“Kill them,” Olga said.
“I will not kill my own brother,” Vladimir told her.
“Give me the pistol,” Olga ordered. “I’ll kill them.”
“Owww,” Samantha cried, falling to the floor in a faint, drawing their attention.
At the same moment, Rudolf knocked the pistol out of his brother’s hand. It slid into the princess’s shoe.
Olga bent to pick it up, but Samantha was faster. Drawing her dagger, she pointed its sharp tip against the blonde’s cheek.
“I don’t think so,” Samantha told the blonde.
Rudolf retrieved the gun and leveled it on his brother. He glanced at his wife. “Are you injured?”
“No.” Samantha put the dagger back in its sheath.
“You clumsy idiot,” Olga snapped at her husband.
Vladimir slapped her hard, effectively silencing her. “I suppose you want this.” Vladimir offered the black velvet pouch to his brother.
“You keep it, “Rudolf said. “I have everything a man could want.”
The door opened unexpectedly, admitting lgor. The big Russian looked at the pistol in the prince’s hand. “I see that my services are not required.”
“My wife and I could have been killed if we waited for you to rescue us,” Rudolf told him. “Make certain my brother and his charming wife board a ship leaving England today.”
“I understand, Your Highness.”
Vladimir and Olga turned to leave.
“Ooops,” Samantha tripped into Vladimir as he passed her. He reached out to break her fall.
“I apologize, Your Highness,” Samantha said. “The babe makes me dizzy.”
Vladimir inclined his head. “I wish you well with your new baby.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
Vladimir and Olga walked outside the cottage, but the big Russian paused to look at her. Igor let out a thunderous bellow of laughter and walked out of the cottage.
“I’m not certain I want to remain married to you,” Samantha said.
“Why?” he asked, a smile flirting with the corners of his lips.
“I always hoped for a boring husband,” she told him.
“Princess, I promise to bore you to tears,” Rudolf said, pulling her into his arms. “I will be the most boring husband who ever lived.” He planted a kiss on her lip. “May I have the Venus now?”
“Of course, darling.” Samantha handed him the black velvet pouch. “Aren’t you glad you married me?”
Rudolf lost his smile, his dark gaze becoming intense. “I meant what I said to my brother about having everything a man could want. I have waited for you forever.”
“I love you, too. Forever.”
* * *
Sark Island, November
Samantha set her teacup on the table and stared at her pregnancy-swollen belly. She glanced at her husband, who sat on the edge of her chair.
“You have never looked more beautiful,” Rudolf whispered.
Samantha glanced around the drawing room. Her whole family had come from London for the birth of her child. Only, her child wasn’t cooperating.
A whoop and a shriek of excitement caught her attention. Victoria and Rudolf’s brothers were engaged in a game of tag with the children. A rather wild game of tag.
Samantha crooked her finger at her husband, and he leaned close. “I think your brothers are taking advantage of my sister,” she whispered in his ear. “I just saw Stepan tag her breast, and a few minutes ago, Mikhail tagged her posterior.”
“I will speak to them about their behavior,” Rudolf said, nuzzling her neck.
“I don’t think that will do much good.”
“I pity Emerson,” Rudolf said. “Your sister is going to have him tied in knots.”
Samantha looked at her aunt, who sat holding Rudolf’s mother’s hand but was watching her sister’s outrageous game of tag with the princes and the children. Her aunt wore a worried expression.
Samantha crooked her finger at her husband again. When he leaned close, she whispered, “I don’t think my aunt has the constitution for another courtship.” That made him smile. “I also think my time has come.”
“What about time, sweet?” Rudolf asked.
Samantha closed her eyes as the beginnings of a contraction swept through her. The panic hit her as soon as the pain passed. She had experience with pain and knew what was coming. She wasn’t sure she could bear it.
“Samantha?”
She grabbed his hand. “Don’t leave me, please.”
The realization of what was happening slammed into the prince. He lifted her into his arms, calling over his shoulder, “Roxie, the baby is coming. Stepan, get the physician.”
Upstairs, Rudolf gingerly laid Samantha on the bed just as another contraction hit. She clung to his hand and panted.
“That’s a good girl,” Rudolf soothed her. “I won’t leave you. There’s nothing to fear.”
Aunt Roxie raced into the bedchamber, a nightgown in her hand. Angelica appeared with bed padding.
“Rudolf, lift her so we can put this on the bed,” Angelica said.
“We’ll need to change her into this,” Roxie said.
Rudolf undressed his wife gently and pulled the nightgown over her head. “I think we should walk around the room.”
Samantha looked at him in confusion. “Walk?”
“Yes, Princess, we will walk around the chamber.” Rudolf put his arm around her and began to circle the room. “You will get into bed when the pain becomes intense.”
“Intense?” His wife had the look of a trapped animal.
“I think she should lie down,” Roxie said.
“The prince knows how to care for his wife,” Angelica said. “He knows what’s best. Let’s wait outside until we’re needed.”
Rudolf sent his sister-in-law a look of gratitude. The duchess was so excitable, she would only make the situation worse. When his wife needed to lie down, he would call for them.
With his arm around her, Rudolf passed the next two hours walking his wife around the chamber. When the pains came, he held her steady as she leaned into him.
“Rudolf?”
“Yes, love?”
“I need ribbons.”
Rudolf looked at her in confusion. “Ribbons?”
“I need two of the ribbons you bought me.”
Rudolf helped her to sit on the bed. “What colors do you want?”
“Pink and blue.”
Rudolf ran for the dressing room. He found the box on the floor and rummaged through it until he found one pink and one blue ribbon.
When he returned to the bed, Rudolf found her in the midst of another contraction, worse than the others. “You need to lie down now.”
“First, pull my hair back and tie the ribbons in my hair.”
“Samantha.”
“Please.”
Rudolf tied her hair with the ribbons and gently pushed her back on the bed. Then he hurried across the chamber, opened the door, and nodded at her aunt, her sister, and the physician.
“You need to leave now,” Aunt Roxie told him.
“I am not leaving her.”
Rudolf sat on the edge of the bed and held his wife’s hand while she writhed in pain. “I am sorry,” he said. “I am sorry to put you through this.”
“Oh, God,” Samantha cried as the worst contraction yet caught her. The contractions were rolling into her like great tidal waves of pain.
And then Samantha shocked not only her husband but her aunt and her sister, as well. She looked at her worried husband and screamed, “You son-of-a-no-good bitch. Look what you’ve done to me. You don’t love me. You just wanted to stick yourself in me . . . Aunt Roxie, he tricked me, the lying arse.”
Hiding a smile, Angelica put her arm around the stunned prince and guided him toward the door. “Samantha will feel differently in the morning.” She shut the door in his face.
Rudolf stared at the door. He hadn’t realized his w
ife knew those curse words. God, he needed vodka.
Rudolf walked downstairs and into the drawing room. Duke Magnus put a glass of vodka in his hand.
“Has Samantha started cursing you yet?” Robert asked.
Rudolf snapped his gaze to his brother-in-law. “Do all women do that?”
Robert nodded.
“Every time?”
Robert nodded again.
“The only cure for it is in your hands,” Duke Magnus told him. “Drink up, son.”
Long hours passed. Rudolf frequently walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked up as if he could see what was happening in his bedchamber.
The physician appeared in the drawing room where the men were drinking. Drying his hands on a towel, he announced, “Your Highness, you have a son . . .”
The men cheered and raised their glasses, but the physician wasn’t finished yet. “. . . and a daughter.”
The glass of vodka slipped from the prince’s hand. Prince Rudolf Kazanov fainted.
The next afternoon after the family had inspected the babies and gone downstairs for tea, the proud parents sat in their bedchamber and watched their babies sleeping. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Rudolf held his daughter in his arms while Samantha cuddled their son. A knock on the door drew their attention.
“Come in,” Rudolf called.
Another knock sounded on the door. Again, Rudolf called a little louder, “Enter.”
When the door remained closed, Rudolf looked at his wife. Samantha shrugged and returned her attention to her baby.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Louder and more insistent, knocking sounded on their door. Cursing in Russian, Rudolf cradled his daughter in his arms and walked across the chamber to yank open the door.
No one was there.
And then he heard his wife’s laughter.
“If you look on the other side of the door,” Samantha called, “I think you will find a potato.”
It was then Rudolf heard the sound of children giggling. “If I find the culprit,” Rudolf called to his wife, “I will give him or her a spanking to remember.”
Rudolf heard the muffled scuffling of feet as the culprits sought the safety downstairs. He closed the door and returned inside to place his daughter in her cradle.
Then he lifted his son out of his wife’s arms and placed him in his cradle.
Sitting on the bed, Rudolf leaned back against the headboard and put his arms around his wife. She looked up at him and said, “You were correct. When they put the babies in my arms, I forgot the pain.”
Rudolf lifted her chin and gazed with love into her eyes. “When you are recovered, I am going to wash your mouth out with soap.”
Samantha laughed. “For what?”
“You called me a lying arse and a son-of-a-no-good bitch,” he told her.
“I never did that,” she insisted.
“Shall I say the words now?”
“Please do.”
“I love you, Princess.”
“And I love you, my prince.”
About the Author
Patricia Grasso sold her first novel after five years of writing for nothing but love. Since that time, she has sold eighteen novels and won several awards including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the New England Readers’ Choice Award, the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice and KISS Awards, and the B. Dalton and Bookrak Awards for best-selling author. Her novels have been translated into fifteen languages and sold in twenty countries.
Table of Contents
Title page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Reviews
Also available
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
About the Author
To Charm a Prince Page 28
