Chapter 13
The last remnants of the light faded, plunging the room into darkness.
In the absence of the maids, the candles remained unlit, and the dark around her pressed in on Natalie’s awareness.
The strap of the satchel pulled against her neck, uncomfortable where it had twisted beneath her as she flopped on the bed.
She sat up abruptly. What was the time?
How could she have forgotten her mission again? The note had said midnight. Surely she still had time to get the satchel in place before then.
She left the room at a sprint, taking nothing but the satchel. A lantern would have been helpful for the dark garden paths, but she couldn’t risk being seen and stopped yet again—not by Luca or anyone. It was her last chance.
Passing beneath a dense patch of foliage, she lost sight of the path and tripped on an uneven patch of gravel.
She fell hard, sprawling across the path.
But she scrambled to her feet again within seconds.
Skinned hands and torn dresses didn’t matter.
The only thing that mattered was reaching the exchange location in time.
She arrived out of breath, trembling from the exertion.
There was no time to pause, however. She slid the satchel beneath the rusted iron bench seat—an anomaly in the otherwise well tended garden.
Apparently it had been forgotten, left to age in this far corner of the garden.
How had the blackmailer stumbled on it and known it would be a safe place to leave the documents and seal?
Natalie considered the question as she concealed herself behind the largest bush she could find.
The blackmailer must have spent time in the palace grounds.
But with no walls between the palace and the city, there would be no records of who frequented the gardens.
He had likely chosen the locations for her convenience, knowing that he could easily slip in unnoticed, whereas her departure from the palace grounds would be likely to arouse interest.
She fought to reclaim her breath after her wild run, her heartbeat gradually slowing. She had made it. Without much time to spare, but she had made it.
Was the blackmailer already concealed nearby? Had he seen her arrive and then hide behind the bush?
She examined her surroundings, but it was hard to see much in the dimness of night. In all her strategizing, it hadn’t occurred to her that he might plan to wait and watch just as she was planning to do. But it was too late to worry about it now.
She waited. The silent, still minutes contrasted strangely with her earlier frantic haste. She had no idea of the exact time, but at least two hours must have passed before her eyes caught a flicker of light.
She rose to her knees, eyes peering through the leaves. Someone was approaching.
A thin stream of light illuminated a small patch of gravel path. The person moving toward her had shuttered their lantern—directing its light into a single, focused beam. The blackmailer. It had to be. A palace resident or guard on patrol wouldn’t take measures not to be seen.
Natalie’s mind focused to a single point. She had been given a second chance to follow the man, and she couldn’t waste it. She would have to use every sense she possessed because she couldn’t afford to stumble or trip in the darkness as she had earlier.
As far as she could tell, the man appeared to be the same one who had come to the gazebo. He had once again covered himself from head to toe, and he looked around carefully before stooping and retrieving the satchel. Resting it on the bench, he extracted the pile of documents from inside.
Natalie held her breath. This was the moment that would determine the success or failure of her ruse. If he gave them more than a cursory glance…
He looked up, responding to a distant noise, and she wanted to cheer. He was going to take the satchel and leave. He was—
He turned back to the documents, his eyes skimming over the top one. A crease grew on his forehead, illuminated in the light of his lantern. He turned to the next paper and skimmed it even more quickly before shoving the whole pile back in the satchel.
Natalie held her breath, relieved he hadn’t thrown the papers away. But his face showed his suspicion as he pulled out the tiny leather pouch with the seal. If he opened it and examined the contents closely…
He tipped the seal onto his palm and held it toward the light.
His growl of fury made Natalie swallow and back slowly away behind her screen of greenery. Her careful plan now looked foolish and thin. How could she have thought it would succeed?
What would the man do now? Had Natalie wrecked everything?
She should have talked to Rose. She should have found out what was at stake rather than blithely trusting in her own ability to handle the situation. What if she’d brought disaster to the princess or to Arcadia?
She had been so confident, so full of her success during the mountain kingdom rebellion.
But she hadn’t stopped to think about the differences between then and now.
At home, she had been operating in familiar territory, and she hadn’t been acting alone.
She had overestimated her abilities, and she might not be the only one to pay the price.
She gulped and moved further back. One of her arms brushed against another bush, making an audible rustle. The man’s head shot up, swinging in her direction.
For a second she stayed frozen in place, not even breathing, hoping he would dismiss it as a breeze or a small nighttime animal. But he dropped the satchel and its contents and bounded toward her.
Natalie leaped to her feet, fleeing toward the closest path. But just as she reached it, her foot caught in a trailing loop of her dress—a tear left from her earlier fall. Crashing to the ground, the man was on her before she could rise again.
He seized her hands and hauled her roughly upward, twisting her so the lantern light fell on her face.
“You’re not Princess Rose!” he growled. “Where is she? What are you doing here?”
Faced with the moment of crisis, Natalie’s fear faded, her mind racing for a way out of the situation.
“I’m her lady-in-waiting.” Her dress was too expensive to claim she was only a maid. “The princess sent me in her place. She couldn’t possibly go sneaking around the gardens at night herself!” She tried to sound prim and foolish.
The man shook her, his eyes hardening. “And do you know your mistress sent you to play a trick? Of course she wouldn’t come into harm’s way herself when she was planning such a thing. But apparently she didn’t care about your fate. How like a princess.”
“Princess Rose cares!” Natalie cried indignantly.
The man chuckled, and Natalie realized her mistake.
“Does she, indeed? How convenient. We will see just how much she cares when her lady fails to return to her. We’ll see if she cares about the price you must pay for her twice failure.”
He meant to kidnap her? Natalie didn’t have to fake the fear on her face. But beneath her anxiety, her mind was still working. If he took her to his base, she could still salvage the situation. Once she was there, she could—
He pulled out a knife.
White hot terror lanced through her. He meant to murder her?
She thrashed, fighting with every ounce of desperation she possessed to escape his grip. Her sudden, frenzied movement took him by surprise, and she succeeded in breaking free. Staggering sideways, she yanked up her skirts to run.
But she was too slow. He pounced on her, seizing her hair and using it to drag her backward. She screamed—unleashing all her pain, fear, and outrage. She refused to be murdered so easily.
“Lila?” a voice shouted in response to her cry.
Running footsteps pounded against gravel somewhere nearby. Natalie went limp with relief. Once again, Luca had turned up where he wasn’t supposed to be, and she had never been so glad of anything.
Her assailant cursed and hesitated, apparently gripped by indecision. Natalie seized her hair in both hands and yanked it free of his grip, staggering away from him.
He moved to follow her, but Luca’s running footsteps were getting closer. The man’s eyes jumped to something over her shoulder, and he stopped.
She didn’t turn to look herself, however. Lunging forward, she seized the material around his head, pulling it free and exposing his face.
He cursed again, his arm jumping up to cover his exposed features as he turned to flee.
Luca’s running footsteps had nearly reached her, and Natalie collapsed to the ground, her knees wobbly with relief. Luca was already sprinting at full speed, and the blackmailer had almost no head start. The prince would easily run him down.
But as Luca came into view, a drawn sword in his hand, he swerved, coming to her side instead of running after the man.
“Lila!” He dropped to one knee beside her, wrapping his free arm around her shoulders. “Are you all right? Where are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt!” She ignored the stinging in her scalp from the violent tugs to her hair. “What are you doing? Catch him!”
But Luca didn’t move. “I’m not leaving you alone.”
“Forget about me!” Natalie cried, seething with frustration. “You need to catch him!”
Luca’s face took on a stubborn cast, and he made no move to leave her side. Gently he helped her to her feet.
“I didn’t get a good look at his face,” Luca said, “but he had a knife. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone.”
“Of course he had a knife! He was trying to murder me!”
“Murder you? Are you saying that man was an assassin?” Luca’s eyes scanned the nearby garden, his sword rising back into position. “Why would an assassin come to the Lanoverian palace to kill the princess of Arcadia?”
Natalie was almost crying in frustration. “Of course he wasn’t here to kill Princess Rose! I’m not—”
She clapped her hand over her mouth, horror filling her. Her feet stepped away from him, every instinct telling her to run and hide. But she couldn’t tear her eyes away from Luca’s.
He stared back at her, the supposed assassin forgotten, his concern and outrage replaced with blank shock.