‘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 e
xciting 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
T HREE 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 tha
t 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.’
The Prince’s Captive Wife Page 9
