She lay there listening to their attempts to be quiet, then finally, Daire went downstairs and there was silence. Toby told herself she should go back to sleep but she wanted to be sure Graydon was all right.
She had on her pink pajamas and thought of putting on a robe, but she didn’t. Barefoot, she went to Graydon’s bedroom. The door was open and she tiptoed in. He was lying facedown on the bed, the covers thrown back, with the tail of a blanket over the lower half of him. From the waist up he was nude, with his right arm hanging off the bed, his fingertips touching the floor.
Smiling, she reached across him to get the other half of the blanket to cover him. It was too cool to be so bare.
When his hand reached out and grabbed her thigh, she gasped in surprise. In a lightning fast movement, he pulled her off her feet so she landed on top of him, then he deftly rolled her over so she was stretched out beside him.
“Now you are mine,” he said and began to kiss her neck.
“You smell like a brewery.” She was pushing at him.
“Daire got me drunk.”
“Held you down, did he? Poured gallons of beer into your mouth?”
“He did,” Graydon said. “Think I should have him beheaded? What do you have on?”
“Pajamas, and stop unbuttoning them.” She pushed at his shoulders to look at him. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. “I don’t want to be deflowered by a drunken prince.”
“Good,” he said and collapsed with his face on her shoulder. “We’ll just be still and in the morning we’ll work on the flowers.”
Toby laughed. She knew she should let him sleep, but in his inebriated state he just might answer a few questions. “Do you love Danna?”
“Lanconia owes her father for businesses and jobs and scholarships and … everything,” Graydon murmured sleepily. He was on his stomach and had his arm around Toby so securely she wasn’t sure she could move if she wanted to.
“And you’re the prize? Like in a fairy tale? If a man does some great deed the king rewards him with the hand of the prince in marriage to his daughter?”
“Exactly like that.”
His breath was warm on her cheek. “How does the word ‘barbaric’ sound to you?”
“Perfect,” he said, “but I didn’t mind until I came to Nantucket. Danna is beautiful.”
“Oh?” Toby said. “Does she have the blonde hair that you seem to like so much? Can’t keep your hands out of it, can you?”
Graydon went back to kissing her neck. “Natural blonde. I told my grandfather that.”
She pulled away from him. “You did what?”
Graydon just smiled, his eyes closed.
“No wonder your grandfather was so flirty in his emails!” Toby said. “I thought it was cute but now I’m embarrassed. What else did you tell people about me? You didn’t mention me to your mother, did you?”
“No,” Graydon said and rolled onto his back.
When his merriment instantly disappeared, Toby wished she hadn’t mentioned the queen. She moved to his side and put her head on his shoulder. “I didn’t mean to sober you up with something bad. Did you know that Lorcan is in love with Daire?”
“Daire is highborn,” Graydon said in a distracted way. He was staring at the ceiling.
When he said nothing more, she moved on top of him. “Think of happy things.” She kissed his neck.
“Like you dreaming of being with other men? Or the fact that I can’t touch you?”
“It’s you in the dreams,” she said as she nuzzled his neck. “It’s not like I’m being unfaithful. Besides, you’re the one marrying someone else.”
“But I have to! Danna’s father threatened to move all his businesses and charities out of the country if his daughter isn’t made queen.”
“Did anybody ask Danna what she wants?”
He held her shoulders back to look at her. “Of course not, but then, what woman would not like to marry me?!”
Laughing, Toby rolled off him but he went with her, his body over hers. He held himself up by one arm and looked at her face. It was fairly light in the room, as the curtains hadn’t been drawn. “In that dream life of yours,” he said, “you marry another, and in this one I must marry someone else. It seems that there are always obligations that pull us apart. You with your sea widows who need support, and me with a country that I must take care of. Do you think we’ll ever be together?”
She liked his insinuation that he wanted to be with her, even though it was impossible.
“I tell you what, next time I have one of my time travel dreams, you should go with me. You can take over Garrett’s body and I’ll be Tabby.”
He began to smile. “Since it all happened over two hundred years ago, I would make love to you and damn the consequences. Let them deal with what happens.” He ran his hand down the side of her, slowly touching the curve of her waist and her hip. When he came up, his hand went under her pajama top to cup her breast.
Toby drew in her breath. Never had a man touched her so intimately.
“My darling Carpathia, you have no idea how much I desire you. To touch you, to hold you, to be near you, is all I want. To kiss your neck, your lips, your eyes, your ears. To run my mouth over every inch of you is all I seem to think about. But I cannot,” he said, and moved onto his back.
Toby stayed where she was, looking up at the ceiling. So this was it, she thought. This was the way other girls felt when a man kissed them. “I didn’t mean to, but I couldn’t help myself,” they said. “It just happened. There was nothing I could do to stop it.” Toby had always felt disgust when she’d heard that because no man had come close to making her forget herself for even a second.
But this man did.
She turned toward him. “Graydon,” she whispered.
“Go to your bed,” he said, his voice firm. “I’ve had too much to drink to be in control of my actions.”
When she started to protest, he said “Please” in a way that made her think he was in pain. Slowly, she got out of his bed and went to her own. It took her quite a while before she went to sleep.
Graydon didn’t get up until eleven the next day. He tried to pretend that nothing hurt him, but when Toby held up two pain-reliever tablets and a glass of water, he took them. “Did I make a fool of myself last night?”
“You declared your undying love for me, we spent three hours having fabulous sex, and I’m probably pregnant.”
He didn’t so much as pause in draining his glass of water. “As long as it was nothing important,” he said, his eyes sparkling. He left to go back to his computer, as he was working with Rory on a coming meeting. Since it was to be conducted in Russian—which Rory didn’t speak but Graydon did—it was causing some problems.
Daire had just come inside, heard the exchange between them, and was looking at Toby with serious eyes.
“It was a joke,” Toby said. “I’m still a maiden and your precious country is in no danger.” She left the room.
But it seemed that the two nights spent nearly together had changed things between her and Graydon. Their movements and words were more free with each other.
For the next few days they were all very busy. The first thing they did was invite Victoria and Dr. Huntley, and Jilly and Ken, to dinner the following Saturday night, when they’d present the theme. Leaving the choice so late gave them less time to prepare for the wedding, but Jilly had already sent out the Save the Date cards. Besides, Toby and Graydon were so sure that Victoria was going to love the idea that they planned a lot of the wedding beforehand. The venue—Alix’s chapel—was available, and Daire’s love of history helped them with the food, flowers, and music. Even the invitations came from history. They decided not to tell their dinner guests of the plan for it to be in costume or that they would serve a meal of dishes that dated from the Regency period.
Jilly stopped by to accept the invitation. What she saw was a house buzzing with activity. Graydon’s constant calls and video con
versations with his brother ruled their lives.
“Right now, Graydon is prince and king and even the queen,” Toby told Jilly. “It’s just that he’s doing it all through Rory.”
“And Graydon can do that from here?” Jilly asked.
“Oh, yes. We help him, of course, but he manages.” Toby told Graydon’s aunt about his idea of strapping a phone to Rory’s cast and sending text messages. Another time Graydon spoke to a Russian businessman directly on the phone and suggested that, for privacy, they speak English when they were together in person. “Russian is one of the six languages Graydon speaks,” Toby said.
“I had no idea he was so accomplished.”
“Graydon can do most anything,” Toby said without a hint of humor.
“Can he?” Jilly asked, trying not to laugh.
When the back door opened and Graydon came inside, Toby jumped up to meet him in the kitchen. He’d been outside with Daire, the two men attacking each other with their heavy swords.
“Your aunt is here,” Jilly heard Toby say, “and you are a sweaty mess.”
“Since when don’t you like that?” Toby’s giggle could be heard from the hall. When Toby returned to the living room, one side of her face was damp and red from what looked to be whisker burn. Jilly stood up. “We’ll see you on Saturday at seven,” she said and left. She was frowning. It looked like someone was going to get her—or his—heart broken.
During the week, Toby put Lorcan and Daire together more often. She had no idea that what she was doing would cause her and Graydon’s first real argument.
Since Lorcan had said that Daire liked history, Toby soon figured out that all she had to do was mess up the plans and Daire would take over. She proposed a menu for the dinner that looked like a New Age fusion meal. She said she was especially pleased with her idea of using lemongrass.
Daire told her she was an idiot, then apologized. Toby, in false anger, told him that if he didn’t like her ideas, he could come up with the menu. She walked out the back door, slamming it just hard enough that she didn’t endanger the old panes of glass.
Graydon was gracefully moving about the garden as he jabbed his heavy sword into the air. “What are you up to?” he asked.
“Nothing interesting. I’m going to water the greenhouse.”
“I already did. Get the wraps and you can do some punching and tell me what you’ve done to Daire.”
There was no talking during boxing, certainly not the way Graydon did it. He showed her how to duck the big pad that he directed at her face. When she forgot, he tapped her head. “Hit me again and I’ll make you sorry,” she said.
“Is that a promise?”
She tried to punch him, but he easily sidestepped her every move. After an hour, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her back to his front and kissed her neck.
“What are you up to with Daire?” he asked as he let her go and began pulling off her gloves and unwrapping her hands.
“He’s going to plan the menu for the dinner party.”
“And what is Lorcan to do?”
“I have no idea,” Toby said innocently, but when Graydon kept staring at her, she broke. “How long has Lorcan been in love with Daire?”
“The three of us are a team and we work well together. They are not ‘in love,’ ” Graydon said in a patronizing tone.
She looked at him in astonishment. “Can you honestly tell me that you’ve never seen anything between them? She is in love with him. Why are you frowning so hard?”
“Daire is my cousin. His father is a duke and his ancestor was a king.”
“I’m sure Lorcan can be persuaded to overlook his flaws.” Toby was making an American joke about equality—but Graydon didn’t stop frowning. “I see,” Toby said. “Kings don’t soil themselves by marrying commoners. Tell me, do you guys still have affairs with people like us?”
She started to walk away but he caught her arm.
“Toby, I know that none of this makes sense to you, but this is the way it’s been in my country for centuries.”
She pulled away from him. “I think you misunderstand me. I’m making no criticism or judgment. It’s none of my business if you Lanconians want to spend your lives with people you don’t love. I’ll bet Daire’s illustrious family has somebody picked out for him.”
She could tell by his face that she was right. “All of you have my best wishes for what I’m sure will be a very happy future.”
If she’d been wearing a long dress with yards of skirt she couldn’t have swept past him more haughtily. By the time she got to the house she was so angry she could hardly see where she was going. It felt good to think of a romantic, even tragic, prince who was being forced to marry a woman he didn’t love. It was noble of him to sacrifice himself for his country. But to hear that Graydon thought that because of some man’s birth he couldn’t marry a beautiful, intelligent woman like Lorcan was sickening.
She went upstairs, firmly closed her bedroom door, showered, and changed. When she was ready, she went downstairs, barely glanced at Daire and Lorcan at the dining table, grabbed her handbag, and went out the front door. Twice she heard Graydon call her name but she didn’t respond.
She quickly walked into town and realized how long it had been since she’d been out of the house. Since she’d met Graydon Montgomery it was as though he’d taken over her life.
Maybe I should rename our house THE SEIZE OF MONTGOMERY, she thought, and the play on words of “seas” and “seize” made her smile.
In the last two weeks she had neglected her real life—the one she would return to when HRH went home to marry the “highborn”—but beautiful—woman he didn’t love.
Toby walked down to the end of Straight Wharf and looked out at the water. Right now she wished with all her might that she had someone to talk to about all this. She called Lexie in France. “I miss you,” she said as soon as Lexie picked up.
“What’s wrong?” Lexie asked.
“Nothing,” Toby lied. “What’s going on with you?”
When Lexie started talking, she didn’t seem to take a breath. Her boss, Roger Plymouth, had arrived a few days before. He’d been injured in a car crash and his left arm was broken. “He can’t drive,” Lexie said, making it sound like the biggest tragedy on earth. “He brought a nurse with him, but—”
“A nurse? Was he that badly injured?” Toby asked.
“No, but Roger can’t do anything by himself. It seems the nurse knows his sister and the two of them haven’t stopped laughing together—in French, no less. I didn’t even know the kid could laugh. With me she just does a lot of heavy sighing. She’s not at all the girl I met last year. I’ve ended up spending all my time with Roger.”
“Oh?” Toby said and noted that Lexie was calling him Roger and not Plymouth. “You must have hated that. Did he have anything to actually say?”
“He does. I didn’t know it, but he works on some philanthropical committees. He’s opening a camp for inner-city kids and using his money and athletic abilities to—” Lexie cut off. “I don’t want to bore you.”
Right now Toby was so angry at Graydon that she wanted to hear what Lexie had to say. “You’re beginning to like him, aren’t you?”
“Maybe. He wants to go on a driving tour around the country. There are some places he wants to visit to get ideas for his camp. It was planned that he was going with a college buddy of his, but the guy backed out at the last minute. Roger can’t drive his stick-shift car with only one hand, so he’s asked me to go with him.”
“You can’t drive a manual,” was all Toby could think to say.
“He’s going to teach me. It’s either go or stay here with his sister. If I don’t go with Roger, I’m afraid I might be relegated to maid status by his sister. Besides, I might be able to help with ideas. Roger is no good at organization.”
“Do it,” Toby said. “Take any chance you’re offered and be glad of it.”
Lexie was quiet for
a moment. “You sound bad. What happened?”
“I guess I took off my rose-colored glasses, that’s all.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
Toby thought of trying to explain the ideology of another country but had no idea where to begin. “Not yet,” she said.
“You haven’t committed the ultimate sin and fallen in love with him, have you?” Lexie asked.
“Far, far from it. In fact, I’m thinking that after the dinner party on Saturday I may kick the lot of them out of the house.”
“What dinner party?” Lexie asked.
Toby was glad of a subject she could talk about freely and she launched into a description of her plans for a historical wedding. But she didn’t tell Lexie about her dream encounters with Victoria/Valentina. That was too much to explain over the phone. Instead, Toby said the idea had come from Victoria’s historical novels.
“I always knew you were brilliant,” Lexie said, “and I think Victoria will love the idea. Is Dr. Huntley getting the costumes for you to wear?”
Toby told of Graydon asking his grandparents to raid the palace closets.
“Sounds like he’s rather involved in your life. Have you been to bed with him yet?”
“Yes and no,” Toby said. “Kissing, rolling around on the bed, but no sex.”
“Sounds like high school.”
“Yeah, doesn’t it? What about you?”
“No, of course not. This is business. I have to go,” Lexie said. “Toby, hang in there and let me know if anything, you know, happens.”
“Same with you and Roger.”
“There won’t be anything. He and I—” She broke off because Toby was laughing and when Lexie joined her, Toby knew her friend was tempted.
Still laughing, they said goodbye and hung up.
Toby put her phone away and realized she felt much better. She walked to the florist shop where she worked and talked to her boss. Maybe next week she’d go back to her job. No more hanging out with Lanconians and trying to understand their ways.
But her boss didn’t need her. The young woman Victoria had found to replace Toby was doing exceptionally well. What he didn’t tell Toby was that he’d made a deal with Victoria that all her wedding flowers would come through him if he didn’t rehire Toby until September.
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