The Prince's Scandalous Wedding Vow

“Let’s get the supplies in,” her father said, turning to her. “While you put away the food, I’ll set up the radio.”

“Can I help?” Alexander asked.

“No, but thank you,” her father said.

“Then I’ll give you some time to catch up.”

In the cottage, Josephine kept glancing at her father as she unpacked the groceries and various supplies needed for life on Khronos. Her father worked on the radio, attaching it to the solar panels that would maintain a constant charge. Normally he’d talk to her while he worked. This morning he was silent.

She folded her arms and faced him. “You’re upset.”

“Do you know who he is?” he asked. “This shipwrecked man of yours?”

“No. But he’s obviously European, and wealthy. It was a huge yacht, incredibly luxurious.”

Finished with the radio, her father went to his backpack and retrieved his computer and a pile of newspapers. “He’s a prince from the kingdom of Aargau. And he’s been missing for over a week.”

She laughed. “A prince?”

Her father didn’t smile. His expression was stony.

“A prince?” she repeated, her throat suddenly scratchy.

“Yes.”

“You’re sure?”

Her father flung down the stack of newspapers. “It’s in all the news, in papers from all over the world. Everyone is looking for him. It’s been in the headlines daily. At first he was merely missing, but they have now begun to worry he’s not going to be found—at least not found alive. All the more tragic as he’s supposed to be getting married in just a few weeks.”

He was getting married?

No...

No.

“Maybe it’s a different person. Maybe—” she broke off as her gaze fell on the top newspaper, the headline paired with a photo. The bold headline read “Prince Alexander Feared Dead,” and while she didn’t recognize the name, she recognized the face in the photo.

It was him.

And his name was Alexander.

Alexander. She said the name silently, rolling it over in her mind, before looking back down at the photo. Her mystery man, her beloved stranger, wasn’t a rich Italian but a Mediterranean prince. Thirty-four-year-old Prince Alexander Julius Alberici, who was engaged to marry Princess Danielle Roulet at the end of this month.

Her father returned to the radio, adjusting the signal. “I’m going to call the Greek authorities,” he said. “They’ll in turn alert the authorities in Aargau. I imagine they’ll send help right away, probably a helicopter.”

She crossed the floor to the open window, where she stood facing the sea. She couldn’t see Alexander, not from where she stood, but she knew he was out there, probably in the sheltered cove.

“Do you have to call today?” she asked quietly, her back to her father, her gaze still on the bay. “Can you wait until the morning? Give us this last day.”

“That would be cruel. His family thinks he’s dead.”

She nodded, swallowing hard around the lump filling her throat. She didn’t want to be cruel, but she would miss him. Terribly.

“Can you at least wait until I’m gone?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder to where her father sat at the table with the radio.

“I’m going to call soon,” her father answered.

She fought the salty sting of tears and forced back the lump making it difficult to swallow.

It was ending so quickly. She’d thought she’d have at least two more days before her father returned, but instead he was here and taking control, and she was grateful he was doing the right thing, the proper thing, but she wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Alexander.

She didn’t want to be here when they came for him. She couldn’t imagine parting, never mind surrounded by strangers who didn’t understand what the past week had been like.

It had been heaven on earth.

She’d never been so happy in her entire life.

And yet he wasn’t hers. He was never meant to be hers. What they’d shared here on Khronos was a mistake—no, she wouldn’t call it that, but a fluke, something that hadn’t been meant to be. And while the time they’d shared couldn’t be taken from them, there was no future for them. It was unlikely their paths would ever cross again.

“I don’t want to be here when they come for him,” she said quietly, her gaze meeting her father’s before shifting away. “May I have your permission to take the boat to Antreas? I haven’t been off Khronos in ages. It’ll be good for me to get out and do something.”

“You don’t want to see him off?”

“You know how I am about goodbyes. I find them painful.”

“Won’t the prince be offended?”

“It will be better for him if people don’t know he was here alone with me. It will be better if help comes and they find you.”

“The truth will get out. It always does.”

“But that won’t be my problem then. He’ll be home in Aargau with his family and his fiancée.” The words stuck in her throat. She managed a tight smile. “And at least this way I’ll have some dignity. Goodbyes always hurt too much.”

“You’ve been this way ever since you lost your mom—”

“I don’t want to talk about her. Let me gather a few things quickly as I’d like to leave soon. I’ll take the boat to Antreas for the night and return by noon tomorrow.”

“It’s too far on your own.”

“It’s a straight shot north. I’ll be fine, and I’ve done it before.” She managed another small, brittle smile. “And when I return tomorrow, all will be well, and life will return to normal.”

CHAPTER FIVE

ALEXANDER RETURNED FROM his swim to discover Josephine had left, and she’d gone without a word to him. She’d gone without a goodbye.

Her father attempted a weak explanation, which only made Alexander grit his teeth. It was a battle to hide his shock and disappointment.

“She didn’t know how to say goodbye,” Professor Robb added. “She doesn’t like to cry.”

“And why would she cry?” Alexander retorted stiffly.

The professor pushed a set of newspapers across the rough-hewn table, giving him a glimpse of headline after headline.

“Aargau’s Prince Alex Missing”

“Tragedy on Yacht in Aegean Sea”

“Royal Prince Feared Dead”

“She knows who I am,” Alexander said.

Professor Robb nodded. “But so do you, don’t you?”

“I started remembering pieces a few days ago, but it wasn’t until yesterday that I remembered my name and who I was.”

“You didn’t tell her.”

Alexander didn’t reply. “When will she return?”

“After you’re gone.”

“And when will that be?”

“I suspect help will be arriving later this afternoon.”

The professor was right.

A helicopter from Aargau’s Royal Navy arrived within hours, a medic on board in case Alexander needed care, but after a quick exam, he was cleared to fly, and they left Khronos.

Alexander didn’t speak the entire flight to Aargau, nor did he speak as the Mercedes whisked him from the helipad to the palace. It was just a fifteen-minute drive and he stared out the window seeing, but not seeing, the streets of Roche, Aargau’s capital city, home for the past one hundred sixty-five years to the royal Alberici family.

His family.

As the chauffeur drove him, with cars driven by security ahead and behind him, he wondered why he didn’t feel relief that he was home.

He wondered why sights that were familiar didn’t fill him with any comfort or pleasure.

Instead he felt only an oppressive sense of dread. He knew his father was ill—he remembered that c

learly—but there was something missing in his memories, something that didn’t explain the dread that felt like a lead weight in his gut.

Perhaps it was because he didn’t remember his time on the yacht. Perhaps it was because he feared questions about the trip and his injury and his questionable memory. He didn’t want to alarm his mother by letting her know that there were things he didn’t remember. He needed to protect her from more stress. The past nine days couldn’t have been easy for her.