As soon as the thought jelled, shock followed. Already pale cheeks blanched. She looked away quickly to stare into her brandy. But she saw the truth. She loved him, had always loved him, however impossibly. Before she’d been able to deny it, block it out. Now that he was in danger, her feelings rushed from her heart to her head.

“Eve?”

She pressed her fingers to her eyes and waited for her head to stop swimming. “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

Reeve’s voice was patient. “It might help if we had the exact wording of the call, or as close as you can remember.”

“All right.” It helped, somehow it helped, to strain her mind and back away from the less tangible. She sipped brandy first, hoping it would settle her. “First he asked for me by name.”

“You’re sure it was a man?”

She started to answer quickly, then stopped. “No. No, I’m not. The voice disturbed me right away because it was so mechanical. Not like a machine, but as though it were being run through one.”

“Very possibly was,” Reeve murmured. “Go on.”

“He said … something like I was close to the royal family and I should tell them to heed a warning. When I asked who it was he said … ‘a seeker of justice.’ I’m sure of that. Then he said there’d be only one warning. François Deboque was to be released from prison within forty-eight hours or a member of the royal house of Cordina would die.” She compressed her lips a moment, then drank again. “I told him only a coward delivered a warning anonymously.”

She didn’t notice the glint of approval in Armand’s eyes as he sat watching her, or the hand Alexander laid on the back of her chair. His fingers stroked her hair, and though she didn’t feel it, she calmed.

“He only repeated that it was a warning and a promise.”

“What was the accent?” Reeve asked her. “American, European?”

As if to force the memory out, she pressed two fingers to her temple. “There wasn’t one, not a noticeable one. The voice was very flat and slow.”

“Did the call come through the switchboard?”

Eve used the snifter to warm her hands as she looked back at Reeve. “I don’t know.”

“We should be able to check that. If Eve’s been used once, she may be again. I’d like to tap that phone and put a guard on her.”

“I don’t need a guard.” She set the brandy aside with a natural arrogance that had Armand measuring her again. “No one’s threatened me. Your Highness, it’s you I’m worried about. You and your family. I want to help.”