Before the king could speak, Rik took a step forward, half shielding Melanie with his body. ‘This situation is of my making, Father. You will not question Melanie or accuse her about any of this.’
‘Then you will explain yourself.’ Georgio’s words were cold. ‘And this will not be done standing in the middle of a walkway.’
Security people had gathered in the king’s wake.
‘You will attend me appropriately, inside the palace. You will not keep me waiting.’ Without another word, the older man walked away.
Rik turned to Melanie.
‘All your plans, Rik.’ Concern and unease filled her face. ‘He looked so angry.’
‘I must speak to him now, try to get him to understand.’ He hesitated. ‘You will wait for me?’
‘I’ll wait in our—in the suite until you can let me know what happened.’
With thoughts churning, Rik took one last look at the woman before him, and turned to follow his father.
CHAPTER TWELVE
I AM stunned.
Rik thought the words silently as he walked towards the grand historic church where he and Melanie were to today rehearse the marriage ceremony. Stunned almost to the point of numbness by what his father had just revealed.
He needed to speak to Melanie now more than before, and when he stepped through the doors of the church, she broke away from the small group of people gathered near the front of the large ancient building, and rushed to his side.
‘I couldn’t wait for you any longer.’ She said the words in a hushed whisper. ‘Dominico came to get me and I couldn’t tell him anything was wrong. Is—is the wedding off now? What happened? What did your father say?’
Beyond them, Anrai and Marcelo waited, along with the priest and various others expecting to participate in this marriage ceremony next week.
Another brother could be standing there.
‘This will shock you, as it did me when my father revealed it, and I would ask that you not tell anyone until I can speak to Anrai and Marcelo.’ Rik drew a slow breath. ‘The reason that my father pushed so hard for marriages is because there is an older brother, a love child to a woman in England. Two years ago this man discovered his true identity. He’s been trying to gain a position in the family through my father since.’
‘Is—? That isn’t sounding like good news to you?’ Melanie’s hand half lifted as though she would press it over her mouth before she dropped it away again.
‘His existence is the reason my mother left, and he has now gained access to copies of our family law and worked out that he can try to claim ascendancy and, with it, Marcelo’s position, rights, and work. If Marcelo is married, his position is safe, but until we are also married, Anrai’s and mine…are not.’
‘In other words he doesn’t really belong within the family.’ She said it quietly. ‘He’s not wanted.’
‘He is not royal born.’ Rik said it carefully. ‘Whether he will find a place within the family, at this stage I do not know. I would like to meet him and discern for myself what manner of man he is and go from there. I would not reject a brother, but I also would not welcome a threat to the security of my country and people.’
‘That’s fair.’ She seemed to relax as she said the words.
Rik went on. ‘The old laws—this is part of why Marcelo wants to bring change. This is not merely so we can all maintain our positions. It is to keep the people of the country safe as well.’
‘Why would this man push for a position that shouldn’t rightly be his? Surely he must realise that he can’t just walk in and take someone’s place?’
‘My father has no doubt contributed to the man’s anger and frustration by refusing to acknowledge him at all when he should have done so many years ago.’
‘Well, you can take care of your part in it. You’re marrying me. You can say you’ve been married then. Your position will be safe!’
All but for one vital thing. ‘I must remain married, Melanie. My plan to marry you and then end the relationship afterwards will not work for this.’
‘What—what will you do?’ She searched his face and her eyes were so deep and so guarded as she began to realise how this new situation had raised the stakes. ‘You’ll need to find someone else. You’ll need to start looking right away. Someone you can make that kind of commitment with. There must be someone you could accept in that way.’
The priest cleared his throat noisily at the front of the church.
Rik’s brothers cast glances their way that were becoming more than curious.
Of all settings and times, this had to be about the worst but at least as Rik had informed Melanie of the basics of the issue his thoughts had cleared. He knew exactly what he needed, now, and from whom, but could he yet again convince her?
‘You want me to be the one, don’t you?’ The words came from between lips that had whitened with shock. ‘You want me to be married to you permanently?’
‘We are already together. I would provide for your every need. You would live a privileged life, want for nothing.’ It would resolve problems, not only for Rik, but also for Melanie. ‘You would never again have to fend for yourself, and later if you wanted a child I would…allow it.’
There were other words that tried to bubble up, but Rik needed to protect himself in this—
Her glance searched his face before it shifted to take in the church, the people waiting for the rehearsal to start. ‘I can’t do it. Not even for the people.’ She whispered the words before she added more strongly, ‘I’ve tried hard in my life and I’ve never rejected people even when they’ve rejected me, but I won’t line up for another lifetime of that.
‘I blamed myself for losing my parents in that car crash. I thought after that I didn’t deserve happiness, to be alive when they weren’t, but that was grief talking. I do deserve happiness. I deserve better from you.’
Melanie turned on her heel and ran from the church.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
‘I’VE made the biggest mistake of my life.’ Rik spoke the words to Marcelo as his brother drove them towards the country’s small international airport. He felt sick inside, close to overwhelmed and very, very afraid that he might have lost his chance with Melanie for ever by stupidly trying too hard to protect himself and by being too slow to realise…
Rik had lost valuable time searching for Melanie out of doors. He’d thought she must have run to their spot on the mountainside, or perhaps back to Ettonbierre village to lose herself in the crowd there.
As he’d searched, knowing his brothers were also looking, Rik had begun to panic. In her distraught state, what if something happened to Melanie? And all that he had locked down inside him and tried to deny since he and Melanie made love had begun to inexorably make its way to the surface and demand to be known.
‘She will not leave the airport.’ Marcelo offered the assurance without taking his glance from the road. ‘If need be, the flights will all be delayed until we get there. Dominico will take care of it.’
That was a privilege of position that, in this moment, Rik was willing to exploit without compunction. It was Melanie’s reaction when he caught up with her that concerned him.
‘I have used Melanie without considering how she might feel. Not respected her rights and emotions.’ He shook his head. ‘I asked her to remain permanently married to me as though she should be grateful for all the privileges she would receive as part of the family.’
‘Such as being in a loveless marriage for life?’ Marcelo’s words were not harsh, neither teasing, but a statement of understanding of things that he and Rik had never discussed about their upbringing.
‘I wanted to avoid that at all costs.’ Why hadn’t Rik understood sooner that his drive to pull Melanie into exactly that long-term relationship had not
been fuelled merely by the need to protect his position and that of his brothers, in the knowledge of this unknown brother? It had been driven by need of Melanie. And yet he felt no warmth towards this unknown man. ‘I cannot find soft emotion in my heart for him, Marcelo. Even now when I realise how I feel about Melanie—’
‘One thing at a time,’ Marcelo advised. He drew the car to a halt in a no stopping zone in front of the airport. ‘We all need to get to know this man. Good luck, brother.’
Rik met Marcelo’s gaze as he threw the car door open. ‘Thank you.’
Rik drew a deep breath and strode quickly into the airport terminal.
* * *
I’m not going to feel guilty about the money.
Melanie thought this as she twisted her hands together in her lap. She’d packed all her luggage, half dreading that Rik might appear at any moment. Then she’d summoned palace staff to carry it all downstairs and put it in the cab she’d ordered. A real cab this time, with no mix-ups.
She’d bought an airline ticket to get back to Australia. The flight wasn’t going directly there. She’d asked for the first one that would get her out of the country and she’d used the money Rik had given her that day in Paris, to pay for it.
It was almost time, just a few more minutes and she would be able to board the plane, and…fly away from Braston, and from Rik, for ever.
Her heart squeezed and she forced her gaze forward. Other people in the boarding lounge talked to each other or relaxed in their chairs, at ease with themselves and their plans. Mel just wanted to…get through this. She felt she was letting down the people, but Rik would find someone else. Prince Rikardo Eduard Ettonbierre of Braston would not struggle to find a woman willing to marry him for life.
Mel couldn’t be that woman. Not without love.
‘Melanie!’
At first she thought she’d imagined his familiar voice, a figment within her mind because her heart hurt so much. It was going to take time to get past those raw emotions and begin to heal.
Could she heal from falling in love with Rik?
‘Mel. Thank goodness you’re here.’ Rik appeared in front of her. Ruffled. Surprisingly un-prince-like with his tie askew and his suit coat hanging open. Real.
Mel shot to her feet. She wasn’t sure what she intended to do when she got upright. Run? Faint? Throw herself at him and hope against hope that he would open his arms and his heart to her?
Get real, Melanie Watson. You’re still a cook and he’s still a prince and he doesn’t love you and that’s that.
‘I don’t have a glass slipper.’ His words were low.
And confusing. ‘I—I don’t understand.’
Words came over the airport speaker system. French and then English. Her flight was being called. Mel had to get on the flight. She glanced towards the gate, to people beginning to go through. Her heart said stay. Her survival instincts said go. Go and don’t look back because you’ve done that “love people and not be loved in return” thing and it just hurts too damned much to do it again. ‘I have to go, Rik. I paid all your money to buy the ticket. I can’t buy another one.’
‘I will buy you another ticket, Mel.’ He lifted his hand as though he would take hers, and hesitated as though uncertain of his welcome. ‘If you still want to go.’
Oh, Rik.
‘Please. I left out something very important when I asked you to marry me.’
‘Another bargaining chip?’ She hadn’t meant to say it. She didn’t want to spread hurt, or reveal her heart. Mel just wanted…to go home and yet, where was home now? Could home be anywhere when her heart had already decided where it wanted to be? ‘I didn’t mean that.’
‘You had every right to say it.’ Rik gestured to a room to their left. ‘There’s a private lounge there. Will you give me a few minutes, Mel? Please? You will still be able to make this flight if you want to, or a next one. Anything you want, but please let me try—’
‘All right.’ She led the way to the room, pushed the door open and stepped inside. Somehow it felt important to take that initiative. To be in charge even if she was agreeing to stall her plans to speak with him.
It was a small room. The lounge suite was quintessential airport “luxury”. Deep red velvet with large cushions all immaculately kept. There were matching drapes opened wide and a view of runways with planes in various stages of arrival and departure.
All Mel could see was Rik’s blue eyes, fixed on her brown ones, searching as though there was something that he desperately needed to find.
‘This isn’t a fairy tale, Rik. I know you’re a prince but to me you’ll always be a man first. You’ll be Rik, who I—’ Fell in love with. She bit back the words.
‘No. There is little of the fairy tale about current circumstances and I confess I was shocked by my father’s announcement of a secret brother.’ Rik did take her hand now, and led her to a lounge seat.
Somehow they were seated with her hand still held in his and far too much of a feeling of rightness inside Mel’s foolish, foolish heart. ‘I hope that situation can be worked out so that nobody loses too much.’
‘I do not know what is possible. I have not had time to get all the facts together, let alone think of how to act on any of them.’ For this moment Rik brushed the topic aside. ‘Melanie, I asked you to marry me permanently—’
‘But deep down even though you have to do it, you don’t want to be tied in a relationship like that, and I…can’t do it when—’ She ground to a halt.
‘When I offered all those things that don’t matter to you, and nothing else? They never have.’ One side of Rik’s mouth lifted in a wry, self-mocking twist. ‘Everything that makes me a prince, that might appeal, doesn’t matter to you. I was too slow to think about that, and too slow to understand why I needed so much for you to agree to help me anyway.’
Was it care that she saw in his eyes? Mel didn’t want to hope. Not now. Not when she’d made up her mind to go and that was the only solution. ‘You’ll find someone, Rik. You’ll be able to marry and hold onto your job. I’m sorry it will have to be for all your life. I’m sorry for that.’
Each word tightened the ache in her chest. Each glance at him made it harder to keep the tremor out of her voice.
‘The thing is, all that has changed for me, Melanie. It has changed because I fell in love with you.’ His words were low. Raw.
Real? Mel frowned. Shook her head. There was no allergy medication to blame now. Nothing but a hope and sense of loss so deep that she was afraid she’d heard those words only inside her, afraid to hear them at all, and so she denied. ‘No.’
‘The moment I took you into my arms and made love to you, I fell in love with you.’ This time when he said it, emotion crowded his face. ‘Please believe me that this is true.’
Mel had never seen that emotion, except…lurking in the backs of his eyes when he held her last night…
Could she believe this? Could Rik truly have fallen in love with her? ‘You’re a prince.’
‘As you said when we first met.’ He inclined his head. His eyes didn’t twinkle, but memory was there.
‘I’m a cook. From Australia.’ A commoner with no fixed abode. ‘I didn’t even know how to curtsy properly.’
Do you really love me, Rik?
Could he really love her, Nicole Melanie Watson? ‘You said you would never love.’
‘I didn’t know there would be you, and that you would come to live, not only at the palace, but that you would move into my heart.’ He took both her hands into his.
She glanced down. ‘The ring! I meant to leave it in the suite.’
‘Our suite. I am glad you didn’t take it off.’ He touched the diamonds. ‘It is made to be there.’ His gaze lifted to hers. ‘I know I am asking for another leap of faith, and if you cannot fi
nd anything in your heart for me then I will accept it, but I am hoping against all hope that you will agree to give me a chance to show you how deeply I have come to love you.’
‘I want to, Rik.’ Oh, she wanted to do that with all of her heart. ‘If you truly love me—’
‘I do.’ He didn’t hesitate. Conviction filled his tone. ‘If you can learn to love me, I will be the happiest man in the world.’
‘That was what you meant about the glass slipper.’ She hadn’t realised that he wanted to make her his princess truly, in every way. ‘I’m a practical girl, Rik. I like cooking and I lost my parents and grew up trying to be loved and my aunt and uncle and Nicolette didn’t, and I promised myself I would never be hurt like that again.’
But she’d opened her heart to Rik and he…loved her. ‘Are you sure? Because I don’t know how you could have overcome all that. You were so firmly fixed that you wouldn’t be able to have that kind of relationship.’
‘I thought I was incapable of experiencing those feelings. Love, commitment.’
‘Your upbringing harmed you.’ Mel didn’t want to hurt him with the words, but they were part of his history, of who he was.
‘We have both experienced hurt at the hands of family.’ There was regret and acknowledgement, and love shining in his eyes openly for her now. ‘But you have set all of my love free.’
Mel believed it then. She let go of the last doubt and took her leap of faith. ‘I fell in love with you, too, Rik. I thought I was going to help you to solve a problem and then go back to Australia. Instead I wanted to stay with you for ever, but when you asked me—’
‘I stupidly didn’t realise what those feelings inside meant.’ He drew a breath that wasn’t quite steady. ‘I thought I’d lost you. I couldn’t bear that thought.’ Again his fingers touched her ring as he drew her to her feet with him and held both her hands. ‘Will you marry me next week, Mel? Give me a chance to show you every day for ever how much you mean to me?’
‘Yes.’ Melanie said it and stepped into his arms and, oh, it felt right. So, so right, to be in Rik’s arms, in the prince’s arms, where she belonged. There were no sparkly shoes. She wasn’t down a rabbit hole. She had simply…come home to this man of her dreams. ‘Yes, I will marry you next week and stay married for ever, and love you every single day while you love me every single day.’
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