A Royal Rebuke

Dashing Lord Victor Brooke has displeased his Godmother, Her Majesty Queen Victoria, with his latest indiscretion with one of her moreattractive Ladies-in-Waiting and he is dismayed to find that hispunishment means missing his beloved Social Season in London! Her Majesty orders him instead to escort the eighteen-year-old Princess Sydella to Zararis, where she is to marry King Stephan, who hasrequested an English bride so that his small nation will receive the British Empire? s protection against Russian incursions. Bored andembarrassed, Lord Victor passes off his chore as a ? secret mission?, but little does he know that his lie is soon to come true. As soonas they embark on a British Battleship, he is astounded to findhimself captivated by the Princess? s beauty and her enchanting joie de vivre. And when he saves her from an assassin? s bomb on theirarrival at Zararis and then from certain death at sea, he wins herheart, as she has already won his. Yet no sooner than they findlove, they know that all is lost ? for Sydella is already committed to marry the King of Zararis ?