Loe raamatut: «The Duchess and Her Bodyguard»

Chapter One

“You’ve got to be kidding!” Wade said.

He stared at the man who, moments before, had tapped him on his shoulder and invited him into the quiet, well-stocked library of the Blair House. As he was an avid lover of books, a setting like this normally would have attracted his interest. Not tonight.

At the frown that came over the undersecretary of the navy’s forehead, Wade straightened and crisply added, “Sir.”

Undersecretary Peter Logan acknowledged the formal address with a curt nod. “No, Commander. I assure you I’m not kidding. In fact, I’ve never been more serious. I’ve just asked you to escort Duchess Mary Louise of Baronovia for the remainder of her visit here in Washington.”

“Why me?” Wade ventured. He’d gone through the academy, basic training and graduate school to become a lawyer. Acting as an escort in performance of his duties wasn’t his idea of serving his country.

“With due respect, sir, I’m a lawyer,” he said cautiously. “You of all people should know our reputation. How interesting would I be as an escort?”

“That depends on you,” Logan said with a fleeting smile. “I seem to recall you had some bodyguard training and that you’ve been assigned to escort duty before this. In fact, the way I understood it, Commander, you were more than an escort. You were actually a bodyguard.”

Wade cleared his throat at the reminder. His brief stint as a bodyguard had almost taken ten years off his life, and he wasn’t anxious to duplicate the drill. “That was to protect a witness in a court case, sir. And if you remember,” he added with a wry smile, “I almost lost the poor woman in the process.”

“I remember.” Logan’s lips curved in a calculating way that made Wade’s mental antennae rise like a rocket and his spirits sink just as fast. “However, Commander,” Logan went on, “I’m sure the experience has made you aware of the importance of never taking your eyes off your charge. Am I correct?”

Wade nodded reluctantly and, from the look on Logan’s face, had a feeling somehow he was in for a surprise. This request that he act as an escort to the duchess wasn’t the whole story. He took a deep breath. “Why don’t you tell me something about the lady?”

Logan smiled, and a twinkle came into his eyes. “The duchess is Prince Alexis’s young daughter.”

Wade blinked. Raised with three younger brothers, he knew zip about little girls, and even less on how to entertain them. Outside of the well-known Children’s Museum, the National Zoo and the Doll House and Toy Museum in D.C., he would be hard put to come up with places to take her. The prospect of escorting and entertaining the little duchess around D.C. blew his mind. He’d be the laughingstock of the JAG Corps.

“His young daughter? I’m afraid you’ve picked the wrong person for the job, sir. Sounds to me you need a nursemaid or a nanny…”

Logan guffawed until tears came into his eyes. When he was finally able to control himself, he gasped. “Maybe I should brief you a little before I introduce you to the duchess.” He gestured to a large wine-colored leather chair. “Have a seat.”

Resigned to the inevitable, Wade sank into the chair. At the same time he wished he’d thought to pick up another flute of champagne to see him through the briefing.

Logan sank into a seat and leaned forward. “To be brief and to the point,” he began, “the Prince of Baronovia is here at the request of the State Department. To the public, the reason the prince, his daughter and his entourage are housed in the Blair House is that Baronovia is too small a country to have its own embassy here in Washington. The actual reason they are staying in the Blair House is somewhat more delicate and confidential.”

Wade shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was beginning to sense there was more to the scenario than Logan was willing to admit. Especially when Logan had already mentioned “bodyguard” in the same breath as “escort.”

“And?”

“For now, that’s all I can tell you,” Logan went on. “Suffice it to say the department is very interested in keeping the prince and the duchess happy and safe during their stay. When the duchess specifically requested you to escort her while her father attends to affairs of state, we all agreed you were the perfect solution to keeping her happy.”

“Why me? I don’t even know her.”

“Because we also know she’ll be safe with you.”

Safe? Wade straightened up and turned all of his attention on Logan. If he was expected to participate in what sounded like more than just simple affairs of state, he intended to learn more of the facts. “If Baronovia is such a small country, why would the State Department be so interested in it? Let alone worried about the safety of its ruler?”

Logan glanced around the room as if to make sure they were alone, then lowered his voice. “Until now we’ve only had a trade mission in Baronovia. With all the unrest in the area, we decided it was time to upgrade the mission to an embassy with U.S. Marines to guard it. The State Department is hoping to persuade the prince to sign a treaty agreement that will allow us to do so.”

Wade frowned as the facts began to sink in. This wasn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill assignment, not if there were significant political overtones. There had to be more to the story than the secretary was admitting. It was time to find out. “Go on.”

Logan paced the library, paused to consider Wade and finally appeared to make up his mind. “Just between you and me, Commander, the personnel we intend to station in Baronovia will also act as the eyes and ears of our State Department—an arrangement a few of the smaller countries surrounding Baronovia strongly oppose. Our presence in the area isn’t very popular at the present time. Unfriendly elements in the region might seek to discourage our plans by attempting to disrupt the prince’s visit. Of course,” he added in a confidential voice, “I don’t expect you to share this information with anyone.”

Wade sank back into the leather chair. The last thing he needed at this stage of his life was a kid who might be in trouble. Or a country that could be incinerated at any given moment. “Just what are my chances of keeping the duchess out of trouble?”

“That’s up to you, Commander. Of course, you’ll have the backup of the Secret Service, but up-front you’ll be her escort. We want to keep the duchess happy. Now don’t get me wrong,” Logan went on, “the responsibility for the duchess’s safety and happiness is largely going to be up to you. Under the circumstances, I expect you to give yourself fully over to this assignment. This time,” he cautioned dryly as he rose to his feet, “you will not, I repeat, will not lose your charge. Understood?”

The briefing obviously over, Wade rose to his feet. He wasn’t too clear as to why a JAG lawyer was needed as an escort/bodyguard, but if the undersecretary of the navy was giving him orders he must have had the judge advocate general’s concurrence. “Understood, sir.”

Logan relaxed and shot him a conspiratorial smile that left Wade bewildered. “Then come with me. I’ll introduce you to your charge.”

When the grandfather clock in the corner struck eleven, Wade glanced at his watch. “Kind of past her bedtime, isn’t it?”

Logan choked back a laugh. “Commander,” he said jovially, “brace yourself. I think you’re in for a surprise.”

With Logan’s laugh ringing in his ears, Wade reluctantly gave up the possibility that, given enough time, he might have connected with the lady in white sometime during the party.

Logan led him back to the party and, to Wade’s bewilderment, straight to the side of the lady in white. At that point, the surprise Logan had promised him became the understatement of the year. Instead of acting as the escort of an innocent young girl as he’d been led to believe, his charge was the lady with the invitation in her exotic green eyes.

He took a deep breath and promised himself Undersecretary Logan hadn’t heard the last of this. A joke was a joke, but this was too much. And he wasn’t laughing.

Logan ignored Wade’s pointed look. “Your Grace, I’d like to introduce you to Commander Wade Stevens. As you requested, the commander will be your escort for the duration of your stay here in Washington. Commander, may I present Duchess Mary Louise of Baronovia.”

As requested?

Wade’s head swam as he acknowledged the introduction. Requested by whom? The lady in white herself?

He hadn’t set eyes on the duchess before tonight. And, outside of smiling at him over the rim of her flute of champagne, she hadn’t paid any real attention to him. There had to be a mistake, and one he would remedy the first chance he got.

“Delighted to meet you, Commander Stevens,” the duchess replied with a mischievous smile. She held out her hand. “I am looking forward to having you as my escort during my stay in your beautiful city.”

Wade glanced at the two Secret Service men hovering behind the duchess and eyeing him as if he were a suspect. Like it or not, he had to keep his questions for a later time when he and the duchess had more privacy. “Looks as if we’re going to be quite a cozy group,” he commented dryly.

After a glance over her shoulder, the duchess frowned. “As long as I have you as my escort, Commander, I’m sure I will not be needing anyone else.” She waved her hand in dismissal at the Secret Service men.

To give the men credit, they glanced at Wade and remained where they were.

Wade froze at her gesture. The sensuous duchess might have caught his attention, but her imperious royal manner was rapidly turning him off. It was time to make one thing clear: if he was going to be her escort, he intended to be in charge.

He gazed at her silently. Considering her age and her appearance, the Children’s Zoo was out. And along with it any other diversions intended for children.

“You won’t be needing the Secret Service?” he asked softly. When she shook her head, he turned to Undersecretary Logan. “This isn’t going to work, sir. Secret Service assistance is part of the package or the deal is off.”

Logan cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Your Grace, I’d like to have a moment with Commander Stevens.” At her cool nod, he drew Wade aside. “We have no choice in the matter, Commander. The request for your services came through Prince Alexis himself and has been sanctioned by everyone, with the possible exception of the president. I’ll see what I can do about making the Secret Service less conspicuous and more acceptable to the duchess, but I agree with you. They must remain.”

Logan turned back to the duchess and said apologetically, “The commander is right, Your Grace. There’s too much at stake here for you to go around D.C. without adequate protection. But I promise we will try to keep them in the background.”

The duchess handed her empty champagne flute to a passing waiter with an expression that confirmed Wade’s opinion of the lady. She was every bit as willful as she was beautiful.

“I want to see your beautiful city as an ordinary tourist,” she said with a smile clearly intended to charm the socks off of Logan, but wasn’t doing much for him. “I can hardly do it with an entourage. I’m sure the commander’s presence will be sufficient to protect me.” She patted Wade on his arm. “Right, Commander?”

Wade smothered a groan. It was bad enough that the duchess wasn’t the young girl he’d been led to believe. Children could be put in their place, but this was no child. The very adult duchess was a spoiled woman whose tempting lips and flashing eyes were set on charming him into going along with whatever she wanted.

Fortunately, he was experienced enough as a man and as a lawyer to know that when a woman uses her charms to get her way there’s bound to be trouble ahead. The trick was to stay one step ahead of the lady before she caused an international incident.

Bottom line, he sensed as he gazed down at her, was that her care and protection, with or without the Secret Service to back him up, promised to be a handful.

He glanced at the sculptured feminine hand that now clung to his arm. All his instincts to take advantage of the closeness she seemed to offer stirred, then died a quick death. He wasn’t a lawyer for nothing. Her smile was an act.

In his ten years with the Judge Advocate General Corps, he’d persuaded many a jury to see his side of a case before the court. This case was no different. Sooner or later he and the duchess were going to have to come to an agreement about the Secret Service, or his name wasn’t Wade Stevens. But not here in front of roomful of people. There was no point in creating a public spectacle of himself.

“Perhaps the duchess and I ought to have this discussion in private. Come to some sort of mutual understanding,” he quietly said to Logan. When Logan nodded, Wade motioned to the Secret Service men to hold off while he straightened out his charge. “Your Grace, please come with me.”

He offered his arm to the duchess and walked her to the library door. Before she could speak, he had led her into the library he’d left just moments before.

“Now see here, Your Grace,” he began as soon as the door closed behind him. “I don’t want to appear arbitrary, but there are some rules attached to the game we seem to be playing. Whether you like it or not.”

“Game?” The duchess wandered over to a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, drew out a leather-bound book and casually turned the pages. “I do not know what you’re talking about.”

“With due respect, Your Grace, I think you do,” Wade answered. “For starters, if you don’t mind the plain language, you’re going to have to knock off the royal act and come down off your high horse. If you’re serious about seeing D.C. as a tourist, fine. But you’re going to have to play strictly by the rules. My rules. The first of which is cooperating with the Secret Service. And,” he added grimly, “you might as well cut out the siren act to get your way. It isn’t going to work on me.”

The duchess thrust the book back on the shelf and turned to face Wade. Gold sparks of anger shot through her eyes. “Anything else, Commander?”

“Yes,” he said. “You’re going to have to stop acting like a duchess and more like a tourist from New Jersey.”

“But I am a duchess!”

“Maybe so, but with your regal bearing and custom-made clothing, no way in heaven are you going to pass for a typical tourist.” Nor like an ordinary woman, he added silently. Not with those green eyes and chestnut hair and a body sure to draw second glances.

He expected the duchess to protest. To use her royal status as an excuse to overrule this bodyguard-as-an-escort business. To his surprise she stared at him for a few moments before she bit her lip and spoke up.

“And how do you propose to change me into a typical tourist, Commander?”

He was a dead man.

Contrary to his hopeful expectations, instead of firing him, Duchess Mary Louise of Baronovia was actually going to go along with him! Grudgingly he had to give her credit. She’d not only gotten him for a bodyguard, she was smart. Smart enough to know when to fold.

All the more reason he had to be on his guard.

“First, Your Grace,” he said eyeing her cocktail dress frankly, “we’re going to go to Wal-Mart in the morning and outfit you in ordinary clothing.”

Ordinary clothing to turn her into an ordinary woman? he asked himself as he continued to lay down the rules. No way! Clearly he was out of his mind for even thinking so. No matter what she wore or how she looked, the duchess Mary Louise could never be ordinary. Still, if it was the only way he could get her attention it was worth a try.

After a moment’s pause, she shrugged. “You may be right. If you think clothing will make a difference, I’m willing. What else?”

“The Secret Service stays, both of them.”

A blush rose over her face, and for a moment she almost looked human. “They are two old married men with old-fashioned minds. Everything I told them I wanted to see was off-limits.”

Wade’s sixth sense sounded warning signals. As in any big city, there were enough off-limit places in D.C. to blow any bodyguard-cum-escort’s mind, and he was no different. Still, with him keeping an extra watchful eye on her and the two Secret Service men as backup, how much trouble could she get into?

“What exactly do you have in mind to see?”

“I’ll let you know in the morning,” she said airily and started to turn away.

“I don’t play games, Your Grace, and neither should you.” Wade said quietly. “To begin with, why don’t you make a list of the places you’d like to visit. I’ll look them over and let you know which ones I think are okay.”

She stopped in her tracks, and her eyes narrowed. Without saying a word, Wade knew that under that cool facade she was angry…and that he didn’t care. He was going to do his duty as he saw it, even if she didn’t like it. Furthermore, he sensed she hadn’t chosen him for an escort merely because he was younger than the Secret Service men assigned her. Age had nothing to do with it; she had to have another motive.

He raised his eyebrows and swallowed a begrudging smile. The angrier the duchess became, the more enchanting she looked, more the pity. For all her attraction, she could have come from another planet and was just as unreachable.

She didn’t fool him, either. She may have agreed to dressing down, but strong-minded women like her never gave up, any more than a leopard could change its spots. It would only be a matter of time before the lady was back trying to use her wiles to persuade him to see things her way.

Thank God he was going to be hers only for a few days.

“If you don’t mind my saying so, it sounds to me as if you’ve already tried your wiles on the Secret Service men and couldn’t get away with it,” he said dryly. “You can forget trying anything on me.”

“Now see here, Commander,” she retorted, all traces of the wistful and sexy woman gone in the blink of an eyelid. The imperious duchess was back. “In spite of what you think about me, I am not a spoiled child. Nor am I a fool. I am not looking for trouble, either. I merely wish to see your country’s capital and I wish to see it my way.”

“I don’t have a problem with that as long as the Secret Service tags along,” he agreed. And then he asked the question that continued to bother him. “Of all the men you could have asked for as an escort, why me?”

She looked at him cooly. “Simply put, Commander, I chose you for an escort because you looked to have an open mind and apparently knew how to enjoy yourself. So, if you think my dressing up or dressing down will make me inconspicuous, I will allow it.”

Wade reluctantly nodded his agreement. In his book the lady could never be inconspicuous. He might take her shopping for nondescript clothing, but as for her fading into the tourist landscape, he wasn’t going to bank on it. Any more than he could bank on her complete cooperation.

To make matters worse, there seemed to be no way out of the escort duty.

Escorting the duchess around Washington might actually turn out to be interesting, he mused as he eyed the folds of sheer material designed to hide her pert breasts. Instead, they only managed to heighten his interest. He’d always felt that when a woman left some hint of modesty in her clothing, it did more for him than a blatant invitation.

Whoever had designed the duchess’s cocktail dress had known exactly what he or she was doing. And, from his own reaction to the way she looked, he wouldn’t have been surprised if the lady knew it, too. To muddy the waters, he was sure, from the parting look she gave him she hadn’t given up on persuading him to see things her way.

He followed her back to the party with a sinking feeling in his middle. He was going to have to protect the lady for a few days. But who was going to protect him from her?