She became almost venomous, and in the end Nick had put down the phone, and thought he could understand another of Rose’s conditions. She didn’t want any press release until she was out of the country.
Erhard agreed with that reluctantly, but Nick thought that was fine. The juggernaut that was royal ascension rolled on.
Then, in the last few days before he and Rose were due to fly out, Nick’s contact with Erhard had faltered. There was one stilted phone-call. ‘Nikolai, things are in place for you to take over. I need to fade into the background. Good luck to you and to Rose.’
He didn’t explain, but by the sound of his voice Nick thought that his health was probably a factor. Erhard had launched them, and was depending on them to take it from here.
That caused another of those moments when panic seemed to overwhelm him. But there was no reason for panic. No logical reason.
A royal marriage of convenience. Why not?
So he went on planning for this strange wedding, and the world didn’t crash on his head.
But on that last day, when he walked out of his office before taking a month off, and he found the whole of the office decorated with bridal nonsense, he was forced to see this for the reality it was. It was Saturday. The office should have been deserted, but people had obviously come in especially. Obviously Blake and the partners had decided that today they’d break their silence. Champagne was flowing. The girls from the typing pool were handing round wedding-cake. Blake had found a picture of Rose in a local newspaper’s weddings column, detailing Rose’s wedding to Max years ago. Someone had blown her image up to banner size. Posters of a grainy, bridal Rose were plastered from one end of the office to another.
‘She’s gorgeous,’ everyone agreed, and even Rose, laughing down from every wall, seemed to concur.
Rose’s image unsettled him as nothing else could. This was a Rose without the care lines around her eyes. Rose before…life?
It felt weird that he could think of marrying this woman, he decided, trying to smile as he accepted congratulations. It even seemed dangerous. But he’d gone too far to back out now, and finally he escaped, under a shower of confetti and good-natured banter.
‘There goes the groom to collect his bride. Or the prince to collect his princess,’ they called after him, and he had to smile and concur.
‘You’ll be the second of Ruby’s foster sons to get leg-shackled,’ Blake said as he walked with his foster brother to the firm’s car-park. He and Blake had gone through a lot together. They’d come from similar dysfunctional backgrounds, ending up under Ruby’s care. They’d both been ambitious, and they’d made it through law school together. Nick had started work with this firm first, and Blake had followed the year after. They were about as close as brothers could be, which gave Blake the right to say what he liked. Which he intended to do right now.
‘You’re not looking happy,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Bridal jitters getting to you?’
‘You know this isn’t a real wedding,’ Nick growled, unnerved, but Blake smiled and shrugged.
‘You make the vows. It’s all the wedding the likes of us can do. What have you told Ruby?’
‘That I’ve agreed to be married for a month in order for Rose to ascend the throne. That it’s business only. That she needn’t worry about anything, and I’ll come over and pay her a visit when it’s all over.
‘And she said?’ Blake said cautiously.
‘She…um…sounded a little irate. I thought she might have phoned you.’
‘When did you tell her?’
‘This morning.’
‘You have to be kidding.’ He and Blake were pushing their way through a crowd of photographers on the pavement. The press had arrived seemingly out of nowhere. Someone must have told them what was happening, and they were now documenting every step. ‘She’ll probably have tried to phone me twenty times already.’
‘Just assure her it’s business,’ Nick said. ‘She shouldn’t worry about it. It’s nothing.’
‘Nothing.’ Blake stopped dead, his face a picture of incredulity. ‘You want me to explain to Ruby you’re marrying a princess but it’s
‘Then don’t. Ruby’s agreed to do some babysitting for Pierce and his brood for a couple of weeks, so she won’t have time to think about it.’
‘They do have news services in Dolphin Bay,’ Blake said with asperity. ‘Australia’s not so far away as you’d think when it comes to royal weddings. I seem to remember they even have newspapers. You’re inviting guests to this wedding?’
‘Only dignitaries. You can tell Ruby that.’ He gave a rueful grin. ‘I tried, but she wouldn’t stop yelling.’
‘You’re seriously getting married without involving family?’
‘I don’t do family. You know that.’
‘Yeah, but does Ruby? She’ll be over here like a flash, taking Rose into the bosom of our peculiar family, finding out her sweater size, making a macrame spread for the marital bed, maybe even starting on a few booties.’
‘See, that’s what we don’t want,’ Nick said bluntly. ‘If I let Ruby near Rose, Rose would run like a scalded cat. This is business.’
‘A marriage made in heaven,’ Blake said wryly.
‘It’s the only sort Rose will consider,’ Nick told him, and didn’t notice when Blake gave him an odd look. They’d reached his car now. The photographers were still at it. Somehow they had to be ignored.
Problems needed to be ignored. Meanwhile he gripped his brother’s hand in a gesture of farewell. ‘Thanks, mate,’ he told him. ‘Keep my place here warm for me.’
‘You might not still want it,’ Blake said, still looking at him strangely.
‘Of course I will. This marriage is for a matter of weeks. That’s all it’s for. I’ll be back.’
‘Yeah,’ Blake said and shook his hand back. ‘Right. Just you be careful boyo, of marital threads as well as political ones.’
So what was the problem? Why did Blake sound dubious?
And where had those photographers come from? Surely they wouldn’t spread this news as far as Ruby in Dolphin Bay?
Maybe he should have given Ruby a few more details. Maybe even invited her to the wedding.
But Ruby at his wedding? She’d sob, he thought. She’d hug them both. She’d make it incredibly, intensely personal.
Which would scare Rose.
And him.
In the comparative privacy of his BMW, heading for his Kensington apartment to collect his baggage, Nick had time to think, and the more he thought the more he felt like he was heading into trouble. To hurt Ruby by not inviting her…
He couldn’t invite her. And he’d specified it was just business.
But it had his foot easing from the accelerator, thinking maybe even now it wasn’t too late to draw back.
His mobile phone rang. It answered automatically on the hands-free base. If it hadn’t, maybe he wouldn’t have answered. His need for solitude to get his head right was starting to be overwhelming. But the voice came on the other end of the line before he could prevent the connection. ‘Nick?’
‘Rose.’ She sounded as spooked as he was. ‘It’s good to hear from you,’ he managed.
‘There are photographers here,’ she said. ‘Everywhere. They arrived an hour ago and there’s more arriving by the minute. My mother-in-law’s weeping so hard she’s making herself ill. The phone’s ringing off the hook. I think… is this a disaster?’
So he wasn’t alone in feeling overwhelmed. ‘I guess it’s what we had to expect,’ he said cautiously, insensibly reassured that she was feeling the same as he was.
‘I hadn’t thought…’
‘Neither had I.’
‘It’s not too late to back out,’ she whispered.
‘Do you want to back out?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘It seemed so easy when it was just fantasy. But now…’
‘What would you do if you backed out?’ he asked.
There was a long silence. ‘Stay here, I guess,’ she said, sounding unsure.
