How to Propose to a Princess

by Rebecca Winters

  “No. It couldn’t be. So what are you saying, Nico?”

  He finished his wine. “Basil and the prime minister want me to take my place as the heir apparent to the throne and believe the parliament would be behind me. They insist the queen has no vote politically and couldn’t stop me. But I told them that if she can’t get past her pain—and I don’t see how she can—then there’s no way I would consider murdering her heart again. My father already did it once.”

  “Nico—please don’t let what I said influence you in any way.”

  “You didn’t. I was sickened the moment Liliane spoke frankly with me. I left La Valazzura with this proviso: unless I hear from Liliane herself before the thirty days are up, and she can see a path for me that wouldn’t destroy her, then I’d think about it. The palace is her home since she left her father’s palace in Slovenia years ago to be married. For the time being she’s a figurehead no matter who ascends the throne.”

  “That poor woman. My heart aches for her.” Fausta’s head lifted. “My heart aches for you. I wish I could take away your pain.”

  “You already have by just being you. I needed this day with you and am looking forward to getting back to work as long as you’re free at five o’clock every day and weekends for us to be together. Once you tell your parents the truth about me, they might even add me to the bottom rung of their short list of acceptables.”

  Nico thought she would smile, but the opposite was true. “Do you mind if we go back to the hotel?”

  “I didn’t mean to say the wrong thing.”

  She refused to look at him. “You didn’t, but I’d rather continue the rest of this conversation when we don’t have an audience.”

  Several people had probably recognized her. “Would you like dessert?”

  “I couldn’t, but please order for yourself.”

  “I’d rather be alone with you.” He paid the bill and they left the restaurant for the car.

  When he pulled in next to her car in the hotel parking lot, he turned to her. “Why did my mentioning your parents bother you so much?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it.”

  “Fausta—you and I don’t have secrets from each other. I don’t want to start now.”

  She suddenly looked at him. Her eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I’ve spent my life wishing I weren’t royal so I could be like all my friends, able to make choices without worrying about the royal rules governing what my parents have outlined for me. I’ve said it before, the difference between the classes is indecent.”

  “I’m aware of how you feel,” he whispered.

  “Do you have any idea how strange it is to hear you of all people say that you’re probably acceptable to my parents now that you have a pedigree that goes back thousands of years? It angers me when I think of how Angelo spoke to you about crossing lines. No human should have to worry about being good enough to associate with another human.”

  “Fausta...” He pulled her to him and kissed the tears off her cheeks.

  “After that lovely dinner, I’m sorry for being so upset, Nico. Forgive me, but so many things pain me. I wish you could enjoy your parents’ love story. They must have been attracted to the point they couldn’t deny themselves. How hard it must have been for them to part. He never got to see you again.” She buried her face in his neck and wept quietly.

  “I’m presuming it was even harder to face his wife with the truth while continuing to rule,” Nico murmured. “I’m glad I knew nothing until now.”

  She raised her head and looked into his eyes. “Thank heaven you were taken to safety! Your parents would be so proud of you if they knew what an amazing man you’ve become. Maybe they do know.”

  “Bellissima—” Nico embraced her harder.

  Fausta ran her hand through his hair. “Isn’t it amazing that after all the searches you made and would continue to make throughout your life, it was Basil who came to you with the information only he could have provided? Does he know if your mother still has relatives living? It’s possible you have aunts and uncles who might be able to tell you more about her.”

  He took a deep breath. “We didn’t have time to talk about that yet. He and the prime minister tried to cram a hundred years’ worth of their country’s history into my brain over those five days.”

  “I can imagine. What about your father’s family?”

  “Aside from the cousin I told you about, all the relatives have passed on due to the ravages of war.”

  “I realize I’m brimming with so many questions, it’s driving you crazy.”

  “I love it, otherwise I wouldn’t have driven here the second I flew home. I need you to help me make sense of everything. Let’s go back to your room. We have all night to be together before leaving for Domodossola in the morning.”

  “That wouldn’t be a good idea, and I’m not talking about our bodyguards keeping watch. I don’t trust myself alone with you, so it’s better if we talk here in the car.”

  When she tried to ease away from him, he wouldn’t let her go. “Don’t you know how much I want you? You have no idea how I’ve longed for you.”

  “Your father probably told your mother the same thing before they lost their heads. Look what happened! Their lives were ripped apart. You and I can’t afford to do the same thing.”

  “You’re not making sense.”

  “Oh, yes, I am. Anything could happen in the next thirty days. I’m convinced you’ll hear from the queen. She loved your father once. In the end she’ll want you to return to La Valazzura and go before the parliament endowed with the many qualities that made him a great king even my own father admired.”

  “Then you have a lot more faith than I do.”

  “Please listen, Nico. Don’t you know how tragic it would it be for Basil and the prime minister to receive a message that the still unwed Princess Rossiano of Domodossola is the mistress of the commoner-turned-uncrowned-king before the throne is even his? The people would fear a potential pregnancy. If you can’t imagine it, I can. Like father, like son. It must run in the genes. The press will go ballistic with glee and tear you apart.”

  “Don’t,” Nico begged and crushed her to him. “Surely by now you know how deeply I’m in love with you.”

  “Actually I don’t know,” she fired back, her face awash in tears. “You couldn’t tell me how you feel until now because you didn’t dare say the words to a princess. Angelo really got to you. You’ve always felt you didn’t deserve to be with me. But now that you’ve found your life and we’re equals, you’re suddenly entitled to speak those forbidden words of love?”

  “Fausta—” He tried to kiss her, but she wouldn’t let him.

  “Do you have any idea how much I needed to hear you say you loved me when we were at your apartment, before you knew who you were? I would have done anything for you. But you couldn’t say the words. That’s why a relationship based on what we’ve had up to now is thin as air.”

  “Don’t talk that way, amore mio.”

  “Nico, we’ve spent borrowed time together for a short while. You believed it had to end and broke up with me that night at your apartment, telling me you were on a search for your parents that had to be taken alone. The real reason was that you couldn’t see us ending up together. I thought I was going to die and couldn’t believe I was still alive the next day.”

  He smoothed the moisture off her cheeks. “You’ll never know what I went through.”

  “Does it matter? When you leave for La Valazzura, and I know you will, a royal world will await you complete with a list of princesses dying to meet you. At that point all things will be equal. You’ll have the time you need to find the right woman for you, one who will hold your heart and give you children. There’ll be no baggage and you’ll be a revered king.”

  “Listen to me, Fausta. You’re the woman who holds my h
eart. I want children with you and no one else. Whether I become a king or remain a doctor, there’s no one else in this world for me but you.”

  She shook her head. “I believe you mean it, but you’re a man suspended high between two worlds. I’m watching in agony from below.”

  “Mia amata—” He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her with such passion they were both breathless. “Whatever world I choose, I need the answer to one question. Will you marry me?”

  Nico reached in his pocket and pulled out a ring. “This is a blue diamond, close to the color of your eyes. I bought this after we spent that day in the country together. Tonight, I intended to give it to you. That’s how real my love has been for you from the beginning.”

  A gasp escaped her lips. He felt for her left hand, but she wouldn’t cooperate. “I—I can’t accept it,” she stammered.

  “In the name of heaven, why not? Have you decided you don’t love me?”

  Her cry resonated in the interior of the car. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m so in love with you, I’ve been half out of my mind since the first evening you took me to dinner.”

  “Then why won’t you let me put it on you?”

  She threw her head back. “If you were the doctor from the hospital asking me to spend the rest of my life with you, I would put it on myself and never take it off. But you’re not Nico Barsotti. Your name is Massimo Carlo Umberto, the future king of La Valazzura, and you’re going to have a remarkable reign.”

  “You don’t know that!” he cried in frustration. “Hell, I don’t even know what I’m feeling yet.”

  “You’re still too close to it, but I feel it in my bones. Unlike you, I’ve known who I was and have known my own feelings from the time I was a young girl. I knew I was a loved princess who had to sit still for the royal family pictures and wait all the time to see my father for a few minutes. I didn’t like that life then, and I don’t like it now. I want to marry a man with a normal life like the magnificent family practice doctor I fell so hard for.”

  “Fausta—”

  “When you fixed dinner for us in your apartment, I thought you were going to propose to me. I’d been picturing our life together. I even went so far in my thoughts to imagine that if we couldn’t have children because either one of us had a problem, we’d go to the orphanage and adopt a little Nicolo or Maria. The dreams I’ve had...”

  She pressed her lips to his. “Those dreams will keep me warm in my old age. Years from tonight I’ll remember that the great king of La Valazzura once asked me to marry him. And now I’m going to say good-night and goodbye. Please don’t see me inside the hotel or call me. I need to be by myself.”

  * * *

  “What am I going to do, Enzo?”

  Nico had driven to the castello on Wednesday morning after watching Fausta leave the hotel in her car. He hadn’t slept all night. His heart had gone with her, leaving him in agony.

  His white-haired mentor eyed him with a solemn expression after Nico had poured out his soul to him. “I wish I could help. The only advice I have for you is that you don’t make your decision hastily then live a lifetime of regret if it’s the wrong one.”

  “That’s my biggest worry. I only have a month before I must act one way or the other. There are so many unknowns, Enzo. Fausta has brought me the greatest happiness I’ve ever known. Whatever I do, there can be no joy in my life without her. She lights up my world and everyone else’s.”

  “Indeed she does,” Pippa chimed in. “Even as a girl she had a spirit and vivaciousness we noticed immediately. According to Lorenzo, she’s been a worry to her parents because she’s not biddable like her sisters and has rebelled over being a royal. She knows her own mind.”

  Nico clung to the back of a damask chair, unable to sit. “She made that painfully clear last night when she refused the ring I bought her.”

  Enzo sighed. “Fausta is Victor’s daughter and wise beyond her years. Not only has she shown her superb taste in falling for you, she has learned the lesson of not jumping into the fire too soon. Give her time to assimilate what you’ve told her.”

  “If you’d heard her last night, you’d know there’s no hope.”

  Pippa smiled at him. “There’s always hope when there’s love.”

  “I’ve got to pray you’re right, Pippa.”

  “Don’t forget she’s been imagining being the wife of a doctor at the risk of estranging her parents. She’s been comfortable with that idea and has figured out how she’s going to keep you close to her so the two of you can have a wonderful life together. But now you’ve thrown her a huge curve.”

  “A royal curve she doesn’t like,” Enzo concurred.

  Pippa wheeled herself closer. “Fausta needs time to get used to the fact that you might become king of another country, one foreign to both of you.”

  “I’m still having trouble comprehending it.”

  “Just remember that she has watched her mother deal with being her father’s queen since she was a toddler. I believe her fear stems from a lot more than living a royal life with you if she has to.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Fausta has been there and done that while she too has been forced to wait for her father’s attention. It’s no mystery why she has grown up wanting marriage with a man who comes home from work to her at five every evening.”

  Pippa’s comment were beginning to make sense.

  “What terrifies her most is that the two of you will rarely have time together when you’re king. Over the years she has watched her mother waiting, waiting, waiting for those precious times to be alone with her husband. I can’t say I blame Fausta for dreading that same scenario for herself.”

  “Pippa’s right, mio figlio. So be patient while Fausta starts working out how she as queen can get you to herself more often and keep you in love with her.”

  “I’ll love her beyond life,” Nico ground out.

  “I believe you will,” Enzo murmured. “What’s your plan at the moment?”

  “To get back to the hospital. Dr. Silvio has doubled for me and I owe him. If or when I hear from Queen Liliane, that will help determine how I proceed.”

  Nico’s white-haired mentor eyed him with a solemn expression. “I wish I could help. Once again, the only advice I have for you is that you weigh your decision carefully. But when you only have a month before you must act one way or the other, that sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

  “Above all, don’t leave Fausta alone,” Pippa added. “No matter what she said, she really doesn’t want you to stay away from her. You do understand that in her heart, the sun rises and sets with you. I saw it while the two of you were here.”

  “I want to believe that, Pippa.” He walked around and kissed them both. “What would I have done without you two? All the time I was looking for my parents, I had you. I’ve been blessed. The second I know anything, I’ll drive here to give you checkups and we’ll talk. Stay well. I need you.”

  He left the castello for Domodossola. All the way to his apartment he pondered their remarks and advice.

  Don’t give up on me, Fausta. Per l’amor di Dio, don’t give up.

  CHAPTER NINE

  FAUSTA CRIED SO hard all the way back to Domodossola, her blouse was soaked with tears and her face looked ravaged.

  When she reached the palace, she swept past the guard on the way up to the apartment with her suitcase. There were eight text messages on her cell phone she’d ignored while she’d been driving home.

  Adrenaline gushed through her body when she saw that four of them were from Nico sent at various intervals. She sank down on the side of the bed in pain. Fausta had said goodbye to him and she’d meant it.

  At first she couldn’t look at them, but finally she caved and read the first one.

  I love you, Fausta. It happened when I walked into Tommaso’s ho
spital room and heard you reading to him.

  Tears dripped down her cheeks. She read the second one.

  We were meant to be together. I felt it when we visited the orphanage the first time and know you felt it too.

  Fausta’s heartache deepened and she jumped off the bed before reading the third one.

  I’ll never say goodbye to you, so don’t think you’re going to get rid of me. That wouldn’t be possible.

  “Nico—” she cried out in anguish and pressed the phone to her chest. But the last message was still calling to her. With trembling fingers, she opened it.

  Fausta. I meant it when I said you were the only woman for me. From the very first moment you spoke to my heart. That only happens once in a lifetime. I’m not giving up, so be warned.

  Completely torn up inside, she needed her sister and phoned her.

  Lanza had just put Rufy down for his afternoon nap and said she’d come right away.

  The second she knocked and walked in, Fausta ran to her and they hugged.

  “Tell me what’s wrong. You sounded frantic on the phone.”

  “There’s so much to tell you, I don’t know where to start.”

  “This is about Nico I’m sure.”

  She nodded. They ended up on the couch in her sitting room. “What I’m about to tell you can’t go beyond these walls.”

  Lanza’s brows lifted. “It’s that bad?”

  “It is for me.”

  “Fausta—don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “All right. Here it is. Nico was put in an orphanage at the age of two and was never adopted, though he’d had two opportunities. The point is, a little more than a week ago he found out where he came from and who his parents are.”

  By now she had Lanza’s complete attention. “Was his mother a single mom who couldn’t take care of him?”