Cursed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 5

by Jennifer Chance

  He rose to one elbow, his eyes glittering as he watched her slip into the soft confection. “You sleep heavily. I had it in one of the guest bathrooms, thought you might want it when you woke up.”

  “Well, thank you.” She kept her words light, but she quickly turned away to focus on the window, annoyed with the ridiculous sensation that she might start crying. What a stupid thing to cry about! It was a robe. Nothing more than a robe.

  A robe that Vince had thought about putting where she could easily find it, maybe worried that she might feel self-conscious after waking up in the bed of a man she barely knew. A robe that Vince had gone to retrieve silently in the night while she slumbered, taking care not to wake her or disturb her in anyway. A robe she hadn’t asked for, hadn’t even realized she’d want, yet there it was, just in case.

  Edeena thinned her lips as she moved toward the window. She was so going to cry over the stupid robe if she didn’t watch it.

  She pulled the curtains open with a quick shake, then realized she’d need to walk them all the way back, as if she was raising a curtain on a theatrical production. “These are heavy!” she gasped, laughing.

  “Loud, too, or I would have fixed them more completely last night.”

  She looked back at him. Vince was sitting up in bed now, his face rough with his morning beard. She realized she’d never seen him unshaven, not even one day’s worth, and she smiled, smoothing a hand down her robe. “I’ll probably need to take you up on that shopping trip before we return to Heron’s Point. The girls have no idea what I wore last night, but Cousin Prudence does. I’d feel awkward if she noticed how creased the clothes were.”

  “Already on it,” Vince said. “There’s a ladies’ shop around the corner that opens at ten, if you don’t mind the wait. I figured you could dress in yesterday’s clothes and we could walk around the harbor area. There’s several fantastic breakfast restaurants, if you’re hungry.”

  Edeena nodded. She was hungry, and a little nervous, too, if she was honest. She didn’t know how to think about what had happened between her and Vince. He wasn’t a stranger to her, and she did trust him—had trusted him instinctively since the moment she’d met him. And now she’d simply had vindication of that trust. She had the memory of his arms around her, steady and sure, the strength of his body at her command, the knowledge that she had caused him to stare at her wide-eyed with want, with need. It was a heady, almost dangerous memory, and it was hers. Nothing that happened from this point on could take that away from her.

  They breakfasted at a sidewalk café and stopped in the first store they found on the walk around the harbor area, Edeena quickly choosing a linen sundress in a bright sea blue, almost the color of the Aegean on a perfect day. She didn’t bother trying it on until she got back to Vince’s, and he insisted on helping her change into it, which somehow resulted in a long, lingering shower in his unreasonably large bathroom, their hands and bodies intertwined as a pounding waterfall of spray kept the world at bay for another hour . . . then two.

  When they finally crossed the bridge back to Sea Haven, Edeena felt almost ridiculously happy, like a teenager giving in to her first vacation crush, savoring it all the more because it wouldn’t last, couldn’t last. She smiled, looking out the window, imagining what it would have been like if she’d met Vince when she was still a teen and he was some cocky boy on a South Carolina island. They’d have shared stolen kisses and maybe more behind the dunes, staring into each other’s eyes and making ridiculous promises that neither one of them believed. They’d have promised to email each other, to visit again, no matter how impossible it was.

  “Do I want to know what you’re thinking?” Vince rumbled and she glanced over to him. He looked as cool and confident as ever, but he had the same deeply contented look that she suspected she did, and she cocked a brow at him.

  “I was thinking that you’d better wipe that smirk off your face before we reach Heron’s Point. Cousin Prudence isn’t that old, and my sisters aren’t idiots.”

  “Hey, I’m not the one you should be worried about,” he said, his words a chiding rumble. “You’re the one who looks like you’ve been pleasured by a master.”

  Edeena burst into laughter, and they drove like that for the remaining twenty minutes it took to reach the big old house, her chuckles subsiding only as they approached the mansion. Even Vince seemed to be driving more slowly now, lengthening the time that remained for the two of them, together.

  “It really is a pretty house,” she said, gazing up at Heron’s Point. “I’m not sure how we’re going to keep from selling it, with father so eager to finalize all of mom’s financials now that he’s remarried. But I hope, for Prudence’s sake, that the market stays soft.”

  “She’s done a fine job with it,” Vince said noncommittally, and Edeena felt the first layer of distance build between them. Her selling the house was perhaps the clearest indication she could give that she had no intention of returning to Sea Haven, and that there was certainly no reason to see him again. She wanted to take back the words, to offer reassurances, but what could she say?

  Nothing. It was enough that they would have the next few days together.

  “Do you . . . do you think we could travel a bit more tomorrow?” she asked almost shyly, aware of Vince’s sharp glance. He cruised the SUV to the edge of the parking circle and slowed to a stop. “I was thinking we could go down to Savannah, if you’re free?”

  She glanced back to him and found him staring her, an expression she’d never seen before in his eyes. “If you don’t have time, that’s fine. I completely under—”

  “No,” he said, cutting her off. “I have plenty of time.” He worked his face into a smile, but it was still almost too fierce for comfort. “We can definitely go. You should see Savannah. It’s one of the most beautiful cities in the South, even if it is in Georgia.”

  His light words didn’t account for the intensity of his gaze, but Edeena nodded quickly.

  “We’ll bring your sisters, I think,” Vince continued.

  She was so startled, she couldn’t stop her response. “But why?”

  Instantly, she regretted her words. Of course they should bring her sisters. They’d love Savannah, love the idea of a road trip, love traveling with Vince. How could she be so selfish as to keep him all to herself?

  She realized Vince hadn’t responded, however, and she looked up, blinking as she realized his stare had not wavered. “Vince?”

  “Don’t get me wrong, Edeena. I want nothing more than to travel with you, anywhere, any way. But if I get you back in the car again with the promise of a road trip off this island and it’s just the two of us, I can’t be responsible for stopping. The next thing you know, you’ll look up and we’ll be all the way to the Grand Canyon, and I still won’t want to let you go.”

  His words were calm, almost matter of fact, and of course he was joking, but Edeena couldn’t stop the blush that flared in her cheeks. Vince saved her from having to respond by easing open his door, and she followed suit, smoothing down her dress as he grabbed her new tote bag and shopping bags out of the SUV.

  By the time he reached her, handing her a bag, he was once again smiling and professional, and she found herself wondering if that exchange between them had actually been spoken, or if her fantasies were playing out in her mind.

  She didn’t have time to consider it any longer, however. The door at the top of the grand staircase burst open and Marguerite came storming out, looking credibly distraught, even for Marguerite.

  “Edeena!” she cried, beckoning with her hand. “Thank God, hurry up! Father is on the phone! He seems to think we’re all coming back tomorrow!”

  Vince stepped into the house with the bags that Edeena had dropped as well as the ones he’d been carrying, his attention drawn to the back porch where he could hear Edeena’s voice, loud but calm, speaking in a language that sounded a lot like Greek and yet clearly wasn’t. Prudence met him at the door, gesturing him
off to the side parlor.

  “What happened?” he asked, his mind racing through the possibilities. “Is there a problem with the family?”

  Prudence’s lips twisted sharply. “Not exactly,” she said. “Silas was primarily calling to see if Edeena had had a chance to open the package he’d sent her most recently.”

  Immediately Vince remembered Rob’s text from the day before. “More files,” he said.

  “More files, yes. Files and a letter demanding Edeena’s summary return for her engagement ball.”

  “Engagement . . .” Vince looked at Prudence in horror, but not surprise. Nothing that happened with these women anymore would surprise him, he decided. “How is that possible?”

  “Apparently, there are more edicts set forth about a woman’s twenty-seventh birthday in Garronia than we first believed. Edeena doesn’t become her father’s property to marry off until after her birthday, but he’s allowed to begin taking steps ten days prior.” Prudence made another face. “Spinsterism was very much frowned on in the early days of Garronia. You were by no means expected to produce an heir out of hand, but by God, you were to be in the right position to do so if the need ever fell to you.”

  “And because we’ve reached that window of opportunity . . .”

  “He’s exercising his paternal right to be a horrible, odious man. Never mind that he virtually left Edeena to raise her sisters alone except for when he needed them to execute command performances for the king and queen.” She babbled on, fluttering her hands. “The queen is Silas’s cousin by marriage, a lovely woman. Treated the children like her blood relations.”

  “But she can’t do anything to stop this?”

  “Apparently, no. I’m afraid I’ve let my knowledge of royal conduct lapse, but I contacted another cousin the moment Silas first called—which was ten a.m., by the way. We told him Edeena was out speaking to the real estate agent, which mollified the cretin, but then he called again at eleven, and just now again.”

  Vince checked his watch out of habit. “Noon. He would’ve continued calling every hour, wouldn’t he?”

  “Most likely. The poor younger sisters are in a state. Neither of them had any idea that the files Edeena was perusing were potential candidates. She always was one to try and hide the truth from them.” Prudence’s lips tightened. “Her poor, sweet mother felt so badly about escaping as often as she did, but she always assumed she’d be able to make it up to the girls, that she’d be there for them as they grew into young women, ready to launch into the world.”

  “She didn’t worry about the curse?”

  Prudence shook her head. “She didn’t worry about much of anything, I’m afraid. Marguerite takes that from her. And, truth be told, she was a bit of a force of nature. Who’s to say that Ari and Edeena wouldn’t have found their way to each other, had her mother still been alive?”

  “Ari,” Vince said gruffly, tamping down the surge of completely inappropriate jealousy at Prudence’s words. “That’s the Crown Prince?”

  “Yes. Recently engaged to an American, to the shock and consternation of Silas. I think this entire curse business has quite sent him around the bend.”

  Caroline appeared in the doorway, looking wan. Vince realized that there was no more sound of conversation from the other room. “He’s hung up,” she said, but she looked miserable.

  “And?” Prudence asked, giving voice to Vince’s own question. He’d rather not descend on Edeena without knowing the worst.

  Caro lifted one shoulder. “She simply kept agreeing to whatever he said—yes, yes, yes. I don’t even know what she was agreeing to, but by the end of it he’d stopped shouting.” She glanced at Vince, her expression turning grimmer. “She’s flying out tomorrow though.”

  “Tomorrow!” Prudence protested, and she bustled forward past Caroline, her flowing powder blue day dress rustling as she swept into the hall. Caroline gave Vince a small, sad smile.

  “She’ll do it, too, no matter what Prudence has about to say. I think she’d meant to all this time.”

  “Do what?” Vince asked. Caro turned, beckoning him to follow, and he fell into step with her.

  “Edeena has always had it in her head that one of us would need to beat the curse or all of us would be subject to Silas’s madness on the subject for the rest of our lives. She of course took it upon herself to be that person, but though she and Prince Aristotle grew up practically in each other’s back pockets, they didn’t care for each other that way. Still, whenever she would research the viable princely candidates in the world, she’d simply get depressed. So there was no point in pursuing that until she had to. Then Ari died, and the whole country was plunged into mourning—

  “Wait, what?” Vince stopped her. “The Crown Prince died?”

  “Well, everyone thought he did. And anyway, Silas stopped badgering us for awhile. It was . . . quite lovely, really. He found someone else to marry, and then his wife turned up pregnant—which has occupied him quite completely.” Though Caroline was spilling what had to be the family’s most scandalous secrets she seemed unconcerned, her attention fixed on the far end of the house. Edeena would be out on the back porch, Vince suspected. It was her favorite place in the building. “Anyway, that reprieve ended when Ari returned, especially when he had the audacity to have fallen in love with an American.” She gave a rueful laugh. “We’ve had quite an uptick in our American betrothals of late.”

  “And he turned his focus back on Edeena and the rest of you,” Vince finished for her. “According to Prudence, he can legitimately order you back.”

  “He can, yes,” Caroline said. “Whether we accept his order is another thing entirely.”

  She stepped out onto the back porch and Edeena turned, taking in Caro and then Vince. She started for him almost instinctively, it seemed, then caught herself and turned back toward the panoramic view of trees waving in the afternoon breeze.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Caroline,” she said quietly. “I don’t want to have to say this again.”

  “You shouldn’t have to say it at all,” snapped Marguerite, angrier than Vince had ever seen her. “This entire curse business is exactly what’s wrong with our country! Who lives by these kind of rules anymore? It’s ridiculous!”

  “Father says he wants us all back, but he doesn’t, not really,” Edeena said, her words firm and measured. “He wants me, and the two of you only when there’s a wedding to attend.”

  “Well there’s only going to be about a half dozen of those coming up,” Marguerite cut in again. “It’s been an American Invasion over the past several weeks. And good thing, too. Americans don’t believe in curses.”

  “They don’t have to,” Caroline said mildly. “They have politics.”

  “Enough,” Edeena said, lifting her hands. “The important thing is, once I’m there, he’ll not badger you. My birthday is in a few days, and after that there will be a host of planning, balls, paperwork—he’ll be too busy cackling over his plans coming to fruition to worry about you.”

  “But what about you?” Marguerite demanded. “You can’t seriously believe you’ll be happy in some kind of . . . some kind of weird arranged marriage. It was bad enough when Aristotle was still in the picture. He, at least, was hot. But I’ve seen what Garronia has to offer, and it’s gross, Edeena! You know it’s gross.”

  Despite the gravity of the discussion, Vince fought to keep from laughing. Edeena, however, stared at Marguerite, her face scrunching up until she gave up the attempt. Shaking her head, she allowed herself a wry grin. “It is kind of gross,” she said. “But I still have to go through with it, play the part that falls to me. I’ve been half-expecting it for years, so in a way it will be kind of a relief.”

  The way she said the words grated against Vince’s nerves, even as her sisters seemed to be moving toward acceptance.

  “But tomorrow, Edeena?” Prudence said, wringing her hands. “Truly? It’s so far to travel so quickly, all by yourself.”

&n
bsp; “Prudence, I—”

  Vince had had enough. He stepped forward, and his voice filled the room. “She’s not going alone,” he said crisply. “I’m going with her. As her security detail.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Edeena folded and unfolded the linen napkin on her lap for the fifty-seventh time, staring out the window at the gorgeous swath of ocean. The plane banked, bringing them back toward the mainland of Garronia, and the landscape changed to that of the rugged hills she so loved, punctuated by the jewel of the capital city, glinting under the sunlight.

  Had she only been gone a couple of weeks? It seemed like it had been a lifetime since she’d herded her sisters on the plane, secretly wondering if they’d be stopped before the aircraft had even left the ground. When they’d successfully lifted off, Edeena’s worries hadn’t gone away, they’d merely shifted, eventually leading her back to exactly this moment, where she would be hauled back to her father’s presence with only the slimmest of plans on how to evade his outrageous decrees.

  “You’re going to fray that thing into thread,” Vince commented beside her, and she stopped mid-fold, dropping the napkin self-consciously to her lap.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I guess I . . .”

  “Thought you’d have more time. I know.” Vince said the words without censure, but Edeena still colored at the comment. She’d been repeating a variation on that theme for most of the multiple flights they’d navigated, nearly a full day’s worth of flying. When she wasn’t fretting, Vince had convinced her to try to sleep. She’d ended up more than a few times nestled against his shoulder, but he’d never once complained, never once disturbed her rest, when she finally dropped off.

  Now he looked as cool and crisp as he had the first day she’d seen him in the Charleston airport, and she felt like a frazzled mess.

  As if reading her thoughts, Vince shook his head. “You’re absolutely lovely, as always,” he murmured quietly. He glanced toward the window as the plane began its descent toward Garronia’s international airport. “Who will be meeting us, Silas?”