Man...Mercenary...Monarch (Royally Wed)

by Joan Elliott Pickart

  The final moment of truth had come at The Rocking C that morning when King Phillip had smiled warmly at Jeremiah, then said he was going to the cabin to see his son.

  Queen Gabriella and King Phillip had exchanged a loving gaze, a brush of lips, then Phillip had squared his shoulders and left the house.

  She knew, just somehow knew, that John and King Phillip would reach an understanding that would bring peace and happiness to them both. The Wyndhams and the Coltons were all part of John’s family. They all loved him, whether he was John Colton or Prince James Wyndham of Wynborough.

  They created a close-knit, loving circle that en-compassed John and Jeremiah, leaving Laura on the outside looking in, her heart aching.

  She just couldn’t bear it any longer.

  She would return to Wynborough tomorrow, as there was a great deal to do to prepare for the anniversary celebration of King Phillip’s coronation.

  “I have to leave here,” Laura said aloud, struggling against threatening tears. “I have to. Now.”

  With the last ounce of energy she possessed, Laura got out of the car, trudged to the front door and entered the house.

  The living room was dark, except for a small golden glow cast for several feet from the embers of the ebbing fire in the hearth. Laura closed the door with a quiet click and started across the room.

  “Laura.”

  She gasped in shock at the sudden sound of her name and stopped in her tracks, her heart racing. A dark form rose from the sofa to stand with his back to the fire.

  “John?” she said.

  “Yes,” he said quietly. “I’ve been waiting for you to come home.”

  What lovely words, Laura thought. I’ve been waiting for you to come home. But this wasn’t her home, nor was John anticipating her arrival as her husband would in her rainbow wish.

  “Why?” Laura said, keeping her voice low so as not to disturb the sleeping household. “What’s wrong? Where’s Jeremiah?”

  “Betty is at the cabin with Jeremiah,” John said. “Could you come over here, please? I’d like to talk to you without waking everyone up.”

  Laura frowned, hesitated, then went around the sofa to stand in front of John. She looked up at him questioningly, able to see him clearly in the golden glow, but unable to decipher his expression.

  “Would you take off your coat and sit down?” he said. “Please?”

  “John, it’s late and I’m very tired. Couldn’t this keep until morning?”

  “No,” he said. “I’ve waited a lifetime and that’s long enough.”

  “Pardon me?”

  “Your coat?”

  Laura removed her coat and placed it over the arm of the sofa, setting her purse on top. She fought the urge to fling herself into John’s arms, then in the next moment wanted to run down the hall to the safety of her room.

  She sank onto the middle cushion of the sofa and stared into the hearth. John added another log to the fire, then turned to look at Laura.

  “Laura, I…” he started, then cleared his throat. “Hell, I’ve been sitting here for hours practicing what I was going to say to you, and I’ve forgotten every damn word.” He paused, frowning. “Would you at least look at me?”

  Laura clutched her hands tightly in her lap and shifted her gaze slowly to meet John’s. The fresh log caught fire and the leaping flames brightened the room.

  “I’m looking at you,” she said.

  “Right. You are. That’s good.” John cleared his throat again.

  John was nervous, Laura thought incredulously. He was jumpy, edgy, and speaking in short, clipped sentences. What on earth was wrong with him?

  “What on earth is wrong with you?” she said. “You’re acting like someone who had been summoned to the principal’s office or something. Could you sit down? I’m getting a crick in my neck from looking up at you.”

  “Oh, sure. You bet.” John sat next to her, then shifted so he could face her. “I…um…I guess you know that Phillip Wyndham came to see me at the cabin this morning.”

  Laura nodded as she looked directly at him.

  “Phillip is a hell of a fine man,” John said. “I respect and admire him more than I can begin to tell you. Meeting him, talking to him, was very moving, very…emotional, for both of us.”

  “Yes,” Laura said softly. “I’m sure it was.”

  “The thing is, Laura, that because of my conversation with Phillip, I have the answers I’ve been searching for so desperately. I am so grateful to him for showing me that I had those answers all along.”

  “I don’t understand,” Laura said, frowning.

  “I was beating myself up, because I believed I was living in a fantasy,” John went on. “I was picking what I wanted from the world of John Colton, and taking other things from the existence surrounding James Wyndham. Nice work if you can get it, I told myself, but not even close to reality.

  “Where was my real happiness going to be found? Who in the hell was I? How could I even presume to think I could make someone else happy, if I couldn’t get a grip on that emotion for myself? So many questions without answers. So damn many.”

  “But King Phillip showed you that you did have the answers?”

  John reached over and covered Laura’s entwined hands with one of his. He stretched his other arm across the top of the sofa and leaned toward her.

  Oh, John, don’t, Laura thought frantically. He was so close, so enticingly close. She could see the clear depths of his beautiful blue eyes, the late-hour stubble of beard on his rugged, handsome face. She could smell his aroma of fresh air, and wood smoke, and man.

  His hand resting on hers was so strong, yet so gentle, and was causing a heated path to flash up her arms, across her breasts, then swirl and pulse low in her body.

  John, don’t do this to me.

  “Laura,” he said, his voice raspy, “Phillip enabled me to realize that I can pick and choose from both of my worlds, just as I was doing. I have the luxury of doing that because I’ve been blessed with two loving families, both of whom will accept me as I am, no matter what decisions I make regarding my future.”

  “Yes, I see,” Laura said, nodding. “That makes sense. It’s wonderful…for both you and Jeremiah.”

  “Hear me out, okay?”

  “Yes.”

  John took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

  “I’m going to take Jeremiah to Wynborough to raise him there. I’m going to do that as John Colton, Laura. I’m not going to be Prince James Wyndham. That’s not who I am, not after all these years. I’m also going to have Jeremiah’s birth certificate changed and his name will be Jeremiah Wyndham Colton.”

  “Well, that’s…nice,” Laura said, tears brimming her eyes. “You certainly have found all the answers you were seeking, haven’t you? Yes, you have. I’m…I’m happy for you, John, I truly am. So! You’re all set. Isn’t that something? I’m very tired and I’m off to bed. Thank you for sharing your lovely news with me and—”

  John cut off Laura’s tear-filled babble by sliding his hand from the back of the sofa to the nape of her neck and capturing her lips with his.

  Laura’s eyes widened in shock, then in the next breathless moment her lashes drifted down as she savored the taste of John and the heated passion that suffused her.

  John broke the kiss. Laura blinked and drew a trembling breath.

  “There’s just one more thing,” John said, close to her lips. “At long last I know what I need to be truly at peace, truly happy. I’m free to live and free…to love.” He gazed into her eyes for a long moment. “Oh, Laura, I love you so much.”

  “What?” she whispered.

  “I love you, Laura Bishop, with every breath in my body. We can have it all, we can, if you’ll agree to be my wife, my partner in life, my soul mate until death parts us. Will you marry me? Live with me on the island of Wynborough as Laura Bishop Colton, help me raise our son, Jeremiah Wyndham Colton, and have a bunch more Colton babies with me?”


  Emotions closed John’s throat for a moment and he paused.

  “Will you, Laura?” he said, his voice gritty. “Please?”

  “Oh, dear heaven,” she whispered, tears spilling onto her cheeks. “Oh…John…yes! I love you with all my heart, and I love Jeremiah…our son.”

  “Thank God,” he said, his shoulders slumping. “I was so afraid that I was going to blow it, not say it right, mess up our entire future, because I’m lousy at putting my feelings into words. I haven’t had much practice at it…you know what I mean? And I—”

  This time it was Laura who silenced John’s chatter with a kiss.

  A kiss that sealed their commitment to a future together.

  A kiss that marked the end of confusion and heartache.

  A kiss that chased the chill of loneliness into oblivion and replaced it with comforting warmth, which was quickly fanned into heated desire that consumed them.

  John tore his mouth from Laura’s and drew a rough breath.

  “Wait.” He brushed his lips over Laura’s. “Not for long, believe me, because I’m going up in flames here, but…wait.”

  “Hmm?” Laura said dreamily.

  John gripped both of her hands with his, and she blinked back to attention.

  “Listen, okay?” John said. “After I talked to Phillip and things fell into place for me, there was one very…well, imperative piece still missing from that rosy picture.”

  “Oh?” Laura said.

  John smiled at her warmly. “You. I was hanging on for dear life to the fact that you’d said you’d lost your heart to me. And I was hoping, praying that you hadn’t managed to fall out of love with me.”

  “Never,” Laura said, matching his smile.

  “I had come within a breath of telling you how much I love you, Laura.”

  “The important discussion you wanted to have with me but didn’t?”

  “Yeah,” John said, “that’s the one. I pulled back because I believed I didn’t have the right to express my feelings for you because I hadn’t yet found inner peace and happiness. How could I begin to make you happy if I was floundering in a sea of confusion?”

  “Oh, John.”

  “But once my future plans were set, I came looking for you,” he went on. “Alex told me you were spending the day in Hope. I drove into town myself, not to find you, but to take care of a special errand.”

  “I thought I saw you,” Laura said, “but I convinced myself it was just wishful thinking.”

  John chuckled. “I was skulking around, not wanting to bump into you for fear that I’d blurt out everything in front of the citizens of Hope.” His smile faded. “Anyway, I found what I was looking for. If you don’t like it, I’ll return it for what you’d rather have, but…” He shrugged.

  “The suspense is killing me,” Laura said. “What are you talking about?”

  John unsnapped the pocket on his Western shirt and removed a ring.

  “Maybe you’d prefer a traditional diamond engagement ring,” he said, “but I bought you an opal. Why? Ah, my Laura, because the colors of an opal reminded me of a rainbow. This ring represents my heartfelt love, and my determination to make your rainbow wish come true.”

  “Oh-h-h,” Laura said, tears filling her eyes.

  John frowned. “Could you translate that for me? Do you like the ring?”

  “Yes, oh, yes,” she said, sniffling.

  John slipped the ring on Laura’s finger and she gazed at it, the firelight causing the colors of the rainbow opal to sparkle.

  “It’s beautiful, John,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

  John stood and drew Laura up into his arms.

  “Let’s go home,” he said, “to our little cabin in the woods.”

  “Betty is there.”

  “She said she’d give me until midnight to convince you to marry me. I just made it. She’ll be full of herself because she’ll be the first to know our news.”

  He laughed softly.

  “I have to warn you, though, Laura, that it won’t come as a surprise to anyone. My whole family was aware of how we felt about each other. They were just waiting for us to figure everything out.” He paused. “Let me rephrase that. They’re our family.”

  John helped Laura on with her coat, then encircled her shoulders with one arm, nestling her close to his side.

  They went out into the crisp night air to make their way to the cabin. Laura glanced up at the millions of stars twinkling in the black velvet sky.

  And for one heart-stopping moment, she was certain, totally convinced, that she saw a glorious rainbow in the heavens.

  Epilogue

  It was a picture-perfect spring day on the island of Wynborough, as though Mother Nature had known that the special occasion deserved her finest effort.

  Excitement crackled through the air on this, the day everyone had been eagerly awaiting; the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the coronation of King Phillip Wyndham of Wynborough.

  Royals, high-ranking officials and press corps from around the world had been arriving steadily during the past week to take part in the festivities.

  Wyndham Castle where Queen Gabriella and King Phillip resided was bustling with activity and overflowing with guests.

  John Colton strode down a long corridor in the royal home, Jeremiah perched on his shoulders. John returned smiles and nods of people he knew, as well as strangers gathered to honor his father.

  He entered a large office, an instant smile lighting up his face as he saw the woman he’d come looking for.

  “Hello, lovely wife,” he said. “Jeremiah and I are here as you instructed to tell you it’s time for all of us to change clothes, get spit-shined and pretty for the big doings.” John paused. “Still glad you married me?”

  Laura Bishop Colton laughed in delight where she stood behind a gleaming desk.

  “Goodness,” she said, “I must be having fun being married to you, John Colton, because I’ve lost all track of time.”

  “True,” he said. “I’m a fun guy. We won’t mention how busy we’ve been since our wedding. Hey, Jeremiah and I just walked over to look at the land we picked out to build our house on.”

  “Is it still there?” Laura said. “You two have made that trek every day for a week.”

  “Not only is the land still there, but some construction supplies have been delivered to our stretch of dirt. How about that?

  “And how about you quit working for today, Ms. Social Secretary, so we can take part in the big she-bang? You were the one who said I should haul you out of here on time.”

  “Yes, I’m coming right now,” Laura said. “I’ve just been logging in the multitude of telegrams that have been arriving with messages of congratulations to Gabriella and Phillip. Oh, this is such an exciting day and…What’s this?”

  “What’s what?” John said as Jeremiah beat a rhythm on the top of his father’s head.

  “That’s strange,” Laura said. “There’s an envelope here among the Wyndham correspondence that is addressed to Victor Thorton, the Grand Duke of Thortonburg.”

  John shrugged. “Bring it along. I saw Victor Thorton a few minutes ago. We’ll bump into him again at some point, and you can give him his letter. Hey, Jeremiah, quit pulling my hair. Laura, our son is demolishing me here. Let’s go.”

  “We’re off,” Laura said, coming from behind the desk with the envelope in question. “Jeremiah, be nice to your daddy. After all, you’re getting a marvelous view of everything from way up there.”

  “Dada,” Jeremiah said merrily, pulling John’s hair again.

  “Ow,” John said. “Cut it out.”

  “Out. Out. Out,” the baby yelled.

  “Which is what is going to happen to my hair if you don’t stop it,” John said.

  The trio left the office to go to their suite of rooms in the palace where they were living until their own home could be built.

  As they reached the stairs leading to the private quarters
on the upper floor, Laura saw Victor Thorton approaching them.

  “Perfect,” she said as he drew closer. “You must be a mind reader, Your Grace.”

  The tall, silver-haired man in his early sixties stopped, a smile breaking across his face as he wiggled Jeremiah’s foot.

  “Whose mind have I read, my dear Princess?” he said.

  “Mine. This letter came for you, most likely from someone who knew you’d be in attendance at the celebration.”

  The Grand Duke accepted the envelope, slipped open the flap, then pulled free a piece of paper. Another enclosure fluttered to the floor and Laura retrieved it.

  As the Grand Duke read the note, the color drained from his face.

  “No, this is impossible.” He looked at Laura, a stricken expression on his face. “What dropped onto the floor?”

  “This picture of a pretty young woman,” she said, handing it to him. “What’s wrong?”

  The Grand Duke’s hand trembled as he stared at the photograph Laura had given him.

  “It’s true,” he said. “There’s no denying it, but I didn’t know until this very moment.” He shook his head, unable to speak as he was overcome with emotion.

  “Know…what?” John said, frowning. “Who is that woman in the picture?”

  “My daughter,” Victor said. “This child I didn’t even know I had has been kidnapped.”

  Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Joan Elliott Pickart for her contribution to the Royally Wed series.

  ISBN: 978-1-4603-5540-4

  MAN…MERCENARY…MONARCH

  Copyright © 2000 by Harlequin Books S.A.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.