page52 (1/1)
But Andre Alexei couldn’t let it go Recovering the ranso to pay in blood for everything she’d gone through So to pay in blood for every scar she bore, every night to pay in blood for the hu his wife—the woman he loved—had been raped and tortured, and there hadn’t been a thing he could do to prevent it And now that the opportunity had finally presented itself, he was damned if he’d turn the other cheek
His fatal flaw, she realized The first king of Zakhar had carried that anger inside hi below the surface A powerful anger born of a powerful love And because he couldn’t forgive, because his thirst for vengeance had finally overpowered him, he’d died, and Eleonora had died, too Would he have done it if he’d known? she wondered If he’d known Eleonora would choose him, would choose death with him over life without hieance?
There was no way to know for sure, but she wanted to believe he wouldn’t have done it Wanted to believe his love was strong enough to put Eleonora’s life above his own needs, the way he’d done years before when he ransomed her
Her thoughts nized with a shock Maybe he hadn’t been hers eleven years ago, but he was now For the ti anyway Maybe he didn’t love her the way she loved him Maybe he didn’t love her the way Andre Alexei had loved Eleonora But he loved her now Needed her now Maybe not forever and a day But enough Enough for now And on that thought she went in search of him
Juliana finally ran Andre to ground, after , in the official royal office suite that had once been his father’s She re man, who tolerated her friendship with Princess Mara merely because he barely tolerated Mara herself, and cared little for anything to do with Mara’s life It was different with Andre All the then-king’s hopes and drea that took Andre’s attention away fro the country Zakhar first and foremost had been his credo, and Andre’s father had demanded his son’s attendance at nearly every official function
The old king had bitterly resented any attention Andre had paid to Mara, too, not just to Juliana Mara had never said anything, and neither had Andre But Juliana had known She’d contrasted her own father’s loving treathter aside, tiain She’d compared her own father’s interest in the minutiae of her admittedly less than stellar school accomplishments with the complete indifference Mara’s father had shoard Mara’s outstanding academic achievements and her brilliance in mathematics, and had pitied her friend
She remembered now that Andre had never knuckled under to his father, not regarding Mara or anything else Mara had told her once that Andre was stronger than anyone ent against hi had ranted and raved against it, but Andre had insisted on serving the requisite four years with the Zakharian National Forces demanded of every other Zakharian male—and had done so
He’d even voluntarily served an additional year when his unit had been called upon to go to Afghanistan on behalf of the United Nations, she remembered She hadn’t known it at the time, but she’d read about it when he ascended the throne—the tabloids had been full of stories about hi everything written about him
The old king had also ruthlessly tried to separate Andre from Mara—and failed Juliana had watched as Andre had quietly, but insistently, done his best to fill the void in Mara’s life, and if she hadn’t already loved him she would have loved hi attitude toward his younger sister, for the protective shield he threw around her The same way he’d treated Juliana, until
And Mara had adored Andre Wasn’t that why Juliana had broken off her friendship with Mara, rather than disillusion her friend about her beloved brother? Because she couldn’t bear the hero worship in Mara’s voice when she talked about Andre? Because she’d wanted to scream the truth about him the last time they’d spoken on the phonebut couldn’t hurt Mara that way? Couldn’t destroy the only loving influence in Mara’s life? Better to let her friend think Juliana no longer cared Better to let Mara think Juliana didn’t need her friendship any except tell Mara what Andre had done when he’d repudiated any relationship with Juliana