‘Why did you?’
Why? Seb sat back in his chair and watched the way the breeze caught at the single curl on her forehead. The answer was simple—because he’d wanted to.
As simple as that.
He’d wanted to be with her.
It was probably the last occasion he’d acted without any consideration of the possible consequences. He’d wanted to talk to her…. Then he’d wanted to spend time with her…. Then…
Maybe the pivotal mistake had been going to find somewhere to buy lunch that first day. He’d been blown away by her.
And it hadn’t just been her beauty that had drawn him in. He’d fallen in love with her shy smile. The way she’d blushed when he’d teased her. The way she’d laughed. Talked. Moved.
He’d never met anyone like her. That lunch had been the turning point. From that moment on everything else had been inevitable.
‘I liked being with you.’
Her eyes flicked up and away again. There wasn’t time to read her expression. ‘Why did you agree Nick and I could join you?’
Seb watched her swallow and then search for her reply. ‘I…don’t know.’
‘You’ll have to do better than that.’
Marianne gave a slight shrug. ‘Because you were so insistent? I don’t know.’
There was probably more than a grain of truth in that, Seb thought. He had pushed hard to be allowed to join them. And Beth and Nick had followed on almost as a matter of course.
Marianne had been very young. A few weeks past her eighteenth birthday when they’d met. Innocent. And she’d made him feel important. That she seemed to like him without knowing he was a prince had done a lot for his ego too. For the first and only time in his life he’d had a taste of what it was like to be ordinary. Normal.
‘Were you and Nick really on holiday?’
‘Oh, yes. We’d escaped.’ Seb picked up his wine and swirled it in his glass, his mind anywhere but on the liquid. ‘I don’t think I’d been anywhere before without some kind of protection in tow. It was a heady experience.’
‘Even at school?’
‘Even there. Of course, we hadn’t escaped.’ Seb smiled across at her. ‘My parents were completely aware of where I was and what I was doing. They’d merely decided to let the leash out a little and they pulled me back in when they needed to.’
Marianne set her glass down on the table and carefully lined up the base with the edge of her coaster. ‘Did they know about me?’
‘I think they probably knew your shoe size.’
Had they known she was pregnant? For a moment Marianne felt quite panicked and then she calmed down. Surely her patient notes were entirely confidential. And perhaps she’d ceased to be of much interest when she’d disappeared so quietly.
From the sitting room there was the sound of laughter. Marianne looked over her shoulder. ‘We shouldn’t be much longer.’
‘Perhaps not. How’s your headache?’
‘Gone. Almost.’ She took a final sip of wine. Talking had helped. She hadn’t actually learnt anything materially different from what she’d already known, but she felt…respected by his telling her. It changed nothing. And yet it changed everything.
Perhaps the most healing thing was that he hadn’t acted consciously. When she’d seen the first photographs of him with his fiancée she’d wondered whether he’d deliberately set out to have some kind of final fling. Been almost certain that he had. She looked up as a new thought burst into her head. ‘You’re not married now. I thought it was a requirement.’ She frowned. ‘Or does it all work the same way as if you were widowed?’
Seb shook his head. ‘I’ve no heir. I needed to change the constitution.’
He changed the constitution. If it was that easy, why hadn’t Seb’s father changed the constitution and prevented his son being forced into a marriage he didn’t want?
‘It was a lengthy process, but it was necessary before Amelie and I could be granted an annulment. There hadn’t been anything like it in eight hundred years of continuous rule so there were constitutional implications. It took five years of legal wrangling before everyone was satisfied.’
Which meant at some point he’d be expected to marry again. Someone suitable. But until then he was free to date Hollywood actresses and glamorous models. And she’d be able to read all about it.
Marianne shivered again.
Why did they settle for that? Surely the knowledge they’d slept with a prince didn’t make it hurt any less to know they were only a body to him? It had hurt her.
‘Still feeling cold?’
‘A little.’
‘Perhaps we should rejoin the others.’
Marianne nodded. She stood up and the chair grated against the paving. The comparative warmth of the sitting room hit her immediately she entered.
‘How’s your headache?’ the professor asked.
‘Much better.’ Marianne smiled, though it didn’t feel quite natural. Her emotions seemed balanced on a knife edge. ‘The fresh air was a good idea.’ She carefully unwound her wool wrap and folded it neatly on the chair.
‘Excellent.’
His attention quickly returned to Dr Leibnitz. It seemed quite incredible to Marianne that it wasn’t immediately obvious to the two other men she’d changed somehow.
She sat herself on the edge of the sofa and glanced over at the clock on the mantelpiece. It was late—and she wanted nothing more than to go back to the Cowper Hotel. Her feet were aching and she’d lied when she’d said her headache was better. It was sitting behind her left eyeball just waiting to explode.
How much longer was the professor going to be? Her mind seemed to be buzzing, incapable of following their conversation. Then, quite suddenly, it was over.
‘I’ll give you a few days to discuss everything with your wife,’ Seb said, standing up, ‘and then I’ll ask you for your decision.’
The professor nodded. ‘Yes, indeed.’
‘Perhaps you could talk directly with Johann von Renzel, my chief of court. Assuming your decision is in the positive, he’ll be able to organise accommodation and your travel arrangements.’
In her heart of hearts Marianne knew there was no decision to make. And, incredibly, the thought of going to Andovaria was no longer such an ordeal. Seb hadn’t set out to hurt her. She believed that—so she couldn’t hate him any more.
If she ever really had. There was a part of her that would always love him. A part that was angry. And a part of her that felt sorry for him. He might live in a gilded cage, but it was a cage nevertheless. His whole life defined by an accident of birth and he hadn’t had the courage to break out.
‘You’re very quiet,’ the professor observed as he settled himself in the back of the taxi.
Marianne turned her head to look at him. ‘You’ve already made your decision, haven’t you? You’ve decided to accept.’
He closed his eyes, looking more tired than he’d ever admit. ‘If we pick our team carefully…’
Marianne looked out of the window at the Randall before the taxi slipped out into the London traffic.
Seb shrugged off his jacket and dropped it on the nearest chair, untying his bow-tie at the same time. He walked over to the window and stood, one arm resting on the frame, looking out across the terrace.
That had been, perhaps, the hardest conversation of his entire life.
Good, though. It was as though a loose end had been finally tied.
‘Will that be all, sir?’
Seb turned. ‘Yes, thank you, Warner.’ The butler had started to move away when Seb noticed Marianne’s pink wrap lying on the chair just inside the door. ‘No, wait.’ He strode over and picked it up, amazed that the light rose perfume she’d worn that evening still clung to the fibres. He hadn’t even been aware he’d noticed her perfume.
‘Could you see that this is packaged up and delivered to Dr Chambers at the Cowper Hotel?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘I believe t
hey’ll be checking out by ten o’ clock tomorrow.’
‘Yes, sir. I’ll see that it’s delivered tonight.’
The door shut behind him and Seb turned back and idly fingered the selection of books the Randall had provided. Crime, thrillers, non-fiction, classics…Nothing on the shelf grabbed his attention.
In fact, he felt…restless. Hell only knew why. The evening had gone well. He was almost certain that Professor Blackwell would accept…which was, in the main, what he’d stopped over in London for. Viktoria would be delighted. But, still…he felt dissatisfied.
It was probably remembering. Practically a full decade of royal responsibility since he’d last seen Marianne. The last time he’d acted solely in line with his own inclination.
Seb lay down on the sofa and rested his head back on the armrest. Five weeks. That was all they’d had. Five weeks before his life had been turned upside down and he’d been thrust relentlessly into the limelight.
Tabloid fodder. That’s what she’d called him. For the first time he paused to wonder what she’d thought when she’d first discovered he was the crown prince of Andovaria.
It wasn’t comfortable thinking.
He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. And he was ‘tabloid fodder’. Every last thing he did was reported somewhere. He only had to speak to some woman for rumours of their affair to be circulating round the better part of Europe by the morning. It probably took a week for the same information to reach the States.
Seb sat up abruptly and swung his legs down to the floor. He reached out for the phone and keyed in a nine to obtain an outside line.
‘Nick?’ he said as soon as a sleepy voice answered. ‘Have I woken you?’
‘No, but I’d just about given up on you. Are you still coming over?’
He leant forward and rested his elbows on his knees. ‘I’ll be with you by lunchtime tomorrow. Just don’t put me in the room with the leaking roof again,’ he said, waiting for the crack of laughter which wasn’t long in coming.
‘How long are you staying this time?’
‘Just the weekend. I’ve got to be in Vienna by Monday lunchtime for a meeting with a trade delegation and then I’m off to the States straight after that.’
‘How long for?’
‘Six weeks, all but a couple of days.’ Seb sat back again and briefly contemplated telling Nick he’d seen Marianne. He brushed a tired hand across his face. Somehow it felt too difficult—and he wasn’t ready to be questioned about her. He didn’t know how he felt.
But he was fairly certain he knew how Marianne was feeling.
She’d heard him out—and, perhaps, that had been more than he’d deserved. But she still felt he’d let her down and, damn it, he had.
CHAPTER FIVE
SEB leant forward and tapped the driver of his car on the shoulder. ‘Stefan, stop here, please. I need to stretch my legs.’
Obediently his driver brought the car to a halt, the one immediately behind doing the same, and Seb turned to Alois, sitting beside him. ‘Can you take my briefcase up to my private apartment? Leave these with Liesl and I’ll work on them again later.’
‘Sir.’
He shuffled the papers he’d been working on back into his briefcase and handed them across with a nod of thanks. Then, leaving his jacket on the seat, he opened the door and stepped out into fresh air.
It was good to be home. Really good. Seb drew the air into his lungs. Travel might broaden the mind, but home was good for the soul. Who’d written that? He couldn’t remember, but it was so true.
He really loved this place. It seemed to envelop him every time he stood inside its protected boundaries. Poltenbrunn Castle, with the Alps rising majestically behind it, was rather a spectacular building in a truly breathtaking setting. Most of the time he took it for granted, but sometimes, like now, after a longish absence, he was struck how incredibly fortunate he was to live the life he did in the place that he lived it.
Seb stood back and allowed the cars to snake their way up to the castle, before following on foot. Of course, six weeks of hotel suites, paparazzi with their telephoto lenses focused on every window and the constant companionship of the men assigned to protect him probably had a lot to do with his relief at being home. At least here he was afforded a modicum of privacy.
His smart leather shoes prevented him from doing anything other than sticking to the main path, but he took the longer route around the great lake. It was an incredibly beautiful vista. And one he’d loved since he was a child.
He’d spoken to people over the past couple of weeks who seemed to have no sense of place or purpose, people whose lives had been shattered through no fault of their own. And all this was his. ‘In trust for future generations’—but his.
Just as he was occasionally reminded of the beauty of his home, so was he reminded of the responsibilities of his position. Few people were able to influence so much or bring about such change simply by virtue of who their ancestors were. At nineteen he’d balked at that, wished for a different life…
Seb looked across the lake towards the oldest part of the castle. He’d wished for Marianne. At nineteen he’d accepted he would be the next sovereign prince of Andovaria, but it had cost him. And seeing Marianne in London had reminded him how much it had cost him.
The sturdy grey stone of the old keep looked so permanent and dour as compared with the later more aesthetically pleasing additions. In less than a week she’d be there.
Seb paused at the brass sculpture of Maestoso Bonadea XII, his father’s favourite stallion, and moved his hand down the smooth muzzle. It was going to be strange to know Marianne was at the castle…every day. Close, but not close.
Perhaps it was because their relationship hadn’t been allowed to run its course that he felt…
Heck only knew what he felt.
Seb screwed his eyes up against the mid-afternoon sun. Since he’d seen her in London he’d thought about her pretty much constantly. How much worse would that be when she was actually here? Just knowing that she was a five-minute walk away from his private rooms…
He turned abruptly away and rounded the bend, his feet slowing as he saw a solitary female figure coming out of the woodland area. There was something about the way she was walking that made him stop completely and his stomach want to jump in both directions simultaneously.
It was her. Incredibly.
And he knew the moment Marianne had moved close enough to recognise him. Her body seemed to tense and then she resolutely carried on up the path.
Seb pulled a hand through his hair and searched his mind for something suitably casual to say. He’d spent the last six weeks thinking about her, wondering whether she’d changed her opinion of him, wondering whether she still felt anything for him…
Just wondering. Idly. And now here she was. And he wasn’t prepared for how it would feel to see her against the backdrop of his home.
Marianne stopped a few feet away from him, her shoulder-length blonde hair drawn back into a casual pony-tail. She looked so absurdly young. Incredibly beautiful.
And he wanted to kiss her. He knew exactly what it felt like to slide his hands over her body and feel her lips warm and moving against his. In fact, he knew more than that. He knew what it was like to be inside her. To wake and watch her breathing. All of a sudden his skin felt several sizes too small for his body.
He drew a hand round the back of his neck to ease out the sudden tension. Nervous as any adolescent. Unsure what he should say. What he shouldn’t.
The edge of Marianne’s long white cotton skirt caught in the summer breeze and her pony-tail flicked out behind her. Then she smiled.
‘Y-you weren’t supposed to be here until next week,’ he managed in a voice that sounded hoarse.
She shook her head. ‘I’m here to set up the computers before the professor arrives next week. I…came on ahead.’
‘Oh,’ He nodded. And now he felt foolish. Even more foolish. His mind was refusing to work
and he didn’t seem to be able to stop looking at her. She wore no make-up and he could see the pale translucency of her skin, the purple smudges beneath her dark eyes. And he remembered how those eyes had looked dilated and drowsy with passion. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘Ten days.’
He brushed his palms down the back of his trousers. ‘I’ve been away—’
‘I know.’
She smiled again and twisted a strand of hair behind her ears. ‘Did you have a good trip?’
‘Yes. Yes, I did. Thank you.’
Marianne nodded, more as though she wanted to encourage him than anything else. ‘I’m glad.’
Then she moved as though she intended to continue past him and Seb felt compelled to stop her. ‘D-do you have everything you need?’
‘Yes.’
‘Good. That’s good…’ His voice disappeared into a husky whisper. Seb pulled the air into his lungs. This conversation was becoming faintly ridiculous.
‘I’m being really well looked after. Princess Viktoria is very organised. She thinks of things I might need before I’ve thought of them.’
‘That’s good,’ he said again, and inwardly groaned. Somewhere across the Atlantic he must have lost the ability to talk to a beautiful woman.
Or perhaps it was just the ability to talk to this one?
He’d have done better if he’d known she was already at the castle. He could have prepared himself. Steeled himself for how it would feel to see her again.
‘She’s very enthusiastic about the project.’
‘Yes, she is.’ He pulled a hand through his hair and cast her a shaky smile. ‘Sorry, I’m not making much sense, I know. I’m jet-lagged. I need to get some sleep. Perhaps then I’ll be able to string more than a couple of words together.’
Marianne’s dark eyes lit with a glimmer of sudden laughter and he knew that whatever had been between them ten years ago was still there. For him at least. The only confusing thing was how he’d ever managed to walk away from her.
Harlequin Romance Bundle: Crowns and Cowboys Page 36