Prince of Scandal by Annie West Page B

out in plants and gravel paths, but the view from the ground didn’t give the full effect.
    She could have seen it from the castle. But she didn’t want to meet any of the disapproving VIPs who’d witnessed her accession to the title of Princess of Ardissia.
    Princess! Her stomach curdled, thinking about it. Or was that because of the tower? She didn’t have a head for heights and the open window beside her gave a dizzying view to the city below.
    Luisa pressed a damp palm to the wall and kept moving. Soon she emerged at a low opening looking towards the castle. Someone had been working here and she side-stepped a pile of tools. The opening was so low she felt safer on her knees, her hands on the stonework.
    The garden was spectacular, though overgrown. She made out the remnants of the Maritzian dragon, the one flying on the flag from the topmost turret, laid out in the hedges below. Shrubs with gold foliage denoted its eyes and a straggling group of red-leaved plants might have been its fiery breath. Its tail was missing and a path cut through one claw, yet it was still magnificent.
    Enchanted, Luisa leaned a little further out.
    She’d inherited her mother’s love of gardens, though she’d had little time to indulge the interest.
    Movement caught her eye. She looked up to see a familiar figure striding through the garden. Raul. Instantly, absurdly, her pulse fluttered.
    He saw her and shouted something as he raced forward.
    Instinctively Luisa recoiled, feeling as if she’d been caught trespassing. She pushed back and again that dizzy sensation hit. Only this time it wasn’t just in her head.
    To her horror, the wall beneath her hands shifted. Instead of rising up, her movement pushed her further out, the stone sliding forward with a terrible grinding noise.
    She scrabbled back but her centre of gravity was too far forward. With a loud groan, the old sill tumbled out of her grasp to fall, with dreadful resounding thuds, to the ground below.
    Luisa lurched forward, spreadeagled over jagged rock, her arms dangling into space and her eyes focused disbelievingly on the sheer drop below. Masonry bruised her ribs but she couldn’t get breath to try inching back. Fear of another fall, this time with her in it, froze her.
    She couldn’t see Raul now and the staccato beat of blood in her ears drowned every sound. Her throat closed so she couldn’t even yell for help. Swirling nausea made her head swim.
    Her breath came in jerky gasps as she tried to crawl backwards, only to slide further forward as another block tumbled with a reverberating crash.
    Any minute now, that could be her.
    ‘It’s all right.’ The deep, soothing voice barely penetrated her consciousness. ‘I’ve got you.’ On the words strong arms slid beneath her waist.
    ‘No!’ she gasped, terror freezing her muscles. ‘Keep back. It’s too dangerous.’ Surely Raul’s weight with hers on the unstable wall would send them both plummeting.
    ‘Don’t move. Just relax and let me do this.’
    ‘Relax?’ He must be kidding. Luisa squeezed her eyes shut as swirling dots appeared in her vision.
    Her body was rigid as he hauled her back, his arms locked around her. She waited, breathless, for the ominous groan of rock on rock. Instead she heard Raul’s indrawn breath as he took her weight against him, dragging her slowly but inexorably to safety.
    There was heat behind her. Searing heat that branded her back as he held her to him. His breath feathered her nape and his hands gripped so hard she wondered if she’d have bruises. But they’d be nothing to the bruises on her ribs from the stones. Or to her injuries if she’d fallen.
    A shudder racked her and she squeezed her eyes even tighter, trying to block the pictures her mind conjured.
    ‘Shh. It’s all right. You’re safe. I promise.’ Yet the tremors wouldn’t subside. Her teeth began to chatter.
    Desperately she sought for composure. ‘I n-never did l-like heights.’
    ‘Open your