The Surprise Princess Read Free

her.
    Katie had a notion of saying she wouldn’t sign. But now that Carolyn had signed, what reason could she give other than a voice in her head shouting
Run, run, run away and hide?
    She signed.
    The man from the Department of State folded her sheet and slid both into his pocket.
    “Now, what is this about?” Carolyn asked calmly.
    “With all the coverage in recent months about King Jozef and his long-missing granddaughter reports to our offices and other interested parties have flooded in. Reports we’ve received about a young woman in Ashton, Wisconsin have particularly interested us. Not only because of a match with certain descriptors, but also because this young woman had stayed almost entirely under the radar. Remarkably so.”
    He looked at her as if expecting a response. She was also aware of Carolyn’s eyes on her. She licked her lips. “Reports? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “Don’t you?” he asked mildly. Then his face and tone became completely serious. “Tell me, Ms. Davis, have you ever had reason to think you might be Princess Josephine-Augusta of Bariavak?”

 
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    “N
o
. Absolutely not.”
    She wanted to say more, to produce words that would end this now and forevermore, but her throat spasmed closed. Words jammed up against the block like stampeders at a locked door.
    “What makes you think Katie might be Princess Josephine-Augusta?” Carolyn asked, as if this were a rational conversation.
    “We’re not saying she is, you understand. It would require an investigation to confirm.”
    “Yes, we understand all those cautions. But you wouldn’t be here, the State Department wouldn’t be interested in Katie, if you didn’t have some basis for thinking it is possible.”
    “Carolyn, you know this is impossible.” Katie produced a credible chuckle. She raised both palms to Hunter Pierce in bemusement. “Impossible.”
    “There are physical similarities as well as—”
    The door opened and Coach C.J. Draper strode in. “What’s going on here?” He moved like a much younger man, despite the mangled left knee that had pushed him out of the pros and into coaching. Gray lightly streaked his mop of hair, but that didn’t age him much either.
    Carolyn reached out a hand toward him. “C.J., close the door, please.” He did. “This is Hunter Pierce, an agent with the Department of State’s Security Service. Hunter, this is my husband, C.J. Draper.”
    The other man stood to shake hands. “Coach Draper. It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir. I’ve followed your career and teams for a long time.”
    “Thanks, but you’re not here for basketball, are you?”
    “No, sir. Ms. Davis—”
    “C.J.,” Carolyn interrupted, “they think Katie might be a princess.”
    “Princess? She’s an empress. But that doesn’t mean you get a mid-year raise,” he added to her, squeezing her shoulder before backing up to sit beside Carolyn. “No princess renegotiations. In fact, since princess is a demotion from empress, you should give some of this year’s raise back.”
    “C.J.,” Carolyn said as only she could say it. “This is serious. Hunter was about to tell us why he – why the Department of State – thinks she might be this missing princess.”
    “What missing princess?”
    Carolyn spurted a little puff. “The granddaughter of King Jozef of Bariavak, who was kidnapped as an infant during an uprising about thirty years ago, an uprising that earlier had killed his son-in-law. His daughter – the baby’s mother – died shortly after the kidnapping. The baby has never been found. It was generally assumed she was killed by the fleeing rebels who kidnapped her. But speculation about her started again late last year when the king was at Washington, D.C., events with a young woman who bears a strong resemblance to Bariavak’s royal family. That young—”
    “Wait a minute. How do you know so much about this, Carolyn?”
    “Because our daughter has been