A Prince in Plain Sight

By LuAnn McLane

After her holiday romance with handsome Nick Worth ends with his disappearance, Anna Lee Brody hopes that he will return to Daleville, Alabama, just as he promised in the love letter he left behind. Even though she wears the rose pendant Nick gave her, she wonders if he will truly return to mend her broken heart…

Royal Prince Nicholas Worthington despises having to deceive Anna Lee but, for the safety of Calloway Island, he must turn the principality over as a territory under the protection of the United States. But when his life is threatened, her remote home is the perfect place to hide him. Can he convince the sweet southern belle that, even though his name might have been fake, his love for her was, and still is, very real?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Jan 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9781943963836

LuAnn McLane

LuAnn McLane’s books have appeared on bestselling lists, including USA TODAY, Barnes and Noble, Rhapsody, and Doubleday Book clubs. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys family, friends, cooking, reading, music, travel, and University of Kentucky basketball.

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Author

Dear reader,

As a child I was enchanted by Cinderella, and fell in love the notion of happily ever after against all odds. My southern fried fairytales reflect the same timeless romantic conflict that seems as if the hero and heroine’s relationship is doomed for failure but then saved by destiny. The ideal that love conquers all might seem like fantasy but I view it as eternal hope that blossoms if we open our hearts to the possibility of forever.

Life isn’t easy and love holds a tremendous amount of power over the characters in this series. In A Royal Christmas, the prequel to A Prince in Plain Sight, Prince Royal Nicholas Worthington is faced with turning over his monarchy as a territory of the United States because of the love he has for his citizens. Anna Lee Brody, my sweet southern heroine, is trying to save the family home out of respect and love for her grandparents who helped to raise Anna Lee and her sister Amber after their father’s desertion.

I was delighted to begin the series during Christmas, a magical time of the year when all things seem possible if we choose to believe. With A Prince in Plain Sight, Anna Lee and Nick’s story continues with his return. As the connecting novellas in the series unfold I will explore the bond of siblings, cousins, friendships, and the love of a mother for her children. The power of forgiveness and the release of the past also play a big part of loves of the characters. But the backbone of the stories will be sweeping romance and the promise of happily ever after!

I enjoy hearing from readers and I invite you to follow and interact with me on social media, including, twitter.com/writerlu facebook.com/authorluannmclane and my boards on pinterest.com/writerlu!

All the best,

LuAnn McLane

Chapter One

Life Goes On

Anna Lee hung the grapevine wreath on the front door and then stood back to make sure the red raffia ribbon bow was centered at the bottom. Reaching forward, she righted the slightly crooked loop and then nodded with an attempt at satisfaction. After finally packing away the last of the Christmas decorations, she thought the wide front porch looked a bit bare and needed a friendly splash of color to combat the late January doldrums in Daleville. Alabama winters were genuinely mild but sometimes dreary and spring seemed a million months away.

Pretty… She inhaled deeply and then tried to muster up a smile but her bottom lip wobbled in defiance. No!

Anna Lee squeezed her eyes shut and swallowed hard, determined not to shed one more doggone tear over Nick Worth, the handsome but mysterious benefactor who’d swooped into her life over the holidays and then disappeared without a trace. If it hadn’t been for the renovation of three bathrooms on the second floor of her soon to be bed and breakfast, she would have thought that she’d dreamed the whole thing up.

At first, Anna Lee believed the handwritten note Nick had left behind along with his lovely Christmas gift. She reached up and touched the rosebud necklace, the only connection to a man who took her heart with him when he vanished from her life. Nick’s profession of love and his promise to return to Daleville had filled her with the kind of joy that made her want to reach for the sky and twirl around in a Julie Andrews Sound of Music moment.

But after the holidays ended, cold hard reality cast a shadow over her happiness. She had to face the facts… or, perhaps, the lack of facts would be a better description. After Nick’s cell phone number failed to connect, she’d searched for him on Facebook and Googled his name but had come up empty-handed. The federal historical society Nick claimed he worked for didn’t even exist. The only saving grace was the twenty-five thousand dollar grant that he’d supposedly awarded to her for renovations on her antebellum farmhouse turned out to be real. But the mystery of Nick Worth’s identity, and why he’d shown up on her doorstep claiming to be someone he wasn’t, was driving her absolutely plumb crazy. And, in spite of his deception, Anna Lee thought about him, dreamed about him, and missed him so much that her heart actually ached.

Ah… damn it. With a pitiful little wail, she sank down to the front steps and allowed pent up emotion flow with a chest heaving, nose running, good old noisy cry. Anna Lee let it all out until she was reduced to a shoulder twitching, shallow breathing, hot mess. Oh, hells bells. She sniffed hard, trying to make sense of the sudden odd turn her life had taken.

Finally spent, she shook her head and swallowed the remaining moisture in her throat. All right, enough of this nonsense. She dabbed at the corners of her eyes with her sweatshirt sleeve while thinking she still had lots to accomplish on her to-do list before officially opening her bed and breakfast.

Wallowing in her misery wasn’t one of them!

But still, Anna Lee remained on the stoop with her elbows on her knees and looked out over the front yard through bleary eyes. A sudden gust of wind had Anna Lee zipping her hooded sweatshirt all the way up to her neck. She pulled the hood over the pixie haircut she’d sported for years but absently wondered if she should let her hair grow out? Maybe she’d bleach her honey-colored shade to platinum blonde. Or perhaps get a tattoo. She chuckled without real humor, thinking her misery was sucking the life out of her naturally happy demeanor, making her feel angry and downright grumpy. Well, she needed to put a stop to the pathetic path she was taking and get her life back on track.

With a shiver, Anna Lee glanced toward the front door but then lifted her chin and decided she wasn’t ready to go back inside the house just yet. The cool breeze dried the tears on her cheeks and she inhaled a cleansing breath of pine scented, country air.

Winter might be upon them, but she found beauty in branches of the bare trees reaching up toward the pale blue sky as if embracing the day. Two frisky squirrels chased each other around the base of the big oak tree and then scurried up the trunk. Birds chirped cheerfully back and forth, sounding as if they were having a lively discussion, reminding Anna Lee to purchase more bird seed the next time she went into town. Her late grandfather had been an avid birdwatcher and Anna Lee promised him she’d keep the feeders full of food. In the distance, the angry sound of a buzz saw indicated that a neighbor was busy chopping up some firewood.

Life goes on, she whispered, willing herself to feel a little bit better.

The high pitched ping of her cell phone made her heart lurch. She still held out a sliver of hope she might get a message from Nick. But when she took her phone out of her sweatshirt pocket she read Little Sis and slid her finger across the screen. Anna Lee had to grin at the picture of Amber’s face and hair completely dusted with white powered sugar and the caption beneath that read, A minor explosion. Really? How can baking cupcakes be this messy? Oh right… Mama is helping. And I use that term loosely.

Anna Lee chuckled softly. Since the disappearance of Nick, Amber found countless ways to send something funny Anna Lee’s way. During the toughest of times, the Culpepper household remained filled with laughter so Amber and Anna Lee knew first hand that mustering up a smile was the best way to chase away the blues. Anne Lee felt the warmth of her sister’s love reach out and sooth her frazzled state of mind. Ah, thank you, little sis.

Anna Lee longed to call Amber just to hear her sister’s voice but Amber had her hands full running her ice cream and cupcake shop up on Main Street. And their mother, bless her heart, was usually at Delicious Surprise to lend a well-intended but not so helping hand, which usually caused more havoc than assistance, at least when it came to anything in the kitchen.

After Nick’s abrupt departure, her mother had hovered over Anna Lee with constant rib crushing hugs and cheek cupping reassurance. And while Anna Lee truly appreciated her mother’s loving concern, Anna Lee also knew Nick’s disappearance brought back memories of her father’s desertion of their family and so Anna Lee refrained from calling her mother even though she actually could use a bit of hovering and a tight squeeze right about now. Her mother and Amber were heading to Alabama Shores in two days for a much needed vacation and had begged Anna Lee to join them but she’d refused with the excuse that she had too much work on the house to accomplish.

Anna Lee’s stomach rumbled, making her recall she’d skipped breakfast, but, in truth, food held little appeal these days. Amber’s delectable cupcakes