LITMIR.BIZ

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courtyard. The last of the fall flowers bloomed, bringing color to the garden, even in the cool autumn rain.

      Katherine followed Anita up a flight of stairs, and then up yet another. The hallway here was wide enough to hold several chairs and a soft leather couch, positioned together in a sort of sitting area.

      “Trey’s suite is in the tower,” Anita explained. She stopped outside a thick wooden door. “His office is here, his bedroom the floor above. The children and the nanny—you—sleep in the east wing, on the second floor.” She gestured toward the sofa. “Why don’t you have a seat? Trey will be with you in a minute.”

      As Katherine slowly sat down, Anita descended the stairs, swiftly and silently.

      Katherine drew in a deep breath. Well. Here she was. Moments from meeting the man who could well help answer all her questions.

      But how thrilled would he be to help her after he found out she’d used trickery and deceit to worm her way into his home? Of course, she’d been as tricked as he, but he couldn’t know that. She’d better figure out what she was going to say, and she’d better do it quickly.

      Katherine drew in another deep breath and practiced her most winsomely royal smile. “Mr. Sutherland. What a pleasure it is to finally meet you. But I do believe there’s been something of a mix-up, sir. Your staff has mistaken me for the hired help, while in fact I am a princess. And that, sir, is why I’ve come to see you today. My elder brother, Prince James Wyndham, was abducted as an infant. He’s been presumed dead these past nearly thirty years, but my three sisters and I have recently found reason to believe he may not have perished all those years ago. Mr. Sutherland, we believe that your equally elusive business partner, one Mr. William Lewis, could in fact be our missing brother, and the true heir to the Wynborough throne.”

      Ah, yes.

      That would go over quite excellently.

      Katherine closed her eyes, imagining her sister Elizabeth and their social secretary, Laura Bishop, having to fly from Colorado to New Mexico to bail Katherine out of the lunatics’ wing of the city jail.

      This was a mistake—coming to Albuquerque this way, assuming that she could find Bill Lewis, assuming she could get through Trey Sutherland’s tightly closed gates. She wasn’t cut out to play James Bond. That was much more Elizabeth’s or Serena’s speed.

      Katherine was the one who should have gone to search through old records at The Sunshine Home for Children in Arizona, where James was now believed to have been brought after his abduction all those years ago.

      But something crazy had possessed Katherine. She’d agreed to come to Albuquerque, and now here she was.

      Mistaken for a nanny.

      Her fault completely.

      She looked from the tightly closed door of Trey Sutherland’s home office to the stairs that led back down to the front entrance.

      Oh, dear.

      As much as she wanted to, now that she was here, she simply couldn’t walk away. If she were going to fail, it wasn’t going to be from lack of trying.

      She took a deep breath. “Mr. Sutherland. What I have to say to you is going to sound completely insane, but I must ask you, sir, to—”

      The door opened.

      And there was Trey Sutherland.

      Katherine had seen his picture. She had known that he was outrageously handsome, but his photograph hadn’t prepared her for the reality of the man.

      He was taller than she’d expected—well over six feet. His shoulders took up nearly the entire doorway—shoulders clad in a dark-gray business suit that looked as if it had been tailored to his exact measurements. His shirt was a lighter shade of that same gray, his collar unbuttoned, his tie rumpled and loose.

      His hair was jet-black and messy, as if he’d been running his fingers through it in frustration. His face was harshly handsome, his mouth set in an expression of grimness. His eyes, although tired, redefined the color blue.

      “Sorry to keep you waiting.” His voice was a smooth baritone, without even a trace of a Southwestern American twang. “Come on in.”

      She had to move past him to enter his office. She went swiftly, aware of the subtle fragrance of his cologne, aware once again of his sheer size.

      The phone on his desk rang, and Katherine froze, uncertain whether to go any farther or to retreat and wait, once again, out in the hall.

      But Trey Sutherland closed his office door. “I’m sorry, I’ve got to take this. Why don’t you sit down? I’ll be right with you.”

      She gestured toward the door. “If you want, I don’t mind.

      “No, this won’t take long. Please. Sit.”

      As Katherine slowly perched on the edge of one of the leather armchairs positioned in front of Trey’s rather lovely wooden desk, he picked up the telephone. He took the call standing behind his desk, his back to her as he gazed out the big picture window, his hand on his neck as if he were trying to loosen the tightly knotted muscles there.

      “Sutherland.”

      Katherine tried not to listen, gazing down at her hands tightly clasped in her lap.

      “No.” Trey’s voice left no room for doubt. “Absolutely not.” He laughed, but it was an expulsion of disbelief rather than humor. “No, I’m not hiding him. Believe me, if I knew where Bill Lewis was, I’d be leading the charge to knock down his door.”

      Bill Lewis. The man she and her sisters believed might be their brother. Katherine stopped trying not to listen.

      “Yeah, he could call or even drop in at any time. That’s his usual MO,” Trey continued, sitting on the edge of his desk in that casual way of an American male, completely comfortable within his well-developed body. His strong back seemed better suited to a T-shirt and a pair of dusty blue jeans, although she did have to admit that his suit fit him exceedingly well. Exceptionally well. “But I can’t make any promises. And, no, I won’t hold him down until you get here.” He laughed again—it was a rich sound that made her own lips move up into a smile. “God, I don’t know. He could be anywhere. Last time he went to Nepal. Nepal. I love him like a brother, but Nepal?”

      He stood and turned to face her, and Katherine hurriedly erased her smile and shifted her gaze to one of the framed watercolors that hung on the wall, pretending to be completely absorbed in the shades of blue used in the ocean scene.

      Trey Sutherland didn’t know where Bill Lewis was. But he believed it likely that Mr. Lewis could “drop in” at any time. If Katherine truly wanted to find Mr. Lewis, and she did, then—

      He was looking at her. He was making noises of agreement into the telephone and, while he thought she wasn’t paying him any mind, he was sneaking a look at…her legs?

      That was absurd. If anyone was going to dare to look at a princess’s legs, he would look at Alexandra’s or Elizabeth’s legs, not Katherine’s. While her legs weren’t precisely unattractive, she simply didn’t dress in a manner to draw a man’s eyes in that direction. That is, assuming the man was bold enough to check out a princess in the first place. Most men weren’t.

      But, of course, Trey Sutherland had no idea that Katherine was a princess. Trey Sutherland thought that Katherine was in his office to apply for a job as a nanny.

      He hung up the phone. “Sorry.”

      “It’s all right.”

      In the brighter light of his office, she saw that there was a trace of silver at his temples. And his eyes really were a quite disarming shade of blue. His gaze swept over her again in a most disconcerting way. This time, it wasn’t so much checking her out as assessing. Taking stock. Studying. There was nothing disrespectful about it—he was simply doing it in an extremely male way.

      “You’re

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