Royal Marriage Of Convenience

She loved him. For this moment she loved him, and how could she not? She was wedded to this man, and that he could be her husband left her wide-eyed with wonder. Her husband. Her mate.

But then she stopped thinking as her body reacted in the most primeval of ways. This was meant to happen-a man taking a woman unto him and becoming one. That was how she felt, as if she was dissolving and becoming part of him, losing a part of herself and gaining him in turn. The warmth, the dark and the firelight, the terrors of the immediate past and the bleakness of the last few years, none of them could impinge on what was happening here- this wondrous fulfilment of passion that had her body taking its need, and causing the night around them to merge into a mist of heat and firelight and white-hot love.

It went on and on, blissfully, achingly, magically, and the moment the sensation eased another started to build. Over and over.

And when it finished, when finally they lay back exhausted, still she held him. Her Nick. Who knew what tomorrow held? But for tonight she was where she was meant to be. She was in her husband’s arms.

They rolled until they were side by side. The fire was warm in the small of her back. Somehow she found the energy to pull away, just far enough so she could kiss him tenderly on the mouth. So she could smile at him in the firelight and watch him smile back. She loved his smile. She loved the way his eyes crinkled at the corners. She loved Nick.

‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

‘Thanks?’ Surprise was mixed with the remnants of spent passion. ‘You’re thanking me? Rose, do you have any idea how beautiful you are? You’re the most desirable woman.’ He groaned. ‘And how do you think I can walk away after that?’

Her thoughts clouded a little. Just a little, as reality returned.

But tomorrow was for tomorrow. She refused to let it cloud right now.

‘We should go to sleep,’ she whispered.

‘Hoppy has the bed.’

‘So he has.’

‘Are you warm?’ he asked, and she chuckled.

‘You’re really asking that?’

‘I guess I’m not,’ he said, and kissed her again. ‘Do you really want to go to sleep?’

‘I guess.’

‘You guess?’

‘Maybe not.’

‘Good,’ he said, and tugged her to him again. ‘Good, my love. Hoppy has the bed and he needs his beauty sleep. But you don’t need beauty sleep, for how could you be any more beautiful than you are right now? So, if you don’t need beauty sleep, have you any more suggestions as to how we can fill the time?’

‘I’m guessing here,’ she said, smiling at him. ‘Maybe twenty questions?’

‘There is that,’ he said with mock seriousness. ‘Or “I spy”.’

‘Maybe we could find that pack of cards.’

‘I have another suggestion,’ he said, and lifted himself up so his eyes were gleaming down at her in the firelight. ‘It’s a really good suggestion.’

‘What…what is it?’

‘That’s for me to know and you to find out,’ he whispered. ‘Just lie back my love, think of England and let me show you.’

CHAPTER TEN

MORNING came too soon.

Or maybe it wasn’t morning. Rose stirred where she lay. She was still before the fire, which was now a pile of glowing embers in the grate. At some stage of the night Nick had thrown on another log, and fetched pillows and a vast down-filled duvet, so as the fire had died they’d stayed warm. She was still cradled against his body, the small of her back pressed gently into the curve of his chest. As if she belonged there.

There was a soft knock on the door. Maybe that was what had woken her. She lifted Nick’s wrist a little so she could see his watch-and she yelped.

But, instead of releasing her, Nick’s arms held her tighter. He nuzzled her ear and she felt rather than heard his low chuckle.

‘Going somewhere, wife?’

‘The door…Nick, it’s two in the afternoon.’

‘Golly,’ he said, and hugged her still tighter, and kissed the nape of her neck. She giggled and rolled sideways, sighed and reluctantly sat up. The sun was entering through the chinks in the drapes. Hoppy was sitting on the settee looking down at them with lop-sided concern.

The knock sounded again, gently insistent. The world wanted to come in. Whoever it was wasn’t going away.

Nick reached for his trousers. ‘Just roll away while I open the door,’ he told her.

‘Roll where?’

‘Somewhere.’ He smiled down at her. ‘You want to be found naked on the sitting-room floor?’

‘Hmm.’ She smiled back up at him. Last night someone had tried to kill her, yet right now she felt light and free and deliriously happy.

‘Roll,’ he told her, and he leaned over, bundled the duvet round her and pushed.

She chuckled, and rolled behind the settee, and then wiggled a bit so she was obediently out of sight. Nick walked to the door, bare-chested. Rose peeked out from behind the settee-and there were her panties right where she’d stepped out of them the night before. ‘Nick, wait…’

Too late. ‘Yes?’ Nick said, and opened the door.

It was a maid, one of the normally somber, uniformed staff who kept the wheels of domesticity turning. At the sight of Nick, naked from the waist up, she gasped.

‘Can we help you?’ Nick said politely.

‘If you please, sir,’ she said, but she ran out of words. She was gazing at his chest, then looking past him. Her mouth sagged open.

‘Yes?’ he said encouragingly, and she gasped again.

‘I…Monsieur Erhard has asked me to tell you…’

‘Mmm?’

She swallowed and made an Herculean effort to get things straight. ‘He wants to see you. He says…He says he’s sorry, but it’s urgent. We told him you hadn’t had breakfast, so he’s asked us to serve croissants and juice in the conservatory.’

‘I think we might have breakfast in our room,’ Nick said.

The girl had spotted the panties now. Her lips were pressed together. Hard. In disapproval?

‘I…No,’ she said, and pressed her lips closed again.

‘No?’

‘Monsieur Erhard says you have company,’ she said. Desperately. Clamping her lips tight together again.

‘Company?’

‘Monsieur Erhard himself. And the Princess Julianna, the Princess Rose-Anitra’s sister. And a lady I don’t know. She says she knows you and her name is Ruby.’

‘Ruby,’ Nick said blankly.

‘If you please, sir, they’re all in the conservatory, and Monsieur Erhard says maybe you could be down in half an hour, but if there was anything you needed before then…um…anything at all…’

‘I believe we have everything we need,’ Nick said, attempting to sound severe, and the girl’s tight-lipped expression finally cracked.

‘Yes, sir,’ she said, and she smiled. And then she giggled. ‘Yes, sir, I see that you do.’

‘You realise discipline in this castle is shot to pieces?’