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As far as I’m concerned, we can stay hidden indefinitely. My main concern now is making sure Stasi and the baby are safe.
Stasi stares at me with her blue eyes I’ve become addicted to. She strokes my ego far too well, letting me know I am responsible for putting that dazed look in her eye, the flush in her cheeks, the satisfied sighs in her lungs.
However, something tenses up and changes in her as we approach the dock.
Stasi’s brows come together, and she sits up, staring over my shoulder.
“What is it, Stasi? What’s wrong?”
She looks at me and says with wide eyes, “Someone’s here.”
“Who?” I say with a growl, pivoting around in my seat.
The mother of my child says the words as soon as the figure becomes recognizable in my eyes.
Standing on the shore, arms crossed, is a tall, russet-haired man in a kilt.
“How did you find me?” I ask.
“Holy shit, it’s that guy,” I hear Stasi whisper.
I roll my eyes. Even my future wife knows the public’s favorite bodyguard in a kilt.
Despite his aggressive stance, the man speaks quietly and kindly. “I’m very sorry for this intrusion, Your Highness. I’ve been instructed to bring you to the palace without delay.”
My arms crossed defiantly, I stand between Uther and Stasi. Respectfully, he averts his gaze from her bikini-clad form. The blanket she wraps around herself is wet from the water splashed into the boat from our—rocking.
“Go inside and get dry, baby.”
She hesitates. Stasi knows why Uther is here. She knows a confrontation is coming and doesn’t want to leave my side. I love her for that. Her loyalty is heartwarming.
Once she has disappeared inside the cabin, I ask the queen’s chief bodyguard, “What if we don’t want to go with you?”
He sighs heavily as if my disappearance has put him through the wringer. “The woman is not necessary. She may stay. However, I have no choice but to deliver you to the palace today.”
Uther means no harm, but his choice of words riles me.
“The woman has a name. You heard me speak to her. And Stasi is imminently necessary in every way possible.”
“Very well. She may join you. That is not my concern,” Uther says, his face stoic, giving nothing away.
“What happens if I simply wish to stay here?”
“Then I’m to use every means necessary.”
“You would point a weapon at a woman pregnant with a royal baby?”
Uther blinks at me, taking several seconds to parse the bombshell I’ve just delivered. “No, I would never do that, Your Highness. If you refuse, I’m instructed to appeal to your reason, sense of duty, and family loyalty.”
Now is not the time to pick apart all that. Uther doesn’t need to know that my sense of family loyalty is stretched pretty thin at this point.
“And failing that?”
He simply answers, “Then, I fail.”
I scoff. “It’s not as if they’ll fire the war hero,” I say.
When he says nothing, I wince internally. “They threatened to fire you, didn’t they?”
