Claimed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 3 Read Online Free Page A

been wearing the watch before he’d agreed to let the interrogation be handled by less invested souls. Ari had been his best friend—and his responsibility.
    “Yes, Alaçati—which is fully invested in its summer windsurfing season,” the queen beamed. “So there are tourists there, people, outsiders. It will be easier for you to blend.”
    Stefan didn’t dispute her words. “What is the new information?” he asked.
    Behind the queen, Kristos grimaced, his face unusually grim compared to his mother’s excitement. The prince’s eyes were fixed on the open water, however, not the queen, and Stefan angled himself carefully to allow a wider view as the queen spoke again.
    “There’s a whole network of scavengers along the Turkish coast. Small wonder, given the state of the economy and lack of military protections there outside the main cities,” she sniffed.
    “Your highness,” Cyril said mildly. “They are our neighbors and allies.”
    “And we are here, in Garronia, among friends,” the queen shot back with an uncharacteristic snap to her tone. “Anyway, the fisherman who bought the watch told us there were other debris as well—a gold chain, journals, shoes—but that the watch hadn’t come directly from the ocean, according to the man who sold it to him. It’d come from its owner.”
    “Its owner!” Stefan’s exclamation had the queen straightening. “When was this?”
    “He wasn’t clear—months ago.” Her mouth tightened but she pushed on. “But the man was alive, the scavenger had said. Disoriented, confused—the scavenger apparently thought he’d sustained some sort of head injury.”
    “Possibly concussed,” Kristos put in.
    “Dressed in rags but he had the watch. He’d been exposed to the elements. Hadn’t showered.” The queen’s lower lip began to tremble, and Kristos stepped forward.
    “Mother—”
    She ignored him. “Bottom line, we need to act. The fisherman had that watch since January—January! And here it is June, and Ari could have been wandering this whole time.”
    “You don’t know that the man who sold the scavenger the watch in the first place was Ari.”
    “And you don’t know that it wasn’t!” she retorted. “There are windsurfers currently in the city of Alaçati, some exhibition, and we should be there too, finding out whatever we can.”
    A cheer went up from the crowd gathered at the edge of the beach. The queen glanced up—and her excited exclamation made Stefan turn as well. The reason behind that exclamation made him groan.
    Out on the open waters of the Aegean, Nicki Clark stood balanced on a thin board, her arms locked on the cross beams of a brightly colored sail. Flipping and twirling, she was doing an almost acrobatic job of angling the sail to capture the most wind it could, resulting in her leaping over the small whitecaps offered up by the gusting winds over the azure water.
    “Emmaline tells me that Nicki is a champion windsurfer, and her work as an adventure blogger makes it perfectly reasonable that she would take a side trip to Alaçati while she is so close,” the queen said triumphantly. “And of course, we would not want her to travel alone in a foreign country with such rapidly changing safety concerns. A small group of NGSF soldiers and you, Stefan, will go with her.”
    “We have already discussed this, your highness—” Stefan began, but the queen barreled on.
    “Look at her! This is not an idle queen creating a fit where none exists. Nicki is clearly skilled, and if her reputation in the windsurfing community checks out as Emmaline indicates, she is the perfect choice to travel with you, and the perfect excuse for us to encroach on our neighbor despite the fact that we’re not agreeing on much of anything these days.”
    “It’s not safe, and she could be placed in danger. She isn’t trained.”
    “No, but you are,” the queen said. “And I would trust you with my life, Stefan. Can you really tell me that Nicki