I wanted to talk to you.”

      She sighed, looking down at him with troubled eyes.

      “We can’t talk, Dane. Not anymore. What we have to do is negotiate. Don’t you see that? Like two huge ships trying to pass each other in narrow straits.”

      “That’s ridiculous.” He dismissed it out of hand, looking around. “How did you get me here, anyway?”

      “I had help.” She sank into a chair beside the bed. “And luckily, we managed to evade your security detail.”

      His gaze came back to meet hers. “What security detail? I didn’t have one. I came alone to find you.”

      She stared at him. She could hardly believe that. After the war and all both sides had been through, it seemed illogical at best. “Why would you do something so irresponsible? Who do you think you are?”

      He searched her eyes, then laughed softly, though the laughter had a bitter edge.

      “Alexandra, I wanted to talk to you. Just you. Not your advisors or guards or brothers. You. Man to woman.” He paused, then added softly, “Lover to lover.”

      “Oh, Dane.” Closing her eyes, she turned her face away.

      Watching her, he shook his head. “Where are we?”

      She looked back at him and wondered what she’d been thinking to bring him here. She’d sent the rest of her entourage to Paris to stay with the community of exiles from the war who had gathered there. That was where her brothers were living and where their father was getting hospital care. She pretended to be traveling by train to Amsterdam, but instead she’d come to stay anonymously in the top two floors of a row house in Triade, a country town about fifty miles to the south. She would have good protection there. The building was owned by an old comrade of her father’s who was completely loyal and trustworthy. He would make sure no one knew she was there. She and her prisoner.

      “I can’t tell you that,” she said to Dane.

      “Of course not.” His gaze hardened. “More to the point, where’s the baby?”

      She stared into his eyes for a long, long moment, then rose and headed for the door.

      “Where are you going?” he called after her.

      She whirled, frowning at him. “I’m going to see if I can’t find a way to send you home more quickly,” she told him. “Isn’t that what you want?”

      “No,” he told her frankly with another hard yank at the rope that held him. “I want to see the baby and I want to see it now.”

      “Dane!” Marching back, she glared down at him. “You are hardly in the position to be giving orders. We’re not in Carnethia. You’re not royalty here. You’re just a prisoner. So get used to it.”

      Without another word, she turned on her heel and left, closing the door behind her.

      Looking around the room again, Dane let off a string of obscenities. He’d fallen into a trap one more time. Hard to believe that someone so skilled and well trained could let this happen.