LITMIR.BIZ

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and paused. ‘Mum is sorry, you know, that she yelled. She just panicked.’

      ‘Like Luis—actually, not like Luis. I don’t think he panicked. I think he came to his senses. He loves someone else.’

      ‘Fair enough, and, for the record, in your place I wouldn’t be so understanding. If he was going to come to his senses why didn’t he do it last week or last year or even yesterday? Why leave it until now? It’s—’

      ‘A total nightmare,’ Sabrina agreed, thinking guiltily of the light at the end of the tunnel.

      ‘Did you guess that he was going to?’

      Sabrina shook her head. ‘I didn’t have a clue.’ She expelled a sigh. ‘I just need some breathing space.’

      ‘I can do better than that.’ Chloe made a grand-reveal gesture as they walked around the corner. ‘I always have an escape route. I had a date with a couple of friends last night...after Mum’s curfew. We parked here. You fancy a drive?’

      ‘They are not cars,’ Sabrina said, looking at the two shiny monsters sitting there. It didn’t even occur to her to ask where the owners were as she stared at the dazzling chrome.

      ‘Didn’t I tell you I’ve been learning?’ Chloe picked a helmet off the first motorcycle and began to clip it on. ‘It’s actually quite easy.’

      ‘You want me to sit on the back of that wearing this?’ She gestured down at the acres of fitted white silk moulded to her body.

      Chloe, hitching up her green skirt, was already clambering onto the first machine. She tossed her sister a set of keys and nodded to the second helmet. ‘No, I expect you to follow me on that one,’ she retorted, revving the engine of the bike she had climbed onto.

      ‘That’s mad, Chloe.’

      ‘True, but if you’re not going to be mad today when are you going to be mad, Brina? Come on!’

      Sabrina stood there, shaking her head. ‘I couldn’t.’ Her eyes lifted to her sister. ‘Could I?’

      ‘Last night we went for a swim at a little beach just along from the Roman ruins where you opened that yawn-a-minute exhibition on Saturday.’

      ‘Swimming?’

      She knew there had to be several dozen legitimate reasons that this was a bad idea but at that moment her brain could only come up with one. ‘I don’t have a swimsuit.’

      Chloe grinned. ‘We didn’t have swimsuits last night. It is a very private beach.’

      * * *

      His father had made it as far as the door when his breathing got a lot worse. The doctor, called against his father’s wishes, said that bed rest was called for as a precaution.

      It was half an hour later when Sebastian, deputising for the King, a first, was leaving the room when he encountered someone he vaguely recognised as the Duke’s aide, a man who bowed excessively and smiled a lot.

      ‘Highness.’ The man sounded breathless, his bow perfunctory and big politician’s smile absent. ‘Are they here?’

      ‘Are who here?’

      ‘Lady Sabrina and Lady Chloe? We have no idea where they have gone and the Duchess is quite distressed. She has decided they have been kidnapped.’

      ‘Considering the level of security here I seriously doubt it. I have an idea, though. Leave it to me,’ he said, leaving the gasping man standing there staring after him as he strode off purposefully down the corridor, punching in the number of the head of security as he walked.

      It was picked up immediately.

      ‘The delicate security breach we discussed last night?’

      ‘Lady Chloe and the other bridesmaids reached their rooms safely, sir. They remained unaware of the security presence.’

      ‘And you left the motorbikes where they were?’

      ‘We did. Is there a problem?’

      One problem? Now that really would be a luxury, Sebastian thought as he took the staircase on his left. It led directly to the stables, where last night Chloe and her friends had naively imagined they had foiled the palace security.

      The oil spots on the floor showed where the motorbikes had stood and the wheel treads in the dusty straw the direction they had gone.

      Jaw clenched in frustration, he closed his eyes, but before the curse could leave his lips a muffled sound brought his eyes open. Head tilted to one side, he waited and was rewarded by another noise. It took him a few seconds to track the sound to its source.

      He found a piece of torn silk before the rest of the dress and the person wearing it. His initial flare of gut-tightening alarm faded as he realised that Sabrina, who stood beside a motorbike that was lying on its side, having first collided with a wall, was not injured. The same could not be said of the motorbike.

      ‘I hope you’re insured?’

      Sabrina jumped as though she’d been shot and spun round, brushing the sections of her hair that had escaped the carefully constructed top knot from her eyes as she adopted a defensive attitude. ‘It’s not mine,’ she said, fighting the weirdest compulsion to walk straight into his arms. Skinny dipping was one thing, giving into that impulse would have been taking recklessness to another level.

      Still, she’d thought about it, which was bad enough.

      I am clearly in a worse condition than I thought, she realised, because any woman who thought safety and comfort lay within those strong arms needed therapy and lots of it!

      ‘Chloe said it was easy.’ She sniffed, casting a look of loathing at the motorbike. ‘It isn’t. I can’t do anything right, not even run away...’ Her voice quivered with self-pity as she felt an angry splash of tear on her cheek. She swiped it away with a hand and glared at him.

      His lips twisted into an ironic half-smile. ‘You just thought you’d slip quietly away on the back of a motorbike wearing that?’

      Following the direction of his gaze, Sabrina looked down and felt a stab of guilt when she thought of the skilled women who had sewn the thousands of seed pearls onto the acres of white silk. The beautiful dress was trashed! There were several smears of dirt, oil or both on the bodice and a massive rip in the skirt from when she had tried and failed to mount the motorbike before it had taken off without her.

      ‘Chloe managed it.’ Her dismay spiked again when she thought of her sister. ‘She’s going to be wondering where I am. She’ll be worried. She’ll think I’ve done something stupid.’

      ‘As opposed to riding on a motorbike in your wedding dress? Don’t worry, I’ll send someone to tell her you’re all right.’

      Sabrina shook her head, her lips firming into a mutinous line. ‘I don’t want to send someone. I want to go with her. I know they’ve sent you to take me back.’ She folded her arms across her heaving chest and looked up at him, defiance shining in her brown eyes. ‘But I won’t go.’

      He studied her, reading the determination in her tear-stained face, and felt a strong beat of sympathy.

      ‘Did you know?’ she asked suddenly. ‘That he was going to do it?’

      ‘No, I got a note.’

      She nodded. ‘So did I.’ She held out the crumpled piece of paper. ‘Did you know there was someone else?’

      His jaw tightened. ‘No.’

      ‘Ah, well,’ she sighed. ‘It’s over now.’

      Maybe it was a blessing that she actually believed that; he doubted she could cope with the truth. The question was, could he? ‘Come on,’ he heard himself say.

      She blinked. ‘Where?’

      ‘Where

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