The Man Behind the Mask. Christine Rimmer

up doing something really gauche that would remind everyone of the basic truth that I was, after all, a bright but ordinary girl from Bakersfield who dreamt of someday actually selling one of the novels she’d written; a girl who, until the day before, had never set foot in a royal palace in her life.

      I’d had an escort when the evening started, a dapper prince who appeared at the door to my room and brought me to the ballroom. I’d lost track of him early on.

      That was okay with me. It wasn’t like I even knew the guy. And I wasn’t left dangling. Brit kept dropping by to check on me, to whisper funny comments in my ear on the whole Norse-based culture thing—Gullandrians, remember, were Vikings at heart—and to introduce me to a stunning array of friends and relatives whose names I forgot as soon as they were told to me.

      Brit was not your average best friend. For starters, she was a princess. A princess born in Gullandria, one of three fraternal-triplet princesses. When Brit was still a baby, her mom the queen left her dad the king, and took the girls to Sacramento, where they grew up blond and beautiful and rich—and about as American as anybody can get.

      And beyond the princess angle, Brit was not a person you messed with. She had a high pain threshold and a scary kind of fearlessness. Once, two years before the night in the ballroom, I watched her go after a guy who’d displayed the bad judgment to try to stick up a coffee shop while Brit and I were standing at the register, waiting to pay after a little serious pigging out on chili dogs and fries. The guy ordered us—and everyone else in the place—to hit the floor. We all did as we were told. Except for Brit. She dived for the guy’s knees. Took him down, too—though he put a couple of rounds in the ceiling before the cooks lurched to life and gave her a hand.

      As I said, fearless. A fearless tall, blond California-girl princess. And my best friend in the world.

      About the fifth time she came by, she edged good and close and murmured in my ear, “Note the redhead.” I noted. Drop-dead gorgeous, in petal-pink satin—which I would never dare to wear—the redhead whirled by in the arms of some prince or other.

      We were up to the ears in princes at that palace. From what I understood, every male noble, or jarl as they called themselves, was a prince. And they were all eligible to someday become king.

      But I wasn’t really thinking about the rules of Gullandrian succession at that moment. Right then, I was wondering why I couldn’t be that kind of redhead—the kind like the woman waltzing past Brit and me. The sleek kind, you know? The kind with a waterfall of red silk for hair, with porcelain skin, a cameo-perfect face and a Halle Berry body.

      “The Lady Kaarin Karlsmon,” Brit whispered, as I reminded myself to get a grip and be at peace with being me. “So very well-bred. And nice, I guess—in her own oh-so-aristocratic way. Always laughs at the right places. But just a little too cagey, if you know what I mean.”

      I gave my friend a look. “So and?” Grinning, blue eyes agleam, Brit wiggled her eyebrows. I leaned a little closer. “Tell.”

      “Tell what?” asked a male voice behind us.

      It was Prince Eric Greyfell, Brit’s fiancé. He wrapped his arms loosely around his bride-to-be and nuzzled her hair.

      Brit leaned into his embrace with a happy sigh, the black chiffon overlay of her gown—Vera Wang, no doubt about it—shimmering against the matte black of his tux. “Just girl talk.” She turned her head and whispered to him, only a few words. Something that would have been meaningless to me, I’d bet. Something intimate.

      I looked at the silver disc that hung from a heavy chain around her neck. It was an intricate design, like a thousand coiling snakes. Fascinating.

      But even more interesting to me was the red burst of angry-looking scar tissue about six inches from it, at the soft, incurving spot where Brit’s left shoulder met her torso. The fresh scar kept peeking out from beneath the halter top of her fabulous dress. I wondered, as I’d been wondering since I first spotted it, where it had come from.

      Some stick-up guy who’d shot my friend instead of the ceiling? I was keeping myself from asking her about it. I wanted details—hey, I’m a writer. I always want details—and I knew I wouldn’t get them that night. Brit was in serious mingle mode, dropping by, flitting off. You can bet I planned to pry the whole story out of her if we ever got a little time to ourselves. I had a lot of questions to ask her once I got her alone. It had been six months or so since she’d left L.A. We had some catching up to do.

      Eric spared a glance for me. “Dulcie, forgive my intrusion.”

      I smiled. “Nothing to forgive.” What can I say about Eric? It’s all good. Tall and lean and…intense. Brown hair, grayish green eyes in which you could see compassion and considerable intelligence. This was the second time I’d met him, the first being the day before, when Brit introduced us. I knew right away that he was like Brit. Not to be messed with. But so honorable it made you want to hug him.

      Brit eased herself around so she could face him. She gazed up at him and he looked back at her and—whoa. Call it heat, call it lust, call it passion…call it love.

      I want that, I thought. I want what they have.…

      Little did I know.

      Eric looked at me again. “May I steal her away?”

      I had to stifle a dizzy giggle. It made me feel giddy as buying my blue Jessica McClintock, just to be around all that love and passion. “I’d say you already have.”

      “Don’t imagine it was an easy task.” He was faking a frown.

      “Oh, I don’t. Not for a second.” I laughed then. And Eric and I shared a moment of perfect understanding. We both knew Brit.

      Brit gave my arm a squeeze. “I’ll be back.”

      I grinned and nodded and off they went. I stared after them for a moment or two, no doubt looking wide-eyed and dreamy. Then I caught myself and jerked my gaze up—way up—toward the arching vaulted ceiling. When in doubt, especially at Isenhalla where there’s no shortage of awesome things to look at, study the architecture.

      The grand ballroom had plenty for a girl from Bakersfield to ogle. For instance: a musician’s balcony about thirty feet up, extending the length of the wall opposite the one where I stood. There was an entire orchestra up there, I swear. The sound of their music was achingly beautiful, big enough to fill every last apse of that ballroom, big enough to swell and soar between the thick stone columns that marched along the sides of the room, and farther, into the shadowed spaces on the other side of those columns, and even farther than that—through the arching oak doors, out to the gallery, on past the high leaded windows and into the icy early-December darkness beyond.

      Overhead, massive iron chandeliers, blazing bright, hung from thick black chains. On the side walls trefoil stained-glass windows glittered, four-panel lancet windows below, also of stained glass. On one side, the windows held out the night. On the other, they stood between the ballroom and the gallery.

      At my end of the rectangular room: a two story-high fireplace. I swear to you, that fireplace was big enough to roast a couple of reindeer and a wild boar or two and still have plenty of room to spare. The fireplace led the eye up again, to arch upon arch, all very Gothic-looking, only somehow more opulent. The sheer complexity of it could make you dizzy.

      I stared up at all those interlocking arches until my neck got a slight crick in it. About then, it occurred to me that I’d lurked near that giant fireplace for too long, alternately gazing at the ceiling and into the fire where three whole tree trunks burned. Not that anyone was looking at me, or would even have cared if they were. But still. I had my pride and a firm determination not to sink too deeply into wallflower mode.

      I began working my way to the other end of the ballroom, smiling brightly at faces I’d never seen before—and a few I’d been introduced to but whose names were already lost somewhere in the unattended recesses of my mind. As a rule, I’m pretty good with names. But not that night. I guess I was kind of on overload. Mountains of new data coming my way,