To Love a Princess by Patricia Grasso

Author:Patricia Grasso [Grasso, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Romance
ISBN: 9780821777091
Google: ayPQiwdOY-cC
Amazon: 0821777092
Barnesnoble: 0821777092
Goodreads: 1435199
Publisher: Zebra
Published: 2004-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

A long, shrill scream pierced the night.

Amber opened her eyes, uncertain of what had awakened her. Miles sat on the edge of the bed and

donned his mask.

“What is it?” she asked, placing the palm of her hand against his back.

Miles glanced over his shoulder at her. “I don’t know.” He pulled his breeches up and reached for his

robe. “Go back to sleep.”

“I am going with you,” Amber said, scrambling off the bed. She donned her bedrobe and fastened it

tightly around her waist.

Clutching the night candle, Miles headed for the door. Amber walked a step behind him. John and

Isabelle, along with Rudolf and Samantha, stood at the top of the stairs.

“You heard that, too?” Miles asked, turning to walk up the stairs to the third floor. “Do you think it

was Terrence?”

“The scream came from outside,” John said.

The three couples hurried downstairs to the foyer and then outside to the courtyard. Following voices,

they walked around the mansion to see a small crowd gathered. Pebbles and several footmen stood in a

circle and stared at something on the ground.

New voices sounded behind them. Amber looked around to see her three cousins, wrapped in

bedrobes, hurrying toward them.

The footmen stepped back so the earl could see what held their attention. On the ground lay the

lifeless body of Terrence Pines.

Amber shifted her gaze to her husband, who turned toward her cousins. Before he could speak, the

princes held their hands up in a gesture of innocence.

“His neck is broken,” the Duke of Avon said, crouching down to inspect the body.

“Terrence must have been trying to escape,” Rudolf said, staring at the top-floor window.

“God’s will be done,” Pebbles said.

“Amen,” said Princes Viktor, Mikhail, and Stepan.

Amber peeked at Rudolf, who actually winked at her. And she knew. Her cousins had executed

Pines by tossing him out the upper-floor window.

She touched her husband’s arm. “The Lord punished his crime and saved us from scandal.”

“Who are we to question God’s wisdom?” Miles turned to the footmen, instructing, “Wrap the body

in a sheet and place him in the chapel until morning.”

Everyone except the footmen returned inside. No one spoke as they climbed the stairs to their

bedchambers.

“Go to bed,” Miles said, passing Amber the night candle. “I need a drink.”

Reaching her husband’s bedchamber, Amber removed her bedrobe and climbed into bed. What was

her husband feeling about his cousin’s death? She hoped he wasn’t feeling guilty on the off-chance that

Pines had been innocent.

Her husband was an honorable man and trusted other men to be equally honorable. She prayed he

would never suspect her cousins’ guilt. That could cause trouble in her marriage.

A long time later Amber heard the door open. Through half-closed eyes, she watched Miles cross the

chamber to the bed. He tossed his robe aside and sat on the edge of the bed to remove his breeches,

then snuffed out the night candle.

Amber sensed his movement as he removed his mask. The bed creaked as he lay down and rolled

toward her, drawing her into his arms.

“How do you feel?” she asked.

“Relieved.”

“Terrence did not confess.”

“Do you believe in his guilt?” he asked.

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