When he didn’t say anything, she felt more confused than ever and rushed on. “I’m pretty sure she’s lived in denial that the day would ever come when the two of you would actually have to do your duty. But her father didn’t like the idea that she wasn’t married yet, and I guess he talked with your father. So-when she asked me to do this favor for her, although I didn’t like anything about it, I saw no way I could refuse her.”
He nodded solemnly. “After what you’ve told me, I can understand that she put you in an impossible position.”
Lee rubbed her arms nervously. “What’s really ironic is that, after meeting you, I’m beginning to think that if the two of you hadn’t been betrothed and could have met by chance, you might be looking forward to your wedding. Besides being attractive, you’re both intelligent, wonderful people who are kind at heart.”
“There’s only one problem with that scenario.” Raoul’s voice grated. “Without the spark that drives a man and a woman into each other’s arms, the rest isn’t enough. Obviously you have already found that out.”
Her chin lifted. “What do you mean?”
“You say you haven’t been intimate with another man in three years. Judging by the behavior of my friends, who fell all over you vying for your attention, it’s not for a lack of attractive, intelligent, kind, wonderful male admirers. But, as you’ve learned…if you don’t feel the fire, the rest is meaningless.”
He was right… She was so on fire for him she knew in her heart there would never be another man for her. Her feelings for Todd were tame by comparison. That was what was so frightening to her now.
As she looked away, it suddenly dawned on her Raoul might have been telling her something else…
Sophie might have misread the whole situation.
Was it possible Raoul had never felt Sophie reach out to him in desire, so he’d withheld his true feelings? Had her rejection of him wounded more than his pride?
The Princess was a real royal beauty, who caused men’s heads to turn every time she went out in public. Maybe all along Raoul had nursed a secret longing for her, yet had always sensed his betrothed’s uninterest.
Heavens-it was entirely possible that he’d been hoping marriage would awaken her desire for him! It would explain why he’d allowed himself to become officially engaged a few months ago.
The more Lee thought about it, the more she wondered if Raoul hadn’t wanted to take Sophie up on the mountain as an excuse to get close to her.
If that was the case, then how awful it must have been for him to find someone else besides his intended sitting in the car with Philippe!
A shudder passed through Lee’s body when she realized what she’d said to him minutes ago.
The Princess doesn’t want to marry you.
How cruel that must have sounded, especially if in the depths of his soul Raoul had been looking forward to his marriage.
This was agony in a new dimension. Not only for him, but for Lee, who couldn’t imagine the bleakness of her life without him now. Their passionate interlude in the kitchen had probably been his way of venting his pain and frustration. But it had been a lifechanging experience for her.
She had to get away from him!
“I’ve been as honest with you as I know how to be. If you don’t mind, I’d like to leave for the train station now.”
He studied her for a moment through shuttered lids. “What will you tell Sophie?”
“Even if it costs me her friendship, I’ll tell her the truth-that I couldn’t go through with something that is strictly between the two of you and nobody else.”
“And what will you tell her happened between you and me?” he drawled.
Was he afraid? He didn’t have to be. Lee would go to her grave with their secret.
She faced him bravely for the last time. “Nothing happened between us, Your Highness.”
CHAPTER SIX
T HE hell it hadn’t!
“Since you’ve been so honest with me,” Raoul muttered, “the least I can do is handle the matter with Sophie in a way that won’t jeopardize your relationship with her.”
His comment caused the mask to slip from her face. It fascinated him the way her eyes darkened to purple. “Wh-what do you mean?”
Pleased to hear the uncertainty in her voice he said, “What do you think I mean?”
He watched her swallow hard. “I guess what I meant to say is, do you have to do anything? Can’t we leave things alone?”
What was she frightened of? “I’m afraid that would be impossible now.”
Her complexion lost some of its color. “Please don’t say that-I’ll just tell her that after you phoned her I lost my nerve and stayed at a bed and breakfast while you left on a climb with your friends. That way she’ll never have to know about wha-about anything else…”
You mean like the way we were communicating a few minutes ago?
Raoul groaned, still shaken by what had just transpired. No matter what she’d said about her fiancé, Raoul could have sworn there had been no one else in that kitchen but the two of them.
Mon Dieu, the taste of her still clung to his lips. The fragrance of her hair and skin still enveloped him. It was all he could do not to reach for her and finish what they’d started. Yet in his gut he knew it would never be enough. He’d want her over and over again. He wanted her now.
“Raoul- Please listen- Sophie will forgive me because she knew it was a foolish plan in the first place. I beg you not to do something that could hurt either of you or your families.”
Her earnestness reached out to him like a tangible thing. What was really going on inside her?
“Were you lying about Sophie’s feelings?” he demanded.
Her eyes filmed over. “How can you even ask me that question?”
“Then how can I not do something?” he reasoned, as calmly as he could. “You’re her best friend, the woman who’s been in Sophie’s total confidence for years now. At great risk, you’ve just told me the Princess has no desire to be my wife.”
He moved closer to her. “You think, after hearing that kind of news, I’m such a heartless swine I would condemn her to a loveless marriage?”
“No-of course I don’t think that,” she whispered. “But you’re not ordinary people. You have your duty to remember, which makes everything much more complicated.”
“More than even you can imagine,” he agreed. “But if she was desperate enough to send you here, then desperate measures are called for.”
She searched his eyes anxiously. “What desperate measures?”
“You’re going to spend the rest of this weekend with me out in the open. We’ll give the press the kind of copy they’ve been trying to get on me for years. I can guarantee that by Sunday night Sophie’s parents will be calling my parents to demand an explanation. When that happens, all hell will break loose.”
Lee stared at him in horror. “I couldn’t do that to them.”
He gritted his teeth. “You mean after going this far you refuse to do the one thing guaranteed to help Sophie escape? She’ll thank you forever.” Driving the point home, he said, “Your friend’s plan wasn’t foolish. Her only problem was she sent the wrong woman to get the job done.”
“Wrong woman?” Lee cried out, as if stung by his remark.
He nodded. “You folded before you’d carried out your mission. My plan will ensure nothing goes wrong.”
She paced the floor, then spun around. “Have you considered how your parents will feel?”
“Of course, but of necessity they can’t be my first priority right now.”
“But they should be!” she blurted heatedly. “A-and what about you?” The color had come back in her cheeks.
He’d been wondering when she’d get around to the personal.
“If you mean, how do I feel knowing my betrothed would do anything to avoid marrying me, then I’m surprised you would have to ask.”
A sound of exasperation came out of her. “Your
whole life has been aimed at marriage to Sophie. Aren’t you even a little hurt by what you’ve learned, especially when you were officially engaged earlier in the year? I know I would be,” she admitted in a quiet voice.
“Maybe my pride,” he lied.
If she had any idea of the excitement he was feeling she would call him inhuman. But all she had to do was slide her hand over his heart, as she’d done in the kitchen, and she would feel it thudding with emotions he couldn’t take the time to examine right now.
“What is it going to be, Mademoiselle Gresham? Do I take you to the train? Or are you willing to help me make your best friend’s dreams come true?”
While he waited for her to make up her mind, he decided to add the qualifier.
“If you can’t find it in you to help me, then I’ll meet with Sophie’s parents later today and tell them I don’t want to marry their daughter.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You mustn’t go to them!”
“Why not?”
“Because long ago Sophie told me her father would have to be the one to break your engagement, otherwise your title is in jeopardy.”
“It’s too late to worry about that now.”
“You can’t mean it!” She sounded frantic.
“Lee-without your intervention I would have exchanged vows with her, ignorant of her true feelings. We’re talking about marriage for a lifetime. In our case, ignorance would not be bliss.”
Another moan escaped her throat. “I wish to heaven I’d never come here.”
“But you did come. If you agree to my plan, it’s probable Sophie will get out of our betrothal gracefully, and I may yet live to retain what has been mine up to now.”
“At what price? Even if everything works out, you’ll have to live with a tarnished reputation, especially when the media finds out I’m Sophie’s best friend.” Her haunted eyes searched his. “I couldn’t bear for you to have to live down a scandal like that.”
With those words, he’d been given a glimpse into her soul. It humbled him.
“You’d have to be prepared to suffer the same fate.”
“I’m a nobody from America. It doesn’t matter about me. You’re the Prince!”
“You think I give a damn about it when Sophie dreads the thought of marriage to me?” he demanded.
His question tore Lee apart. If he was in pain, he didn’t let it show and was a master actor.
“No,” she finally whispered, with tears in her voice, because in her mind’s eye she could see Sophie running into Luciano’s arms outside the station in Visp. The joy on their faces was something she would never forget.
But their happiness would come at great sacrifice to Raoul, who, at this moment, was showing more character and nobility than anyone would ever know, especially if he was grieving.
She ached with love for him.
“You th-think you can do this and still retain your title?”
“I don’t honestly know. What I can tell you without equivocation is that without the right woman at my side it would all be meaningless anyway. Help me, Lee.”
She struggled with an impossible decision. “I-I guess if there’s no other way out-”
A minute must have gone by before he said, “Besides everything else, you’re a courageous woman. No wonder the princess has clung to your friendship. She’s very lucky you came into her life.”
Lee raised her eyes to his. “Believe me, I’ve been the lucky one.”
“I’d like to hear more about you two. Why don’t you come in the kitchen and talk to me while I do the dishes?”
He was putting on such a brave front she had no choice but to go along with him, hoping to help him feel better. But of course that would be impossible.
“I’m embarrassed to say I forgot all about them. Let me help.”
Together they made short work of them while she told him about some of her more outrageous escapades with Sophie at Beau Lac. His deep laughter was contagious.
How sad that Sophie would never see the Prince being the man of the house, drying the dishes, emptying the wastebasket. How hard it was for Lee to hide her true feelings when these precious moments with him made her so happy.
For a little while she could pretend Roger’s condo was their home, that Raoul was her husband. As a little girl, she’d often played house with her friends. Little had she dreamed that one day she’d grow up to play house with a real prince.
After they’d cleaned up the kitchen they went back to the living room, where he put the mountain-climbing video in the machine. While he sat in a side chair, Lee curled up on the end of the couch to watch.
For the next hour she sat enthralled as she watched Raoul and his friends make their ascent from the base camp to the summit. She couldn’t contain her noisy exclamations of fear and excitement.
“You faced so many dangers it’s a miracle any of you made it back. I could never do it.”
“Are you the same woman who wanted to climb the Matterhorn?” he teased.
“Yes. I know my limitations. It’s a shame my father isn’t still alive. He would have loved talking to you about your experience. Everest was his dream. But when he was young and fit enough to make such a climb he had a family he didn’t dare leave and a demanding military career.”
Raoul shot her a penetrating glance. “If I’d had a wife and daughter who depended on me, I wouldn’t have gone either.”
He got up from the chair opposite her and turned off the machine. Eyeing her from a distance, he said, “What did you do for fun in Wyoming-besides climb with your father?”
“I rode horses in the summer, skied in the winter.”
“Did your fiancé share those interests?”
His question surprised her, yet, oddly enough, she didn’t mind talking about the past. She wondered when she’d stopped grieving.
“He might have done. Todd was from Laguna Beach, California, and loved to surf, but he had a dream to see the world. We met in the Middle East. He planned to make the army his career.”
“What about his family? Are you still in touch with them?”
“Not as much as they’d like. In my darkest time, Sophie encouraged me to look forward, not back. I think she was right.”
“The more I’m learning about the Princess, the more I want to help her get out of our engagement without any blame being attached to her.”
Lee rose to her feet, loving him all the more for the selfless gesture he was about to make for Sophie.
“I still wish there were another way to do it that wouldn’t harm you.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a big boy now and can take care of myself.”
I’ve noticed.
“Shall we go? I’d like to drive back to the chalet. We’ll pick up your things to return to the sporting goods store, then play tourist for the rest of the day. I’ll be buying you some things-don’t be alarmed,” he cautioned when she would have protested. “This is for Sophie’s sake. I already know from Philippe that you wouldn’t allow me to pay for anything yesterday. But what we’re about to do is strictly business. It will show the world I’m taking care of you.”
Lee had no defense for that.
“I’m looking forward to it more than you know,” he added with a half-smile that dissolved her bones. Then he opened the front door for her.
She made the mistake of glancing at him, and felt herself falling into those fjord-blue eyes.
“Do you realize this will be the first time in my life I couldn’t care less how many photographers follow us around?”
Lee knew those weren’t idle words. The journalists were the bane of Sophie’s existence. For Raoul, that aspect of his royal life had to be a nightmare.
Too soon Lee’s picture was going to be linked with his. She shuddered to think how the news would affect both sets of parents.
After he’d helped her with her jacket, his hands lingered on her shoulders. “It’s going to be all right.” He read her mind with uncan
ny perception. “I’ll protect you. You won’t have to say a word.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
“B ONJOUR, Greta.”
“Bonjour,” the housekeeper replied, then stopped her sweeping to look up. When she saw the two of them in the kitchen doorway, her blue eyes rounded in surprise.
“Mademoiselle! I just read the note you left me.” Her gaze darted to Raoul. “I thought you went climbing. What is going on?”
Already Greta could sense something different in the air. This was only the beginning. He could feel Lee tremble, but he wasn’t about to let her out of their bargain now.
“We decided we’d rather spend the time in town than up on the mountain.”
Greta’s gaze grew more guarded as it swerved to Lee. “You must be feeling much better.”
Raoul chuckled inwardly to see the housekeeper he’d known for years behave like a mother hen watching out for her royal chick. “It was your tea that did it,” he interjected. “She’ll be staying with me through the weekend.”
While Greta mulled over that unexpected bit of information with disapproval, he turned to Lee. “Go ahead and freshen up in the bedroom. I’ll meet you here in half an hour.”
“All right.”
As soon as she hurried away, he gave Greta his attention once more. “We’ll be eating out tonight and tomorrow night. You and Franz are welcome to take both evenings off if you’d like.”
She looked shocked. “What about the Princess?”
“You needn’t worry about her. She’s not coming. I’ll be in the loft if you need me.”
He bounded up the back stairs three at a time and pulled out his cellphone. The note with Sophie’s number was still on the end table. After punching the digits, he sank down on the bed and waited for her to answer.
“Allo?”
“Bonjour, Sophie. C’est Raoul.”
The soft gasp spoke volumes. “Raoul-”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Not very well.”
“I’m sorry. Perhaps what I have to say will improve your spirits.”
After a hesitation, “What do you mean?”
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