Royal Betrayal

Dr. Walker Shaw tried to look somber and professional while accompanying His Grace, Russell, Duke of Carrington, the acting regent of the tiny country of Silvershire, as they strolled through the imposing halls of the palace toward the medical wing. After all, he was here on official business. Walker's appearance might be a tad disreputable, and his accent slow and lazy as molasses, but his credentials as a consultant with the elite Lazlo Group were sterling enough to allow him regular admittance to places mere mortals rarely visited. Places such as this.It was not appropriate to be wearing the roguish grin of a man with nothin' but romance on his mind.But he simply couldn't help himself. He'd been fantasizing about coming to the quaint island kingdom for seven years now, to track down and charm the exquisitely sexy and mysterious Lady Sarah -- with any luck right into his bed -- as he'd done so memorably all those years ago at that medical conference in Italy.Lord willing, she was still living in her native land. And single."I understand your specialty is memory loss," Lord Carrington said, yanking Walker from a particularly vivid memory of Lady Sarah's delicious behind bending over a breakfast tray."That's right," Walker answered, shifting smoothly into his professional persona. "Mainly as it relates to advancing age and dementia."As a doctor of psychiatry, Walker had spent the better part of his adult life researching the affliction in the elderly. In his flourishing practice, he had treated patients with all kinds of memory loss resulting from everything from psychological trauma to physical accident to Alzheimer's. Medical research hadn't been his job, it had been his calling.Well. Until the ugly scandal that had tanked his meteoric career three years earlier put an end to all that."I trust it won't matter," Lord Carrington said, "if your patient here is all of thirty-four?"Walker hardly registered the quick churl of regret at the word patient. He certainly didn't bother to correct it. What the hell. He had moved on. And the life he had now was far more relaxed than the one he'd had as an overworked doctor. He was even doing much of the same kind of work -- minus the research, of course. With the Lazlo Group, he consulted on fascinating cases by day and had lots of free time by night. He'd be a fool to miss his old life."Not at all," Walker said, turning his attention to his newest assignment. "I understand she was injured in the assassination attempt on King Weston.""The palace bombing, yes.""A terrible thing. She's a doctor, isn't she?"Lord Carrington nodded. "Dr. Zara Smith.""The renowned neurosurgeon?" Walker asked, vaguely surprised. Though they'd never met, he'd read a couple of her papers in the journals. Intelligent woman."She's been treating the king's brain tumor. She sustained her head injury saving his life during the blast.""How did it happen, exactly?""Under the plaster, the palace walls are made of stone," Carrington said. "Several dislodged in the explosion, and one of them caught her in the temple. She remembers nothing. Not even her own name."Walker thought about the relative merits of being able to forget one's past so completely. There had been days over the past three years he'd have gladly traded places with her. But no more. He'd made peace with his demons.Besides, not for anything would he give up the memory of a certain auburn-haired young lady stretching across an elaborately carved feather bed, bathed in the glow of the magical Italian dawn. If he couldn't remember her, how could he find her?"Has Dr. Smith regained consciousness?" he asked, getting back to the point. The sooner he dealt with this, the sooner he could start looking. And hopefully fill some of those free nights he had..."She woke the next day. Her physical injuries are nearly healed now. It's just her memory that is lacking." The duke's long-legged stride sloweBruhns, Nina is the author of 'Royal Betrayal', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373274949 and ISBN 0373274947.