But finally he did, setting her back, holding her shoulders in his hands and smiling down into her eyes.
‘I suspect Deefer needs air.’
In Holly’s arms Deefer wriggled with grateful comprehension. Andreas smiled and set the little dog down.
Rocket was out near the overseer’s quarters, wandering over to investigate these newcomers. Deefer saw him from the distance, wriggled in ecstasy and launched himself forward into his new life.
‘Will he be okay?’ Andreas asked.
‘Rocket’s a great dog,’ Holly managed, turning slightly within the crook of Andreas’s arm. As if to confirm it, the big, old dog crouched low, then rolled over before the puppy reached him, in an attitude of complete subjection.
‘Is that healthy?’ Andreas demanded.
‘Probably not.’
‘Training tomorrow, then,’ Andreas said. ‘Deference to your elders, lesson one.’
‘You will be here tomorrow?’
‘Yes.’ He kissed her.
She allowed him to kiss her. When she’d been kissed to her satisfaction-for now-she pushed back a little. Deefer was jumping over and over Rocket in the dust. Bluey had come out his back door and was watching…the dogs. Honey had the curtains of the front room twitched aside and was watching…the dogs.
‘We have an audience,’ Holly murmured, and giggled.
‘Then we should put on a show,’ Andreas said and tugged her to him.
She took a deep breath, forcing her knees to steady and her voice to sound a little resolute. As resolute as she could manage. ‘Explain.’
‘Explain what?’
‘How you can just calmly walk back into my life.’
‘I’m saving my country,’ he said, sounding virtuous. ‘As a noble prince who knows his duty to his people, I can do nothing else.’
‘You’ve a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.’
He looked wounded. He set her back again and held her at arm’s length. ‘You’re saying I’m crazy? Me, who brought you your dog.’
‘Virtue all round. Bringing me my dog. Saving your country. Would you mind telling me how?’
‘Easy,’ he said, and he smiled and it was the smile that Holly loved and it was almost enough for her to say forget the explanations, just head straight to the bedroom, because it had been a really long month and that smile made her toes curl. But somehow she forced herself to be patient. Somehow she let him keep smiling at her while he had his say.
‘You were a hit,’ he said. ‘The people of Aristo love you. Or they love what they saw of you. There was a public outcry when you left.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
His smile faded. ‘You need to believe me,’ he said softly, ‘because it’s true. I’ve had to be away so much we put out rumours that I’d come home with you. Only then your local press investigated and found I wasn’t here.’
‘They phoned,’ Holly said, dismayed. ‘What was I supposed to do? Lie?’
‘I didn’t ask you to lie,’ he said. ‘I’d never expect it of you. So then Sebastian said you need to come back to Aristo.’
She sighed. ‘For a spot of wing clipping?’
‘That’s what I said,’ he told her, starting to smile again. ‘And I can’t see you with clipped wings.’
‘So…’
‘So there’s general unrest that our marriage was just for show. The people like you. The royal PR department has been putting it about that we have a Cinderella marriage. Sebastian’s been talking at me about putting my family first. And it suddenly occurred to me…’
‘What?’ she said, sounding suddenly breathless. Feeling suddenly that there was a chink in a very heavy door and light was filtering through. Just maybe…maybe…
‘That you are my family,’ he said and the smile was back for real now, tender, warm and loving. ‘I hadn’t seen it until then, but suddenly there it was. You, Holly, are my wife. You live here, a place I love and where I want to work. My son is buried here. My dog was waiting for someone to collect him to bring him home. And if our people want the Cinderella story, then what better than you choosing your prince and rescuing him, carrying him to his happy ever after? Here.’
She could scarcely breathe. She was staring at him as if he’d grown two heads. ‘You…you’d leave Aristo for me?’
‘I have,’ he said softly. Then, at the look on her face, he shook his head. ‘No. I haven’t run from my duty. The corruption commission has come to an end. I’ve done all the searching I can for the diamond, and, no, don’t ask me whether it’s been found because I can’t and won’t tell you. It’s irrelevant to us now.’
‘But…your mother. Sebastian…’
‘They were my family,’ he said gently. ‘After my father’s harsh rule they need to reassess what’s important to them as well, and maybe they are. My mother is taking the first few tentative steps right now. But for me…For me the path is clear. I have a new family. I have a wife and a dog and a vast cattle property in Australia. I have a fabulous island getaway off Aristo that we can still use for holidays. I have you.’
‘But you can’t,’ she said, dazed. ‘You’re third in line to the throne.’
‘No more,’ he said and he tugged her to him and held her tight. ‘I made that very clear when I addressed the people of Aristo on national television two nights ago. My brother’s perfectly capable of running the country. He has Alex at his side. Plus-and this is the big plus, Holly-he also has my sisters. Sebastian hasn’t seen it until now. Like me, he was brought up to believe women were to be relegated to the background, but I know he’s wrong. I told him so. I’ve told my mother and my sisters and I’ve told my country. I’ve done all I’m capable of to make my country safe, and now it’s me time. Us time,’ he corrected himself. ‘If that’s okay with you, my love. You have a pretty big place here. Do you think we could share?’
She gasped on a sob. She was holding him tight, her hands on his hips, not letting him move from her grasp, but she was watching his face as if it might disappear at any minute. As if truth could turn to falsehood. But what she saw there was only truth.
Her husband. Her love.
Did he think they could share? She turned to stare around her, at the endless plains where the cattle were just starting their first tentative exploration. As she was about to start tentatively exploring the realities of a marriage.
‘I think we might just find room,’ she whispered. ‘If you truly mean it.’
‘How can I not mean it?’ He gave a whoop of triumph, lifted her high and brought her down to kiss her. ‘My love. My Cinderella wife.’
‘My Cinderella husband,’ she said. And then she had a thought. ‘Um…does this mean I’m not a princess any more?’
‘Inherited title,’ he said, sounding smug. ‘Ancient lineage. Titles can’t be removed by mere abdication. You’re still a princess.’
‘They won’t call you prince round here. You’ll get called Rass, like you got from the men when you worked with them years ago.’
‘Rass sounds great to me.’
‘Then R…Rass?’
‘Yes, my love?’
‘Do you suppose we could go inside?’ she whispered. ‘Everyone’s watching.’
‘And what would you like to do that you can’t do while everyone’s watching?’
‘Come inside and find out.’
It was almost two in the morning when she stirred. This had happened these last few nights, the vague feeling in the small hours that things were not quite right.
How could they not be right tonight? She was coiled in her husband’s arms, tucked tight against him, skin against skin, naked, exposed, as one with the man she loved.
This was where she wanted to be for the rest of her life. She knew it with the same certainty as she believed Andreas. He’d said it last night in the aftermath of lovemaking.
‘There’ll be times I have to go back to Aristo-for family reasons-but they’ll be visits. Short trips, Holly, and you’ll b
e at my side. As my wife. With no clipped wings, either. You’re not my captive wife, my love. You’re my heart, my family, my world.’
She listened now to the echoes of the words held in her heart all this night, and she knew his words would stay with her until the end.
But still this unease.
She stirred and he let her go, reluctantly, waking and smiling as she wound a sheet self-consciously round her nakedness and headed for the kitchen where the pile of groceries that had arrived the day before lay yet unpacked. It had been too big a day for Honey to find time to unpack the non-perishables.
Where…?
Ten minutes later she was back. Andreas was still awake, watching for her. He held out his arms to welcome her, but she shook her head.
‘Andreas, I have something…I have somewhere we need to be. Will you come with me?’
He didn’t question her or protest. Silently they slipped on jeans, shirts and boots. Deefer didn’t stir. It had been a big day for one small puppy, and he graciously let them go to the big outside without him.
Holly didn’t speak even as they left the house. Her heart seemed too full for speech. She took his hand and silently led her love down through the home paddock, to the ancient gum where her Adam lay.
She paused at the grave. Andreas looked at her for a long moment in the moonlight, searching her face-and then he stooped before the grave.
He ran his hands through the soft leaf litter, and then he traced the wording on the gravestone with one gentle finger. The moon was full. Holly could read the inscription plainly as Andreas traced the words.
Adam Andreas Cavanagh. Her baby, loved with all her heart.
‘My son,’ Andreas whispered at last, and there was a world of regret in his voice. He looked up at Holly and she knelt with him, her hand resting over his on the gravestone.
‘Adam was a blessing,’ she whispered. ‘A joy. Tomorrow I’ll show you photographs. He looked just like his daddy.’
‘I so wish…’
‘Hush,’ she whispered and she tugged his face to hers and kissed him tenderly. The grief she’d felt for all these long years was in his face now. A grief shared.
But it was right to share this grief. Adam had his father, here now to help tend his grave. And in the future…
‘Andreas, do you remember, years ago when we made love? Do you remember that we took precautions?’
‘They obviously didn’t work,’ Andreas said wryly.
‘No. They didn’t.’
Something in her voice gave him pause. He drew back, his brow snapping down into a question, searching her face. Stunned.
‘Uh huh,’ she said-and she managed a wavering smile. The emotions within her were almost too strong for smiles.
‘What…are you saying…?’
‘I’m saying we proved once we make a fiery couple,’ she whispered. ‘We’re a match for any condom, it seems. Us and our kids.’
‘Our kids.’
‘We’ve lost Adam,’ she whispered and her fingers traced the contours of grief still etched on his face. ‘But he’s with us still, in our hearts. And in eight months’ time…’
‘You’re pregnant,’ he whispered. ‘You’re pregnant!’
There was no mistaking his reaction. It was said with a hushed, whispered awe. Joy flooded his face, light after dark. ‘You’re having our baby?’
‘I didn’t know how to tell you,’ she whispered. ‘I wasn’t sure. I was just starting to suspect. But we had a load of groceries come in with the road-train today and I sort of happened to put a testing kit on the end of the order.’
‘So it’s confirmed?’
‘It’s confirmed,’ she said and smiled properly this time and waited for him to take her in his arms.
But he didn’t. It was almost as if he had too much joy to take in. Slowly he turned again to the tiny grave. He touched the headstone again, with such tenderness that Holly was awed herself.
‘I wasn’t here for your mother when you both needed me,’ he said softly, tenderly. ‘I swear I’ll be here for her from this day on. And you, my son…You’ll be a part of our family for ever.’
It was enough. She was weeping, smiling through tears, not caring that tears she’d always thought of as weakness were slipping down her face and there was no way she could stop them. She could see the glimmer of tears in Andreas’s eyes as well.
We’re a couple of cry-babies, she thought.
But then Andreas smiled at her and took her into his arms and held her against him. This was no cry-baby. This was her prince. Her man.
‘My family,’ he whispered. ‘My lovely, captive bride, captive no more. It’s me who’s the captive now. Captured by love. For ever.’
He tugged her back into the soft bed of leaf litter. He kissed her tenderly and he told her the things that were in his heart.
And later, back in the warmth of the house, he loved her all through the night, and into the dawn-and into the rest of their lives.
About the Author
Marion Lennox was raised in a farming community in practically the only part of Australia that’s wet all year round. With no entertainment but reading and no one to talk to but cows, it’s no wonder she turned to writing. But they didn’t put romance writer in the career handbook at her local school, so she pursued something she thought might make her a better living.
Marion ended up teaching statistics and computing at her local university. She married, she had a couple of kids, she acquired dogs, cats, chooks, goldfish-the full domestic catastrophe-but her first love was always romance. She penned her first novel while on family leave with her second child. Dare To Love Again was published in 1990 and stands as a testament to a family’s ability to survive on spaghetti and toasted sandwiches.
Marion has now written more than fifty romance novels. For a while she wrote under the pseudonym Trisha David to separate her Tender Romance novels from her Medical Romance novels, so if you’re looking for older books try Trisha.
She’s given up teaching. She’s trying to give up housework-if only the animals would stop molting and the kids would learn to clean up. (So…she’s a dreamer.) She daydreams in the garden and calls it gardening. She daydreams while traveling and calls it research.
She indulges in her first love, romance.
Turn the page for our exclusive interview with Marion Lennox!
We chatted to Marion Lennox about the world ofTHE ROYAL HOUSE OF KAREDES. Here are her insights!
Would you prefer to live on Aristo or Calista? What appeals to you most about either island?
They’re both fabulous islands and I can’t decide-so I solved the dilemma by creating another. My hero, Prince Andreas from Aristo, has been given his own smaller island by the old king. It’s his private retreat and it takes the best of both islands-he’s built a magnificent Bedouin-style pavilion in a coastal paradise, and it’s all his own. Though he’s willing to share-once he finds the right woman.
What did you enjoy about writing about the Royal House of Karedes?
The sheer opulence, the fantasy world of royalty, setting, intrigue…I read the synopses for the whole series and wanted to write them all!
How did you find writing part of a continuity?
I loved the pooling of imagination, the combined fantasy of so many talented authors and editors and the fun as we created our very own world. The book seemed to almost write itself.
When you are writing, what is your typical day?
Ooh, this is where fantasy stops. I’d love to say I lie back on my chaise lounge between the hours of two and maybe three-thirty on a hard day, I sip my champagne, I cuddle my poodle and I dictate a chapter or two to my dedicated secretaries.
The reality is I put my butt on chair at 9:00 a.m. and keep going until I’ve written two thousand words. I do have a dog, who requires me to open the windows and doors every so often, but where’s a good secretary when you need them? And I don’t even think about champagne.
Where
do you get your inspiration for the characters you write?
I’m always on the lookout for my gorgeous characters. I try hard not to use Johnny Depp as inspiration all the time, but he’s pretty compelling. I generally do a collage so there are pictures in front of me as I write. For my book in progress I have an old picture of Paul Newman-mmmmmm.
What did you like most about your hero and heroine in this continuity?
They’re both so torn between what they know to be right and their almost irresistible attraction to each other. If I had to describe either of them I’d say they were morally magnificent-and sexy enough to curl your toes.
What would be the best and the worst thing about being part of a royal dynasty?
The best? Ooh, I’d have to say the bling. The sheer, over-the-top fantasy. Plus having your very own hairdresser on hand every morning. (Okay, this is my own personal little fantasy-it was the only thing I ever really begrudged Princess Di.)
The worst? Being born into a role and not being given a choice in your direction in life. That’s what my Prince Andreas is fighting.
Are diamonds really a girl’s best friend?
Sorry. Best friends are a girl’s best friend. Sisterhood-all power to women. Followed by a fabulous romance with the “best friend” to die for. Followed by your hairdresser (see above). Diamonds? Okay, they may be fourth on my list, but I wouldn’t be knocking back a tasteful little three-carat number.
***
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The Prince’s Captive Wife Page 17