The Princess (Montgomery/Taggert 10)

Aria crouched behind the tree and watched, but then she saw the man stand up straight and wave his arm in greeting. Feeling a bit foolish, she stood, smoothed her skirt, and tidied her hair. With a dress with no sleeves, a too short skirt, and hair that had not seen a hairdresser for a week, she did the best she could.

With all the grace of her years of training, she walked down the beach toward Lieutenant Montgomery and the man who was not getting out of the motorboat.

“I’ve never been so glad to see anybody in my life,” J.T. was saying to the man, who was a great deal smaller than Lieutenant Montgomery.

“Dolly made me come early. She imagined all sorts of things happening to you. And besides, I thought I might stay here and do a little fishing before we go back.”

“No thanks. I want to go back where it’s nice and safe.”

“You did get lonely then. I told you—” He broke off when he saw Aria. “Well, you devil,” he said, chuckling and looking at Aria admiringly. She was obviously a classy dame, he thought. The way she walked, the way she stood, reeked with class. Bill knew J.T.’s family had some money and this was just the type of dish he had imagined J.T. would go for. He would like to see J.T. married—maybe he wouldn’t be so jealous then of J.T.’s friendship with Dolly if J.T. had his own wife. “You certainly put one over on me.”

“It’s not what you think,” J.T. snapped at Bill, then turned to Aria. “I told you to stay out of sight.”

Bill smiled knowingly. A lovers’ spat. Then he looked at Aria more intently. “Haven’t I seen you somewhere?” Bill asked. “And, J.T., aren’t you going to introduce us?”

J.T. sighed. “Bill Frazier, this is Her Royal Highness—” He whirled on Aria. “I don’t know your name.”

“Princess!” Bill gasped. “That’s who you look like, that princess who visited the plant day

before yesterday.”

“But I was here,” Aria said, eyes wide. “I have been here for many days.” Years actually, she thought.

J.T. was frowning as he grabbed Aria’s arm and pulled her toward the palm tree.

“Hey,” Bill said nervously, “you think you ought to treat a princess like that? I mean, isn’t her country valuable or something?”

“Yeah, something.” J.T. stopped under the tree. “Now tell me why those men were shooting at you.”

“Shooting?” Bill asked, running up behind them. “When I saw her, she was surrounded by about fifty servicemen. I never heard anything about any shooting.”

“Bill,” J.T. said. “When your princess was visiting the plant, this princess was here with me.”

Bill looked confused. “You have a sister?”

“She does not look like me,” Aria said, equally confused.

“Start talking,” J.T. said.

As quickly as possible, Aria told of being kidnapped and of escaping.

“You can untie your hands but you can’t unbutton your clothes?” J.T. said, one eyebrow arched.

“One does what one must.” She glared at him.

“Ahem,” Bill said, drawing their attention. “You think the guys that kidnapped you slipped in a double?”

“A double?” Aria asked.

“Someone is impersonating you,” J.T. explained, and shocked Aria into silence.

Bill gave J.T. a hard look. “How do we know which one’s fake?”

J.T. looked Aria up and down. “This one is the real princess. I’d stake my life and the lives of my family on that. No one could put on an act like hers.”

Bill looked at Aria as if he had never seen her before. “My wife sure wanted to meet you. When I got home the other day, she asked me a hundred questions about you—her. She wanted to know what you were wearin’, what you looked like, if you wore a crown.” He stopped. “But I guess that wasn’t you.”

Aria gave him a hint of a smile. “Perhaps I will grant your wife an audience someday.”