CHAPTER TEN
HOW had she ever said that? Stood up to the queen? Holly sat on the magnificent four-poster bed and tried to stop her teeth chattering. Deefer huddled in her arms and shook in sympathy.
‘It was you,’ she told him. ‘You made me feel brave.’
She didn’t feel brave. She felt small, insignificant and very alone.
‘When do you think we’ll see Andreas?’ she whispered.
Deefer licked her face.
‘Yeah, your kisses are great,’ she told him. ‘But they lack a certain finesse.’
She stirred restlessly, trying to quell the rising sense of fear and loneliness. How could she stay here alone? But if Andreas didn’t intend staying here, was there a choice?
Maybe there was. But if she went home now it was the end. And she’d married for a reason. It was crazy to walk away now.
‘And he’d probably haul me back in chains,’ she whispered. ‘I’m a captive wife, Deefer. I’ll end up like Tia. Obedient and fearful after years of marriage.’
Another lick.
Unbidden her eyes filled. Dammit, she would not cry. She carried the little dog over to vast French windows opening to a balcony overlooking acres of manicured gardens.
A vision sprang to mind-dusty paddocks, gum trees, and a small white grave.
‘You’ll like it at Munwannay,’ she told Deefer. ‘And at least I’ll have you with me this time.
‘But I want it all,’ she whispered to herself. ‘I want you and Andreas and Munwannay. I want to be a family.’
‘You’re flying out at dawn. I have a list of contacts over there for you to work your way through.’
Andreas stared at his brother, his dark eyes clouded. ‘I can’t leave Holly here.’
‘You can’t take her with you. You need to move fast and move alone. You’ve trained in security-you’re the only one with the skills and inside knowledge and discretion to do this. And you know what happens if the stone isn’t found.’
‘I don’t give a damn about the stone.’
‘Do you think I do?’ Sebastian asked incredulously. ‘But like me, you care about our country. You care about our people.’
‘Zakari would make a decent ruler.’
‘We don’t know that,’ Sebastian said ruthlessly. ‘And there’s too much at stake to take a chance. You don’t have a choice.’
‘I’ve never had a choice,’ Andreas said grimly.
‘Not when the livelihood of our people’s at stake. No.’
‘And when the stone’s found?’
‘Then you might find you like being a prince again,’ Sebastian said, and allowed himself a glimmer of a smile. ‘As I might relish the chance to be king. But meanwhile we do what we have to do, and we do it now. The security chief is here to brief you. Let’s go.’
Two a.m. He opened the door with stealth as if he was wary she might be sleeping. Yeah, she might be sleeping if she wasn’t so on edge every nerve ending felt frayed and exposed and standing on end.
He’d also forgotten one pup. Deefer was out of bed the minute the door opened, bounding across the bedroom, yelping in delight at seeing his long-lost friend.
Holly followed the examples of her nerves and sat bolt upright. ‘It’s a bit early in our marriage to come creeping in after midnight,’ she said scathingly. ‘Wouldn’t you say?’
‘I had to-’
‘Go to Greece. Your mother told me.’
‘I’m not going until tomorrow.’
‘Oh, goody.’ She glanced at the clock on the gilt bedside table. ‘But it is tomorrow. Do we have one day left before you go.’
‘Holly, I’m sorry, but…Yes, it’s today. I need to go early this morning.’
‘You have to save the world. Your mother told me.’
‘What else did she tell you?’ he said, sounding apprehensive.
‘That Deefer has to sleep in the stables.’
‘I can see you took that one on board.’ The pup was wriggling ecstatically round his legs, practically turning inside out. He hadn’t had his beach run today. He was one bored dog. Andreas scooped him up, turned him over and started scratching his tummy.
‘Don’t start making up to my dog,’ Holly snapped and Andreas smiled, walked across and sat on the bed. It was a very big bed. Huge. There was no reason Holly’s heart should lurch just because Andreas had sat down.
Maintain the rage, she told herself breathlessly. It was the only defence she had in this situation and she surely needed a defence.
‘Your mother says I need to have deportment lessons.’
‘It’d be excellent if you would,’ he said.
‘Why would it be excellent?’
He put Deefer down onto the carpet, wriggled the fringe of the ancient Persian rug until Deefer was distracted and then left him to it. This conversation, it seemed, was more important than a mere priceless heirloom.
‘Holly, maybe we could have a real marriage,’ he said cautiously.
‘A real marriage.’ She repeated the words dumbly, trying to figure why she felt as if all her breath had been sucked out of her. Three little words. A real marriage.
‘Our plan of a royal marriage has worked far better than we dared hope. The people are seeing you as my Cinderella bride. You have enormous public sympathy. Sebastian thinks it could work.’
Sebastian. ‘Does he just?’ she retorted, fighting for equilibrium. ‘I’ll have you know-’
‘And I want you.’
There it was again. Whoosh. The same gut feeling she’d felt at seventeen, the moment her father had introduced her. Multiplied by about a million.
‘If you want me,’ she said softly, almost to herself, ‘then it’s not about Sebastian. It’s not about this country. It’s about us.’
‘That’s right,’ he said, and tugged the covers aside, pulled her up so she was hugged against him and softly kissed her. ‘It’s all about us.’
‘But tomorrow…’
‘I am a prince,’ he said, almost sadly. ‘I need to do what I need to do. I won’t let this country be ruined. But for now…For now, my heart, there’s only you.’
Until dawn, she thought, but it could only be a fleeting thought for Andreas was holding her, possessing her, demanding she respond and how could she help but respond?
He was right. There was only them.
Until dawn.
She woke and he was gone. She stirred in the too big bed, drowsy and sated with the after effects of loving. She turned sleepily to his side of the bed and it was empty.
Even Deefer wasn’t with her. She looked over to the door and he was there, his
