The Expectant Princess. Stella Bagwell

was cutting into her with vicious reality. Perhaps it had been a mistake to bring her out here, he thought ruefully. But for the past few days he’d watched her struggle to understand why she was now without her father. He wanted to help her come to grips with the accident and he’d hoped this little trip might help.

      She looked at him thoughtfully. “It suddenly struck me that this particular road isn’t the only route Father could have taken to the abbey the morning of the christening. In fact, the other road is shorter. And being inland, it’s not nearly as treacherous as this.”

      He nodded in agreement. “I had already considered that, Dominique. And you’re right. But for some reason King Michael must have chosen this route. Or he might have simply allowed the driver to choose which road he wanted to travel. I’ve seen him do that often in the past. Especially when he has business on his mind.”

      “You could be right,” Dominique said as she glanced around her. “Mother does admit that he had some sort of last-minute business to attend to that morning. That’s the reason he sent her on to the abbey without him. I just wonder what could have been so important.”

      Marcus’s gazed drifted out to the choppy sea. “No one seems to know. There weren’t any messages left on his phone. No scribbled notes on his desk. The night before, he didn’t mention anything to me. I’ve tried to think of a pressing issue that might have come up suddenly, but I keep coming up with a blank.”

      Dominique sighed as she fought with strands of hair whipping into her face. It was a raw afternoon and she was glad she’d taken the time to change into jeans and a green, long-sleeved sweater. The tangy salt air had nipped her cheeks and nose and she knew without looking they had already turned as pink as her bare fingers.

      Stuffing her hands into her jeans’ pockets for warmth, she looked at Marcus and said, “Well, I can’t help thinking the business might have had something to do with him traveling this road.”

      Shrugging a shoulder, he said, “You could be right, Dominique. But it would be impossible to make any sort of connection, unless we can figure out who or what King Michael had been attending to that morning.”

      “That’s true,” she agreed. “And don’t you find it a bit more than strange that Jake Stanbury was traveling this same road? From what he’s saying, he couldn’t have been but a few minutes behind the accident.”

      “Yes. But with only his two-year-old son to corroborate his story, I’m not sure I want to put that much stock in it,” Marcus admitted ruefully.

      “Neither do I,” Dominique agreed. “Edward and Luke’s whereabouts seem fishy to me, too. Edward told Mother they had stopped off somewhere downtown before driving on to the abbey that morning. But I heard Luke say they were still at the airport when the accident occurred.” She shook her head regretfully. “It’s awful to be suspicious of your own relatives, Marcus. Especially when they’ve all continued to be so kind to us.”

      “I’m hoping Edward and his sons are truly here to make amends with the family. And so far I haven’t detected anything to doubt their sincerity. But I’m not going to close my eyes completely where those three men are concerned.”

      The mere notion that her American relatives might have some connection to her father’s accident sent a shiver of icy disbelief down Dominique’s spine.

      Sensing her distress, Marcus put a steadying hand against her back and urged her away from the edge of the cliffs. “Come along. Let’s take a closer look and see what we can find before we start incriminating anyone.”