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She dressed quickly in a long-sleeved silk blouse in a beco shade of amethyst—a color she wore often because of her eyes—then neatly tucked it into her slacks and rolled up the sleeves for coolness, since the day pro hair, then shrugged and left it unbound but slid a clip into her purse—she could always twist her hair up later if it got too hot She settled on co hallway before

Priceless objets d’art were on display everywhere—in glass cases as well as out in the open And masterpieces by Rembrandt, Titian, Botticelli and a host of other fa in splendor fros she remembered from the four years she’d been a constant visitor to the palace She and Mara, Andre’s sister, had been only a year apart in age They’d attended the same private school and had been best friends for those four years—losing Mara’s friendship had caused Juliana nearly asAndre

You didn’t lose Andre, she reminded herself sternly He was never yours to lose

The guards were on duty, of course, but their job was to keep people out, not keep the to Juliana as she approached, just opened the uards on the gate did the sa

Once outside, Juliana took her tih the narrow streets she reo in eleven years There was still that sense of walking in a sixteenth-century fairy-tale city, albeit one with strict sanitation rules that a real sixteenth-century city wouldn’t have had She chuckled to herself Drago eotten, not really—but she hadn’t let herself reo were all tied up with memories of Andre

Juliana stopped for breakfast at a soal—and was glad to find the café she reress She sat outside at one of the tiny tables and ordered coffee and a croissant The square slowly caood ht back

When her breakfast arrived she thanked her ser snized her as Juliana Richardson, but soo, and her feords in the native language—rusty or not—carried more importance than her international fao o she was relatively safe on her own She’d known that even before she’d started out this ainst, just as anywhere in the world, but the average Zakharian citizen would respect her right to privacy

Juliana continued to watch the activity in the square, reht Mara and her here on school holidays Re so honored to be with hio had loved their approachable, down-to-earth prince, and Andre had always lived up to their ideals

He’d treated Juliana with the saently, listening to her inchoate hopes and drea fro the o, to the Zakharian boys who asked her out, including his own cousin Niko

Until the summer before she left Zakhar to return to the United States to start college Until one unforgettable night

Juliana’s smile faded That time in her life seemed so far away now, as distant from her as the emotions she refused to let herself feelexcept when she was acting That was different When she was acting she could let her eamut Maybe that hy the critics loved her performances—all her pent-up emotions were allowed free rein Joy and sorrow Passion and pain And agony No one, the critics claiony was easy All she had to do was think of Andre

She drank the last of her coffee and refused a refill, but she wasn’t ready to leave, not quite yet Toh she didn’t really want to, she needed to visit the lovers’ tomb in the royal cemetery Needed to remember the story as Andre had related it to her when she was a young, ier Needed to reo day, when the husband she lovedShe just wasn’t quite ready for it, although she didn’t want to acknowledge what that reluctance meant