The Princess Bride

by Rebecca Winters

  But Rikardo’s gaze had shifted to those rows of oak trees again and again, and somehow Mel felt the tension rising within him as they drew nearer.

  ‘Winnow.’ Rik greeted a spindly man in his fifties and shook his hand. ‘Allow me to introduce my guest, Miss Watson.’

  So that was how Rik planned to get around that one. But would that be enough? Because for all the people that mistook Mel for her cousin, plenty more…didn’t.

  ‘Do you have the results of the soil test, Winnow? Are we infected again with the blight?’

  This time Mel didn’t have to try to hear the concern in Rikardo’s tone.

  ‘The test shows nothing, Prince Rik.’ The man stopped and glanced at Melanie and then back to the prince. ‘I beg your pardon. I mean, Prince Rikardo.’

  ‘It’s fine, Winnow. We are all friends here.’ Rik dipped his head. ‘Please go on.’

  Winnow pulled the cap from his head and twisted it in his hands. ‘The test shows nothing, but last year and the year before…’

  ‘By the time the tests showed positive, it was too late and we ended up losing the crop.’

  ‘Yes. Exactly.’ Winnow’s face drew into a grimace. ‘I cannot prove anything. Maybe I am worrying unduly but the soil samples that I pulled this morning do not look right to me.’

  ‘Then we will treat again now.’ Rikardo didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes, it is expensive and a further treatment we hadn’t planned for will add to that expense, but our research and tests show that enough of the treatment will keep the blight at bay. If you have any concern whatever, then I want the treatment repeated.’

  The older man blew out a breath. ‘I am sorry for the added expense but my bones tell me—’

  ‘And we will listen.’ Rikardo clapped the man on the back. ‘Order the treatment. I will draw funds for it.’

  From there Rikardo examined the soil samples himself, and took Rufusina into one of the groves to sniff about. Mel didn’t fully understand the process. The older Winnow kept lapsing into the beautiful local

  dialect as he spoke with Rikardo.

  It was worth not being able to understand, to hear Rikardo respond at times in kind. She felt as though she’d heard him speak to her in the same language but she must have imagined that. In any case it was very lovely, a melodious harmony of tones and textures.

  ‘We will take breakfast up there, if you are agreeable.’ Rikardo pointed to a spot partway up a nearby mountainside. He’d handed the truffle hog over to Winnow, who was about to put her to good use in the groves before seeing her returned to her home. And with an admonishment to ensure the pig didn’t run off, as she was apparently wont to do on occasion.

  But right now…

  There was a natural shelving of rock up high where a bench seat and table had been set into it. The view would be amazing. ‘Oh. That would be lovely.’

  They began the climb. ‘The truffles. Will they be okay?’

  ‘I hope so. We’ve had two years of failed harvests. That has resulted in a devastating financial blow to the country’s economy while we searched for a preventative treatment that would work without affecting the quality of the truffles.’ He led her to the bench seat and table.

  Opposite was a mountain with large sections covered in ice. Mel sat, and her glance went outward and down, over groves of trees and over the village named after the royal family. ‘There must be so much rich history here. I’m sorry that there have been difficulties with the truffle industry. From Winnow I gather you play a key role in this truffle work?’

  ‘I run the operations from ground level to the marketing strategies.’

  Mel’s gaze shifted to the village below. ‘You must care about the people of Braston very much.’

  ‘I do, and they are suffering. Not just here and in Ettonbierre village, but right across the country.’ He drew a breath. ‘I had planned that we should eat while I led up to my request but perhaps it is best to simply state it now and then explain.’

  Mel’s breath locked in her throat. Rikardo had a request of her? She glanced again at the scene below. Rikardo led a privileged life compared to the very ordinary ones playing out down there. There was a parallel to her life with Nicolette and her cousin’s parents. But there was also a difference.

  Rikardo seemed willing to go to any lengths to help those who depended on his family for their livelihoods. ‘What can I do to help you? To help…them?’

  ‘You are kind, aren’t you?’ It wasn’t a question, and he seemed as concerned by it as he was possibly admiring of it. ‘Even though you don’t know what I may want.’

  Mel lowered her gaze. ‘I try to be. What is it that you need?’

  ‘If it is at all possible, if it’s something you can do without it interfering unreasonably with your life or plans and I can convince you that you will be secure and looked after throughout the process and after it, I would like to ask you to take Nicolette’s place.’ Blue eyes fixed on her face, searched.

  ‘T-take her place?’ She stuttered the question slightly.

  If Mel had peered in front of her in that moment, she felt quite certain she would have seen a hole. A rabbit hole. The kind that Alice in Crazyland could fall down.

  Or leap into voluntarily?

  ‘Just to be clear,’ Mel said carefully, ‘are you asking me to be the one to temporarily marry you?’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘I KNOW a marriage proposal must seem quite strange when you expected to be sent back to Australia today.’ Rik searched Melanie’s face.

  He felt an interest and curiosity towards her that he struggled to explain.

  And an attraction that can only get in the way of your goals.

  He couldn’t let that happen. And right now he needed to properly explain his situation to her. That meant swallowing his pride to a degree, something he wasn’t used to doing. Yet as he looked at the carefully calm face, the hands clenched together in the folds of her skirt as she braced herself for whatever might come next, it somehow became a little easier.

  At worst she would refuse to help him.

  That would be a genuine ‘worst’, Rik. You need her help, otherwise you’ll end up locked into a miserable marriage like that of your parents, or unable to help the people of Braston at all because this plan of yours has failed.

  ‘May I be plain, Melanie?’

  ‘I think that would be best.’ She drew an uneven breath. ‘I feel a little out of my depth right now.’

  She would feel more so as he explained his situation to her. He had to hope that she would listen with an open mind.

  ‘The arrangement that I made,’ he said carefully, ‘was to bring your cousin over here and marry her a month later.’

  Melanie responded with equal care. ‘You indicated that would be a temporary thing?’

  ‘Yes.’ He sought the right words. ‘The marriage was to end with a separation after three months and Nicolette would then have been returned to Australia and a quick divorce would have been filed for.’

  ‘I see.’ She drew a breath and her lovely brown eyes focused on his blue ones and searched. ‘You didn’t intend to let your father know those circumstances until after the marriage, I’m guessing? What did you hope to gain from that plan?’

  ‘Aside from my brothers, Nicolette, and my aide, no one was to know of the plan.’ He’d intended to outplay his father, to get what he wanted for the people without having to yield up his freedom for it. ‘This plan probably sounds cold to you.’

  ‘It does rather reject the concept of marriage and for ever.’ Melanie sat forward on the bench seating and turned further to face him. Her knee briefly grazed his leg as she settled herself.

  The colour whipped into her cheeks by the cold air around them deepened slightly. That…knowledge of him, that awareness that seemed to
zing between her body and his even when both of them had so much else on their minds…

  Is something that cannot be allowed to continue, Rik, particularly if she is willing to agree to the business arrangement you’re asking for with her.

  ‘In my family, many lifelong marriages have been made to form alliances or for business reasons.’ He hesitated, uncertain how to explain his deep aversion to the idea of pursuing such a path. ‘That doesn’t always result in a pleasant relationship.’

  Melanie’s gaze searched his. ‘It could be quite difficult for children of such a marriage, too.’

  ‘It’s not that.’ The words came quickly, full of assurance and belief as though he needed to say it in case he couldn’t fully believe it?

  Rik had his reasons for his decision. He was tired of butting heads with his father while the king tried to bully him to get whatever he wanted. His father needed to acknowledge that Rik would make his own decisions. That was all. ‘There have been myriad problems in the past couple of years.

  ‘The first year the truffle crop failed it was difficult.’ People relied on the truffle industry for their survival. ‘Around that same time, my mother, the queen, moved out. That was an unprecedented act from a woman who’d always advocated practical marriages and putting on a good front to the public, no matter what.’

  Melanie covered her surprise. ‘That must have caused some complications.’

  ‘It did. For once my father found himself on the back foot.’

  ‘And you and your brothers found yourselves without a mother in residence. I’m sorry to hear that. It’s never pleasant when you lose someone, even if they choose to leave.’ A glimpse of something longstanding, deep and painful flashed through her eyes before she seemed to blink it away. ‘I hope that you still get to see her?’

  ‘I see my mother infrequently when there are royal occasions that bring us all together.’ Would Mel understand if he explained that his contact with his mother hadn’t changed much? That the queen had never spent much time with her sons and what time she had spent had been invested in criticising their clothing, deportment, efforts or choices in life? Better to just leave that alone.

  ‘My parents died years ago.’ She offered the confidence softly. ‘I went to live with Nicolette and my aunt and uncle after that happened.’

  He took one of her hands into his. ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’

  Dominico had informed him of some of these things this morning after the security check the aide ordered on her came through. The invasion of Melanie’s privacy had been necessary, but Rik had refused to read the report, asking only to be told ‘anything that might matter’. Though he had to protect himself, somehow it had still felt wrong.

  ‘Thank you.’ She gently withdrew her hand, and folded both of them together in her lap.

  She went on. ‘You’ve explained about the truffle crops failing, how that’s impacted on your people. One year is a problem but two years in a row—’

  ‘Brought financial disaster to many of our truffle workers.’ And while Rik pursued every avenue to find a cure for the blight to the truffle crops, his father had denied the depths of the problem because he was absorbed in his anger and frustration over his queen walking out on him.

  ‘On top of these issues, the tourist industry also waned as other parts of Europe became more popular as vacation destinations. Tourism is Anrai’s field. He has the chain of hotels and the country certainly still gets a tourist market, but when there is so much more to do and see just over the border…’

  ‘You have to have something either comparable, or totally unique, to pull in a large slice of the tourist market.’ Melanie nodded her head.

  ‘Exactly. Our country needs to get back on its feet. My brothers and I have fought to get our father to listen to the depth of the problems.’ They’d provided emergency assistance to the people out of their own pockets as best they could but that wasn’t a long-term solution. None of them had endless supplies of funds.

  In terms of available cash, nor did the royal estate. It had what it had. History, a beautiful palace and the means to maintain it and maintain a lifestyle comparable to it for the royal family. Their father oversaw all of that, and did not divulge the details of what came and went through the royal coffers. It was through careful investment of a shared inheritance that Rik and his brothers had decent funds of their own.

  ‘Despite these difficulties you came up with a plan.’ Mel searched Rikardo’s face. Her heart had stopped pounding in the aftermath of his remarkable request, though even now she still couldn’t fully comprehend it, couldn’t really allow herself to consider it as any kind of reality.

  It was Alice down that alternative universe hole again, yet it wasn’t. He truly wanted her to marry him. For practical purposes, to outwit his father, and just for a few months, but still…he wanted her to marry him.

  She started to find it hard to breathe again. ‘And somehow your plan involved trading off a brief marriage for sorting out the country’s economic troubles.’

  ‘Yes. My father has pushed all three of us to marry. I think we all have expected that Marcelo would have to do that whether he wanted to or not because he is the eldest. It is part of his heritage.’

  Mel nodded. ‘I thought when I came here, well, I guess I was so overwhelmed by it all that I didn’t stop to think that everything might not be rosy just because there’s a palace filled with amazing things. Just because you’re a prince doesn’t mean everything is easy for you. Or for your brothers, either.’

  ‘My brothers and I went to our father in a concerted bid to get him to listen to the seriousness of the problems the people are facing and with our plans for addressing those problems. Leadership reform is also desperately needed, and that is something Marcelo has been working to achieve for some years now.’ Rikardo drew a breath. ‘Our father finally did listen. We got our concessions from him.’

  His tone became even more formal as he went on. ‘But that agreement came at a cost. In return for agreeing to requests that will help us protect Braston’s people from further financial hardship, his demand was that we each marry within the next six months.’

  ‘To ensure that the family carries on?’ Mel asked the question and then wondered if she should have.

  Even as a king, did Georgio have the right to push his sons to marry if they didn’t feel ready? If they didn’t want to? For Rik to go to such lengths to avoid the institution, he must have some deep-seated reasons. Or did he just not want to be bullied? That was reason enough, of course!

  Mel might not ever fully understand, and for some reason she felt a little sad right now. Her gaze shifted to the cliff face opposite. Two men were near the top, tourists or locals with rappelling equipment.

  Mel had to navigate this discussion. And Rik’s explanations did help her to start to understand what was at stake, at least for the people of Braston.

  Could she decide to just walk away when the futures of so many people hinged on Rik meeting his father’s demands? When him bringing her here by mistake could have ruined those plans? If she hadn’t been on the street filled with allergy medication…

  Whether she’d meant it or not, her actions had contributed to this current problem, and if there was no other way to fix it…

  But it’s such a big undertaking, Mel. Marriage, even if it is only for a few months! And there’d be publicity and a dress and so much else, and you’d be fooling Rik’s father the whole time and then he’d realise he’d been fooled and be very angry.

  Yet Mel knew that Rik would protect her; that he would make sure his father didn’t bring any of his wrath down on Mel’s head. Rik wouldn’t allow that anger to have its head. ‘When it ended you would send me back to Australia, to Sydney. I wouldn’t be exposed to the aftermath here.’

  ‘And because we’d give an interview when we dis
solved the marriage and let the magazines and tabloids have that, I would hope you wouldn’t attract much media interest when you went home.’ His gaze searched hers. ‘I would direct them towards me and ask you to do the same. At worst there might be some photographs and speculation about you in the newspapers over there for a brief time.’

  That was to be expected when such an event had happened, but if all the information were already given, surely the papers wouldn’t care much once they realised Mel wasn’t going to talk to them, and the split had been amicable? ‘That shouldn’t be so bad.’ The whole thing wouldn’t be too scary if she decided to do it. Would it?

  She reached for the picnic basket that sat ignored on the table before them, and hoped that Rik couldn’t see the tremble in her fingers. ‘Would you like coffee? Something to warm your hands around?’

  ‘Thank you.’ His gaze, too, shifted to the men on the nearby mountain peak before it returned to Mel. ‘I should have unpacked the basket and made it all available to you the moment we got up here.’

  The thought of a prince unpacking breakfast for her horrified her but she bit back her words about it and instead, served the food and coffee for both of them.

  When she set his plate in front of him, he caught and held her gaze.

  ‘I know what I’m asking isn’t easy. I made this plan because I do not feel I can marry, truly…permanently.’ He hesitated. ‘The demonstration of that institution within my family—’

  ‘Has been about as warm as what I’ve seen in Nicolette’s family.’ Mel bit her lip, but that was her truth and there didn’t seem to be much point in avoiding saying it now.

  They started on their food. There were eggs cooked similarly to a quiche but without the pastry base. Small chunks of bread dipped in fragrant oil and herbs and then baked until they were crisp and golden. Grilled vegetables and fruits and a selection of pastries.