tell the queen? But she had to tell her something and she tried. And she managed, haltingly, leaving out a few things, like the marriage, and her brother, and some of the seamier aspects of prison camp life. But all in all, she stayed pretty true to the real story line.

The queen listened impassively. “What was this espionage they arrested you for? You must have some idea of the catalyst.”

She took a deep breath. Maybe she was ready to give a fuller picture of what she was involved with now that she’d told her this much. Maybe she could outline a hint of what Mykal had caught her doing that had led to his outrage.

“It was a surveillance report on things another agent had done,” she said. “I…I made some copies and gave them to someone I thought I could trust.” Why she’d done that for her brother was a story she couldn’t get into. “But…” She stopped, fighting back tears as she remembered Mykal’s face when he found out what she’d done. Shaking her head, she couldn’t go on.

Pellea watched her for a long moment, making no move to comfort her in any way. “Well, that all sounds very spy-versus-spy, doesn’t it?” she said in a cool voice at last.

“Something like that,” Janis admitted, her voice choked.

“Janis, nothing personal, but you do realize I have a responsibility here. I must be the guardian of my people, the protector of all who are in this castle.”

“Of course. I understand.”

Pellea paused, then added, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Janis nodded. That was what she expected, once her imprisonment was known. It would be even worse if they knew about her family background. She was ready to go. She only wished she could see Mykal once more before she left, though. She had a feeling that, once she left, she might never see him again.

They rose together and Janis turned away. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. But she stopped, realizing she couldn’t leave the room before the queen did.

Pellea came toward her, hand outstretched, looking ready to say goodbye, but a courtier was suddenly in the doorway.

“Your Majesty,” he said, bowing deeply. “You are wanted in the hospital wing. Dr. Pheasar asks that you come to him immediately.”

Pellea turned to Janis. “This must be about Mykal,” she said. She stared at Janis for a moment, then reached out for her again. “You’d better come, too,” she said, then turned without another word and hurried for the elevator.

Janis was right behind her. Had something happened to Mykal? Her heart was thumping and she was hurrying as they exited the elevator on the hospital floor, but she could hardly keep up with the queen. In a moment they were in the medical unit.

“No entry, please,” the nurse said, jumping up to stop them, but then shrinking back when she saw who it was. “Oh, excuse me Your Majesty.”

They rushed right through the barriers and finally they were in the examining room where the doctor was looking at X-rays in a computer screen. Mykal was still unconscious, covered in a sheet and lying on a table on the other side of the room. Janis looked from him to the doctor to the X-rays and back to Mykal again, hardly knowing what to think, but terrified of what they might hear.

“Take a look at this,” the surgeon was saying, pointing to where tiny lines that looked like needles were scattered so very close to a section of Mykal’s spinal column. “This is not good. I’ve conferred with a number of my colleagues and we have mixed opinions. But most of us think it’s too dangerous to attempt any removal of the closest ones at this time. I’ll be sending copies of their reports along with my own and you can read them for yourself. But I wanted you to see this.” He turned and looked at them both. “He can still live a full and active life. But I’m afraid he will need to be confined to a wheelchair most of the time.”

Janis drew her breath in with a gasp and Pellea frowned.

“I thought you told me initially that you felt the shards were too close to leave them,” she said. “That they might move in and compromise his mobility on their own if left alone.”

“Yes, that was what I thought before I got a look on my own. But examining this more closely makes me think we just can’t risk it.”

Pellea looked at Janis. “What do you think?” she asked her. “How will he take this news?”

Janis was startled to be asked for an opinion. But she had one. “If it were up to me,” she said, head high and voice clear, “I would keep him as safe as possible. I wouldn’t operate. I would wait and see.” She looked at them both and shook her head. “But I know what he wants. And he couldn’t stand a cossetted life. He’ll choose surgery. You can count on it.”

Pellea frowned, looked at the doctor and shrugged. “We’ll talk again once he’s awake and lucid,” she said. Looking at Janis, she gestured for her to follow. “Come with me,” she said.

Janis tried to do just that, but she couldn’t. She had to turn and look at Mykal again, then go close and touch him, just for a quick second. This might be the last time she would see him. The second stretched out, and she leaned down to kiss his forehead. “I love you,” she whispered, then straightened and turned to find Pellea watching her.

“I’m sorry,” she said awkwardly. “I just couldn’t leave.”

Pellea didn’t say a word, but turned and started down the hall, with Janis hurrying after her.

“I’d like you to come to my room for a moment,” she told her as they boarded the elevator again. “We need to finish our talk.”

Janis nodded and quickly found herself in a beautiful courtyard, with a greenhouse roof, open to the sky, that served as a sitting room. Exotic plants had turned the space into a barely controlled jungle. Brightly colored birds flew from plant to plant, and frogs croaked in a little stream that wound through the area.

“Sit,” Pellea told her. “And tell me the rest of the story.”

She sat. “What is it that you want to know?”

“I want to know who Mykal is. What sort of man. I understand I am going to have to learn these things on my own, but you can start the process by telling me how you met and why you were together.”

Janis frowned, curious. “I’m sure you’ve researched him.”

“Of course. We have a complete record of his activity up until a little over two years ago. Then the trail goes cold. And that is exactly the time he can’t remember. So you see, it does become a bit of a problem.”

“Oh. And you want me to fill you in.”

“If you will, please.”

But should she? Was the queen just going to use her for all the information she could gather, then throw her out into the street? Probably. But she realized she didn’t have a lot of choice—unless she wanted to be a jerk. And she really didn’t want that at all. So she nodded. “You know he was in the military.”

“Yes. We’ve found the paperwork on his recruitment in the royal army two and a half years ago. But after that…nothing. We can’t find anyone by that name in the service at all. And no one seems to be able to tell us anything.”

Janis nodded. “That’s because we were… I mean, he was recommended for intelligence work from the beginning. On the black side.”

“The black side.”

“That means he had volunteered to take training to do extreme espionage work. Only the most dangerous missions. And so they probably blotted out his identity right away. That way, if he was caught, no one would be able to trace him back to the command group.”