How to Catch a Prince

by Rachel Hauck

  “I resent all of you. Treating me like a delinquent, an errant child.”

  “Then don’t act like one, Stephen,” Mum said. “You did marry this girl, then sent her away without a word to us. I can’t quite understand it.”

  Stephen crossed gazes with his brother. Mum did not have the full intel. “Sorry, Mum, I just did what I thought best.”

  Henry folded up the paper he was reading and passed it to Stephen. “Says you’re in the walking boot for another two weeks. Is that true?”

  Stephen bent forward, tapping the contraption that was helping him heal. “More like six weeks.”

  “That long, son?”

  “Sadly.”

  “They’re attributing the Eagles’ loss to Italy on Sunday to your absence. We need our best winger come the Premiership.”

  “Grady Hamstead’s a fine winger, Henry.” It pained Stephen to admit it, but true was true. “He’s faster than me in the clutch. They lost because they didn’t manage the scrum.”

  Nathaniel’s butler, Malcolm, entered. “Miss Corina Del Rey has arrived.”

  “She’s here.” Susanna jumped up, scurrying around the furniture to stand with Nathaniel by the living room door.

  Henry and Mum stood, facing the doorway. Stephen positioned himself halfway between Mum and Henry, Nathaniel and Susanna.

  For a moment, he resented her saying yes. Why couldn’t she leave well enough alone? What was she hoping to accomplish by coming here?

  He adjusted his shirt collar, squaring his scarlet-and-grey striped pullover on his shoulders. Sunday night dinners were country casual since Susanna took over the hosting. Jeans, a top, something she referred to as “deck shoes,” were the standards.

  Nathaniel and Stephen took to it right away. As did Henry. He’d been prime minister for years, but never a royal. Never caught up in staunch traditions.

  Mum, however, found the change a challenge. Stephen glanced at her, giving her a smile. She was dressed in royal “casual.” A skirt and blouse. Stephen was certain Mum didn’t even own a pair of jeans.

  He was proud of her, though, submitting to Susanna’s changes, allowing her to be the king’s wife, creating her own culture in the palace.

  “She’s given up so much,” Mum told Stephen one evening. “Her country, her customs, her citizenship. I can give up Sunday night traditions. Learn to be casual.”

  And that was why Brighton loved their Queen Campbell.

  Suddenly Corina was at the door, dressed in an elegant gold gown, clinging to her in precisely the right manner, and Stephen’s thoughts on Mum fell off.

  She’d pinned her hair in some sort of updo with soft curls lying on her neck, and Stephen swallowed as memories of the nights he lay with her, holding her, the ends of her hair brushing against him, filled every crevice of his being.

  Their eyes met and she smiled. “I’m afraid I’m overdressed.” She leaned toward Susanna. “I always thought Sunday night dinners were formal.”

  She moved into the room with classic confidence, curtsying to Nathaniel, then Mum, and all the scattered reasons why Stephen loved her came flying together.

  “Corina,” Susanna came round to her. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think to tell you about the current dress code.” The king’s princess made a face. “I went Georgia-casual for family dinner night.”

  “It’s quite all right.” Corina smoothed her hand over her skirt. “My misunderstanding gave me an excuse to buy a new dress.”

  Mum caught Stephen’s attention. I like her.

  As he knew she would. Stephen stepped around to her. “Good to see you.” He lightly kissed her cheek, and her fragrance pounded his heart. “I suppose I should formally introduce you.” Though she’d already owned the room, conquering any and all awkwardness.

  “This is my mum, Queen Campbell, and her husband, Sir Henry.”

  “How do you do?” Corina shook their hands and curtsyed again to Mum.

  “My brother, King Nathaniel, and his wife, Princess Susanna.”

  “Your Majesties.” Again, she curtsyed.

  “Please, call us Nathaniel and Susanna,” Susanna said. “I’m still working on the HRH part of my name.” Then she tossed aside all protocol and snatched Corina in a “good ole girl” hug. “Another Georgia girl. I love it.” When she released Corina, Susanna brushed her fingers under her own eyes. Nathaniel slipped his arm about her and kissed the top of her head. Stephen’s green spark of jealousy flared. True love was the only thing he envied his king-brother. “I guess I’m a little homesick.”

  “I understand.” Corina touched Susanna’s arm in Georgia-girl solidarity. In princess solidarity. “My first semester in postgrad here was horrible. I was so homesick. Even with my twin brother here.” The timbre in Corina’s voice layered peace into the room. Into Stephen. “I couldn’t wait for Christmas break.” She laughed softly. “Then when it arrived I begged Daddy and Mama to fly over here for Christmas. Cathedral City is so magical that time of year.”

  “My first trip here was right after Christmas and I fell in love.” Susanna had found a like heart in Corina. Stephen watched it unfold on her face.

  Careful, Susanna love, she’s not staying.

  “I’m working on Nathaniel . . . talking him into a trip to Georgia next month.”

  “I’m having my staff clear my diary,” Nathaniel said. “Corina, thank you for coming.”

  “Thank you for inviting me.”

  “And since we all know this business between Corina and Stephen, let’s just get it out there, shall we?”

  What? He was going to ring his brother’s neck.

  “Nathaniel.” Stephen stepped toward his brother. “I don’t think there’s any need . . .”

  “It’s okay,” Corina raised her hand. “Might as well deal with the elephant in the room. We’re married. This may be my first and last dinner with the family.”

  Steam. Coming out of his ears. What sort of rotten game was she playing? First and last dinner with the family. Trying to gain their sympathies? Make him come off as an ogre, never bringing her round to the family. As of this moment, he no longer believed her humble, innocent, what-happened-to-my-brother routine. She was out for vengeance.

  “I was starting to think my youngest would never find the right girl.” Mum gave Stephen a teasing glance. “Seems he outfoxed us all. Save for this annulment business. Stephen I don’t understand.”

  Yes, here it comes. He turned to Susanna. “Is dinner ready?”

  “Malcolm will ring when it’s ready.” She gave him a look. Behave.

  “I would like to say I’m sorry if all this marriage mess caused any of the family pain or embarrassment.” Corina cradled the small clutch she carried to her chest and peered at Stephen. “I know we broke the law of the day, but it just seemed . . . right.”

  Oh, she was good. Very good.

  “It’s quite all right, Corina,” Nathaniel said. “All is forgiven.”

  “Except why are you two splitting apart?”

  “Campbell, dear, that’s not the elephant in the room, it’s a whole herd of elephants.” Henry smiled at his wife. “Let the children figure it out for themselves.”

  “I suppose you’re right.” But Mum gave Stephen the stink eye again and he knew he’d hear a good bit more before the week was out.

  “Shall we address the other elephant in the room?” Susanna stepped forward, slipping her hands in her hip pockets. “It seems some of us are underdressed.” She did a visual with Mum and Nathaniel. “Shall we change?”

  “Please, don’t change on my account,” Corina said, but Susanna was already halfway out of the room, with Mum on her heels, cheering her on.

  “Splendid idea.” Mum turned back to Corina. “Begging your pardon, we shall return.”

  “I’ll tell Malcolm to hold dinner fifteen minutes,” Nathaniel said. “Does that give everyone enough time?”

  “Plenty,” Mum said. “Henry, are you coming?”

  “Right
behind you, love.”

  But Stephen remained planted. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll wear what I have on.”

  Corina stepped toward him. “I had no idea it was casual night, so don’t look at me like I one-upped you or something.”

  “You could’ve asked.”

  “You could’ve told me.”

  “What was with that business of your first and last time to have dinner with the family?”

  She scoffed, shaking her head. “You’re a piece of work. Nothing. Just a fact. Do you think I’ll ever be back here once our marriage is . . . over?” She lost a bit of her bravado, her voice breaking.

  “Susanna likes you well enough.” He sighed, easing up on his suspicions and grinning at her. “Five minutes in the royal household, and you’ve turned us upside down.”

  “Well, I am a Del Rey.”

  Despite himself, he laughed. “For what it’s worth, you look beautiful.”

  “I had fun shopping yesterday, visiting my favorite stores.”

  “Susanna said the driver couldn’t find the inn.”

  “He couldn’t. I had to walk out to the corner to meet him. There he was, waiting, squinting at the stores like nobody’s business, shaking his head. He jumped when I said hello.”

  “I’ll have to check it out. Come by this mysterious place.”

  She nodded, looking at him, then past him. “It’s a free country.”

  “That it is.” Stephen glanced down at his attire. He should ease up, change, be a sport. “Tell you what, I’ll run to my apartment for my dinner clothes. I’m on the north side of the palace. I won’t be long. Tell Susanna to start without me.”

  He dashed out, easy on his ankle, and slipped into the utility cart he used to cross the palace grounds, a little bit of a song, a little bit of a melody, skipping across his heart.

  FIFTEEN

  Here we are, miss.” Malcolm, the butler, passed Corina a red-and-white china cup and saucer, golden-brown tea brimming against a gold rim. “This china set was designed specifically for Her Majesty, Princess Susanna.”

  “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” Corina perched on the edge of the couch. “May I ask, whose portrait is that over the fireplace?”

  “Queen Anne-Marie as a young woman. She was a most beloved monarch.”

  “I remember her from history. She stood for women’s right to vote in the mid-1800s.”

  “An original suffragette.” Malcolm stood straight-backed beside the tea cart with his hands behind his back, gazing at the portrait. “The artist did her justice.”

  Corina sipped her tea. She was used to opulent mansions and ornate rooms with damask curtains, but this was a royal room. Beautiful with textured walls, high, arching windows, and polished wood.

  Yet the stack of newspapers on the floor by a reading chair, the iPad tucked into a chair cushion, and the wide-screen TV above the fireplace told the story of real people. Of a family. Of a home.

  “I hear you studied at Knoxton?” Malcolm said.

  “Graduate courses. My twin brother was a part of the Joint International Coalition headed by Brighton’s Royal Air Command. When he came to train, I came along to keep him company. He and Stephen—Prince Stephen—were friends.”

  Malcolm headed toward the door as voices resounded beyond the living room doors. Corina stood when Nathaniel and Susanna entered first, arm-in-arm, looking very regal. He in a dark, very fine tuxedo. She in a deep-red evening gown.

  “How do we look?” Susanna spun around.

  “Now I’m underdressed,” Corina said. “You look fabulous. Susanna, is that a Melinda House gown?”

  “Very good.”

  Corina motioned to her own dress. “Saw this in their shop window in the fashion district yesterday. Could not resist.”

  “She is really a genius. Melinda made Princess Regina of Hessenberg an icon overnight by just adapting her north Florida, cowboy-boots style.”

  “I’ve not followed her, but I’ll have to do so.” The news of Princess Regina, a Florida girl, discovering she was the long-lost heir to the Grand Duchy of Hessenberg’s royal house came just as Corina determined to come out from under the fog.

  “You should. She’s wonderful.” Susanna linked her arm with Corina’s and leaned close. “She’s one of us.”

  Corina laughed, warmed by the princess’s camaraderie. “Then I’ll read up on her right away.”

  “I’m sure I can arrange an introduction.”

  “Ahem, and what of me?” The king cleared his throat, pretending to straighten his tie.

  “Most handsome, Your Majesty,” Corina said.

  Susanna walked over to her husband. “Babe, you look as handsome as ever.”

  The Queen Mum and her husband entered next, dressed in a black off-the-shoulder gown and a tuxedo.

  “I think we should do this every now and then,” the queen said, taking an appetizer from the tray Malcolm had begun circling around the room. “Either that or my husband needs to take me out to the symphony more often.”

  “Love, say the word . . .”

  Corina had only observed the former prime minister for a few moments, but he was ardently in love with his wife. How lovely to find heart-palpitating romance a second time around.

  Upon that thought, Stephen entered, resplendent in his black tuxedo, his white shirt giving a kind of light to the lean planes of his face. His strength and presence consumed the atmosphere. And he knocked the breath right out of Corina. She felt weak-kneed with love butterflies flitting through her belly.

  He’d tamed his dark, thick hair, styling back the sides but leaving a saucy coil of bangs drooping over his high, smooth forehead.

  Steady. Loving well doesn’t mean falling back in love.

  But had she ever fallen out of love? Corina set down her cup and saucer on the nearest table, hands trembling, looking over at Stephen to see if he was watching her, but instead seeing him moving toward her, filling the air with a clean, woodsy scent.

  “You clean up rather nice,” she said with a long inhale.

  “Dinner is served.” Malcolm opened the dining room doors.

  Nathaniel offered his arm to Susanna. “Might as well go all out, then,” he said, winking at his wife.

  The queen took Henry’s arm, leaving Stephen and Corina to follow.

  He offered his arm, held her chair, then sat next to her.

  As the salad was served, the conversation was of the Brighton summer, the art festival, and the theatre openings.

  Of course, of rugby and the junior tournament going on at Cathedral City Stadium.

  Then of the event of the summer, the premier of King Stephen I.

  “The movie is being compared to Braveheart,” Henry said.

  “I’m looking forward to it.” Corina sipped her water.

  “Corina, Stephen said you’re doing an interview with Clive Boston.” The queen seemed delighted.

  “That’s the plan. I texted him yesterday and we’re to meet at the premier, then get together the following day. But Clive is known to change his mind.”

  “Tell him Queen Campbell is looking forward to reading your piece.”

  Corina accepted the queen’s warmth and friendship. “Thank you. That should give me some proper ammunition.”

  A footman cleared their salad plates and refilled the water goblets.

  “Stephen,” Susanna said, “you know if you don’t show up at the premier with a date, Madeline and Hyacinth are going to have a field day with you.”

  “Let them do their worst.”

  “Corina,” the queen said, reaching for her water, poised and elegant, “are you attending the premier with anyone?”

  “Well, no—”

  “Stephen,” Campbell lowered her voice and leaned toward her son, eyeing the footman entering across the room with their main course, fried chicken and mashed potatoes. “Take your wife to the premier.”

  “Mum, I thought you’d be my date.” Stephen flicked his hand at Corina. �
�She came to work.”

  “Won’t it cause a stir if we show up together?” Corina said.

  “Yes, thank you.” Stephen huffed, popping his hand on the table. “She’s right.”

  “In your own words, Stephen, let them do their worst.” Campbell turned to the king. “Nathaniel, what do you think?”

  “Mum, it doesn’t matter what he thinks.” Stephen pushed away from the table. “Corina and I are in the middle of an annulment.” He glanced her way but kept his eyes above her head. “If I attend a premier with her on my arm, we will be a media spectacle. Every paper and blogger will have their say. We don’t need anyone mucking up our past.”

  Corina’s appetite faded as Stephen’s tirade heated up.

  “They could find out we were married.”

  “You are married,” Nathaniel said, and Corina felt as if she were in the middle of a family fight. A family to which she did not belong. She wanted to escape to the comfort of the Manor.

  “But all she has to do is sign the papers and then we are not. If word gets out we are married, the annulment will become a big hairy deal. What’s the use in that? Nathaniel, you above all know what’s at stake here—”

  “See, there you go. Hinting of something more. Just what is at stake here, Stephen?” Corina tucked her folded napkin beside her plate and pushed away from the table.

  “Corina, I don’t think Stephen is implying any hidden motives.” Campbell also rose from her chair.

  “I disagree. Begging your pardon. But he’s not telling me something. And until he does, his wagon is hitched to mine. I’d love to go to the premier with you. What time shall I expect you to pick me up?” Push. Shove. She’d get the truth from him one way or the other.

  “Corina, Mum’s right. There’s nothing more going on.”

  “You said to your brother, ‘You above all know what’s at stake here.’ I demand to know what that means.” Her voice speared the room with tension, toppling the once peaceful dinner. Corina regretted her outburst, but there was nothing to do about it now. She blamed Stephen. He did this to her. Confused her. Made her crazy. Rewired her heart. Trembling, she turned to the princess. “I’m sorry. I’ve been rude. My mother would be humiliated. Susanna, thank you for dinner.” She placed her napkin under her plate and turned for the door.