Free The Christmas Princess by Patricia McLinn Page A

bag, pushing around the contents in an apparent search for something. All the while she muttered about being nuts, as well as something about a jaw and adventure. More accurately, s
tupid adventure
.
    “Hah!” She pulled out a Metro card from the bottom of the tote. “It’s been interesting, but I’m out of here and—”
    “You’re scared,” he said.
    She whirled on him, bringing one end of Rufus’ leash with her. “Scared? Damn right I am, along with about a dozen other things.”
    “April—” Sharon started.
    “No, I’m sorry, Sharon. You’ve been great, but Mr. Silent Sam over there put me on the wrong side of his need-to-know-line, his operational security, and I went along with it. But now all I can think about is this king — this elderly man I’m going to meet and lie to. Pretend I’m the granddaughter he’s been searching for all these years. I can’t do it. Not without a better reason than I’ve been given so far.”
    He opened his mouth.
    “Don’t say it, Pierce. I won’t tell anyone anything anytime anyway. Or I’ll go to jail. I wouldn’t tell anyhow—who’d believe it? — but the jail thing clinches it. Besides, how much do I really know? Why’s a mystery to me and who or what aren’t much better. So your precious operational security is safe. But I’m leaving.”
    “You can’t take the Metro,” he said.
    “I sure can. I can—”
    “You’re right.
You
can.
Rufus
can’t.”
    She snapped her mouth closed.
    “Sit down, April.” He pointed to the bed. “Please,” he added.
    Her glare went on another beat before she put the Metro card and leash down with a show of keeping them within easy reach.
    “There was no reason for you to know more unless King Jozef would see you. Now there is. Like I told you yesterday, Bariavak is nearly encircled by impenetrable mountains with one pass through them. That pass is what this is all about. The pass makes permission to fly through Bariavak’s airspace important. Without it, planes have to detour hundreds of miles or risk the peaks.”
    “A lot of planes have been lost in those mountains,” Sharon filled in.
    He continued, “Like I said yesterday, Bariavak has withstood the conquests that have swept the region over centuries because of its location in this mountain stronghold. However, there was a little-known conflict there almost thirty years ago. The U.S. and other allies sent select troops to help the king retain power when threatened by insurgents fostered by a neighboring country. Parliamentary reforms have—”
    “The complete geopolitical ramifications can wait, Hunter,” Sharon interrupted. “The woman wants the real skinny.”
    “For starters,” April said, “what does my pretending to be a princess have to do with flying through the pass?”
    “King Jozef is considered friendly to the United States and our allies. However, as you know, he’s scheduled for major surgery in early January, complicated by his age. His heir is unreliable. Our government wants the king to sign an extension of the overflight agreement before his surgery.”
    “He’s said no?”
    “No. But he hasn’t said yes.’’ Hunter sounded absolutely detached. “He has said that at this stage in his life he would like more than anything else to find his granddaughter."
    “But … you’re setting all this up to trick him? To—”
    “To give an old man a happy holiday season? Perhaps his last?”
    At Sharon’s question, April snapped her head around.
    “It’s all in how you look at it,” Sharon continued. “He hasn’t had the easiest of lives. The king and his wife lost a number of children as babies. Then his wife died. His daughter, his only child to reach adulthood, had given birth to her first baby, a girl, when the uprising started. The baby was kidnapped from the palace — right out of her nursery — the very night victory over the insurgents was declared.”
    “I don’t remember anything about this princess being