As he placed the dish down, over three-quarters empty, Perry caught his eye, and the pride on her face both amused and disconcerted him.
He wondered what he’d do to keep on seeing that look aimed his way, then he stopped wondering. Because he already knew the answer…
Anything.
He’d do anything to make sure she was happy.
Even if it meant squashing his own demons to please her.
Chapter Three
Perry gnawed at her thumbnail as she whizzed through the open tabs on her browser. She wanted to bite all ten fingernails, but managed to contain herself to the left thumb.
It was hard though.
Very, very hard.
And not just because Marianne would start bitching at her for biting her nails again.
Until yesterday, she hadn’t really wanted to know more information about the ordeal her lovers had endured as children. But after Edward’s revelation, she was compelled to know it all—everything she could get her hands on.
When she’d found herself diving headfirst into this relationship, “down the garden path” as her grandmother would have said, she justified it with an ingrained knowledge that Edward needed her.
She didn’t know how she knew it, didn’t even know why the thought sprouted to life in her brain. He was the most self-assured man she’d ever known, after all. His confidence was built into his very bones. As was his poise, charm, and elegance.
He was debonair, charismatic, and so well-read that she’d heard him discussing everything from the experiments at CERN to the pros and cons of relying on electric vehicles.
Nothing fazed him. Or nothing seemed to.
But only when George and Xavier had watched him, stunned when he’d picked up some snacks, had she realized why they’d been astonished.
She thought back to every meal, every afternoon tea or snack she’d had with Edward present, and not once did she remember him digging heartily into his meal.
There’d been a girl in her English class in college who, whenever she’d eaten, had grazed. Moving each item of food around on her plate so many times that it made everyone around her assume she was eating.
Edward did that, too. But his reason wasn’t because he was anorexic. It was because of what those bastards had done to him.
She felt sick to her stomach at the cruelty inherent in taunting two young boys into eating poisoned and tainted food to ease their hunger.
It was no wonder Edward only ate when he was alone.
And it filled her with pride and warmth to know that he’d taken a small step yesterday. Even if she had no real idea as to why.
Some women, Perry felt certain, needed to be needed. It was like it was a part of their biological make up. While Perry would never have considered herself as being nurturing, being here, in this unusual situation, she was discovering sides of herself she hadn’t known before.
And she had to wonder if those instincts were what had prompted her to say yes, and to agree to become Edward’s wife.
She bit down hard on her nail, enough to wince at, when she read a particularly detailed report on how the men behind Edward and George’s kidnapping plot had been shot by a firing squad.
The method seemed particularly antiquated, but it wasn’t like she could judge. The States’ supposedly “contemporary” way of electrocution or lethal injections that didn’t always work, weren’t exactly the height of modernity.
And it wasn’t like capital punishment could ever be considered a new thought process. It was as old as time itself to beget an eye for an eye, and for the first time in her anti-capital punishment life, she found she was glad for it: glad to know those men were no longer wandering around this Earth. Even if that Earth was a six-feet by six-feet jail cell.
George was right. She was bloodthirsty. Where those assholes were concerned.
It wasn’t just about Edward, either. The notion that the UnReals could hurt any of her new family made her want to froth at the mouth in outrage.
Which was why the whole nurturing thing was bewildering her.
She’d never felt like this before. This expanse of emotion was more than she was used to dealing with.
As she continued to gnaw at her nail, occupying one hand, the other was on the mouse, scrolling through the myriad nasty details of a crime she didn’t particularly want to know more about, and yet felt totally compelled to learn everything available to her.
The contradiction set her nerves on edge, so when her cellphone rang, she nearly leaped out of her seat in surprise.
Heart pounding, she took a second to gather herself. Only family, work, and George knew this number, and she didn’t particularly feel like dealing with any of them at the moment.
Even though that conversation with her parents was long overdue, she thought guiltily.
Reaching for her cell, she let it dial off. There was no need for her mother to pay the exorbitant long-distance rates. It wasn’t like Perry had to worry about paying her bills anymore, was it?
Though she huffed in amusement, the notion was still more than she was accustomed to. As she dialed the number that hadn’t changed in all the years of her existence, she kept on scanning the computer screen, staring with hatred at the men who had robbed the childhood from Edward and George’s lives.
When the call connected, she was still reading, and her mother, Janice, heaved out an exasperated breath. “Aren’t you going to say hello?”
“Oh, sorry, Mom,” Perry mumbled absentmindedly. “I was just reading an article.”
“Let me guess: about animal poop and how it’s going to save the world?”
Perry blinked, then sighed at her mother’s shortsightedness. “If anything, Mom, it’s going to be to our detriment. Well, that is, if we don’t reduce the number of cows on the Earth. Did you know Big Meat is literally pumping millions of gallons of sewage into the ocean? I mean, can you think of anything more disg—”
“Perry! You are not talking to me about global warming, are you? Not when I’ve just found out from Jessie-Ann from the co-op farm that you’re getting wed?”
Oops.
Perry bit her lip. “It’s not that big a deal, Mom.”
“Not that big a deal?” Janice screeched. “It would be a huge deal if it was the boy next door, but you’re marrying royalty, Perry. Royalty. That is, if Jessie-Ann wasn’t stirring mischief.”
The hope in Janice’s voice pricked Perry’s pride. She wasn’t sure why. Did her own mother not think she had it in her to be Queen?
Hell, Perry agreed with her, but it sucked that her mom felt that way too.
“No. She’s not messing with you. It’s been an overwhelming few weeks. I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch sooner.”
Silence welled down the line, and Perry, who knew her mom better than anyone, reckoned the tears had started.
Grateful that she didn’t have to worry about silent long-distance phone call rates, she went back to reading the news articles on her laptop.
Maybe it made her heartless, but she knew her mother too well. Janice was melodramatic to her core. She’d never made any bones about her wanting Perry to settle down a few farms away with one of the local boys, and she’d been quite ashamed of the fact Perry hadn’t wanted to grow up to be a housewife like her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother before her.
For all that, Janice loved Perry. And the feeling was mutual. It was just… well, talking to her mom was like talking to Jane Austen.
Or, at least, Perry hoped Jane hadn’t been as myopic as her mother.
They weren’t Amish or anything like that, but her family was seriously anti-anything-modern. Growing up, she’d never been able to watch TV, and even the radio was frowned upon.
If they’d been religious, Perry might have suspected them as being part of some obscure sect. But they weren’t. It was just her father’s way.
He was like her, really. A scholar. He wanted peace and quiet to read at night, while he spent his
days tending to his land. A land that had been a part of his family for generations, property that the government couldn’t snatch from him, and that he’d protect with his life if anyone came a-calling.
It was a pre-Civil War kind of attitude to have, and whenever Perry visited, she felt suffocated by the vise of her parents’ choices.
She loved the city. Loved technology. Coping without Wi-Fi was just something she couldn’t do, but at her parents’ home—though they didn’t understand what 4G was—they fully expected her to do without.
And as a result, the last time she’d been home was, she counted guiltily, four years ago.
“I should come and visit soon,” she mumbled, her self-reproach making her blurt out the words into the silence.
“You should have visited sooner. That boy needs to ask your father for your hand!”
Janice’s screech had Perry rubbing her temple. Was it any wonder, with parents as antediluvian as her own, that Perry really was ill at ease with this whole three-men-one-woman situation?
Perry wasn’t about to change it. She was finding her place for herself in this unusual household of four, but still, it made perfect sense why she couldn’t get her head around it.
Even if she could get her body around it.
It being them, of course.
Several times.
A night, if they’d let her.
A wicked grin had her smirking at the screen, but she sobered up as she murmured, “It’s the twenty-first century, mom. Men don’t ask for permission for their girlfriend’s hands in marriage anymore.”
“Well, they do in this family, young lady.”
“Edward’s a crown prince. What do you want him to do? Hop in a pickup rental and come and feed the goats with Dad and ask him out on the range?” Perry scoffed.
Janice blew out a breath. “You never could do anything easy, could you?”
“Most moms would be tickled pink that their daughter was marrying a prince,” Perry said with a grumble, even though she knew that to be utter BS.
She highly doubted any mother would be content with the notion of their child being swept into a royal family. Why would they?
The child was being dragged toward danger, led into a constricting lifestyle, and though they’d never have to want for anything, it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
For a woman who led a simple life, Perry knew her mother would never understand the complexities of what her child would face, but that she’d instinctively disapprove of it regardless.
“I think it’s bad form for him not to come and meet his future parents-in-law.”
Perry grimaced because, deep down, she knew Janice was right. “We’re organizing something,” she lied. “Things have been a bit crazy here after the announcement.”
“I’ll bet,” Janice retorted, sounding remarkably wry for once. Then, she blew out a breath. “I’m hurt, Perry. Real hurt.”
She bit her lip. “I’m sorry, Momma. I didn’t mean to hurt you, I just…I didn’t really know what to say to you. I knew you wouldn’t approve, and I guess I’ve been putting it off and off until boom. This, you know?”
“Surely you must have realized someone would have told me?”
Considering the rest of Perry’s hometown was as backward as her parents, preferring the slow and quiet country way of living to the hardcore rat race of everywhere else in the United States, Perry had hoped for more time.
She rapped her fingers against her desk, hoping to quell some of her nervous energy.
It didn’t work.
“I didn’t really think about it, Momma. It was unintentional. I just needed some time to process. He proposed out of the blue, you know?” Hell, that was no lie.
He’d asked her to marry him while he was still inside her. Fucking her on his desk, no less.
Not that she’d tell her mother that.
Jesus.
Janice probably thought she was still a virgin.
Wanting to snort at the notion, Perry managed to refrain. Barely.
“Does Papa know?”
“No. Not yet. He’s wrapped up in a new book he got the other week.” Janice sighed. “I don’t have the heart to tell him.”
“Don’t,” Perry told her softly. “Honest truth, Momma, I don’t know if we can leave Veronia at the moment. There’s been some local trouble and the royal family needs to stay close to home. But that doesn’t mean Edward can’t call him and ask for my hand that way.”
Janice exhaled deeply. “I guess that’s better than nothing. You know what your papa’s like. He won’t know if no one tells him.”
Perry nodded, even though she knew her mother couldn’t see the gesture. “I figured as much. I’ll talk to Edward and make sure he calls within the next day or so.”
Janice huffed. “What about me? Will he talk to me?”
“Of course. If you want to talk to him,” Perry murmured quietly.
“He’s going to be marrying my daughter, ain’t he?” came the gruff retort, and Perry saw her mother, deep in her mind’s eye, fiddling with the hem of her housecoat.
Janice could be beautiful if she tried a little. But neither her momma or her papa were all that interested in appearances. Beauty was skin deep in their eyes, and therefore, not worth bothering with.
Truth was, she’d been raised that way, too, and it was why dressing up in fancy clothes was alien to her.
She wasn’t averse to it, aside from the heels, but she needed help. Desperately. She was well out of her comfort zone, and George, thankfully, wasn’t. He loved buying her clothes.
The tighter the better, she thought disapprovingly, as she felt the pinch of the skirt at her waist. It fit. Just.
Comfort meant very little to George, she’d come to find.
“I’m not going to see all that much of you anymore, am I?” Janice said feebly, her voice more a whisper than anything else.
Perry blinked, surprised by the question. They didn’t exactly see each other a lot now, so what Janice meant, Perry wasn’t certain.
“I’ll call more, Momma. I’ll have more time.” That was a lie, but she wouldn’t be as tied up with her lab work, that was for damn sure.
Though she refused to give up her studies, would even join with Xavier if it meant that was the only way she could keep her toes dipped into her experiments, her life wasn’t going to be the same ever again.
Speaking with her parents would do something no one else could help her with—they’d ground her. Remind her of her roots. Simple roots, base farmer roots that were founded in the soil, and not a grandiose house like the DeSauviers who’d built their dynasty on the blood shed by thousands of strangers fighting under their banners…
“You won’t. You always say you will, but you never do, and I’m not one to pester.”
That was true, actually. Janice might be a nag, but she didn’t call Perry all that often. She seemed to realize that Perry would phone when she had something to say.
“No. I mean it, Momma. I won’t be as busy with work, and I’ll need you to keep me grounded. I didn’t mean to cut myself off. I really didn’t.”
“It’s okay, Perry. I know you’re ashamed of us.”
For a second, white noise blasted between her ears, then she blurted out, “Ashamed of you? I thought you were ashamed of me?”
“What are you talking about?” Janice demanded, sounding irritated. “Stop talking nonsense, Perry.”
“I’m not! You’re the one who goes on about me marrying Abe Grantham every time I do visit.”
“Because I want you to be happy. Not because I’m not proud of what you’re doing,” Janice retorted.
“B-But…” Her mouth worked blankly, but there was no real argument if Janice meant what she’d said. “I thought you hated that I was a scientist.”
“I hate that it’s taken you so far away from us,” Janice corrected. “But I’m proud of you, Perry. What on earth would make you think otherwise?”
Perry scowled at t
he computer screen. “You made me think otherwise, Mom. I’m not hysterical or irrational. I don’t just feel things because I’ve made them up.” Then, because she still felt guilty, she sighed. “I know you love me. I know both you and Dad do.”
“I should hope so,” came the tart response, and it was sour enough to make Perry’s lips curl; she could just imagine her mother glowering at the toaster oven.
“But I just always felt out of the loop. I don’t think it’s something you guys did intentionally, but you live about thirty years in the past, and I want to live three decades ahead.” Slight exaggeration, but her mother only seemed to understand extremes. “That being said, you’re right. I should have called and told you the news first. I didn’t, and I hope you can forgive me for that?”
“Of course,” Janice said, surprisingly easily—Perry had half-expected her to drag out the apologies for a lot longer than the instantaneous forgiveness she received. “Just, please, get the boy to call your father. Make that right for him.”
Perry’s lips curved again at her mother calling Edward “the boy.” The Crown Prince of Veronia wouldn’t be able to get too big for his boots when it came time for Thanksgiving, that was for certain.
She thought about that a second. Wondering if Thanksgiving with her family would ever be possible…
Weird how she suddenly wanted it to be when she hadn’t been home in so long.
It was reckless and rude and really poorly timed, but she made the promise anyway. “Set the table for two extra this year, Momma,” Perry murmured.
“Huh?”
“For Thanksgiving.”
Silence fell. “You’re coming home?”
“Of course.”
Janice sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m glad.”
Perry smiled at the less-than-effusive response that nonetheless meant a hell of a lot.
“You’ll come to the wedding, won’t you?”
Refusal shouldn’t have even been a possibility, but who knew with her parents?
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