A Royal Proposition

‘Yeah, right. You survive on this kind of food?’

‘I can survive on less,’ he told her. ‘If I need to. One Rex drumstick instead of two.’ His smile faded. ‘As I imagine you have in the past.’

Unaware of the way his gaze had just changed, she popped a strawberry into her mouth and sighed in bliss. ‘Oh, yes. You know, I may well go home at the end of our twelve-month marriage the size of a house.’

‘That’s fine by me.’ More of Rose? He could handle that.

Her smile disappeared as she thought about it. ‘I guess…me getting fat would give you your excuse to divorce me.’

‘I doubt anyone would think that was a reasonable excuse,’ he said, and suddenly thought, Hell, what excuse was he going to use? Mutual incompatibility?

The more he was getting to know her, the more that reason wouldn’t wash.

‘It’ll have to be homesickness on my part,’ she said, watching his face and guessing where his thoughts were headed. ‘Or I’ll suddenly find out about Belle.’

‘And you didn’t know about Belle beforehand?’

‘I was stupid,’ she said cheerfully. ‘Thick as a brick. I can be when I want to be. Or even…’ her smile deepened ‘…when I don’t want to be.’ She decided to confess all. ‘You know, the day before we came here, I started adding a fourth layer to my wall without putting in throughstones.’

‘Throughstones?’ He was lost.

‘Stones stretching across the wall to tie the sides,’ she said patiently. ‘Ask Bert how stupid that is.’

‘I…um…I see. An unforgivable sin.’

‘You’ll think so if your wall falls down in two hundred years,’ she retorted, and he smiled.

‘I’ll be watching for it.’

‘And you’ll deduct the cost of repair from my wages? That’d be right.’

‘Or from your great-great-grandchildren’s wages,’ he told her. ‘Remind me to put something in my will to that effect. My great-great-grandchildren can gather stupidity compensation when it’s due.’

‘It won’t be necessary,’ she said with dignity. ‘I was only three stones along before I realised. The throughstones are now in place.’

‘You relieve my mind enormously.’

‘That’s the plan.’ Her green eyes twinkled and a faintly remembered phrase came wafting thought her consciousness. ‘After all, as long as domestic service survives, the convenience of the employer comes first.’

He grinned at that. ‘Very good. I like it. And it’s not convenient to me if my wall falls down.’

‘That’s the ticket.’ She chuckled. ‘Your wife and your dog will have fallen down in their duty, and that would never do.’

It took Alastair a while to answer that. He sat and watched her as she tackled a last strawberry. The day had taken its toll. She looked ruffled and tired, but she’d showered and changed into her own faded jeans and cotton blouse. She looked fresh and clean and lovely-but she was as far from the circle of women he usually moved in as she could be. Her toes were bare, her hair was gently stirring in the warm night air and she wasn’t wearing a scrap of make-up.

Domestic servant?

She was Cinderella to a tee, he thought ruefully. But all at once he knew that if the fairy godmother were to arrive with her magic wand, he wouldn’t have her wave it.

‘I suppose not,’ he said at last, and he sounded suddenly bewildered.

But Penny-Rose’s own confusion was settling. The last rays of evening sun were lingering over the courtyard, with their echoes of warmth from a perfect spring day. Her little dog lay fast asleep in her room. Soon she’d go up to him, and sleep in her wonderful bed, and wake tomorrow morning to sunshine and…

And to Alastair.

The direction her thoughts were headed suddenly jarred home with a vengeance, and her eyes flew wide with shock.

‘What’s wrong?’ Alastair saw the look.

‘I…’

‘Rose?’

‘Sorry.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s nothing.’

‘But something’s bothering you.’

‘No. It was just something…’ She fought for an explanation-any explanation-because the real one surely wouldn’t do. ‘It was something I forgot to tell Bert, but it’ll be OK.’

‘You’re not still worrying about your wall?’ He was gently teasing, but the concern in his voice deepened her sense of shock.

Because she knew now what was happening. There was no question about it. It had never happened in her life before-it was something she’d read about but had never believed was real-but there was now no doubting its reality.

It was happening to her right now.

Help!

‘We can go home tomorrow-back to your precious stone-walling,’ Alastair was saying, and she had to concentrate fiercely to hear him. ‘The only task we have left is to order your wedding dress.’

She thought that through. They’d left her wedding dress to the end of their stay because they knew their chances of making such a purchase without publicity were remote. But now it didn’t matter. Tomorrow was Thursday. They’d make their purchase and then they’d fly home to announce their plans.

But Penny-Rose’s plans had suddenly changed.

A wedding for a year…

She looked at Alastair and the familiar lurch happened all over again. She knew it now for what it was. It was inescapable, and it had changed things for ever.

This was serious commitment, she thought desperately. This man was some prince and he was offering her marriage. It might only be for a year, but she’d still agreed to marry him. What would she say?

‘With this ring I thee wed. With my body I thee worship…’

The words of the wedding vow came to her as clearly as a song on the late night air.

‘To love and to cherish… From this day forward…’

They’d be making the vows in jest-to last for a year.

But why?

Alastair wasn’t in love with Belle. Penny-Rose’s thoughts were flying every which way and it was a wonder she wasn’t saying things out loud. Confusion was certainly washing over her face. He wasn’t in love with anyone, she thought. After the shock of Lissa’s death, Alastair had been deeply wary of commitment. He wanted a wife of convenience, and that was all.

So…she was to be his wife of convenience for a year and after that she’d be followed by another convenient bride.

Belle.

It was all wrong, she thought wildly. This man should be loved to distraction. He deserved to be loved to distraction.

As Leo was going to be. As much as she was capable of loving.

Or…as she loved already.

This had never happened to her before, but she knew she was right. Somehow her heart had been handed over, like it or not. Whether or not it was sensible, she was head over heels in love with Alastair de Castaliae, and she didn’t know what to do with it.

But she knew now that when she made her wedding vows, she’d be incapable of lying.

‘From this day forward…’ There’d be a part of her that was desperate for those words to mean exactly what they said. And they meant for ever.

If that was what she wanted…

The old Penny-Rose was surfacing. The Penny-Rose who was prepared to fight and steal and do anything she must to protect her sisters and brother. The Penny-Rose who knew the only way to get what she wanted was to