Danielle Steel - H.R.H.

They were out for well over two hours, and Max was still driving diligently, as Christianna looked intently at the side of the road. And then suddenly Max stopped. Something had caught his eye. He said nothing to Christianna, so as not to worry her unduly. He got out, ran through the rain, and then stopped. There she was, lying by the side of the road, like a rag doll, naked, her hair matted, her face half in the mud, her eyes wide. Christianna ran up behind him and saw her, and was horrified by what she saw. Fiona had obviously been raped and murdered, stabbed dozens of times. It was the most horrifying thing Christianna had ever seen. Max pushed her gently away, and told her to go back to the car.

“No!” she screamed at him. “No!” She crouched in the mud beside her friend, took her own coat off and covered her, and gently lifted her face out of the mud and cradled her head, as she herself was soaked by the rain. Christianna was nearly lying in the mud, holding her, sobbing and screaming, while Max tried to pull her away and couldn't. A few minutes later the school bus drove by and he flagged them down. Everyone ran out and saw what had happened. Klaus and Ernst gently helped Max pull Christianna away. They radioed to the others, and someone brought a tarp. Christianna was led away, sobbing, and they gently wrapped Fiona, put her in the bus, and drove back to camp.

The rest of the day was a blur for everyone. The authorities were at the camp all day. They combed the area, but no one had seen anything or anyone. No one knew anything, and the local authorities insisted it had been done by marauding Ethiopians, which seemed unlikely to everyone in the camp. It was obviously some local madman who had gone undiscovered. It was the first violence they had ever experienced in the camp. Geoff went to the post office in Senafe to notify the family by phone himself. They were devastated, predictably. And even though Christianna begged them not to, Max and Sam went to the post office with Geoff to call her father.

His response was exactly what they had expected. “Bring her back. Now. Tomorrow. Today. Get her out.” They came back and told Christianna, but she was in no condition to leave, she was devastated by the death of her friend, and the agonizing way she had died. Conditions being what they were in Africa, Fiona's family had reluctantly agreed to have her buried there. They were still in shock, but it would have been complicated and expensive to bring her home. And she had loved Africa so much. It seemed right and fitting to bury her there.

Christianna wanted to talk to Parker, but she was too distraught to go to the post office with Sam and Max, and she didn't want to talk to her father. She didn't care what he said. She wasn't going home, at least until they buried Fiona. The scene around her was suddenly a jumble and a blur. Everything had gone so wrong, and now suddenly they were all afraid.

They buried Fiona the next day, with the entire camp still in shock. Word spread in the surrounding areas. There was a sense of outrage and horror among the locals, as well as among the workers in the camp. After her brief funeral service and burial, the residents of the camp huddled in the dining tent, crying and looking grim. There was no sense of an Irish wake, which she would have liked. Instead, there were crying, angry, frightened people, unable to believe that they had lost their beloved friend. Christianna and Mary hugged, sobbing. Ushi was inconsolable. Geoff and Maggie were shaken beyond words. It was a terrible time at the camp. And then suddenly the roof caved in.

Two days after they buried Fiona, there was another border skirmish, and within three days Ethiopia and Eritrea were once more at war. This time there was no conversation. Sam and Max did not go to the post office to call her father or discuss it with Christianna. Sam packed her bag, and Max waited outside while she dressed. There was no choice. They were going to carry her out if they had to. She insisted she didn't want to leave her friends. She had come to love this place and the people in it. Everyone gathered around her, and they all cried when she left. Geoff was in full agreement with Sam and Max. The others were all going to have to make their own decisions as to whether they stayed or left. But Geoff told Christianna himself that she had to leave. She had served them well, given richly of herself, and they all loved her for it. But as much as Sam and Max and her father did, he wanted her out. This was not her job, it was a piece of her heart and soul she had given, and he did not now want it to cost her her life. The other workers accepted the risk as part of their mission. Christianna's mission was very different. The time she had spent with them in Africa was a gift to them and for herself.

They all said tearful goodbyes, she made a last tour of the patients in the AIDS clinic to say goodbye to them, and Geoff drove them to Asmara. Once there, they stood in the pouring rain, and she clung to Geoff like a crying child. So much had happened, and she was so frightened for all of them. She felt like a traitor leaving them now. UN and African Union troops had been arriving in the area for days.

“You have to leave, Your Highness,” he said as though to remind her of who she was. “Your father would never forgive us if something happened.” She had been there for nine months, and she still wasn't ready to go home, and knew she never would be. Her heart was here, and a piece of her life she would never forget.

“What about the rest of you?” she asked as the plane landed.

“We'll see what happens in the next few days. It's too soon to say. We'll see what they decide in Geneva, and what the others want to do. But it's definitely time for you to go home.” In the end, this was their home and not hers. She hugged him tightly before she left, and thanked him for the happiest months of her life. He thanked her for all she'd done and all she'd given. He told her she was an extraordinary young woman and wished her well. He knew none of them would forget her, or her loving, selfless grace.

And then she, Max, and Sam got on the plane. She saw Geoff watching them as she looked out the window. He waved, and then ran back to the bus. Moments later, the plane took off for the endless flight back to Frankfurt, and then the short hop to Zurich, and finally home.

She sat staring into space for a long time on the flight, thinking of Fiona, and Parker, Laure before that, Ushi and all the children they had taught, Mary and all the women and children in the AIDS ward. She had left behind so many people that she had come to love. And poor Fiona left with her, forever in her heart. For once, she said absolutely nothing to Sam and Max. She sat on one side of the aisle, and they sat on the other. This time they had done their job. They would have carried her out, if they had to. With a war starting, there was no question in their minds, or her father's, where she belonged. Even Christianna didn't fight them this time. She knew she had no choice.

She slept most of the way to Frankfurt, and then looked out the window in silence. She was thinking of Fiona … then Parker … she called him in Boston the moment she got off the flight in Frankfurt, and told him everything that had happened, to Fiona, the border skirmishes, and the beginning of another war. He was stunned, as she sobbed.

“My God, Cricky, are you all right?” He couldn't believe what she'd told him about Fiona. She had described how they found her, and as she told him she cried all over again. She sounded completely overwrought.

“I love you,” she said over and over again, unable to stop crying. “I love you so much.” She hadn't seen him in nearly two months. It felt like centuries after everything that had happened.

“Cricky, I love you, too. I want you to go home and calm down. Rest. And as soon as you can get away, I'll meet you in Paris.”