Page 7 of Twins for the Secret Prince (Even More Babies #8)

PIETER

P ieter had lived through bad weather before, but never had he experienced the deafening, apocalyptic sound of a large section of land giving way, picking up momentum as it moved downhill at lightning speed.

He’d never faced anything like a landslide, and to say he was unprepared for what was happening was an understatement.

Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet gave away completely, taking him with it on its rapid downward trajectory.

He scrabbled in vain for something to grab hold of, trying to stop himself from being carried away by the river of mud.

He squeezed his eyes closed to shield them, covered his chest with his arms to protect his vital organs from being lacerated by large objects, and was swept away.

It was like tobogganing, only with more fear and zero fun.

His body hit something solid, and he came to a sudden, abrupt stop.

Pieter opened his eyes and saw that his fall had been stopped by a large overgrowth of bush scrub.

The impact had knocked the wind out of him, but it didn’t feel like there was any serious damage to his body.

He wiggled his toes, then his fingers, and then gently lifted up one arm and then the other, repeating the action with his legs.

Relief flooded him as he realized that he’d survived the landslide and impact of the landing without breaking any bones.

He called out to Eva but couldn’t hear a reply over the blustering wind. He stood up on shaky legs and looked in all directions but didn’t see her. He called to her again and thought he heard the sound of his own name in the wind. A few seconds later, he heard it again.

“Sergeant Bailey?” he said.

“Over here,” she called out.

The strong winds made it sound as though her voice was coming from all directions. “Shout out again, so I can find you!”

“I’m right here!” she called, and Pieter whipped his head towards the sound.

He couldn’t stop the snort that emerged when he saw her. She’d landed facedown, and she was covered head to toe in thick, black mud.

“If that was you snorting, you’ll be sorry, let me tell you.”

“It must have been the wind you heard,” Pieter said, trying but failing to suppress a grin. “And anyway, I don’t know if you know this or not, but you don’t exactly look terrifying in that state. More like a swamp creature.”

Eva glared at him and stretched her arms and legs, feeling for any injuries. “The good news is we survived,” she said grimly.

“What’s the bad news?” Pieter asked.

“Take a look around you. We’ve landed in a gully bordered by huge rocks, with a fast-moving river behind us. Our options are to stay here and hope we get rescued, fight our way back up that hill, or let the river carry us downstream to a more appropriate place to set up camp.”

Pieter’s jaw dropped. “Those are all terrible options.”

“Agreed. Even if Armstrong decided to organize a search party in this storm, he’s got a bunch of inexperienced recruits to choose from. And in this weather, I think he’s more likely to wait until morning.”

Pieter looked up the huge, steep hill they’d just slid down. “We’ll never make it back up there. Not in this weather.”

“Agreed. That leaves the river.”

“The river?” Pieter said, aghast. He could hear the sound of the water rushing, which was even louder than the wind. “We’ll freeze. Or drown. Or both.”

Eva shook her head. “It’s our best option. Let the river carry us to a more sheltered spot where we can rest for the night.”

Pieter looked around for anything closer that might serve as shelter for the night, but all he saw were giant boulders, hideously exposed to the driving rain and gale-force winds. “I think we should stay here and wait for help. Maybe the storm will die down soon.”

“It’s forecast to last until the early hours of the morning. If we stay here, we’ll get hypothermia.”

“We’ll get hypothermia throwing ourselves into the river!”

Eva shook her head again. “We’ll be in and out quickly. It’s moving fast enough that this will work.”

“Sergeant Bailey, I am not jumping in that river.”

“Trust me,” she said. “I’ve done this before.”

“ What?!”

“I’ve done wilderness survival training here before. Well, not exactly here, but I know this area, and I know the river. As part of our training, they made us jump in the river and get safely back to shore. We can do this.”

She looked so serious, so confident that this would work, that Pieter found himself nodding. “Okay, fine. But you’ll have to tell me what to do.”

“Right. I’m going to jump in first. You count to sixty and then jump in after me. I’ll scan the riverbed for a place we can shelter. Watch for me, and make your way over to me. I’ll be waiting to help you out.”

“You make it sound like a piece of cake.”

“You can do this, Pete.”

Pieter gave a single nod, wanting to show her he had faith in her and trusted that she knew what she was doing. He tried not to look as worried as he felt.

Eva started to walk towards the river, visibly struggling against the force of the wind. Pieter followed her, slipping and nearly falling on the wet rocks, but they persevered, and a few minutes later, Eva gave him the thumbs-up.

“Count to sixty!” she yelled, and then she jumped in the river.

Pieter started counting out loud, watching for her head to pop up above the surface of the brown, churning water.

He’d counted to twenty before he saw her, much further downstream than he’d guessed she would be in such a short span of time.

Panicking slightly, he decided not to count to sixty, worried that if he waited, he’d lose sight of Eva for good.

Pieter threw himself into the water, which rushed up to meet him like the icy fingers of a sea creature trying to drag him under.

His body spun once, his legs coming up over his head as he told himself to be strong, to pull himself up above the surface of the river.

But the river fought back, holding him under, threatening to never let him surface.

With a huge, choking gasp, he lifted his head up and ferociously blinked water out of his eyes. He scanned the riverbanks in vain, disoriented and unable to see Eva. All he could see were huge boulders, and he had no idea where she was.

And then he heard the muffled sound of Eva calling to him. “Billings! Over here!” she called over the sound of the wind.

He saw her lying on her stomach on a flat rock ledge, holding out a tree branch for him to grab onto. She was close, so close that he was sure he wouldn’t be able to get to her before being carried downstream and away from her.

Pieter cupped his hands in the icy water and began to swim across the river towards her.

When he looked at the angle of distance between them, he was sure it was physically impossible to cut an almost perfectly horizontal swathe towards her.

But, somehow, he found a level of strength he didn’t realize he had, and he swam towards her.

He grabbed the end of the branch Eva held out to him with his left hand and then with his right.

He swung his body underneath it, trying to find purchase on the riverbank — something solid enough so that he could get a foothold — but his legs just swung like pendulums made of Jell-O.

Eva grabbed the back of his shirt and, with one mighty show of strength, hoisted Pieter up out of the water.

He landed like a huge, beached fish on the rock shelf. He flipped over onto his back, panting.

“You didn’t count to sixty,” Eva admonished him. “I almost didn’t have time to get you.”

“You saved me,” Pieter said, taking huge choking breaths in between each word. He reached a shaky hand towards her face, wanting to show her how grateful he was that she’d rescued him.

But instead of turning into the tender moment he’d imagined, Eva grabbed his forearm and pressed her fingers to his wrist, checking his pulse.

“Sergeant Bailey, I—”

“Shh. Don’t say anything. Just lie there and catch your breath.”

Pieter did as he was told, watching her face as she hovered above him.

Her black hair had come out of its bun and was loose around her face.

She looked absolutely beautiful, even if she was soaking wet and covered in mud.

He noticed the detached way she checked his vital signs and realized at once that his attraction was completely one-sided.

With a pang of sadness, he knew he shouldn’t have expected anything else.

First of all, Eva didn’t even know his real name.

Secondly, he knew he appeared arrogant and distant when people first met him, no matter how much he tried otherwise.

He’d been coached by royal caregivers and advisors from the time he was a toddler on how to behave in public, and he knew his air of detached superiority was always with him, no matter how much he tried to lose it.

“I have to tell you something,” he said suddenly.

“I know. You’re grateful to me for saving your life, blah-blah-blah.”

“No, that’s not it. There’s something I have to say.”

“I know. You didn’t count to sixty before you jumped in. I expected you to disobey me, but I came very close to not rescuing you. It could have cost you your life.”

“No, it’s not that either, even though I realize I owe you. And you’re right. I didn’t listen. But that’s only because I saw how fast the current carried you downstream, and I was worried I’d lose you.”

Eva looked at him for a long moment, and although he couldn’t read her expression, he had the sense she was really hearing, for the first time, the emotion he was trying to convey.

“Yes, well, there’s no need to thank me,” she said. “It was my idea to jump in the river. I knew it would be cold, but I’m so cold right now I can’t even remember what it feels like to be warm.”

“M-m-m-e too,” Pieter replied, his teeth chattering.

“Okay, that’s not a good sign,” Eva said, looking down at him with a furrowed brow.

She unfastened the bottom two buttons of her shirt, reached inside, and pulled out a small crossover bag that she wore next to her body.

Pieter watched as she unzipped it and pulled out a folded-up foil-insulated blanket.

She unfolded it and wrapped it firmly around Pieter’s torso, tucking it underneath him.

“Th-thank you,” Pieter said as his whole body began to shiver.

“That should warm you up soon,” Eva said, standing up. “I’m going to look for some pine needles to start a fire. I’ll be back soon.”

“P-please, don’t g-go,” Pieter said, his teeth chattering so violently his jaw hurt.

“Don’t worry. Nothing’s going to happen to me. I’ve done this before, remember? If I don’t get a fire lit soon, we’re both going to freeze.”

Pieter blinked twice to show her that he understood, then watched as she quickly walked away.

He closed his eyes and tried to imagine that the rocks he was lying on were hot from the sun, warming his back and the backs of his legs.

Then he imagined the foil blanket Eva had placed on him was an electric blanket, sending warmth to the corners of his body.

He tried all of the visualization techniques he could think of, from picturing himself standing in front of the huge fireplace in the Grand Hall of the palace, the same one he’d stood in front of when his parents had called him in to talk about his fate.

He wanted to hold on to happier memories of his parents, so he thought about times when they’d gone sailing together as a family, the sun warm on his face.

Pieter imagined he felt Eva’s body curled up against his, her body heat seeping into his skin.

He felt her warm breath on the back of his neck as her face dipped into the groove there.

All at once heat radiated out from his core, and he concentrated on the sensation as it spread out to the tips of his fingers and toes and finally to his head.

He lay completely still, savoring the feeling of warmth throughout his body and the electric charge that ran through him from Eva’s skin.

He opened his eyes, wondering if the sun had miraculously broken through the dense cloud. He saw Eva crouched down over him, her face lit coral by the fire that she’d managed to start underneath a rocky overhang while he’d been trying to think himself warm.

“I was worried about you. You were moaning,” she said, looking at him with relief.

Pieter hoped she couldn’t read the embarrassment on his face as he remembered how wonderful it had felt to be lying next to her, her warm body pressed up against his own. “Sorry, I must have drifted off for a minute.”

“Feeling any warmer?” she asked.

“Much. That’s an impressive fire.”

“As long as the wind doesn’t change direction, I think it’ll be okay. I’ve got enough kindling and wood to keep it going for a couple of hours. It’s not enough to get us through the night, though.”

“Thank you, Sergeant Bailey. I meant it when I said I owe you.”

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said. “And I think it’s about time we ditched the formalities, don’t you?”

Pieter smiled slightly. “I do. Thank you, Eva.”

She nodded once. “Now, do you want to try to sit up and warm your back against the fire?”

Pieter sat up and held the foil blanket out to her. “You should use this for a while.”

Eva shook her head. “No, I want you to keep it around you. At least until your clothes are dry.” She watched him for a moment and added, “Good. You’ve stopped shaking.”

“I’ll go and collect some more wood in a minute,” he said, meaning it. He had to do something to contribute to their survival. But, just as soon as he had the thought, Pieter felt a wave of dizziness and thought he was going to pass out. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.

“Take it easy. I’ll go,” Eva said.

Pieter could hear the frustration and exhaustion in her voice. He’d let her down, and he knew it. He doubted she’d ever forgive him, and he couldn’t really blame her.