The Secret Princess,Used

Product Description Royal Exclusive: "Perfect" princess goes AWOL!Frustrated with the merrygoround of political dinners and enforced good behavior, Lotty's determined to try a normal life on for size. However, she's completely unprepared for her sexy new boss, Corran McKenna.Bored with people bowing and scraping, Lotty doesn't mind Corran's frowns, but his wicked grin causes trouble! A nostrings fling with the only man who's ever seen the realrather than the royalher is irresistible, but what will happen when her real identity becomes headline news? About the Author Jessica Hart had a haphazard early career that took her around the world in a variety of interesting but very lowly jobs, all of which have provided inspiration on which to draw when it comes to the settings and plots of her stories. She eventually stumbled into writing as a way of funding a PhD in medieval history, but was quickly hooked on romance and is now a fulltime author based in York. If youd like to know more about Jessica, visit her website: www.jessicahart.co.uk Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Waving her hands around her head in a futile attempt to bat the midges away, Lotty paused for breath at the crest of the track. Below her, an austere granite house was planted between a forbidding sweep of hillside and a loch so still it mirrored the clouds and the trees clustered along the water's edge.Loch Mhoraigh House. It looked isolated and unfriendly and, according to all reports in the village, its owner was the same.'He's the worst boss I've ever had.' Gary had been drowning his sorrows in the Mhoraigh Hotel bar all afternoon and his words were more than a little slurred. 'Not a smile, not a good morning, just straight to work! I told him if I'd wanted to work in a labour camp, I'd have signed up for one. It's not as if he's paying more than slave wages either, and he won't get anyone else. I told him what he could do with his job!''Quite right too.' Elsie, the barmaid, polished glasses vindictively and warned Lotty against making the trek out to Loch Mhoraigh House. 'We don't want Corran McKenna around here. The Mhoraigh estate should have gone to his brother, we all know that,' she said, hinting darkly at some family feud that Lotty didn't quite follow. 'Nobody from the village will work for him. You go on up to Fort William,' she told Lotty. 'You'll find a job there.'But Lotty couldn't afford to go any further. Without her purse, she was penniless, and when you needed money, you got yourself a job, right?Or so she had heard. The truth was that until an hour earlier, when she had realised that her purse was missing, Lotty had never in her life had to think about money at all.Now she did.It was Lotty's first challenge, and she was determined to rise to it. Her life was so luxurious, so protected. She understood why, of course, but it meant that she had never once been tested and, until you were, how did you know who you were and what you were made of? That was what these few short weeks were all about. Was there any more to Her Serene Highness Princess Charlotte of Montluce than the stylish clothes and the gracious smile that were all the rest of the world saw?Lotty needed to know that more than anyone.Here was her first chance to find out. When you didn't have any money, you had to earn some. Lotty set her slim shoulders and hoisted her rucksack onto her back. If everyone else could do it, she could too.Three miles later, she was very tired, tormented by midges and, looking doubtfully down at the unwelcoming house, it occurred to Lotty, belatedly, that she could be making a terrible mistake. Loch Mhoraigh House was very remote, and Corran McKenna lived alone out here. Was it safe to knock on his door and ask if he could give her a job? What if Elsie had been right, and he was a man who couldn't be trusted? Elsie's dislike of him seemed to be based on the fact that he wasn't a real Scot, and she had