The Prince’s Outback Bride

by Marion Lennox

  ‘I don’t feel I can.’

  She sighed. ‘Of course you can,’ she said. ‘Like me, you have no choice. I agree, your mother’s given you no choice. I bet if I met her I’d agree with your decision entirely. I’m sorry I flung that at you. It served no purpose.’

  ‘Except to make me see what I should have seen last week.’

  ‘There’s no point.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Max, it was dumb for me to say that. It was just…anger, and anger achieves nothing. I don’t usually let fly. It won’t happen again.’

  ‘I hate this.’

  ‘That makes two of us.’

  He stared at her for a long minute, and then raised his hand to her face and cupped the curve of her cheek. She let his hand rest there for a moment, allowing herself the luxury of taking warmth and strength that she so desperately needed. But she couldn’t depend on it.

  She was alone. She knew it. She’d been alone in Tanbarook and she was alone here. The future stretched out before her, bleak and endless.

  Bleak? Hey, she was going to live in a castle. ‘Don’t you start being melodramatic,’ she said out loud and Max frowned.

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I was talking to me.’ She lifted his hand away, but she didn’t quite release it.

  ‘You’re a wonderful woman.’

  ‘I am, aren’t I?’ she said and she summoned a smile. ‘But I need a dress.’

  ‘Sure you do.’ But he was gazing at her with such a look…

  ‘Don’t you dare kiss me,’ she muttered and hauled her hand away.

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘You know very well why not. You and me? No and no and no. We’re in enough of a dilemma. A casual affair would mess things between us for ever.’

  ‘I’m not talking about a casual-’

  ‘You’re not talking about anything. Take me shopping, Max.’ She twisted so she was staring straight ahead and her fingers started knotting again. ‘What are we waiting for?’

  ‘I don’t have a clue,’ Max said slowly. He stared at her for a long moment, but she didn’t look at him. Conversation ended.

  Finally he turned the key in the ignition and steered his car out of the pullover and around the cliffs into town.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE village might be tiny, but it catered for money.

  ‘Monaco’s within easy driving distance and we have amazing summers,’ Max said. He was playing tourist guide, his smooth, informative chat proving the safest of conversations. ‘So we have Europe’s wealthy summering here, driving between here and the casinos.’ He pulled into a parking lot in front of a dozen quaint shops. ‘Daniella’s your best choice. The dress shop on the corner.’

  ‘You’d know that, how?’

  ‘Beatrice told me,’ he said, looking wounded.

  Pippa even managed a laugh. ‘Okay. Daniella’s it is. How much do I have to spend?’

  ‘As much as you like.’ He climbed out of the car and came round to open her door. ‘The royal fortune is entailed. That means it’s been kept safe and there’s more than enough to pay for you to wear what you like. Diamond-studded knickers if that’s what takes your fancy.’

  She choked. ‘It doesn’t.’

  ‘How did I know you’d say that?’ He grinned. ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘You’re not shopping with me.’ She was too close to him, she thought. Damn him for his good manners. She wanted him back on the other side of the car.

  ‘Of course I’m coming.’

  ‘Of course nothing. I’m having no man saying, “Nope, that’s not suitable,” or “That color makes you look consumptive,” or, “Gee, I like that one, it gives you great bazookers.”’

  ‘Bazookers?’

  ‘See, you don’t even know the language. How do I pay?’

  He hesitated, but her chin was tilting in a gesture he was starting to know.

  ‘Fine,’ he said, conceding defeat. Maybe she was right. They needed to keep their distance. He produced an embossed card. ‘You need a couple of dinner dresses, one over-the-top evening dress and anything else that catches your eye. I’ll be drinking coffee in Vlados, over the road.’

  ‘Fine,’ she repeated, and looked at the card. ‘You sure this’ll work?’

  ‘I’m sure. Daniella will recognise it. She’ll probably have heard about you. She’ll certainly have heard about the children. Pippa…’

  ‘Yes?’

  She was standing in the late-afternoon sunshine, chin tilted, dredging up courage. David against Goliath.

  It was important to maintain distance.

  He couldn’t. It was too much for any man. It was too much for him.

  ‘Good luck in your hunting,’ he said softly. His fingers caught her under the chin and tilted her chin just a tiny bit more. He kissed her. Softly, fleetingly, withdrawing before she had time to react.

  ‘Go to it, my David,’ he told her and he smiled and turned away to find his coffee shop.

  Max bought a newspaper. He settled in at Vlados and ordered a coffee. He drank half a cup; there was a commotion in the entrance and there was Pippa.

  She was in the midst of a group of uniformed men. Subdued. In her simple jeans and her T-shirt and sandals, she looked absurdly defenseless. David defeated?

  He was on his feet and moving towards her before she saw him.

  ‘Pippa?’

  She turned, relief washing over her face. She broke away from the men and met him halfway across the restaurant. She was not only defeated, he thought. She was furious. Her eyes were sparking daggers and spots of high colour suffused each cheek.

  She tossed down the card on the nearest table. With force. ‘Great idea, Your Highness.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘I don’t look royal.’

  ‘You look pretty good to me,’ he said and smiled, and then he stopped smiling as she looked around as if she was searching for something to brain him with. ‘Hey, I’m not the bad guy here. At least,’ he said cautiously, ‘I don’t think I am.’

  ‘You’re not,’ she said, glaring at the group of men she’d just left. ‘But you gave me the stupid card.’

  ‘The card was a problem?’

  ‘The whole idea was a problem.’

  ‘Are you going to t-’

  It seemed she was going to tell. ‘I’d barely set foot over the threshold,’ she told him. ‘Before Daniella herself-all coiffure and glitter-came snaking out from behind the counter and wondered if I was in the right shop. I said I needed three formal dresses and if she had formal dresses then I was in the right shop.’

  He was baffled. She looked really close to tears, he thought. He badly wanted to hold her but if he did…she’d back off, he thought, and he made a huge effort to make his voice noncommittal. ‘So?’

  ‘So she became very formal. She showed me a dress which looked okay, even if it did look like it was at the bottom of the range she carried. I said could I try it and she said, for security, could she see some form of identification as well as my credit card. I was getting pretty peeved, but I need a damned dress so I gave her my passport and your dumb royal card.’

  ‘I see,’ he said, really cautiously. He didn’t see.

  ‘So instead of helping me change into the dress she showed me into a cubicle. Then while I was wrangling zips she rang Levout. Who said I had no authority to charge anything to the castle and I must have stolen the card and he’d send the police straight away.’

  ‘You are kidding,’ he said slowly, but he knew already that she wasn’t. Uh-oh.

  ‘So I came out of the change room looking the ants pants in a little black number that would have knocked your socks off and I was met by six policemen. Six! And they wanted to haul me away in all my finery. Only then Daniella set up a screech about her dress, which she said costs a fortune, which, by the way, I was never going to buy because it was scratchy, and she made me take it off. Then and there. She made me change without going into the cubicle. She told the men to face the street but she wouldn�
�t let me go back into the change room. She watched every step of the way in case I hurt her precious frock. I was humiliated to my socks and she watched me change like I was a criminal and even though I was wearing the most respectable knickers in the world all the time I was getting so…so…’

  Hell. His hands were clenched into his palms so hard they hurt.

  ‘Anyway, I got back in my own gear,’ she muttered, as if she was trying hard to move on. ‘Then the police said I was under arrest, and I saw red. I said I hadn’t stolen your stupid card and that you were here and you’d sent me to buy a dress and you’re in charge of their stupid police force and you’ll sack the lot of them and if they didn’t check with you first you’ll have their necks on the guillotine first thing in the morning.’

  ‘Hey,’ he said, almost startled out of anger. ‘Guillotine?’

  ‘Well, maybe I didn’t say quite that,’ she muttered, glowering. ‘But it’s what I meant. Daniella’s horrible coiffure would look great in a bucket, and I’d knit and watch like anything. Anyway, then they thought they’d check with you. So they frog-marched me over here-well, why wouldn’t they when Levout assured them I was nothing to do with you? Now they’ve seen you and they’re really nervous. But they’re waiting on your command right now, to take me out and shoot me at dawn.’

  There were six burly police officers in the doorway, muttering fiercely among themselves. Looking uncomfortable. As well they might.

  ‘They seem to know you,’ she said, anger becoming calmer now. ‘Not me, though. I’m a provincial.’

  ‘I’ll go talk to them.’

  ‘Good. I’ll go steal a beer from the bar.’

  ‘Maybe a coffee would be better. Vlados will fetch one for you.’

  ‘Why not live up to my reputation?’

  ‘Pippa?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have a coffee.’

  By the time he reached them, the policemen were pretty sure they were in the wrong. Pippa’s anger must have been obvious, as was the conciliatory hand Max put on her shoulder as he left her.

  ‘Did she have rights to use the card?’ the officer with the most stripes asked before he said a word.

  ‘Yes,’ Max said, dangerously calm. ‘You saw our photographs taken the day we arrived? Did you recognise her?’

  ‘Yes, but she isn’t royal. We’re sorry if we’ve made a mistake, though. We were acting on Levout’s orders.’

  ‘You have made a mistake. And what possible authority does Levout have over you?’

  ‘He assured us the card was stolen.’

  ‘You haven’t answered my question. Was it his suggestion that made you force Miss Donohue to strip in the centre of the shop?’

  ‘I…no. That was Miss Daniella’s idea. She was concerned about her clothing.’

  ‘And you agreed? You stood by while someone was forced to strip in public?’

  ‘I…’

  ‘There’ll be changes,’ Max said wearily. ‘Starting from the top.’

  ‘If you mean dismissal…’ the man said unhappily.

  ‘I’m not talking about dismissal. And, much as my friend over there would like an even more gory fate to befall you, I’m not interested in that either. I want names and ranks, written here.’ He motioned to the waiter. ‘This man will do it for me. There’ll be repercussions, but meanwhile all I have to say is that Levout has no authority to act on my behalf in any capacity whatsoever. Is that clear?’

  ‘That’s clear,’ he was told unhappily, and he left them writing their names while he returned to Pippa.

  ‘This is a symptom of the mess we need to deal with,’ he told her grimly. ‘People with friends in high places can order the police force at whim. If you agree that Marc can stay here then I can fix this.’

  ‘Oh, great,’ she muttered. ‘More blackmail.’

  ‘I’m not blackmailing.’

  ‘Just holding a gun to my head.’

  ‘There are guns to both our heads. You tell me what to do. Brand my mother a liar in public? And surely you don’t want to go back to the farm?’

  ‘No, I-’

  ‘And you wouldn’t leave the kids here without you.’

  She hesitated. Just for a moment she hesitated. ‘No,’ she said finally. ‘Of course I wouldn’t. And you know that. Toe-rag.’

  ‘You’re calling me a toe-rag?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said bluntly. ‘I am. You’re saying you’ll fix this but from a distance? From back in Paris while you build your buildings? I can’t take on a proxy role and neither can Marc. If this country is such a mess-’

  ‘I’m doing all I can. Hell, Pippa, until five weeks ago I was a carpenter.’

  ‘And I was a dairy maid,’ she said, trying for a smile but not succeeding. Her shoulders sagged. He wanted to…he wanted…

  He couldn’t. At least he couldn’t without speaking to his mother. Hell.

  The police were filing out. ‘Did you threaten something really messy?’ she asked, without much hope.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Just as well,’ she said, and tried again to smile. ‘I’m not worth it.’

  ‘You are worth it. Pippa, I’m so sorry. You’re being sent from humiliation to humiliation. At Tanbarook, and now here.’

  ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘If you stay we have to figure out a role.’ Even if he sorted things with his mother-even if he accepted what was starting to seem inevitable-she had to have a place here.

  But she was shaking her head. ‘Kids’ guardian is the only role I want. Me and Dolores can sit in the sun for the rest of our lives. Where’s the problem in that?’

  ‘I-’

  ‘Look, let’s just organise this damned photo,’ she said. ‘If it really has to be taken. But I’d rather walk on nails than go back to Daniella’s.’

  ‘She’s the only decent dress shop in the village.’

  ‘What’s that over there?’

  She gestured towards the window. People were wandering into what looked like a dilapidated village hall. ‘It looks like some sort of repertory company,’ she said. ‘There are billboards all over the front, and ladies have been going in with dresses.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘So if it’s anything like any repertory company I’ve ever been involved with-’

  ‘You’re involved with repertory?’

  ‘I’ve been Katisha in a Gilbert and Sullivan hospital Christmas pageant.’

  The dragon lady in The Mikado? ‘I don’t believe it,’ he said faintly.

  ‘Want to hear an excerpt?’

  ‘No!’ Dammit, he wanted to hug her. He hated the bruised look behind her eyes. He wanted…

  He couldn’t. Hell, he needed to talk to his mother.

  She was moving on.

  ‘If this is a repertory company like any I’ve been involved with they’ll have a room full of used costumes out the back. If you get to wear a dress sword, surely I can find something suitable to match.’

  The repertory players were fascinated. ‘Go right ahead,’ they said, laughing among themselves at the thought of the props of their pageantry being used for such an occasion. ‘We have costumes here a hundred years old.’

  ‘Excellent,’ Pippa said, notably brightening. ‘A can-can dancer? Maybe not.’

  ‘We don’t usually lend them,’ the wardrobe mistress told them. ‘We use them over and over again. But for an occasion like this and if it saves you from paying money to that Daniella…’

  ‘She’s not popular?’ Max queried.

  ‘She’s the only business in this town to make money,’ the woman said darkly. ‘The rest of us live hand to mouth but Daniella is a friend to the palace.’

  That was said with such disdain that both Pippa and Max paused in their search and stared.

  ‘I didn’t mean you,’ the woman said, flushing a little. ‘We have such hopes, Your Highness,’ she told Max. ‘With you and your family settled in the palace…’

  ‘Just family,’ Pippa said. ‘Not him.�
�

  ‘Pippa, leave it,’ Max said shortly. ‘We came to find you a dress.’

  ‘So we did. Or I did. But I don’t need you to help me choose.’

  ‘I’d like to help.’

  ‘Yes, but I don’t want you to,’ she said, brightness fading. ‘I need to get used to working this thing out on my own. Go watch a play rehearsal.’

  She emerged a half hour later carrying a really big parcel. She looked pleased, but as she emerged and saw Max waiting for her in the late-afternoon sunshine her smile died.

  Why did she stop smiling when she saw him? He didn’t like it. ‘What did you find?’

  ‘Wait and see.’

  Okay. He deserved this. He unfolded his long frame from the stone wall where he’d been sitting. They walked half a block to their car-and Daniella herself came bustling out of her shop to intercept them.

  ‘Your Highness,’ she called, and Max paused.

  ‘Get in the car, Pippa.’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ She summoned a smile. ‘I want to punch her lights out.’

  ‘You’re not allowed to punch anyone’s lights out.’

  ‘Really?’ she said, quasi hopeful.

  ‘Just because you walloped me doesn’t mean you can get used to it.’

  ‘No?’ She bit her lip, her entrancing twinkle back. ‘But I’m really sorry I walloped you.’

  ‘That’s fine. It was an entirely justifiable wallop.’

  ‘And walloping Daniella isn’t?’

  ‘Not if we don’t want a law suit.’

  She signed theatrically, but she pinned on a smile as she turned to face the approaching Daniella.

  Daniella was in her mid fifties, pencil slim, platinum blonde, dressed in sleek, expensive black. She was clicking hurriedly toward them on six-inch heels.

  ‘I need to apologise,’ she said, breathless and passionate, but she spoke only to Max. ‘If I’d realised she really had authority-’

  ‘She?’

  Daniella motioned to Pippa. ‘This woman. You need to get an identification system for authorised servants, Your Highness. The old prince let us know clearly who could buy things on his behalf.’

  ‘Pippa is the guardian of the Crown Prince. She has the royal card.’

  ‘Yes, but she has no money on her own behalf,’ the woman said. ‘And the little prince is too small to have her in charge. I didn’t know what her credit limit was. Let me know and I’ll accommodate her.’