Her father regards me like he would a piece of dirt before raising a finger and jutting it under my chin. ‘You are not to contact Princess Madeline again, is that clear.’
I nod.
He then turns to my parents and shakes his head with disappointment. ‘Your son is a disgrace to your family and to your country and I’m sure I need not clarify that our two families will not unite. Ever. Do you understand? It’s all over. History.’
He follows his family into the corridor and slams the door behind him. Although my family is all still in the room, my head and heart have left with Madeline. I don’t care what he says. I will see her again. I will marry her. Princess Madeline will be my wife. Even if I have to abdicate the throne to make her so.
Chapter Eight
Brice
‘You.’ I point to my brother, Magnus. ‘You did this.’
His eyes widen in mock surprise. ‘Don’t blame this one on me. I didn’t know where you were going last night. If only you’d told me it was to have a secret rendezvous with the delectable Princess Madeline. I’d have come along to watch the show.’
I blink rapidly. Racking my brains as to how he knows about last night. I’ve assumed they missed us from the engagement celebrations. Nobody knows about last night. Just Madeline and I.
My father sighs impatiently at my oblivion and takes two powerful strides towards me. At first, I think he’s about to wrap the rolled up envelope in his hand around my ear then he pushes the paper into my chest. ‘While you were busy sullying that poor girl’s reputation this came to light.’
I study the envelope, no postage which must mean it’s hand-delivered, interesting. I pull out the contents and find a letter from a well-known gossip newspaper who revel in dragging down the reputation of good standing characters with only a mere hint of scandal. My world shrinks around my ears. Unfortunately, in this instance, they have more than a hint. They have a handful of witnesses who have provided statements that they saw me laying into an innocent man in a bar. The same people also say that I was with a girl who I dragged outside to do unspeakable things with. The letter is accompanied by a CCTV image of Madeline on her knees before me. Unfortunately, the media have also been able to name the girl as Princess Madeline Lottisham of Blundell.
Magnus laughs. ‘Even I have never been stupid enough to get caught on camera. And with a princess no less.’
I glare at my brother but have no retort. He’s correct. The man may be a complete cad but at least he’s never had discriminatory CCTV images delivered to the palace humiliating everybody involved or vaguely involved. I look back at the paper in my trembling hands. The image. It’s so clear for all to see. Poor, poor Madeline.
‘You look pale, Son.’ Father sneers. ‘Tell me, how do you plan on rectifying this? Because it cannot go to print. You’ll be a laughingstock. Princess Madeline’s name will be mud. Neither country will ever let you live it down nor will you ever be King.’
I snap my face to his. ‘But what if I don’t want to be king?’ I say. The thought has crossed my mind so many times but never have I ever verbalised it. ‘What if I feel suffocated by the idea? What if the only person in the entire world who makes me feel like the person I’m supposed to be is Madeline? I want her as my wife. Only her. And this going to print,’ I shake the envelope furiously in the air and laugh. ‘Could be the best thing to have ever happened to us.’ My laugh morphs into something else. Relief. That’s it. I’m laughing in utter satisfaction that my problems have all been solved. Solved by a spot of exhibitionism provided by the most exquisite woman to ever walk the earth.
‘Don’t be a fool, Son.’ Mother’s pacing the floor and fanning her face. ‘You can’t marry Madeline now, especially after this. What kind of girl does that,’ she jabs a finger towards the image in my hand. ‘And this,’ she waves her arms in the air and screws up her face as though she’s landed in a brothel. ‘Visit you in your private quarters and give herself over to you so willingly. How many others have there been? Hmmm? Have you asked yourself that? How many other men has she lain with?’
I shake my head at my mother’s accusations. ‘Not that it’s any of your business anymore but none, Mother. Only me. And she will only ever lay with me because I’m going to her. Right now. Before her family can destroy her confidence. I will chase after her and we will go a long way away.’ I shrug into a jacket and grab the keys to my Ducati. ‘Hand the kingdom to Magnus. Lord knows he could do with a spot of responsibility to make him grow up.’
My insides glow with satisfaction when Magnus realises I’m deadly serious. Let him see what it’s like to live such a restrictive life. He thinks it’s all rainbows and unicorns being next in line to the throne. Well, he’ll see. And as for me, I have a damsel in distress to save with little time to do so. I don’t even look back when I leave them all alone in what were once upon a time my private living quarters.
Madeline
The atmosphere in the car is abysmal. My family and I are sitting in the back of our chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and I’m absent mindedly gazing out of the window, watching the world. People everywhere. All going about their normal business. I tasted that life once. Unfortunately, it was only to be once. They stop and stare as our convoy passes. One security car in front and one security car behind. I have a feeling that my security will be tighter than ever after today. I wonder what the onlookers think. I wonder if they’re jealous. If they want my life. If they do, they can have it. I’d give it to them in an instant. So long as I can have theirs. The only thing I really want to keep are the memories of Brice, his face between my legs, his cock in my mouth, in my sex, fucking me like a man possessed.
‘I just don’t understand what you were thinking,’ Mother bleats for the hundredth time. ‘Haven’t we given you everything a girl could want? And more? And this is how you repay us. You… you…’
‘Oh give up, Rosaline,’ Father snaps. ‘We’ve given her too much. The child is spoilt. But there’ll be no more. Now we must find her a husband who doesn’t mind a second-rate wife.’
I open my mouth to argue that I don’t want a husband, not if that husband isn’t Brice Henley, but close it again. It’s no use. The pair of them are beyond reasoning.
‘But Ronald, we’ll never find a suiter of a high enough standard now. She’s ruined. Ruined. I could murder him and his family for what they’ve done to us.’ My mother sobs into her embroidered handkerchief.
I return my attention to the outside world. It crosses my mind that I could run now. I could open the door and flee. But where would I go? What would I do? I’m trapped. Even more trapped than I was just twenty-four short hours ago. I fight back tears. I will not give them the satisfaction of seeing how hurt I am. How dreadfully lonely I am.
‘What is that?’ Father asks, he leans forward and frowns out of his window. ‘Driver. What is going on out there?’
I strain to see what it is he can see and am shocked to see a motorbike driving alongside our car. The rider is waving furiously for us to stop. Which of course we won’t do in a million years. He’s gesticulating wildly and as he does so the driver is on the radio to the cars either side of us trying to establish if they know what’s going on. I hear phrases like kidnap, terrorists, and security threat being tossed about and my heart beats wildly. The crazed rider is still trying to wave us down but I can’t hear a thing through the thick security glass. Then he raises his visor and every muscle in my body comes alive. It’s Brice. Brice is riding his motorbike alongside our vehicle trying to encourage it to stop. He came after me. He accelerates out of view and the next thing I know our Rolls is screeching to a stop in the middle of the road and our security team are spilling into the street, bearing their arms. What’s Brice doing? He must know these men are trained to kill. He will die. I can’t let him do that. Not for me. It takes only a millisecond to decide that I’m going out there to protect him.
‘What are you playing at?’ Mother shrieks when I wrap my fingers around the d
oor handle. ‘You can’t go out there you stupid girl.’
I glare at her. The woman who says she’s done so much for me, but has done nothing more than train me to be subservient. Just like her. ‘I’m going to rescue my fiancé from your brutish security team.’
‘You stay right where you are!’ My father roars.
He clutches at my clothes to stop me but is too late. I fling open the door and step outside into the madness. ‘Brice!’ I cry and fling myself into his arms. ‘Brice, what are you doing? We train these men to kill and they will.’
He removes his helmet and kisses me wildly on the lips. Out here in the street. With a hundred witnesses and more gathering by the second. I melt into him and our mouths take on a life of their own. Our teeth clash and our tongues dance around one another’s as though the entire thing is choreographed.
My father hollers, ‘Madeline Faustine Lottisham. If you do not stop making a spectacle of yourself and get back in the car this instant, you will be stripped of your title and banished from the family.’
His threats are music to my ears. A dream come true. I ignore him but it is Brice who breaks our kiss.
He smirks down at me. His eyes are a melting pot of amusement and lust. ‘Faustine?’
‘I’m standing in the street with erect nipples and a throbbing vagina and you think my father blurting my middle name is the most humiliating thing happening right now?’
‘Madeline!’ Father shouts again. ‘I will not tell you twice. Get. Back. In. The. Car. Do not make me give the order to fire.’
The security team exchange concerned glances but don’t lower their weapons. It’s now or never. I turn to my father and see nothing but anger in his eyes. For a moment it stings. I’ve always been Daddy’s little girl. I’ve always done as he says and never, ever disappointed him. Until now.
‘I’m sorry, Daddy. But if I can’t be with Brice, I don’t want to be anywhere. Let your men shoot.’
He’s flabbergasted. And I don’t blame him. Not even I could have foreseen my strength. I can hear Mother crying inside the car, like her entire world is crashing down around her ears. Why can’t she find the courage to take charge? Defend me. Just once in her life.
‘I’m terribly sorry, Your Highness, but your daughter and I are in love.’ Brice says, placing himself between me and half a dozen loaded weapons. ‘And if you won’t let us be together, then you give us no choice other than to find another way. A long, long, long way away from here.’
My father is fuming. I can hear his breath from behind my human shield. His unblinking eyes are two angry volcanos threatening to erupt at any minute. Brice is solid as a rock. There’s not even a faint quiver in his solid body. They are two formidable bulls rearing up to fight. My heart is in the pit of my stomach and fear is turning me into a wreck. Every one of my nerve endings are on edge because this has the potential to go very, very wrong.
‘Fine.’ Father says. ‘If you want her and are willing to give everything up for her, then take her.’
I startle and my world tumbles from its axis. I’m barely able to process what I just heard. My father, a man totally unaccustomed to giving up anything in life, has relented with barely a fight. I expected carnage. War. I expected one or both of us to suffer the consequences of our actions, but it appears he’s made his mind up. I’m a free woman. Free to do whatever I want, wherever I want, and with whoever I want.
‘But I warn you now.’ He’s fixed his eyes firmly on mine. ‘If you leave with this man now, then you are never to return. There will be no more royal privileges for you. No more polo. No more use of royal homes or transportation. No more parties where you are the guest of honour. It’s all gone. Is that what you want, Madeline? To have nothing. To be nothing.’
Relief floods me and I exhale. Letting go of the breath which carried a lifetime of repression. I look up at Brice and he looks down at me. This is the moment I’ve dreamed of. Freedom. Being handed to me on a silver platter. I look back at my father. He’s raised his chin with the air of confidence only a man used to getting his own way does. He expects me to choose him. He thinks he has the upper hand. Well, he’s wrong. Very wrong.
I take a deep breath and raise my chin to mirror his arrogance. ‘Fine,’ I say, ‘I don’t even fucking like horses anyway.’
Brice laughs and hands me the spare helmet he’s brought along. ‘Your chariot awaits, Miss Lottisham.’
Miss Lottisham. The title has a beautiful ring to it which I could grow very accustomed to. I accept the helmet, my hands trembling with anticipation about what the rest of my life will look like. I place it on my head and hike my skirt up to my hips, not caring who gets to see my royal thighs, or rather formerly royal thighs because they no longer belong to Princess Madeline, they now belong to Miss Lottisham of nowhere and yet everywhere. Because the world is my oyster and I will experience it with the most remarkable man I have ever met.
Brice hoists his leg over the bike and I do the same, I straddle the leather saddle and place my hands around his taut middle.
‘Where to?’ He asks.
Where to? Now that’s a question and a half. Maybe we should start over again. Take things all the way back to the beginning. ‘I don’t know about you,’ I say. ‘But I could murder a Jack Black.’
He laughs, lowers his visor, and fires up his beast of a bike. ‘Well, I hear they mix the best Jack Black’s in Tennessee.’
‘Are you serious?’ I ask then whoop with glee, holding tight as he revs his engine and takes off like the wind.
A Message From Tiffany Squires
Oh my goodness!
I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed writing Madeline and Brice’s story and I really, truly hope that you enjoyed reading it too.
So, how do you think Prince Magnus will cope with being the next in line to the throne? Do you think he’ll be able to tame his wild ways and grow into a respectable heir? Or do you think it’ll take the love of a good woman to change him?
The good news is you don’t have long to wait because I’m working on his story as you read. If you loved Impulsive Prince join my readers group today and be the first to know when it is available for download.
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