His frown darkened. He directed it at her so long, she couldn’t mistake his anger. Why? Because she’d called one of his men a lout?
“Describe the bracelet you think is so important,” he snapped out.
She did so quickly and added, “I was wearing it when I was taken from here all those years ago.”
She actually thought he was beginning to believe her until he scoffed, “A trinket you could have had made for your purposes? A trinket that resembles the real one and any number of people could have known about? Did you really bother to copy the original, or did you intend to claim it was stolen all along?”
Crestfallen that he could draw those conclusions, she said, “You won’t even try to find it? When my father could recognize it?”
“You need to be a lot more convincing for me to accuse a royal guard of theft, when it would be your word against his. No.”
He’d just dismissed the tangible evidence that she’d been depending on. She was losing all desire to be cooperative—with him. If he didn’t frighten her, she’d tell him so. Good God, she couldn’t have picked a worse official in the whole palace to confide in than the head of security.
She grasped at another bit of tangible evidence, asking, “Do I look like my mother?”
“Which mother would that be?”
Frustration entered her tone. “Frederick’s first wife, Queen Avelina, of course.”
“No.”
He gave new meaning to that word. She’d never heard it uttered with such absolute finality.
“No, I don’t? Or, no, you’re just dismissing the possibility?”
“The monarchs are blond. The other imposters were blond. You aren’t. And it is irrelevant. People can be found who resemble each other but are not related. Now—”
“Wait! Did you just say other imposters? There were more than one?”
“Indeed, quite a few. Now back to your name.”
Good Lord, they were never going to believe her story if she was just one in a long line of claimants. “You expect my name to be anything other than Alana Stindal?”
“Don’t answer questions with questions,” he warned her.
“I apologize, but I was trained to dissect any given situation and even second-guess an opponent.”
“That’s probably the first true thing you’ve said, that you were trained—”
“To be a queen,” she finished for him. “My guardian knew he would have to bring me back here someday to claim my heritage. So he did what he could to ensure I would be prepared for it, even if he never told me why my education was so unusual.”
“Who is this guardian of yours and why would he train you to view the king’s protector as an opponent?”
Becker was doing it again, asking specifically about Poppie, probably hoping she’d blurt something out in her nervousness. Realizing that just made her more guarded.
She said simply, “I consider you my opponent because you’re acting like one. You’re standing between me and the parent I didn’t even know I had until just recently. I came here to save people’s lives. Tell my father that. Whether you or he believes me or not, he can still use me to prevent a war. Once the rebels slink back into the holes they came from, I’ll quietly leave the country and my father can put more effort into producing another heir—and why hasn’t he done so in all these years?”
She shouldn’t have asked that. Her father’s lack of heirs was the main focus of the rebels’ propaganda. The last thing she wanted was for this man to think that she might be associated with them by bringing up their issues. But she blanched, watching his expression alter with that very thought.
She shot to her feet in an absolute panic. She’d almost reached the door when his hand caught her skirt, but he didn’t have a good grip and she wasn’t stopping. But he didn’t let go, his hand just slid down the blue velvet material, right over the pistol in her pocket. She heard him swear, but her hand closed over the door handle and yanked, only to have his foot hit the wooden door in front of her, slamming it closed again. She turned immediately, a fist clenched to hit his throat, one of the moves Poppie had taught her, which she was desperate enough to try despite this man’s size. No luck, none at all.
He caught her fist, started to shove it behind her back, which would have brought her hard against his chest and trapped her there. But she foiled that attempt by turning to that same side to give herself leeway to yank her hand back. Unfortunately, catching him by surprise like that didn’t work in her favor. She wasn’t sure who lost balance, but they both ended up falling to the carpeted floor. At the last second, he rolled to take the brunt of the fall, but then rolled again, pinning her under him. She wasn’t getting up from that!
The first thing he did was remove the pistol he’d felt in her pocket and toss it aside. Defensively, before he thought the worst, she exclaimed, “I won’t apologize for the weapons. Someone in this country tried to kill me! I need them to defend—”
“More than one weapon?” was all he gathered from that explanation. But then he suddenly chuckled. “I think I’m going to have to thoroughly search you, wench. Yes, I can even say it’s my duty to do so.”
She could see it in his dark blue eyes that he was about to enjoy his job far too much. He was grinning, too, as he glanced down at her breasts. She gasped. He wouldn’t dare!
