“You were already married to Pierre. He was trying to disrupt Wulfram’swedding to Rae.”
Flicka waived her hand in the air like she was fanning away nonsense. “He was trying to tell me the truth about Pierre so I would leave him.”
“Your father should be happy now that you’ve divorced Pierre.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m sure he’ll beecstatic.”Flicka hadn’t meant to sound quite that sarcastic, but the moment called for it. Her father would never be pleased about undignifiedactions like divorce. “Schloss Marienburgis a castle, a real castle. If we can get there, Pierre won’t be able to get to me.”
“That’s probably what he thought about the Prince’s Palace.”
“Yeah, well, that’s different. This has to stop. This has to end. He can’t keep chasing me the rest of my life. I have to end this somehow.”
Dieter said, “Your father might not be thrilled you married me.”
Flicka paused before her thumb tapped the last number on the screen, thinking about that, but she hit the seven anyway. “That’s none of his business, that old goat. If he wants to make an issue of it, we’ll discuss it then.”
“There’s no way he could know. We don’t have to mention it.”
Unless Wulf had spilled the beans. “If he brings anything up, I’ll sure as heckmentionit.”
In her ear,“Hello?”
She replied, “Hello, Papa!”
Over the speaker, the voice of His Royal Highness Phillipp Augustus, the Hereditary Prince of Hannover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, sounded weaker and older than Flicka remembered. “Flicka? Is that you?”
“Yes, Papa. It’s Flicka.”
“Are you all right?Where are you?”
“I’m all right. I’m hiding.”
“Wulfram said that he couldn’t find you, that you were missing, thatit had been months, and then you were in Monaco.”
“Yeah, well, long story,” she said, “but I need help.”
“With what? What can I do?”
“I need somewhere safe to go, somewhere Pierre and his Secret Service can’t get to me.”
“I’ll call Wulfram. We’ll useSchloss Marienburg.It’s a goddamn castle. Let’s see him try to get inthere.Who is with you?”
Flicka looked up, her eyes asking the question.
He took a deep breath and said, “Dieter Schwarz. Tell him Dieter Schwarz is with you.”
She felt a smile growing on her face, and she reached out and held one of his hands with hers. “You remember Wulf’s chief of security, Dieter Schwarz? He broke me out of the Prince’s Palace in Monaco and saved me from Pierre.”
Her father said, “Dieter Schwarz? I always liked him. He’s a loyal retainer, I cantell. Good, stout, German lad, even if he says he’s Swiss.”
Flicka squeezed Dieter’s fingers again. A real smile grew on Dieter’s face as she tried not to laugh.
She said, “Don’t say anything specific over the phone in case they’re listening, Papa, but how can I get there?”
“Do you remember the old place, the place where your brother and I so vehemently disagreed about, the day after your motherdied?”
After Flicka’s mother had died from breast cancer, her father had sent her away toLe Roseyboarding school the very next day, as scheduled. Wulfram, then just fifteen years old, had been furious, and that had been the beginning of their continuing animosity. “Yes.”
“Can you get there?”
