Free Along Came A Prince by Carlyn Cade Page B

while his fingers toyed with the loaded revolver resting on his lap. A
smirk crossed his lips as the words of his mother entered his thoughts. Like
father, like son …

CHAPTER FIVE
     
    ...“Where did
the puppy come from?” the little girl asked her sister as they made their way
through the piles of rubble and muted bodies. The small child reached up and
petted the dog in Victoria’s arms.
    “He was
cowering alone on a street corner we passed on the way to the tube,” Victoria
said. “I felt sorry for the little thing and ran back to get him. He was
shaking all over from fear. By the time I picked him up and comforted him,
Mother, Daddy and you were way ahead of me, and I couldn’t find you because the
streets were filled with people running everywhere.”
    “I wondered
where you went, but I couldn’t wait. Daddy was pulling me along behind him too
fast.”
    “You know,”
Victoria said, “this puppy saved my life, just as Daddy saved yours. It delayed
me long enough that the bomb exploded when I was still a few blocks away.”
    “Can we name
the puppy?”
    “You name him,
Lily. Whatever you choose is fine with me.”
    “So does that
mean we get to keep him?”
    Victoria started
to weep again. “I want to. We’re probably all the family he has, and he sure is
the only family we have. We’re almost home now, sweetheart, so there’ll be
something there to feed him. Here,” she said as she handed the sleeping puppy
to Lily. “You can carry him.”
    The shock of
losing their parents and the bombing made them oblivious to the avalanche of
destruction around them. As they turned a corner and approached a sidewalk,
they each took two steps forward and stopped.
    “Our house,
Victoria! It’s gone,” Lily said, her voice showing her growing hysteria. She
clutched the puppy closer to her. “Our house...I want mommy...I want daddy...Make
them come back. I want my dolls and my bed and...” She collapsed on her knees
and began to sob.
    Victoria cried
as she knelt down next to Lily and hugged her tightly. “We’ll be okay, Honey.
We really will. No matter what, we still have each other...”
     
    ♥♥
     
    Stacia’s
flight to the Heathrow Airport in London aboard Clay’s plane was perfect. No
turbulence. Just smooth flying all the way. Services, specialized to Stacia’s
individual desires and needs, were dispersed by a courteous crew. She learned
how a prince traveled as she was treated like royalty throughout the entire trip.
After the plane had landed at the airport, she was walked through customs and then
escorted to a limo waiting to take her to The Dorchester, the hotel Clay had
chosen for her. He’d said he would stay in another hotel to stop gossip before
it started. Thanks to the prince, everything was smooth and easy.
    Her
driver explained The Dorchester was a world-class hotel, and she shouldn’t miss
dining in their Grill Room and Terrace Restaurants for they were considered to
be two of the finest eating establishments in London.
    When
she arrived at the hotel, she was shown to her rooftop suite. Once inside, its
majestic decor and opulent furnishings intimidated and awed her at the same
time, and the only word that came to her mind was w ow! She repeated that
word over and over as she walked through her suite.
    Better
yet, soon she would have a handsome man to walk the streets of London with her.
They would drink wine together in an outdoor café, and share everything from
Big Ben to the Changing of the Guard. After all, Clay had promised her a tour
of the city. But she might as well quit fantasizing right there. She could just
see the newspapers’ headlines – London Affair Actress Having Real Life
London Affair. S he didn’t need or want that. If there was only some safe
Shangri-la where she could be herself, some place where there was no paparazzi.
Might as well wish for a genie in a lamp to appear and grant her three wishes
as to ask for privacy from the prying paparazzi who were only