Kitabı oku: «The Royal House Of Karedes Collection Books 1-12», sayfa 26

Soufflés. Maybe soufflés were as good a reason as any to agree to a marriage she thought of as mad.

Was she mad? Probably, she thought. She felt as she had when, as a little girl, her father had taken her to a huge swimming pool in Perth. When he wasn’t looking she’d climbed the diving tower, right to the top. Before she’d known it she’d been at the edge of the diving platform, and older, competent divers had been queuing up behind her waiting for her to dive.

‘Are you going to dive or not?’ a kid had asked scornfully and she’d looked down at the water way below her in horror—and she’d jumped.

And that was what she did now. Crazy or not, she believed what Andreas was telling her. And if she believed him… there didn’t seem to be a choice.

‘For the sake of the soufflé, then,’ she said, forcing her voice to be calm, steady, all the things that she absolutely wasn’t. ‘For no other reason in the world, other than one small pup and a soufflé. Yes, Your Highness, I agree to marry you.’

What did she do after she’d just agreed to marry a prince? She ate soufflé, of course, a feather-light confection of cheeses that melted in her mouth and felt as insubstantial as the night.

Everything felt insubstantial. She felt as if she were floating in some weird bubble. Any minute it’d burst and she’d be catapulted back to her lonely life; the realities of coping with Munwannay by herself.

It’d happen. But it’d happen with enough money for her to make her property viable.

She was trying to stay distant from the man seated at the other side of the table. She’d agreed to marry him, but it was a bargain. A means to the end for both of them.

She’d need to buy in cattle, she thought. Good cattle, the kind she’d always dreamed she could run at stud. She could rebuild the garden. She could get the dry rot out of the floorboards. Maybe she could also think about doing what she’d always wanted—taking in select holidaymakers who wanted a real cattle experience in the outback.

It’d mean it wouldn’t be so lonely.

She hadn’t set Deefer down. The pup had had a very long day and was more than content to lie draped over her knee while she ate her soufflé and the rest of the magnificent dinner Sophia put before her.

And all the time Andreas watched her, his eyes dark and fathomless.

‘This is what you want?’ Andreas said at last as Sophia poured coffee and left them.

‘Do I have a choice?’ she asked, surprised.

‘I can’t coerce you,’ he said. ‘You know that. But I believe it’s a fair bargain.’

‘It is.’ And of course she wanted it. Munwannay was where Adam lay. To be given the ability to stay there, for always…

‘The divorce won’t be possible until after my brother is crowned,’ Andreas reminded her, and that hauled her thoughts away from one tiny grave and back to the man across the table from her. ‘It seems presumptuous to talk about divorce before we’re actually married,’ he said. ‘But I believe it’s better that we have a plan.’

Plans sounded good. What was in her head now was an enormous knot of confusion. If he could somehow unravel it into bits she could understand then she might be able to cope.

‘Tell me where we go from here,’ she asked, and the little dog on her lap looked up at her as if in concern. She hugged him tight—a warm, familiar certainty in the face of internal chaos.

‘We need a royal wedding,’ he said. ‘Not a huge affair—we’ll leave the pomp and pageant for Sebastian, but the people will react well to a proper wedding.’

‘I can hardly wear white,’ she said and his brow snapped down.

‘Of course you can wear white. It’s not as if you’ve carried some other man’s child.’ It was said strongly, angrily—even possessively—and Holly flinched.

‘No,’ she murmured. ‘Only yours.’

‘So it means you can be a true bride if you wish,’ he said. ‘And maybe it’d be for the best if you are. There’s rumours sweeping the country that I seduced you and I abandoned you. That your child died through poverty and neglect. I know,’ he said as her eyes widened in shock. ‘We’ll set the story straight. But your isolation has meant that people will feel sorry for you, and maybe we have to play to that. The fact that you’ve had no other man—as far as we know—makes it possible for the people of my country to believe that you can be a truly worthy bride.’

‘Oh, very good,’ she managed. Only it wasn’t. Here were the echoes of an anger that had been put aside for a little. ‘So if I’d, say, had another boyfriend or six in the interim it would have been much…’

‘Better,’ he finished brusquely. ‘If my people believed you were a trollop, then I might not have to marry you.’

‘You don’t have to marry me.’

‘I do have to marry you,’ he snapped. ‘I have as little choice as you.’

Her coffee suddenly tasted like mud. She set the cup down on the delicately etched china saucer and pushed it away from her.

‘So we have two people forced into a royal marriage of convenience.’

‘That sums it up.’ He sighed and looked across the table at her. ‘Don’t look like that. You were starting to look… better. More cheerful. Like there was an advantage to this somewhere.’

‘There is,’ she said and hugged her dog. ‘Deefer and my farm. I’ll need to figure the quarantine regulations for getting him back into Australia.’

‘The breeder gave me the details but let’s not apply for that just yet,’ he said. ‘Let’s get married first.’

‘So… when?’

‘Three days.’

Her eyes flew to his, shocked. ‘Three days?’

‘Back on the mainland. I’ll introduce you to my family and we wed that afternoon.’

‘You must really be scared.’

‘My brother thinks he’s about to lose the crown,’ Andreas said. ‘Yes, he’s scared. But so is half the country. We will not be swallowed by Calista.’

‘And I’m the pawn…’

‘We’re both pawns.’

She ignored him. Or she was trying to ignore him.

‘Why?’ she said at last. ‘Is there anything you’re not telling me?’

He shook his head and she thought suddenly he looked dead tired. He’d been up all night trying to sort her a dog, a deal, a future? And flying back and forth collecting Deefer. She had a sudden urgent desire to go round the table and run her fingers through his dark hair. Hold his face against her breast as once she’d done, oh, so long ago.

It wouldn’t work. They were adults now, with adult responsibilities. And surely she had an adult’s mistrust of showing her heart on her sleeve.

‘So… so how bad was your divorce?’ she asked suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, but in fact it was something she really wanted to know.

Sophia had told her the country was up in arms about Andreas’s immoral behaviour, but she’d also said, ‘But don’t believe a word of it. Christina lied about Andreas from day one. She has powerful friends, that one, and she knows how to manipulate the press. Prince Andreas has been made to be the villain and he’s too much of a gentleman to put them right.’

Holly looked across the table into Andreas’s eyes and she saw the confirmation of what Sophia had told her. The country might be accusing the royal family of being immoral but she’d never believe it of Andreas. He might be a prince—he might be so far from her world that she could barely touch him—but she believed in his honour.

Today he’d worked on her behalf; he’d given her something he believed she truly wanted. So now…

She had a choice. She could go forth, kicking and screaming into the future, bewailing it wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair. Or she could start playing the part. She could even have… fun?

‘I wouldn’t mind being a bride,’ she said cautiously, and she saw shock register.

‘You wouldn’t mind…’

She lifted an after-dinner mint from the middle of the table and bit into its creamy centre. There might well be advantages to royalty. One of them might be the seriously good chocolate. But… ‘I won’t wear a bustle,’ she told him. ‘No bows, either. But if there’s a crown or a tiara or something, I don’t mind a bit of bling.’

‘Bling…’

‘Diamonds are good,’ she said, striving for insouciance.

‘You can hardly wear the Aristo crown,’ he said dryly. ‘It might be gorgeous but there is the little fact that the diamond in the middle is paste.’

‘Then I won’t wear it,’ she decreed. ‘No paste for this princess. I want fabulous.’

‘Fabulous.’

‘Yes, fabulous. If we’re stuck in a royal marriage, then why don’t we give the whole country their money’s worth?’

‘You mean it?’

‘I mean it.’ She focused on her mint, trying to sound airy. ‘I mean, if we both go into it pretending we hate the idea… what sort of impression does that give? That we’re both wimps?’

‘No one could ever say you’re a wimp.’

‘Nor you,’ she said and eyed him with distinct approval. ‘Not in that outfit. Golly, Andreas, who does your tailoring?’

‘How would I know?’ He rose and moved around the table so he was standing beside her, looking down at her with his hooded, enigmatic eyes.

‘That’s right,’ she said, trying not to sound self-conscious. Trying not to sound as if he was standing too close and she was too aware of it. ‘I forgot. You have a whole retinue of tailors.’

‘Who’ll move heaven and earth to sew you a wedding dress in time.’

‘That’ll be nice,’ she said and smiled up at him and that was a mistake. Big mistake. For he was smiling back at her, with that devastating smile she’d fallen in love with ten years ago and had never fallen out of love with.

Deefer was on her knee. It was Deefer who saved her, for Andreas put his hands under her arms and would have tugged her up, only of course if he had then Deefer would have been caught under the table edge. The little dog forced Holly to plump back down again. She pushed the chair sideways and got to her feet herself, holding her dog like a shield.

‘I need to go back to the mainland tonight,’ Andreas said and she must have looked as she felt, for he took a step towards her. She took a very fast step back.

‘I… why?’

‘Because we’re getting married in three days,’ he said, as if that explained all.

‘So you have to… what, send out invitations?’ She was so far at sea she was drowning but she didn’t know how to pull herself out.

‘I guess I do,’ he agreed, managing a smile, but his eyes didn’t leave hers. There were messages zinging back and forth that she had no hope of interpreting.

‘Is there anyone you’d like to invite?’

‘How many people do I know here?’

‘We could charter a jet from Australia. Do you want your mother to come?’

‘She comes and the wedding’s off,’ she snapped before she could think about it, and he grimaced.

‘Right. I remember your mother.’

‘I try and forget her. We haven’t spoken for years.’

He was still watching her with that rigid constraint. He was holding himself back, she thought, and she couldn’t figure out why. And… holding himself back from what?

‘Is there really no one you’d like to ask?’

‘I’m on my own, Andreas. Apart from Deefer, that is.’

‘When we’re married you’ll have the full royal family behind you.’

‘Until I don’t. This is a mock marriage,’ she said sharply.

‘No. It’s a real marriage.’

‘Until you figure out the politics. You don’t want a wife, Andreas, and I want to be home.’

‘I guess that’s right.’

This formality was crazy. It was as if they were stepping on eggshells.

‘So when will I see you again?’

‘Georgiou will fetch you on the morning of the wedding. He’ll take you straight to the palace. We’ll be married in our private chapel, with just the people we absolutely have to have there.’

‘Like your mother?’

‘Like my mother, the queen. And my brother.’

‘Who’s going to be king.’

‘That’s right.’

‘I think I feel sick,’ she said. ‘What on earth will they think of me?’

‘They’ll be grateful.’

‘Yeah, right,’ she said. ‘Andreas, they’re royal.’

‘So am I, yet it didn’t prevent us…’

He stopped. She stared up at him, trying to read what was going on behind that enigmatic expression. Nothing. Whatever he’d been about to say was to be left unsaid.

‘I guess we’re a man and a woman when it’s all boiled down,’ she whispered at last. ‘I guess the fact that you’re a prince is no big deal.’

‘As you say.’

She summoned a smile. ‘I don’t have to promise to obey, do I?’

‘I… no, if you don’t want to.’

‘You’re going to make me sign a pre-nup?’

‘I suspect… the lawyers will want…’

‘I suspect the lawyers will want, too,’ she said and then hesitated. ‘Tell you what. Get me a lawyer, too.’

‘Pardon?’

‘It’s all on your terms,’ she said, trying to sound as if she knew what she was talking about. ‘I mean, you’ve given me Deefer and you’ve given me promises but I just have your word.’

‘You can take my word.’ He sounded offended and she shrugged.

‘Of course, but I’m a tadpole in an ocean here. You’re talking contracts? So should I… I want an Australian lawyer to go over anything you want me to sign.’

‘Where am I going to find an Australian lawyer?’

‘I don’t know. You found me a collie dog. You’re good at finding stuff.’

‘Holly…’

‘You think I’m stretching the friendship?’

‘I don’t think you’re stretching anything. But you can trust me.’

‘Yes, but I’m still going to be on my own,’ she said, deadly serious now. When she looked up into his eyes she forgot stuff—she didn’t make sense even to herself. But it was true; she was a tadpole in the vast sea of royalty. This was her life. In a few weeks she’d be back in Australia and this would be a dream, and if Andreas’s promises didn’t come through…

‘You can trust me,’ he said again and she blinked and nodded.

‘I know. But I still want my own lawyer.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m scared,’ she snapped. ‘Because I’m just me and I’m about to put on a wedding dress and marry a prince and I reckon even Cinderella shook in her glass slippers when it came down to it.’

He smiled then. The hooded restraint slipped a little. Then, before she could guess what he intended, he stepped forward and lifted Deefer from her arms.

He set the little dog carefully on the ground. ‘Go sniff,’ he told the pup. ‘I have to talk to your mama for a minute.’

Then he straightened and took her hands in his.

It was such a fast, instinctive action that it was done before she could react. Before she could think about stepping back.

But she didn’t step back. Somehow this moment was too big for scruples. She’d just agreed to marry this man. In three days she’d stand beside him and say I do. She could scarcely shrink from him.

And it wasn’t as if she was scared of him. It was just… just…

‘I will not let you be hurt by this,’ Andreas said gently and her thoughts stopped operating as such. Something deep inside turned into this crazy sort of mush. She gazed up at him, saw his gentle smile and, yep, mush, mush, mush.

‘Andreas…’

‘I will keep my vow to you,’ he said. ‘Holly, I’ve hurt you enough. You marry me and I’ll set you free. I swear.’

And then, before she could respond, before she could even think of responding, he lowered his mouth onto hers.

It was a kiss to seal a contract. No more. No less. But it was no light kiss. It was harsh, demanding, possessive. It set a seal on what had been said this night. The pup might be a token of softness, even affection, but this was a business deal with the fate of the country at stake. His kiss said as much. It seared into her, a welding together of two halves of a whole.

Gainsay me at your peril, the kiss said, and it was so different from the kisses they’d shared in the past that it might as well have been a different man. It was a different man. This was Prince Andreas of Karedes, protecting his country with a marriage of convenience. Taking her as his wife.

The kiss lingered until there were no doubts left.

Tonight he’d shown tenderness. He’d not lie to her. But she would be his bride.

And she wouldn’t argue. Despite her fears, despite her qualms, she released herself in the kiss. She felt his hands grip her, tugging her hard against him, and she opened her lips and surrendered herself to him.

She might be his captive wife but she’d make no complaint. She’d struck her bargain. She’d go down this path as this man’s bride.

And maybe…

‘I have to go,’ he said regretfully at last, and he put her away from him.

But still she thought.

Maybe, she thought, as he bade her a curt goodnight and left to organize the next part of his long night—the plane ride back to the mainland—just maybe the next few weeks might be a sight more exciting than the last ten years, stuck grieving on an outback cattle station.

Just maybe…

No. There was no maybe. This was a short business deal and then she’d be sent back to her life.

She’d go back to her life, she corrected herself as Andreas disappeared into the night and she turned to go back to her luxurious apartments. Alone.

For she did want to go back to Munwannay. Only… not just yet.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THREE days later.

It all seemed a bit rushed to Holly—a bit crazy—but the plan was that she leave the island for the mainland, she go straight to the palace and wed before the day was out.

She hadn’t seen Andreas. There’d been one curt phone call. ‘It’s organized,’ he had told her. ‘Or it will be organized. There’ll be a meeting with your lawyers and ours. You’ll need to sign the contracts. Sophia has taken your measurements. All you need to do is come.’

‘Um… my lawyers?’

‘I’ve employed the best for you,’ he said, and there was a tinge of grim humour in his voice. ‘And, believe me, they’re good. They’re screwing us down on detail like you wouldn’t believe.’

‘I don’t think I need…’

‘You don’t know what you need,’ he told her curtly. ‘Neither do I. We’re doing what has to be done but I’m putting as many safeguards in place as I can think of. How’s Deefer?’

‘I… he’s great.’ Deefer was her one sure thing—a fluff ball, alert and intelligent and raring to bond with her. If she hadn’t had Deefer she would have gone nuts. To sit on the beach and think of nothing but her impending wedding…

‘Don’t let that nose get any redder, will you, my love?’ Andreas said softly, moving on. ‘It’ll clash with the pink roses my mother plans to decorate the chapel with.’

And he was gone, leaving her to wait. And wait and wait and wait. And go quietly nuts.

But the wedding day did happen. Sophia entered her room at dawn, pushed the drapes wide and beamed.

‘Happy is the bride who the sun shines on.’

‘You must have a whole country of happy brides,’ Holly said, feeling really wobbly and sounding grumpy. ‘This country’s too sunny by half.’

‘So smile,’ Sophia said. ‘Your wedding day…’

‘It’s not a true wedding.’

‘Is it not?’

‘You know it’s not,’ she said crossly. ‘I’m his captive wife.’

‘Ah, but his non-captive wife…’ Sophia said softly. ‘Christina… now there was a disaster. If that was the best the royal family could come up with then maybe his captive wife is who he should have had in the first place.’ Her smile faded and she crossed to the bed and looked down at Holly—and at Deefer whose small black nose just happened to be sticking out from under the duvet. ‘I’m thinking my Andreas found his bride ten years ago—he just never knew he had her.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she whispered, feeling more terrified by the minute. ‘You know this is just convenience. You know he doesn’t want a bride.’

‘I know you have a chance,’ Sophia said and put her hand on Holly’s cheek in a fleeting gesture of blessing. ‘I know my Andreas has been raised as a prince, to know what is due to him. But I also know that he has a heart and that heart has needs. Don’t you fail to take your chance for lack of courage. Now…’ Her smile softened but Holly saw lists line up in triplicate. ‘Shower. And then… I’ve laid out what you’re to wear on the helicopter. You’ll be photographed briefly in transit to the palace as you’ll be photographed from every angle today.’ She peered down at Holly’s nose and she sighed. ‘You’re still peeling. What royal bride peels? Holly, Holly, Holly, what is Andreas to do with you?’

‘Marry me?’ Holly whispered in a tiny voice.

‘Well, of course,’ Sophia said as if that was a dumb response. ‘But then what?’

And then the day started. It was okay back on the island—there were only Sophia and Nikos to see her off, Sophia sniffing into her handkerchief and Nikos just sniffing.

She sniffed herself. She sat in the back of the helicopter and hugged Deefer and decidedly sniffed. Georgiou was her pilot but she was damned if she was talking to him. She was dressed to kill in a slick little crimson suit with stiletto heels—Sophia had decreed nothing in the lavish wardrobe suitable for her first introduction to the country and had ordered Georgiou to bring this to her.

She looked as good as she could do—apart from one peeling nose.

She should have left Deefer behind. ‘I’ll mind him,’ Sophia had promised. ‘And Andreas can have him flown over after the wedding.’ But he was coming with her. Her one true thing.

Not her husband?

Andreas was waiting for her. The royal family was waiting for her. The whole damned country was waiting for her.

She hugged Deefer and she stared out the window at Andreas’s lovely island hideaway growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

And then she saw the mainland growing larger.

‘Would you like a drink before you land? There’s some in the cabinet by your side,’ Georgiou said diffidently through the headset and she flashed him a look of hatred.

‘I’d rather choke than accept a drink from you, you kidnapping toe rag.’

‘I was only following orders.’

‘Right. Well, my orders to you are to keep as far away from me as possible.’

‘I believe I can’t do that. I’m allocated as your personal bodyguard.’

‘Oh, my God,’ she said with loathing.

‘So you’ll just have to get used to me,’ he said. ‘Now, drink?’

‘I’m tempted,’ she muttered. ‘Very tempted. Is Andreas meeting the plane?’

‘He won’t see you until the wedding,’ Georgiou said, shocked. ‘It’s unlucky.’

‘So he’s not meeting the plane.’

‘I believe the entire royal family is meeting the plane,’ Georgiou said. ‘Except Andreas.’

‘Oh, goody,’ she whispered. And reconsidered. ‘Georgiou?’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘I will have a drink,’ she said in a small voice. ‘A very small one. But, Georgiou?’

‘Yes?’

‘Also a very strong one.’

They were there. Lined up like in a Christmas pageant. On the tarmac with a red carpet rolled out so their precious royal feet wouldn’t have to touch anything so plebian as concrete.

She recognized them from photographs. Sebastian, Crown Prince, as handsome as his brother, looking stern, autocratic, determined. Queen Tia, elegant, composed, but with the trace of trouble behind her elderly eyes. And grief, Holly wondered. She smiled now for the cameras but her glance kept wandering to her eldest son. She’d gone through the death of her husband, the realization that he’d betrayed her, and that he’d sold or given away the diamond that held the country together. All these things Holly knew, but the face Tia presented for public consumption was almost serene. She’d been schooled for public life.

Who else? Alex, the prince who’d given Andreas his outrageous wardrobe, wouldn’t be here. He was on his honeymoon, Sophia had told her. That was part of the problem for Andreas—with so much to do and the search for the diamond taking so much time the royals were overwhelmed by work.

Andreas’s two sisters were there. The brat pack, Sophia labelled them. Kitty and Lissa. ‘They love nothing better than shocking the press,’ Sophia had said, but these two beautiful women were watching Holly approach and Holly thought judging her seemed pretty high on their priority list right now.

‘They’re waiting for you,’ Georgiou said.

‘I want… Andreas.’ She sounded like a pathetic child but she couldn’t help it.

‘He’ll be waiting for you in the chapel.’

Right.

She gulped and held Deefer tighter. And walked forward to meet her future.

And after that the cameras took over. There were flashlights, flashlights and flashlights, so many that when she thought back to that day all she could remember was a blur of white light. There was a brief hiatus when she was ushered into the presence of lawyers—serious men and women who counselled her with care, who tried to make sure she understood the terms of the contract she was entering into. She tried. She really tried.

‘No further call on the crown. After divorce and settlement no further obligation on the part of the Prince Andreas to support you, financially or in any other way.’

That stood out like a sore thumb. Yes, she understood this. The wedding was something she’d agreed to do and then she’d get on with her life.

She felt in a daze. It was as if that one small drink Georgiou had offered her had anaesthetized her.

She simply had to sign. She simply had to trust.

And after the signing someone took Deefer away. She knew it had to happen. ‘He’ll be well looked after, miss. We’ll keep him safe in the kitchens until the fuss is over but he can’t stay with you during the wedding.’ The girl said it like a joke as she lifted Deefer from Holly’s arms and Holly thought, No one’s staying with me at the wedding. No one.

It was time to dress. Lace. Chiffon. Gold filigree. Hoops and flounces.

No bustles. No bows. Not that she was noticing. She felt like a puppet, pulled around at will, dressed at will. There were women everywhere, fussing about her clothes, even down to the exquisite underwear they produced with the dress. Manicurists. Make-up artists. Hair consultants. All plural. One finger each, she wanted to say to the manicurists, but she was beyond joking.

She felt like a slave in a harem. Being primped and painted for the royal master.

And then it was time. The doors swung open and liveried footmen stood ready to escort her to the chapel.

‘Holly?’

She looked past the footmen. There was Tia Karedes, Queen of Aristo. Dressed exquisitely in silver brocade, looking a million dollars.

‘You look lovely, my dear,’ Tia said softly. ‘But I wondered… would you like Sebastian to give you away?’

‘Sebastian?’

‘By rights he should stand by Andreas,’ Tia said diffidently. ‘But seeing that Sebastian has ordered this marriage I’ve said to him that the very least he can do is give you an arm to lean on. If I’m right and you need one.’

Did she need one? She was standing in the centre of the room, surrounded by servants, a vision of what a royal bride looked like. She felt so far out of her skin she might well be in outer space.

Tia was offering her the Crown Prince’s arm to support her as she went to this mock marriage.

Any arm at all, she thought blindly. So much for going into this all guns blazing. Her courage was somewhere below her elegantly shod toes.

‘Yes, please,’ she whispered. ‘And thank you for offering. I suspect I need any arm I can get.’

He hadn’t seen her for three days and he’d forgotten… or maybe he’d never known… that she could look like this.

Of course he’d never known she could look like this. A royal bride.

She was an ethereal vision, a confection of antique lace and satin. Her dress was superbly crafted to show the full swell of her breasts. Antique lace clung to each lovely curve. No bustles, he thought with approval as he watched her enter the chapel. No bows. He’d stipulated that, and the royal seamstresses had taken him at his word, but beyond that they’d indulged in every last fantasy to create a truly royal bride.

She was every inch a bride, every inch of her arranged as it should be, so she stood like Cinderella making her entrance to the ball. She was beautiful enough to take a man’s breath away. She was beautiful enough to entrance a prince…

His brother was surely entranced. The king-in-waiting stood by her side, waiting for the music to cue their slow steps along the aisle. Sebastian was in full regimentals, black and gold and crimson. This ceremony was designed to show the country that the royal family was not ashamed of this connection. This was a righting of past wrongs but it was being done with all the pomp and splendour they could muster.

Sebastian had been looking down at the girl on his arm as the chapel doors swung open, but now his gaze turned to his brother standing at the end of the aisle. What have we here? his gaze said. What am I doing, bringing beauty to you?

It was as much as Andreas could do not to walk forward and punch his lights out. That his brother touch her…

Yet this was his brother’s attempt to do the right thing. What was wrong with him that he object?

It was just… He didn’t want Holly to have anything to do with Sebastian. He didn’t want Holly to have anything to do with the royal family.

She was wearing one of the family tiaras. His mother must have lent it to her. He flashed a glance at Tia and saw his mother’s warm glance of approval.

They’d approved when he’d married Christina. If he’d brought Holly home when he should have brought her home.

This was out of kilter. Time out of frame.

Holly looked scared to death.

The background music faded. The royal trumpeter sounded forth, a single high call. The traditional bridal march for a royal.

The congregation stood. The royal household. Political dignitaries. All those who’d been deemed essential to be here.

Sebastian’s hand pressed Holly’s and she started the long walk towards him. Her face was parchment white, devoid of expression. It was almost as if Sebastian was pressuring her forward.

There was a murmur from those around them. His captive bride, being led to the slaughter.