Prince Incognito (13 page)

The words echoed with a timeless truth. God had been faithful to His people, even when they hadn’t been faithful to Him. It only seemed right, then, that God should help the Royal House of Lydia reclaim the crown that was rightfully theirs. After all, they had never turned their backs on Him.

But other than catching up on her Bible reading, Lily
hadn’t learned a thing. She hadn’t even seen her uncle, and her parents had talked to her as though nothing had happened, telling her all about the fish her father had caught the day after she’d left them—as though she’d no more than gone to visit a friend for a few days, and missed all the fun.

She didn’t dare ask any direct questions for fear of rousing their suspicions. After all, she’d
never cared about politics before. She figured she should be grateful they’d believed her story about leaving Alec for dead in the desert, barely escaping the desert heat with her life. Though a team of horsemen had gone out to the south, from what Lily had seen of their journey, they hadn’t ventured eastward to where Alec was actually hiding.

He was safe.

For now.

But in the
meantime, the hours were ticking by like sand through an hourglass. Her uncle still roamed far too freely. Something had to happen soon. “Lord, please help me. I need a break. I need a clue—something. You know what rests in the balance. And be with Alec. Protect him Lord, please.”

She bent her head over the Bible, repeating her heartfelt prayer, when a knock sounded at the door to her suite.

She leapt up to answer it, surprised to see her uncle David and her father on the other side.

Her uncle spoke. “We have something to discuss with you. Would you please come with us?”

Lily didn’t hesitate. After all, the last time she’d resisted her uncle, he’d put a gun to her neck. This time he’d actually said
please.

It didn’t bode well.

Her heart hammered hard inside
her as the two men led her down the stairs from her second-floor suite, past the elaborate main-floor landing, to a second set of stairs that twisted past a steel door and disappeared into darkness underground.

David Bardici hit a switch, and artificial light illuminated the gray-painted cement steps. Unlike the rich decor aboveground, there was nothing pretty about where they were going,
but Lily followed, praying silently that somehow God would use whatever was about to happen to help Alec’s family.

They came to a large office, where an open table occupied the center of the drab room, and computers on desks lined the back cinder-block wall. Lily wished she could go online and read the news about the situation in Lydia, but her uncle motioned for her to sit in the lone chair
facing away from the computers, while he and her father took the chairs on the opposite side of the table.

She braced herself for questions. Would they ask for more information about Alec? Steeling herself against giving away her feelings for the prince, she was surprised when her uncle didn’t even mention him.

“As you may know, the kingdom of Lydia is in turmoil. The king has been
missing for five days, and Parliament cannot do any official business without the consent of the crown.”

Lily hadn’t realized the part about Parliament, only that Isabelle had met with them. She raised a curious eyebrow as her uncle continued.

“What you may not realize is that our family is descended from the Lydian monarchy. In the king’s absence, we’ve asked that Parliament revisit
the Articles of Succession. At this point, it remains unclear who the rightful rulers of Lydia should be. Your father and I are certain we will soon be vindicated in our claim to the crown, but until then, Parliament is drafting a proposed compromise.”

Surprise lifted Lily’s other eyebrow. She couldn’t see how Parliament could possibly choose her family over Alec’s, especially after the
nefarious things her uncle had done to unseat the Royal House of Lydia. Unless they didn’t know what her uncle had been up to…

“Only a member of the Royal House of Lydia can be crowned,” her uncle continued. “We are members of that family, and the crown was stolen from us nearly a century ago. Until we can prove to Parliament that King Philip’s family has no right to rule, we must compromise
with them and form an oligarchy, a ruling partnership made up of all contenders to the throne.”

Her father cleared his throat. “It will fulfill all the political requirements. Only those eligible to rule will be included, but no one family will be given power over the other.”

Lily’s heart pounded hard inside her. She’d wondered why they’d been treating her so well since her return.
Now everything began to make sense. They needed her. Recalling the family tree Alec had etched in the desert sand, she realized there were only a handful of biological descendants of Lydia. Alec’s father and siblings were the progeny of Alexander, while her father and uncles were the offspring of Alexander’s older half brother, Basil. With her half uncle Stephanos Valli removed from his position
in disgrace, her father and uncle needed her more than ever.

Once again, it was expedient for her selfish family to have a daughter, to have a puppet they could pull out for show, before she wasn’t needed and they cast her aside again.

“We need you,” her uncle concurred, “to travel with us to Sardis as soon as Parliament announces a decision. There will be a document to be signed.
The three of us are all eligible to represent our family. Philip’s family only has one representative, Princess Isabelle.”

Michael cleared his throat. “We’ve heard that Anastasia…”

David nodded. “Anastasia may also potentially sign the document. That is why we must have your support to have a majority.”

Lily pinched her lips shut. Isabelle and Anastasia weren’t the only siblings.
There was the missing oldest brother, Thaddeus, who was as yet unaccounted for, and of course, King Philip himself. And Alec. If her father or uncle knew that Alec had survived, they might try to have him killed to keep him from upsetting their majority in the oligarchy.

“So, Lillian.” David stood. “You are prepared to sign whatever we place in front of you in Sardis.” It wasn’t a question.

She looked up at her uncle, his stern face expecting compliance, his fingers resting on the handle of the gun that protruded from the holster at his hip.

More than her uncle’s threat of violence, her hopes of discovering information that could help Alec led her to comply. There was absolutely nothing to be gained by resisting her uncle. Her only option was to gain their trust enough
to learn more about what they were up to. “I’ll do whatever you ask me to.”

“Excellent.” His smile twisted her stomach in knots. “Come with me.”

With only a brief glance at the computers she would so have loved to use, Lily followed her uncle and father back upstairs to her room, where they left her inside and closed the door with an extra click.

She checked the knob a moment
later.

Locked.

So, then, that was it. She wasn’t sure why they’d taken her downstairs, but could only assume they suspected she might have resisted them.

One other thing was certain. If they were traveling back to Sardis as soon as Parliament made an announcement, she didn’t have time to waste. Alec would have to be warned immediately. He needed to get back to Sardis, though
she couldn’t imagine how he would get there in time. Hopeless tears coursed down her cheeks, but then her gaze fell on the open Bible she’d left behind.

God rescued His faithful people.

“Help me to be more faithful, Lord,” she whispered. “I can’t do this without You.”

* * *

Alec trained his binoculars on the Bardici compound. The swirling in his empty stomach only reinforced
his growing fears. Lily had been inside the estate for over thirty-eight hours. In that time, he’d seen a female figure standing in a window looking out, but no curtains had been knotted. No signal had been given. Why not?

He’d dared to turn on the Bedouin’s phone to check the internet briefly that afternoon, but other than a rumor about a possible compromise between the Bardici family and
his, there was no news out of Lydia.

Something had to give soon. His stores of food were gone, and he’d been living off of water from the tiny trickle in the ravine. Even the horses had consumed most of the grass in the immediate area. Besides running out of options, there was every chance they might be discovered at any time.

As the sun dipped low in the western sky, Alec focused
his field glasses on the window where he’d spotted the female figure the day before. A shadow passed across the curtain.

Movement.

Someone was there.

He adjusted the resolution, though no amount of focus could compel the figure to appear again.

Then the curtains shifted, stirred up by someone inside. The window latch opened and a swath of something sage-green fluttered
in the open air.

The window shut, but the sage-green bulge remained, a knot in the window curtain.

Lily’s signal.

It was time. She had a message for him. And, for the moment at least, the coast was clear.

* * *

Lily fluffed her hair and popped another mint into her mouth, chastising her reflection in the mirror. “He doesn’t care what you look like,” she told herself.

But she didn’t believe it. Inconsequential as her appearance might be under the circumstances, she still wanted to look her best when she saw Alec again. After all, he was a prince. Even though she’d told herself a thousand times over that whatever was between them would undoubtedly end once their ordeal was over, she couldn’t help the way her heart beat excitedly at the thought of seeing
him again.

She crossed to the window and peered out into the darkness. Was he even out there? Had he come up with a different plan and left the desert behind? Had he been captured while approaching? Anything could happen to him.

A canteen landed with a clunk on the tiny balcony outside her window. Lily opened the casement and grabbed the canteen, turning it over to reveal a note.

TIE ME UP.

Lily blinked at the handwritten letters, then quickly guessed at what Alec was up to. A long rope extended from the sand-filled canteen, and she twined it around the balusters, knotting it tightly over the top of the railing.

A moment later there was a tug on the rope, and she looked down to see Alec climbing up.

Her heart leapt at the sight of him, and she wanted
to call down to him to be careful, but at the same time, she couldn’t risk doing anything that might give away his presence.

His hands gripped the railing, and an instant later he’d hoisted himself over it.

She pulled him back into her suite, and he stumbled after her, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his face close to hers.

She hadn’t had any intention of kissing him,
but the moment his lips drew near, she didn’t hesitate to return his eager kiss.

“Are you all right? They haven’t hurt you?” he whispered between kisses.

“I’m fine, but you’ve got to get to Sardis as soon as you can. There’s going to be a ruling oligarchy. You’ve got to sign it or our family will outnumber yours.”

“Outnumber?”

“My uncle and father and I make three. Your
two sisters are only two.”

“You’d sign—” Alec began, and for the first time stopped kissing her.

“I’ve got to go along with what they ask. If I don’t—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the lights snapped on. The door to her suite was open, and her room was filled with soldiers, surrounding them with their guns trained on them from every angle.

David Bardici smiled.
“Good work, Lillian. Your cooperation is very much appreciated.” He nodded to the armed men. “Handcuff him. Let’s go.”

Lily blinked against the sudden light, unsure how or when the men had entered her room. Her entire attention had been so focused on Alec, she’d been unaware of anything else.

But he didn’t know that.

As soldiers clapped cuffs on Alec’s wrists, he looked at her
with disappointment in his eyes, and she realized with a stab of horror how the situation looked from his perspective.

He thought she’d worked with her uncle to purposely trap him, didn’t he?

And she had no way of proving to him otherwise.

TWELVE

A
lec strained against the chains that bound him, but they didn’t budge.

He knew there was no point fighting, but he couldn’t help it. He had to do something. He’d been so foolish.

With his kingdom and the lives of his family hanging in the balance, he’d walked right into a trap. Could he have been any more stupid?

Good work, Lillian. Your cooperation is
very much appreciated.

David Bardici’s words echoed through his mind, at odds with the expression on Lily’s face. She’d looked startled. Horrified. Desperate.

Had she betrayed him? He didn’t want to believe it, but the chains on his wrists said otherwise.

Whatever her role had been, he had only himself to blame for getting captured. Why had he thought he could walk into Bardici’s
compound and emerge unharmed? More importantly, why had he given in to his longing to hold Lillian in his arms and kiss her again, allowing himself to be distracted instead of realizing the danger in time to escape? He’d told himself a hundred times as he’d prepared for his visit that it was a fact-finding mission only. He’d had no intention of kissing her.

But the moment he saw her, there
had been no resisting the pull of attraction he felt. He’d been so concerned for her safety, so worried that she might be suffering at the hands of her evil uncle.

Now he was going to suffer at her uncle’s hands. It was only a matter of time.

With a reverberating boom, a door opened, and several sets of feet shuffled through the darkness.

“When your family is hanged for treason
and my family takes the throne, don’t blame
me,
Alexander.” David Bardici’s voice carried through the cavernous space. “Blame yourself. You failed them. You failed God.” He chuckled.

Alec’s hands clenched, but there was nothing he could do to defend himself.

“Don’t worry about Lillian’s safety anymore. She did exactly what we asked her to do from the very beginning. She found you during
the ambush. She seduced you. She fooled you into thinking she could be trusted and then she betrayed you. As long as she continues to cooperate with us, she will be rewarded handsomely for her work. But if you attempt to contact her, if you ever try to see her again, we’ll hang her right beside you. Understand?”

Alec said nothing, and a hollow boom told him the general had left.

In
his absence, Alec wrestled with the man’s question. Did he understand?

Maybe.

If Lillian really was cooperating with her uncle, would the general have had to warn him away from her?

There was an undercurrent of fear that carried through the man’s threat, a needlessness that could only be explained one way.

David Bardici knew that Alec was in love with his niece. And he
didn’t want Alec getting close to her again. Why not?

Was Lillian’s love for him stronger than her fear of her uncle?

Alec prayed he’d somehow get the chance to find out.

* * *

Lillian followed her uncle silently as he shoved her from the dark room, the words he’d used to taunt Alec still ringing in her ears.

If you attempt to contact her, if you ever try to see her
again, we’ll hang her right beside you.
She knew the warning was as much for her benefit as for his. Wasn’t that why her uncle had dragged her down to the dungeon to hear him threaten Alec in the first place?

She told herself he was being a bully, but that knowledge brought her little comfort in the face of the overwhelming reality. David Bardici had made Alec believe that every kindness
Lily had shown him since the moment they’d met in the alley had only been to earn his trust so she could lead him into their trap. Worse than that, she was certain her uncle had every intention of killing Alec once he was certain he had no need of him. And once he no longer had any need of her?

He’d put her away for good this time.

“Through here.” David shoved her into the same office
he’d taken her to earlier that day, planting her in the chair opposite his while he picked up one of the computers from the desk along the wall and plunked it down in front of her. Though it looked like any ordinary computer, several cords dangled from it, and he pulled a few more gadgets from a case. “Now that I’ve taken care of that, I have an assignment for you. Give me your arm.”

“Is
that really necessary?” Michael Bardici had followed them silently until now.

“Don’t question me.” David barked at his little brother without taking his eyes off Lily. “Your arm.”

Lillian reluctantly lifted the requested appendage, and her uncle put a blood-pressure cuff on her, followed by another smaller cuff for her finger. Then he plucked two unfamiliar cables from the case.

“Respiration transducers,” he explained as he clipped them to the front of her shirt and plugged the other end into the computer. “It’s a polygraph test.”

“A lie detector?”

Her uncle ignored her question and scowled at the computer screen. “You are a nervous one, aren’t you?” He clicked a few keys. “State your name.”

“Lillian Bardici.”

His face didn’t leave the screen.
“And you’re in love with Prince Alexander, correct?”

In spite of anything she might have done to stop it, she felt her heart rate pick up and a blush rise straight to her cheeks.

Her uncle shook his head at her. “Really, Lillian, that’s pathetic.” He rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the screen. “At least you make my job easier. Now, has the prince been in contact with
any other members of the royal family since the ambush?”

Lily didn’t figure there would be any point in trying to lie. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“Has he spoken to you about his brother?”

“Thaddeus?”

“He’s spoken of him, then?”

“Just to say that he went out on a boat with a friend six years ago, and never came back.”

“Is that all he said?”

“And that you
want to know where he is.”

Her uncle’s eyes narrowed, and he turned his attention from the screen to her face. “He told you that I want to know where his brother is?”

She nodded.

“What exactly did he say?”

Lily tried to recall Alec’s words, but her uncle’s intimidating presence made thinking difficult. “You called him into your office in Benghazi and asked him if he knew
where his brother was.”

“He remembers.” The general appeared to be upset by that revelation. It fit with Alec’s fears that her uncle had used memory-erasing drugs on him. Obviously her uncle hadn’t expected Alec to regain those hidden memories—but then he probably hadn’t expected him to get amnesia during the motorcade ambush, either. “Does he know where his brother is?”

“No.”

“Does he know what happened to his brother?”

Lily could feel her heart hammering in response to the question. She could only imagine what kind of answers her uncle was gleaning before she said a word.

“Tell me what you know,” David Bardici demanded.

“Thaddeus went sailing. He never came back.”

“What does Alexander believe happened to his brother?”

“He doesn’t know.”

Her uncle turned to her. “You know more than you’re saying.”

Lily took a deep breath and tried to think. She’d long ago given up any hope of misleading her uncle. Mostly she just wanted to placate his constant demands. “Thaddeus had a friend who was accused of killing him—Kirk.” She pinched her eyes shut as she recalled the name. “Alec doesn’t think Kirk did it. He doesn’t think Kirk
killed Thaddeus, or that he lied about it.”

“Where does he think his brother went?”

“He doesn’t know.”

The general let out a frustrated breath. “Fine.” He pulled a picture from the sheaf of papers he’d carried into the room. “Do you recognize this?”

Lily looked at the picture—some sort of jeweled scepter, inlaid with amethysts, with a cross on top. There was no caption
to identify the object, but it looked a little familiar.

“You
do
recognize it,” her uncle surmised, apparently from the expression on her face since she hadn’t said anything for the polygraph to declare true or false.

“I—I don’t know. I think I’ve seen it in a book somewhere.”

“Where?”

Lillian tried frantically to recall. “A long time ago? I don’t know. Maybe not.”

“It’s the Scepter of Charlemagne,” her uncle reported brusquely. “Has the prince mentioned it to you?”

“Charlemagne,” Lillian whispered, and closed her eyes, trying to recall what Alec had said. “Charlemagne was the Holy Roman Emperor.”

“I’m not looking for a history lesson!” the general shouted. “I want to know what the idiot said.”

“David,” Michael chided his brother, who looked
as though he might do something violent at any moment.

“He didn’t say anything about a scepter,” Lily told her uncle flatly, and had to assume the polygraph backed her up, because she really
didn’t
know any more than that. But her uncle certainly seemed to think the scepter was important. Lily wondered why he was so desperate for information about it.

“Fine. Do you intend to sign the
covenant and support the Bardici claim to the throne?”

“Yes.”

Whatever the computer screen showed when she answered the question, he didn’t approve, but leaned across the table toward her. “I’m watching you, Lillian.” He plucked the transducers from her shirt and jerked the cuff from her arm. “If you want to survive this revolution, you’ll do exactly as I say.” Then he pulled her across
the room, past her father, opening the door to reveal soldiers standing guard in the hall.

“Lock her in her room.” He shoved her toward them. “And see that she doesn’t get out!”

* * *

Lillian went straight to her window, but saw to her disappointment that the rope she’d tied to the balusters earlier was gone.

Not that she expected to get very far without Alec’s help.

With her door locked, she didn’t have any way of reaching him, if he was even still inside the compound. Instead she fell backward on the bed while the tears flowed freely down her cheeks. Did Alec think she’d betrayed him? Did he hate her?

For a moment, she let herself remember the way he’d wrapped his arms around her, kissing her as though she meant the world to him, too wrapped up in
the love between them to pay attention to any possible threat that might be lurking in the dark room.

Lillian shuddered as she thought about the number of soldiers who’d entered without her realizing it. Had her uncle suspected what she was about to do? Had he been spying on her and watching her create the signal with the window curtain? Or had he simply acted quickly the instant a wary
guard had caught sight of Alec scaling her wall?

However he’d pulled it off, Lillian figured it didn’t matter anyway. Her uncle was king of this castle, and he ruled with an iron fist. If he got control of the entire kingdom of Lydia, there would be no end to the trouble he might cause. The man was cruel and ruthless.

She couldn’t let him get away with his plans.

But how could
she stop him?

* * *

No sound penetrated the dark chamber where Alec was chained. Had he been there an hour? A day? There’d been no sign of anyone, save General Bardici and his hostile warning. Alec hadn’t had anything to eat or drink. Were they planning to leave him there to die?

A hollow echo reverberated through the still air, and Alec wondered what it meant. A door had opened
somewhere, not far from him. The slightest shift in the air whispered past his skin.

Someone was coming.

A moment later the light switched on, and Alec saw that he was in a stone-walled room. A soldier stood opposite him with keys in his hands. A greenish bruise colored the left side of his face.

The soldier touched the bruise with his fingertips as he approached. “It’s been
almost a week since you hit me with a cast-iron floor lamp and gave me this bruise.”

Alec braced himself, trying to judge how upset the soldier was about what had happened. At the same time, he recognized the man from basic training. “Titus.” Putting the pieces together, Alec recalled that Titus was the name of the soldier who’d dropped the canteen near them in the desert. He’d never determined
whether the canteen had been offered as a lifeline or a trap. “I’m sorry.”

The soldier shrugged off his apology. “I’ve asked myself since then what I would have done had our roles been reversed.”

Alec considered mentioning that if he’d meant to kill the soldier with the blow, the man wouldn’t have been standing there to accuse him. He’d only been trying to get away.

The man took
a step closer. “I’d have probably broken your neck. That way, I wouldn’t have to worry about what would happen when you got up.” He reached for him.

Alec shifted to the side, but with his hands and ankles chained to the wall, he had no way of defending himself.

* * *