Castles

'But I need him to answer my questions.'

He shrugged. She threaded her fingers through her hair in an agitated action. She couldn't decide if she was pleased or pricked at Colin. 'What did I do with my list?'

'Which list, Princess?' Flannaghan asked.

'The list of questions I was going to ask Neil.'

She went hurrying back into the salon, bent down, and found the sheet of paper under the settee.

Flannaghan and Colin watched her. 'Princess Alesandra is a firm believer in lists, milord,' Flannaghan said.

Colin didn't make any remark on that bit of information. He frowned at Alesandra when she passed him and went up the steps.

'I won't allow you to invite Perry back here, Alesandra,' he called out, still burning with irritation over the pompous man's snide remarks.

'I certainly will invite him back,' she called over her shoulder. 'This is as much my home as it is yours while you're acting as my guardian. I'm determined to find out if Victoria is all right, Colin, and if that means putting up with her horrid brother, then put up with him I will.'

Colin turned to his butler. 'Don't let him in. Understand?'

'Perfectly, milord. It is our duty to protect our princess from slanderers.'

Alesandra had already turned the corner above the stairs and therefore didn't hear Colin's order or Flannaghan's agreement. She was thoroughly weary of men in general and Neil Perry in particular. She decided to put Victoria 's brother out of her mind for the time being. Tomorrow would be soon enough to decide what to do next.

Valena was waiting for her mistress in her bedroom. She and Flannaghan had already moved Alesandra's things from Colin's room into the adjoining chamber.

Alesandra sat down on the side of the bed and kicked her shoes off. 'It looks as though we're going to have to stay here a few more days, Valena.'

'Your trunks arrived, Princess. Shall I begin unpacking?'

'Tomorrow's soon enough. I know it's still early, but I believe I'll go to bed now. You needn't stay to help me.'

Valena left her alone. Alesandra took her time getting ready for bed. She felt quite drained from today's meetings. Speaking to so many of her father's friends and hearing the wonderful stories about him made her miss both her father and her mother. Alesandra might have been able to control her mood if Neil hadn't proven to be such a self-serving, cruel-hearted man. She wanted to shout at the man and tell him he should be thankful he had a mother and a sister to love. Perry wouldn't understand, or care, she imagined, for he was like so many other people she'd met who took their families for granted.

Alesandra gave in to self-pity within minutes. She didn't have anyone who truly cared about her. Colin had let it be known she was just a nuisance, and her real guardian, though far more gentle and understanding than his son, probably considered her a nuisance, too.

She wanted her mama. Her memories of firmly life didn't comfort her now. They made her ache with her loneliness. She went to bed a few minutes later, hid under the covers, and cried herself to sleep. She awakened in the middle of the night, didn't feel any better about herself or her circumstances, and, heaven help her, she started weeping again.

Colin heard her. He was also in bed. He couldn't get to sleep, however. The throbbing in his leg kept him wide awake. Alesandra wasn't making much noise, but Colin was attuned to every sound in the house. He immediately tossed the covers aside and got out of bed. He was halfway across the chamber before he realized he was stark naked. He put on a pair of pants, reached for the doorknob, and then stopped.

He wanted to comfort her, yet at the same time he knew he would probably be embarrassed because he'd heard her crying. The sounds were muffled, indicating to him she was trying to be as quiet as possible. She didn't want to be overheard, and he knew he should respect her privacy.

'Hell,' he muttered to himself. He didn't know his own mind anymore. He wasn't usually so indecisive. His instincts were telling him to distance himself from Alesandra. She was a complication he wasn't ready to take on.

He turned around and went back to his own bed. He finally admitted the real truth to himself. He wasn't just protecting Alesandra from embarrassment. No, he was also protecting her from his own lecherous ideas. She was in bed, probably only wearing a thin nightgown, and, damn it all, if he got close, he knew he would touch her.

Colin gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. If the little innocent next door had any idea what he was thinking, she would have her guards doing sentry duty around her bed.

Lord, he wanted her.

~

He killed a whore. It had been a mistake. It hadn't been at all satisfying. The rush of absolute power and excitement were missing. It took him days of reflecting upon the problem before he came up with a suitable explanation. The surge came only after a satisfying hunt. The whore had been too easy, and although her screams excited him, it still wasn't the same. No, no, it was the cleverness he had to call upon to lure the bait. It was the seduction of the innocent by the master. Those were the key elements that made all the difference. The whore had been dirty. She didn't deserve to sleep with the others. He tossed her into a ravine and left her for the wild animals.

He needed a lady.

~

Colin was gone by the time Alesandra came downstairs the following morning. Flannaghan and Raymond sat with her at the dining room table while she sorted through the huge stack of invitations that had arrived that morning. Stefan was sleeping now because he'd taken the night watch. Alesandra didn't believe it was necessary for anyone to stay up all night, but Raymond, the senior of the two guards, wouldn't listen to her. Someone always had to be on the alert in case of trouble, Raymond argued, and since she had placed him in charge, she really should let him do things his way.

'But we are in England now,' she reminded the guard again.

'The general isn't to be taken lightly,' Raymond countered. 'We got here, didn't we? He could have sent men on the next available ship.'

Alesandra quit arguing with him then and turned her attention to the mound of invitations.

'It's astonishing to me that so many found out so soon I was in London,' she remarked.

'I'm not surprised,' Flannaghan replied. 'I already heard from Cook who heard from the butcher that you're causing quite a stir. I'm afraid there's a bit of gossip attached to your name because you're staying here, but the fact that you have a lady's maid and two guards with you has taken the sting out of the remarks. There's also a rather amusing bit of talk… nonsense really…'

Alesandra was in the process of pulling a note out of an envelope. She paused to look up at Flannaghan. 'What bit of nonsense?'

'It's believed by some that you and my employer are related,' he explained. 'They think Colin's your cousin.'

'Neil Perry mentioned that,' she said. 'He also said that there are others who believe Colin's my lover.'

Flannaghan was properly appalled. She reached out and patted his hand. 'It's all right. People will believe what they want to believe. Poor Colin. He can barely stand to have me around as it is, and if anyone refers to me as his cousin, heaven only knows what he'll do.'

'How can you say such a thing?' Flannaghan asked. 'Milord adores having you here.'

'I'm impressed, Flannaghan.'

'Why is that, Princess?'

'You've just told the most outrageous lie with a straight face.'

Flannaghan didn't laugh until she smiled. 'Well, he would adore having you here if he wasn't so busy worrying about his ledgers,' he remarked.

He was trying to save face, Alesandra supposed. She nodded, pretending agreement, and then turned her attention back to her task. Flannaghan begged to help. She gave him the duty of affixing her seal to the envelopes. Her crest was most unusual. Flannaghan had never seen anything like it. There was a clear outline of a castle and