Cinderella: Hired by the Prince

‘There is,’ she snapped. ‘I pay my debts, even if they’re to princes.’

‘Can you stop calling me…’

‘A prince? It’s what you are and it’s not new. It’s not like this title’s a shock to you. Yes, you seem to have inherited the Crown, and that’s surprised you, but you were born a prince and you didn’t tell me.’

‘You didn’t ask.’

‘Right,’ she said, fury building again. She shoved his hands away and headed below, whether he liked it or not. Ramon followed her and stood watching as she flung her gear into her carry-all.

Dignity was nowhere. The only thing she could cling to was her anger.

‘So, Jenny, you think I should have introduced myself as Prince Ramon?’ he asked at last, and the anger was still there. He was angry? What did that make her? Nothing, she thought bleakly. How could he be angry at her? She felt like shrivelling into a small ball and sobbing, but she had to get away from here first.

‘You know what matters most?’ she demanded, trying desperately to sort her thoughts into some sort of sense. ‘That you didn’t tell me you owned the boat. Maybe you didn’t lie outright, but you had plenty of opportunities to tell me and you didn’t. That’s a lie in my books.’

‘Would you have got on my boat if you thought I was the owner?’

There was only one answer to that. If he’d asked her and she’d known he was wealthy enough to afford such a boat-his wealth would have terrified her. ‘No,’ she admitted.

‘So I wanted you to come with me.’

‘Bully for you. And I did.’ Cling to the anger, she told herself. It was all there was. If he was angry, she should be more so. She headed into the bathroom to grab her toiletries. ‘I came on board and we made love and it was all very nice,’ she threw over her shoulder. ‘Now you’ve had your fun and you can go back to your life.’

‘Being a prince isn’t my life.’

‘No?’

‘Gianetta…’

‘Jenny!’

‘Jenny, then,’ he conceded and the underlying anger in his voice intensified. ‘I want you to listen.’

‘I’m listening,’ she said, shoving toiletries together with venom.

‘Jenny, my grandfather was the Crown Prince of Cepheus.’

‘I know that.’

‘What you don’t know,’ he snapped, ‘is that he was an arrogant, cruel womanizer. Jenny, I need you to understand this. My grandfather’s marriage to my grandmother was an arranged one and he treated her dreadfully. When my father was ten my grandmother fell in love with a servant, and who can blame her? But my grandfather banished her and the younger children to a tiny island off the coast of Cepheus. He kept his oldest son, my uncle, at the palace, but my grandmother, my father and my aunt were never allowed back. My grandmother was royal in her own right. She had money of her own and all her life she ached to undo some of the appalling things my grandfather did, but when she tried…well, that’s when my father died. And now, to be forced to go back…’

‘I’m sorry you don’t like it,’ she said stiffly. What was he explaining this for? It had nothing to do with her. ‘But your country needs you. At least now you’ll be doing something useful.’

‘Is that what you think?’ he demanded, sounding stunned. ‘That I spend my life doing nothing?’

‘Isn’t that the best job in the world?’ She could feel the vibrations of his anger and it fed hers. He’d known he was a prince. ‘The Internet bio says you’re aligned to some sort of charity in Bangladesh,’ she said shortly. ‘I guess you can’t be all bad.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Think nothing of it,’ she said, and she thought, where did she go from here?

Away, her head told her, harshly and coldly. She needed to leave right now, and she would, but there were obligations. This man had got her out of a hole. He’d paid her debts. She owed him, deception or not.

‘Okay, I’ll be the first to admit I know nothing of your life,’ she said stiffly. ‘I felt like I knew you and now I realize I don’t. That hurts. But I do need to thank you for paying my debt; for getting me away from Charlie. But now I’m just…scared. So I’ll just get out of your life and let you get on with it.’

‘You’re scared?’

‘What do you think?’

‘There’s no threat. There’d only be a threat if you were my woman.’

That was enough to take her breath away. If you were my woman…

‘Which…which I’m not,’ she managed.

‘No,’ he said, and there was bleakness as well as anger there now.

She closed her eyes. So what else had she expected? These two weeks had been a fairy tale. Nothing more.

Move on.

‘Jenny, I have to do this,’ he said harshly. ‘Understand it or not, this is what I’m faced with. If I don’t take the throne, then it goes to my father’s cousin’s son, Carlos. Carlos is as bad as my grandfather. He’d bring the country to ruin. And then there’s the child. He’s five. God knows…’ He raked his hair with quiet despair. ‘I will accept this responsibility. I must, even if it means walking away from what I most care about.’

And then there was silence, stretching towards infinity, where only emptiness beckoned.

What he most cared about? His boat? His charity work? What?

She couldn’t think of what. She couldn’t think what she wanted what to be.

‘I’m sorry, Ramon,’ she whispered at last.

‘I’m sorry, too,’ he said. He sighed and dug his hands deep into his pockets. Seemingly moving on. ‘For what’s between us needs to be put aside, for the sanity of both of us. But Gianetta…Jenny… What will you do in New Zealand?’

‘Make muffins.’ Her fury from his perceived betrayal was oozing away now, but there was nothing in its place except an aching void. Yesterday had seemed so wonderful. Today her sailor had turned into a prince and her bubble of euphoria was gone.

‘Make muffins until you can afford to go back to Australia?’

‘I don’t have a lot of choice.’

‘There is. Senor Rodriguez, the lawyer you met this morning, has already found someone prepared to skipper the Marquita-to bring her to Cepheus. I’ve already met him. He’s a Scottish Australian, Gordon, ex-merchant navy. He’s competent, solid and I know I can trust him with…with my boat. But he will need crew. So I’m asking you to stay on. I’m asking you if you’ll sail round the Horn with him and bring the Marquita home. If you do that, I’ll fly you back to Australia. Debt discharged.’

‘It wouldn’t be discharged.’

‘I believe it would,’ he said heavily. ‘I’m asking you to sail round the Horn with someone you don’t know, and I’m asking you to trust that I’ll keep my word. That’s enough of a request to make paying out your debt more than reasonable.’

‘I don’t want to.’

‘Do you want to go back to cooking muffins?’ He spread his hands and he managed a smile then, his wonderful, sexy, insinuating smile that had the power to warm every last part of her. ‘And at least this way you’ll get to see Cepheus, even if it’s only for a couple of days before you fly home. And you’ll have sailed around the Horn. You wanted to see the world. Give yourself a chance to see a little of it.’ He hesitated. ‘And, Jenny, maybe…we can have tonight?’

That made her gasp. After all that stood between them…What was he suggesting, that she spend one more night as the royal mistress? ‘Are you crazy?’

‘So not tonight?’ His eyes grew bleak. ‘No. I’m sorry, Gianetta. You and me… I concede it’s impossible. But what is possible is that you remain on board the Marquita as crew. You allow me to continue employing you so you’ll walk away at the end of three months beholden to nobody.’

No.

The word should have been shouted at him. She should walk away right now.

But to walk away for ever? How could she do that? And if she stayed on board… maybe a sliver of hope remained.

Hope for what? A Cinderella happy ending? What a joke. Ramon himself had said it was impossible.