Princess in Peril Read Free Page A

tentativelythrough the darkness, uncertain whether she really wanted to know the answer to her question.
    Apology and regret filled Levi’s voice. “It contained instructions for an attack on the royal family.”
    “Today’s attack?”
    “Presumably. It did not give a date or time. That’s why I immediately replaced your usual bodyguard.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “The message was supposed to be delivered to Alfred,the man who was scheduled to guard you today. He was apparently a member of this insurgent organization. The message contained instructions. As soon as the first explosion detonated, Alfred was supposed to kill you.”

TWO
    L evi didn’t like sharing the details of the planned attack with Isabelle. He didn’t want to cause her any more distress than she’d already experienced. But because she didn’t trust him, he didn’t know how else to impress upon her the gravity of her circumstances. Whether she trusted him or not, he needed her to follow his every instruction. Their lives would depend on it.
    Now the princessstumbled and Levi held her arm more firmly to steady her.
    “Alfred?” Isabelle repeated, disbelief in her tone. “He’s been part of my guard for four years.”
    “I know, and a member of the royal army for sixteen years before that. We have been unable to determine when he joined the insurgents.”
    “Where is he now?” Isabelle asked. “I should hope he was arrested and questioned.”
    “He was floating inthe Mursia next to the man who brought us the message.”
    “Yet the insurgents still went through with the attack? If they knew enough to kill those men, they had to have known the note was intercepted.”
    Levi could only guess at what their original plans might have been. “Perhaps they thought the longer they waited, the more time we would have to prepare a defense.”
    “But if my father knew aboutthis, why did my family stay in Lydia? Why didn’t we leave the moment the message was intercepted?”
    With his head bent a little closer to hers in the darkness, Levi wished he could study the face of the princess entrusted to his care. “Surely you know the answer to that question.”
    A resigned sigh was Isabelle’s only indication of emotion. “My father would never leave the throne. It would signalto the insurgents that he was a coward.”
    Levi nodded. “They would see it as an open door to walk through and take the country.”
    “Then why weren’t my brother and sister and I at least sent away? Why were we all in the same motorcade?”
    “The three of you were originally supposed to be riding in the same car,” Levi reminded her. “Your father refused to call off the state dinner for the same reasonhe would never run away from his throne.” Levi had begged the king to send his children away for their own safety, but he understood King Philip’s reasons for keeping them there. They had argued about it well into the night. Levi was still exhausted from missing sleep.
    Now he answered the princess patiently. “Your father believed that, with the message intercepted, the insurgents would changetheir plans and call off their attack. He feared that if he tried to send you away, they would see it as a sign of weakness and instead attack with greater force. He thought this would be the best way to keep you safe.”
    Isabelle trembled. Levi realized that, on top of all that had happened, the damp cold of the catacombs was probably getting to her. With only narrow straps instead of sleeves,her dress surely did little to keep her warm.
    As her regal posture sagged under the weight of all she’d absorbed, Levi slid off his tuxedo jacket and nestled it around her shoulders. He, too, feared for her family and what mayhave happened to them. She had surely guessed their fate, and Levi had no reassurances to give her. There was really very little hope for the Royal House of Lydia.
    “Weshould keep moving,” he said softly after her trembling had given way to