Becoming the Prince's Wife (Princes of Europe)

by Rebecca Winters

  By now Carolena’s whole body was shaking. “Are you saying you’d give up your dream in order to marry me?”

  “It was never my dream. My parents thrust the idea upon me as soon as I was old enough to understand.”

  Dying inside, she got to her feet. “Does your mother know any of this?”

  “Maybe by now, which brings me to what I have to say to you. I meant what I said earlier tonight. I want you with me all the time, day and night. Forever.” He cocked his head. “Did you mean what you said the other day at your condo when I asked you what you wanted?”

  Hot tears stung her eyelids. “Yes. But we both concluded it wasn’t possible.”

  “Not both—” He leaned forward and grasped her hand. “I told you that true love had to be grabbed and enjoyed for the time given every mortal. When I asked you to fly up on Etna with me even though you knew there was a risk, you went with me because you couldn’t bear to miss the experience.”

  “That was a helicopter ride. Not a marriage. There can’t be one between you and me. You’re supposed to be the King!”

  * * *

  “Am I not supposed to have any say in the matter, bellissima?”

  “Val... You’re not thinking clearly.”

  “I’m a free man, Carolena, and have never known my path better than I do now. When Michelina passed away, Vincenzo was free to marry Abby and he did so in the face of every argument. Lo and behold he’s still the prince.

  “Whether the government makes him king after his father dies, no one can say. As for me, I’ll still be a prince when I marry you. The only difference is, I’ll work for Vito after he’s crowned.”

  “You mean if he’s crowned. Your mother will forbid it.”

  “You don’t know Vito. He wanted Alexandra enough to go after her. It looks like he’s got the stuff to make a remarkable king. Once Mother realizes their marriage will save her relationship with Alexandra’s parents, she’ll come around.”

  “Does Vito want to be king?”

  “I don’t think he’s given it much thought since everyone thought I’d be the one to assume the throne. But when we were younger and I told him I wanted to be a full-time volcanologist, he said it was too bad I hadn’t been born the second son so I could do exactly what I wanted.

  “When I asked him what he wanted, he said it might be fun to be king and bring our country into the age of enlightenment. Then he laughed, but I knew he wasn’t kidding.”

  “Oh, Val...”

  “Interesting, isn’t it? At times, Michelina made the odd remark that he should have been born first. She and I were close and she worried for me always having to do my duty. I worried about her, too. She was too much under the thumb of our parents who wanted her marriage to Vincenzo no matter what.”

  “If people could hear you talk, they’d never want to trade places with you.” She had a tragic look on her beautiful face. “As for your poor mother...”

  “She’s had to endure a lot of sorrow and disappointment and I’m sorry for that. Naturally I love her very much, but she doesn’t rule my life even if she is the queen. I’m not a martyr, Carolena. It turns out Vito isn’t, either. To have to marry another royal is archaic to both of us, but in his case he happened to fall in love with one.”

  “Your mother will think you’ve both lost your minds.”

  “At first, maybe. But just because she was pressured into marriage with my father doesn’t mean Vito or I have to follow suit. The times have changed and she’s being forced to accept the modern age whether she likes it or not. Michelina went through a surrogate to have a baby with Vincenzo. That prepared the ground and has made her less rigid because she loves her grandson.”

  “But you’re her firstborn. She’s pinned her hopes on you.”

  “Haven’t I gotten through to you yet? Her hopes aren’t mine. When I decided to get my geology degree, she knew I was going to go my own way even if I ended up ruling. After she finds out that Vito wanted to be betrothed to Alexandra years ago instead of me, she’s going to see that you can’t orchestrate your children’s lives without serious repercussions.”

  “I’m too bewildered by all this. I—I don’t know what to say.”

  “I want you for my wife. All you have to say is yes.”

  She sank back down in her chair. “No, that isn’t all.”

  “Then talk to me. We’ve got the whole night. Ask me anything you want.”

  “Val—it isn’t that simple.”

  “Why not?”

  “I—I don’t know if I want to be married.”

  “Because there are no guarantees? We’ve already had this conversation.”

  “But that was when we were talking hypothetically.”

  “Whereas now this is for real?”

  She lowered her head. “Yes. For one thing, I don’t think I’d make a good wife.”

  “I’ve never been a husband. We’ll learn together.”

  “Where would we live?”

  “Shall we buy your family’s farm and live there?”

  Carolena’s head flew back. “I would never expect you to move to a different country and do that—your work for the institute is far too important!”

  Valentino was trying to read between the lines, but she made it difficult. “I can tell the thought of living at the palace holds little appeal. We’ll get our own place.”

  Her body moved restlessly. “You’d hate it. After a while you’d want to move back.”

  “There’s nothing I’d love more after a hard day’s work than to come home to my own house and my own bride. Would you like us to buy a farm here? Or would you prefer working for a law firm in Gemelli?”

  She looked tortured. “I don’t know.” She got up from the chair again. “I can’t answer those questions. You haven’t even talked to your mother yet. It would be pointless to discuss all this when she doesn’t know anything that’s gone on with you.”

  “When we get back to the palace day after tomorrow, we’ll go to her and tell her our plans.”

  “But we don’t have any plans!”

  He got to his feet. “We love each other and don’t want to be separated. That forms the foundation of our plans. Come to bed with me and we’ll work out the logistics of when and where we want to be married, how many children we want to have. Do we want a dog?”

  “I’m not going to sleep with you.”

  “Yes, you are. There’s only one bed on the cruiser, but if you ask me not to make love to you, I won’t.”

  After a minute, she said, “You go on ahead. I’ll be there once I’ve cleaned up the kitchen.”

  “I’ll help. This will get me into practice for when we’re married.”

  They made short work of it.

  “I’ll just get ready for bed,” Carolena said.

  “You do that while I turn out the lights.”

  She hurried out of the galley. He could tell she was frightened. Valentino was, too, but his fears were different. If he couldn’t get her to marry him, then his life really wouldn’t have any meaning.

  Once he’d locked the door at the bottom of the stairs, he made a trip to the bathroom to brush his teeth. The cabin was cloaked in darkness when he joined her in bed still wearing his robe. She’d turned on her side away from his part of the bed. He got in and stretched out on his back.

  “Val?”

  “Yes?”

  “Berto and I never spent a night together alone.”

  His thoughts reeled. “Not even after you were engaged?”

  “No. Our families were old-fashioned.”

  He sat up in bed. “Are you telling me you two never made love?”

  “It was because we didn’t want to lie to the priest who’d asked us to wait.”

  “So you
’ve never been intimate with a man.”

  “No. After he was killed, I kept asking myself what we’d been waiting for. I know now that a lot of my grief had to do with my sense of feeling cheated. I was so sure another man would never come along and I’d never know fulfillment. It made me angry. I was angry for a long time.”

  He squeezed her shoulder. “Carolena...”

  “Once I started dating, I went through guy after guy the way the tabloids say you’ve gone through women. But after knowing you for the last week, it all had to have been made up because you don’t have that kind of time.”

  A smile broke the corners of his mouth.

  “The fact is, I don’t have your experience, but that part doesn’t bother me. I just wanted you to know the truth about me. I have no idea if I’d be a satisfying lover or not.”

  She was so sweet, it touched his heart. “That could work both ways.”

  “No, it couldn’t. When you were kissing me out in the lagoon, I thought I might die on the spot from too much ecstasy.” That made two of them. “I’m frightened by your power over me.”

  His brows knit together. “Why frightened?”

  “Because I’m afraid it’s all going to be taken away from me.”

  She’d had too many losses.

  “Don’t you know I have the same fear? I lost hope of ever finding a woman I could love body and soul. Yet the moment I was resigned to my fate, I discovered this exquisite creature standing on the diving board of my swimming pool. You’ve changed my life, Carolena Baretti.”

  He rolled her into his arms and held her against his body. “I want to be your husband.”

  She sobbed quietly against his shoulder. “I need more time before I can tell you yes or no. I have too many issues welling up inside of me.

  “When I get back to Arancia, I’m going to make an appointment with a professional. I hope someone can help me sort all this out. I should have gone to counseling after Berto died, but I was too wild with pain to even think about it. Instead, I started law school and poured all my energy into my studies.”

  “How did you end up becoming an attorney?”

  “My grandmother insisted I go to college. She said I needed to do something else besides farming in case I had to take care of myself one day. For an old-fashioned woman, she was actually very forward thinking.

  “While I was at school studying business, we met with some professors for career day. One of them encouraged me to try for the law entrance exam. I thought why not. When I succeeded in making a high score, the rest was history. Eventually I met Abby and for some reason we just clicked. The poor thing had to listen while I poured out my heart about Berto, but school did help me.”

  He had to clear the lump in his throat. “Work’s a great panacea.”

  “Yes, but in my case it made me put off dealing with the things that were really wrong with me. Meeting you has brought it all to the surface. I don’t want to burden you with my problems, Val. I can’t be with you right now. You have to understand that if I can’t come to you having worked things out, then it’s no good talking about marriage. Please tell me you understand that.”

  She was breaking his heart. Abby had told him she’d been in a depression for a long time. Carolena reminded him of Matteo, who had certain issues that wouldn’t allow him to marry yet.

  He clutched her tighter, terrified he was going to lose her. “I do,” he whispered into her hair. I do. “Go to sleep now and don’t worry about anything.”

  “Please don’t say anything to your mother about me. Please,” she begged.

  “I promise I won’t.”

  “You always keep your promises. I love you, Val. You have no idea how much. But I can’t promise you how long it’s going to take me before I can give you an answer.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FOUR DAYS LATER the receptionist at the hospital showed Carolena into the doctor’s office in Arancia for her appointment.

  “Buongiorno, Signorina Baretti.” The silver-haired psychologist got to his feet and shook her hand before asking her to sit down.

  “Thank you for letting me in to see you on such short notice, Dr. Greco. Abby has spoken so highly of you, I was hoping you could fit me in.”

  “I’m happy to do it. Why don’t you tell me what’s on your mind.”

  “I should have come to someone like you years ago.”

  “Let’s not worry about that. You’re here now. Give me a little background.”

  He made a few notes as she started to speak. Pretty soon it all came gushing out and tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s all right. Take your time.”

  He handed her some tissues, which she used. Finally she got hold of herself. “I don’t know what more to tell you.”

  “I don’t need to hear any more. What I’ve gleaned from everything you’ve told me is that you have two problems. The biggest one is an overriding expectation of the prince. Because he isn’t meeting that expectation, it’s preventing you from taking the next step in your life with him.”

  “Expectation?” That surprised her. She thought she was going to hear that she was losing her mind.

  “I find you’ve dealt amazingly well with everything that’s gone on in your past life. But you’ve got a big problem to overcome, and unless you face it head-on, you’ll remain conflicted and depressed.”

  It was hard to swallow. “What is it?”

  “You’ve just found out the prince wants to marry you. But it means that for your sake he plans to give up his right to sit on the throne one day as king and you don’t like that because you’ve never imagined he could do such a thing. It hasn’t been your perception. To some degree it has shocked and maybe even disappointed you, like glitter that comes off a shiny pair of shoes.”

  Whoa.

  “When you were telling me about all the farmers you met who held him in such high esteem, your eyes shone with a bright light. I watched your eyes light up again when you told me how he’s preparing the country in case of an eruption on Mount Etna. Your admiration for him has taken a hit to learn he’s willing to be an ordinary man in order to be your husband.”

  “But his whole life has been a preparation for being king.”

  “Let me put this another way. Think of a knight going into battle. In his armor astride his horse, he looks splendid and triumphant. But when he takes it off, you see a mere man.

  "Your prince is a man first. What you need to do is focus on that.”

  She kneaded her hands. “Valentino’s always telling me to forget he’s a prince.”

  “That’s right. The man has to be true to himself. If he had nothing to bring you but himself, would you take him?”

  “Yes—” she cried. “He’s so wonderful you can’t imagine. But what if he marries me and then wishes he hadn’t and wants to be king?”

  “How old did you say he was?”

  “Thirty-two.”

  “And he called off his wedding to a princess he doesn’t love?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I’d say the man is more than old enough to know his own mind.”

  “It’s just that he already makes a marvelous ruler.”

  “I thought you said his mother is the ruler.”

  “Well, she is.”

  “And he’s not the king, so what you’re telling me is that he’s still marvelous just being a man, right?”

  His logic was beginning to make all kinds of sense. “Yes.”

  “Your other problem is guilt that could be solved by a simple conversation with the queen.”

  Carolena gulped. “I don’t think I could.”

  “You’re going to have to because you’re afraid she’ll never forgive you if you marry her son, thus depriving him of his bi
rthright.”

  Dr. Greco figured all that out in one session? “What if she won’t?”

  “She might not, but you’re not marrying her, and the prince isn’t letting her feelings stand in the way of what he wants. It would be nice to have her approval, of course, but not necessary. There’s no harm in approaching her and baring your soul to her. She’ll either say yes or no, but by confronting her, you’ll get rid of that guilt weighing you down.”

  Valentino had promised he wouldn’t talk to his mother about her yet...

  “My advice to you is to go home and let this percolate. When you’ve worked it all out, let me know.”

  It was scary how fast he’d untangled her fears so she could understand herself. The doctor was brilliant. She jumped to her feet, knowing what she had to do. “I will, Doctor. Thank you. Thank you so very much.”

  * * *

  Valentino hunkered down next to Razzi. Both wore gas masks. “Those strombolian explosions are building in intensity.”

  “You’re not kidding. Something big is going on.”

  He and Razzi had been camped up there for three days taking readings, getting any activity on film. His work kept him from losing his mind. He had no idea how long it would be before he heard from Carolena.

  Valentino wasn’t surprised to see that a new lava flow had started from the saddle area between the two Southeast Crater cones.

  “Look, Razzi. More vents have opened up on the northeast side of the cone.”

  “There’s the lava fountain. It’s getting ready to blow.”

  He gazed in wonder as a tall ash plume shot skyward. Though it was morning, it felt like midnight. Suddenly there were powerful, continuous explosions. The loud detonations that had continued throughout the night and morning sent tremors through the earth.

  “We’re too close!” The ground was getting too unstable to stand up. “More lava fountains have started. This is it. Come on, Razzi. We need to move back to the other camp farther down.”