Her Royal Protector (a Johari Crown Novel) (Entangled Indulgence) Read Online Free

away…Tell me.”
    “I need surgery, sadly. Minor, but it needs doing right away.”
    “ Surgery?” Anxiety ramped through her blood with one great thump of her heart. They’d all assumed it was nothing more than a bad bout of travelers’ tummy. “My God. Are you…are you…?” Richard was more than a research partner. He and Ellen were among her closest friends.
    “Aly, relax. It’s not serious, but it does require action. A fairly simple hernia.” He told her the details. “They say best to get it done sooner rather than later, and I think I should listen.”
    “Of course.” Her brain reeled, trying to piece it all together. “What will we do, Richard? Just delay the whole project for a couple of weeks? Or I suppose Ellen and I could manage for awhile without you. Will you be back on your feet in time to…what does Ellen say?”
    “Aly, Ellen’s coming home with me. I am desperately sorry about this, but I do need her beside me, and in any case, Ellen insists—”
    And that was when it hit her. It was over. Even simple surgery wasn’t something you recovered from in a couple of weeks. Aly’s breath locked just below her ribs. “Of course Ellen has to go with you,” she agreed in a whisper. Of course. And now she was torn in two. Her friend Richard. And the turtles.
    “I know how dreadful an effect it is going to have on your doctoral thesis as well as the project, Aly, and I’m sorrier than I can say. We have looked at putting it off, but I think I’d be a fool to risk sailing around those uninhabited islands with this hanging over my head. It could get serious very quickly.”
    “Good God, don’t even think of it,” Aly cried. “We’ll come up with something.”
    They wouldn’t, of course. There was no way around this. Aly gazed past masts and hulls out over the turquoise harbor, watching everything she’d been working toward for the past two years sink without trace into the blue, blue sea.
    “Such crap timing,” Richard said. “I’m sorrier than I can say, Aly.”
    “Richard, it’s just life. Don’t think about it, you have to concentrate on your health. Worrying about this won’t help anything.”
    After a short silence, Richard said, “We’re catching a flight tomorrow at two. There is still space available, but Ellen didn’t book for you. We weren’t sure if you might want to stay on here for a bit of a holiday.”
    “That’s a nice thought, but I’m coming home to hold your hand, Richard,” she said. “I’m sure Ellen’s going to need moral support, even if you aren’t.”
    “Now you’re being ridiculous. I’m suffering from enough guilt as it is, Aly. Anyway, the surgery is unlikely to be scheduled immediately. Now you’re here in paradise, why not stay on a bit? A very small consolation prize—I think the charity could spring for a week at the hotel for you.”
    “Yes, maybe. Thank you for the offer, Richard. I’ll have to think.” Her brain was blank with shock and disappointment. Anything like coherent planning was impossible right now. “Anyway, I don’t need the hotel, I can just move onto the boat here, if it comes to that.”
    “So you can,” Richard agreed in a tone of surprise
    “And I suppose someone should eat the food, now I’ve spent the money on it.”
    “That’s a point. All right, well, let us know what you decide.”
    “I’ll do that,” Aly promised.
    She disconnected, then leaned back on the wooden bench and stared into space.
    It couldn’t be over. It couldn’t be. She had worked so hard to make this trip a reality. Everything depended on the research being completed—everything. Not just her doctoral thesis, not just all the effort and money that had already been sunk into the project, but the turtles. She knew more about the Johari turtle than all but a handful of scientists. She knew how fatal was the pattern of dying nests to its future survival. She knew how little time there might be to find the cause and correct