“Well, as far as I’m concerned, position or social status has nothing to do with marriage,” she said firmly. “It’s all about sharing yourself with someone and being a family. It’s all about love.”
As soon as the last word was out, his hands dropped away from her as though she’d just confessed to having a deadly, contagious disease.
“Love!” he said with a groan, frustration twisting his features. “Oh, Dominique! I understand most young women have romantic fantasies about a fairy-tale marriage and I wish that things could be that way for you. But a charming prince with special powers to create happily-ever-afters just doesn’t exist. You and your baby’s welfare is the only thing that should be running through your mind. You are a Stanbury,” he reminded her as if her pregnancy had affected her memory. “A member of the royal family of Edenbourg. Your child should come into this world under the sanctity of married parents. Not under a black mark that could follow him for the rest of his life.”
The truth of what he was saying caused her to groan with guilt and anguish. Quickly, she turned her back to him rather than confront the censure on his face.
“You are right, Marcus,” she whispered in a shaky voice. “My child shouldn’t be punished for my reckless behavior. His or her name shouldn’t be marred because I was misled by a slick-talking rake. But can’t you see? I’ve already made one mistake with a man who didn’t love me.”
He didn’t make any sort of response and in a flash she twisted back around and tilted her face up to his. Her expression dared him to deny what she was about to say next. “You don’t love me either, Marcus. I’d be making my second mistake with you.”
Marcus cursed beneath his breath. It was beyond him how she could be thinking about love at a time like this. Love had nothing to do with it. Common sense was the thing that should be ruling her head. And his…
“Dominique, take a good look at me. I’m living proof that love doesn’t last. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I doubt that the emotion even exists. It’s just a state of mind. A euphoric daze that people slip into for a while and then it fades. The right choices in life can’t be built on such a fleeting, nebulous emotion.”
“That’s because you had your hopes dashed by Liza,” she reasoned. “And the divorce has left you cynical. But I’m not about to let Bryce ruin me in the way you’ve allowed Liza to ruin you. He isn’t worth it. I truly believe that someday I’ll find a man who loves me just for me.”
“And that’s more important to you than giving your baby a name? Giving him a father?” he asked with angry disbelief.
Shaking her head with defeat, she turned and walked over to the edge of the balcony. With her hands resting on the wide stone balustrade, she gazed out at the on-coming clouds. In the past few minutes the sky had grown darker and lightning was beginning to dance in jagged streaks amongst the boiling thunderheads. There was no doubt they were headed for a rainstorm. Just as surely as she was bound for a heartache.
“Dominique, you haven’t answered me.”
She looked up to see he was standing beside her, his face lined with angry impatience. She closed her eyes against him and the approaching storm.
“Marcus, it’s clear to both of us that you’re offering to marry me out of a sense of duty and honor. To my father and my family. And all of this uproar over King Michael’s disappearance has made you even more determined to shield the Stanburys from any more scandal. That’s not a good reason to become someone’s husband.”
His short laugh was caustic. “If more marriages were based on duty and honor there would be far fewer divorces.”
Clamping her lips in a tight line, she shook her head. “I’d hate to think my husband was staying with me out of a sense of duty. That’s the coldest, most clinical thing I’ve ever heard!”
Strange, Marcus thought, but there was nothing cold and clinical about the way he felt at this moment. About the fire that singed his veins every time he came within any distance of Dominique.
“In your opinion, Dominique. In mine, it’s intelligent and much more reasonable.”
A cool wind was beginning to blow in from the rain clouds, but it was Marcus’s words that were chilling Dominique to the bone.
“I wish I could make you understand that marrying only for the sake of the baby would be a giant mistake. In the end we would both be miserable and at each other’s throats. A child can’t grow and flourish under those conditions.” She swallowed at the tightness in her throat, then glanced up at him beseechingly. “I want more for my child than that. I want more for me. If that makes me selfish, then so be it.”
Folding his arms against his chest, he too stared out at the fast-approaching storm. “Maybe the problem you have about marrying me has nothing to do with love,” he said flatly.
Her gaze whipped back to his face. “It has everything to do with it!” she countered hotly.
He glared back at her. “No. Any woman with an ounce of common sense wouldn’t be worrying about love at a time like this. And the more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that your real concern is over marrying a commoner. Especially one who’s already had a disastrous marriage end with his wife divorcing him!”
She gasped with disbelief. How could he accuse her of such a thing? she wondered wildly. She’d always held him in such high regard, and furthermore he knew it! He was being insufferable and for no good reason that she could see.
“That’s incredible, Marcus! I thought you knew me! I thought you understood that being a princess of Edenbourg is a very small part of who I am and what is important to me. And it’s definitely not a person’s name or bloodline!”
His twisted lips jeered at her words. “The day we went to Chauncey’s Inn I told you I wasn’t good enough to be your husband and you wanted to argue the point. But now…I think you were only trying to flatter me that day. I can see now that we’ve come down to the bottom line, you’ve realized that you’d rather be an unwed mother than lower yourself to marrying me!”
That he could accuse her of such outrageous bigotry filled her with such fury that she had to take several breaths before she could finally push any sort of comment past her lips.
“Please leave, Marcus. And I would very much appreciate you not ever speaking to me again!”
Drops of cold rain began to splatter all around them, but Marcus continued to glare at her with fire in his eyes.
“Gladly, Dominique! I’m tired of trying to help a woman who doesn’t want or need my support. You think you have all the right beliefs and answers, so from this point on you can deal with the problem yourself!”
He stalked off the balcony and back through the door that entered her sitting room. Oblivious to the increasing rain, Dominique remained where she was as she tried to collect her heated senses.
What had she done? she wondered. Had she ruined the best thing that could have ever happened to her? Or saved her heart from an even bigger ache than the one it was feeling now?
Two days later, Marcus was in his office trying to concentrate on a proposed national military budget, when his secretary announced that King Nicholas was on his way to see him.
It was just as well that his work was going to be interrupted, he thought. He was getting very little accomplished and he had Dominique to thank for that. Since their argument on the balcony his thoughts had been even more consumed with her.
He felt wretched about some of the things he’d said to her. But he couldn’t go to her and take them back. For one thing, she’d made it plain she wanted the connection between them broken. For another, it would be misleading to try to snatch back his words, when deep down he felt he was right. Love had no place in his life. It was a costly investment, full of risk and pain. Her experience back in the States ought to have already proven that to Dominique, he thought crossly.
A light knock sounded on the door just as Marcus was placing the important file to one side of his desk. He looked up to see King Nicholas entering the office.
The other man’s expression was grim and Marcus could only surmise that things weren’t going any better for the acting king than they were for his counsel.
“I’m sorry to be interrupting you like this, Marcus,” he said as he made himself comfortable in a wingback chair positioned in front of Marcus’s desk. “And you’re probably thinking it would have been simpler to have picked up the phone and called you, but frankly I’ve had all of the telephone I want this morning.”
Since the news of Herbert’s murder had hit the press two days ago, the castle had been bombarded with calls from the public. Marcus was aware that many of them had been nastily directed at Nicholas. Some of them accusing him outright of killing his own father to acquire the throne.
From the look on the king’s face this morning, the awful weight of suspicion was wearing him down.
“Are the calls still coming in?” Marcus asked.
“They’re down to several an hour now rather than several a minute,” he said in a harried voice. “But most of them are still directed at me.”
“You can’t let it get to you, Your Highness. The public is a fickle thing. Once the truth of this whole matter comes out, they’ll be worshiping you for taking up your father’s reins.”
Nicholas swiped a weary hand over his face. “Yes. But when might that be? A year from now? Two years from now? How can I continue to do my work or even go about my daily life when people are accusing me of killing my own father? It’s ludicrous for anyone to think I could have ever had a harmful thought against the man!”
Marcus got up from his seat behind the desk and went over to a small table holding a coffeemaker and all the fixings. Without asking, he poured a cup for Nicholas and carried it to him.
“Here. You look as if you could use this.”
Nicholas gratefully accepted the cup. “Thanks, Marcus. Although I really don’t have time for it. I’m to meet with the royal treasurer in a few minutes. He believes the citizens of Edenbourg are eventually going to demand that all government records be audited. To make sure that I, or someone else in the family, hasn’t been stealing. Along with murdering,” he added angrily.
Marcus shook his head with wonder as he poured himself a cup of coffee, then carried it around to his seat behind the desk. “You know, a year ago, when the Duke of Thortonburg’s daughter was kidnapped, I told myself nothing so shocking or evil could ever happen in our own country. The subjects of Edenbourg are all kind people, loyal to their king and their country. I truly believed they would never do harm to either. But now, it saddens me to admit I could be wrong.”
“Maybe you’re looking in the wrong direction,” Nicholas said as he leveled his gaze on Marcus. “And I believe you are. I believe an outsider, not a countryman, is responsible for my father’s disappearance.”
With a grim nod, Marcus sipped the coffee, then placed the cup and saucer on his desk. “I hope you are right. Not that it will make any difference as to finding King Michael.”
“Do you think that’s possible, Marcus? That by some miraculous chance the authorities will find my father alive?”
Marcus shrugged. “The hope of that looks dim to me. But I refuse to rule out the possibility.”
Nicholas sighed. “Rebecca is devastated over this whole thing. It’s breaking her heart to have her husband called a murderer. And being from the States, she still doesn’t understand the workings of a monarchy or why the throne is so important. I think sometimes she wishes I wasn’t the one to inherit the position of king.”
“She was aware of your future destination before she married you,” Marcus reasoned.
Nicholas smiled wanly. “That’s true. But she wasn’t expecting me to step into my father’s shoes so quickly or under such grisly circumstances.”
It was no secret that Nicholas and Rebecca had married for love. Not because King Michael had ordered his son to take a bride. Their feelings for each other were often evident in the smiles and touches they exchanged. Marcus had to admit he’d watched the couple with a bit of envy. He’d wanted that same sort of closeness, of sharing and caring with Liza. But when she’d walked away without a backward glance, it had convinced him that love was for other people, like Nicholas and Rebecca. It wasn’t meant for him.
“Rebecca is a strong, devoted wife. She’ll make it through this with you, Your Highness. You’re lucky in that regard.”
In spite of his worries, Nicholas was able to smile. “Yes, I am lucky,” he echoed Marcus’s sentiments. “And I’m not going to give up hope that Father will be found alive.”
“Have you rescheduled LeAnn’s christening yet? Or does Rebecca want to wait until things quiet down?”
Nicholas sighed. “Actually we haven’t had time to discuss our daughter’s christening with all this public chaos going on. I’ll discuss it with her tonight and let you know.”
Marcus picked up his coffee cup. “Was there something else in particular you wanted to speak to me about?”
Nicholas groaned, then quickly glancing at his watch, he rose to his feet. “Actually, I was going to talk to you about Dominique. But I’ve got to be going.”
At the mention of Dominique’s name, everything inside Marcus went still. “What about Dominique?” he asked as casually as he could.
Nicholas crossed the room and deposited his empty cup on the table with the coffeemaker. “When we discussed her last week, you told me you believed she was pulling out of her doldrums and coming to terms with all that had happened. And I agreed. She appeared to be doing better. But I saw her for a few minutes this morning and, if anything, she seemed worse than ever before. I’m worried that she’s ill.”
Marcus studied the brown liquid in his cup as images of Dominique floated to the forefront of his mind. She was too much of a romantic. Too softhearted for her own good, he thought dismally. She wanted love for herself and her baby. The devotion and support he’d offered her had meant little or nothing.
Carefully choosing his words, Marcus said, “Hearing that Herbert was murdered set her back, I think.”
With his hand on the doorknob, Nicholas paused and glanced back at Marcus with a puzzled frown. “I understand she liked the old man. We all did. But the explanation of the driver’s death backs up Dominique’s theory that Father might still be alive. You would think the news would have made her happy, even hopeful. Instead, she looks as though she’s lost her best friend. Have you spoken with her?”
Still not meeting the other man’s gaze, Marcus said, “Not since the results of the autopsy were announced.”
“Then I’d appreciate it if you’d give her another visit,” Nicholas told him. “The whole family needs to be strong right now.”
Dominique certainly needed someone to give her strength, Marcus thought. But it wasn’t him. She wanted something he couldn’t give.
“Isabel should be the one visiting your sister. Not me,” Marcus brusquely argued. “I have no influence with Dominique.”
Nicholas shot him a pointed smile, then as he stepped from the office, he called over his shoulder. “I happen to think you do.”
Once the door closed behind his new king, Marcus banged his fist against the top of the desk. What was the man thinking, that he and Dominique were close?
With a whispered curse, he closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
From where Marcus was sitting, the two of them would never be close again. And the whole notion was tearing him apart.
Chapter Ten
Later that afternoon Dominique was lying on her bed, staring up at the heavy velvet canopy draped over the four elaborately carved posts. It was a royal bed. The wood was hand-crafted and put together hundreds of years ago by skilled carpenters. Generations of her family had slept in the bed before her. And it was commonly assumed that later her children would be given the same due. Just as Nicholas’s and Isabel’s children would be privileged to live in the castle with all its ornate trappings.
Her hand crept to the bulge of baby growi
ng at the low point of her belly. Would the child she was carrying be truly accepted here? she wondered. Would he or she eventually be recognized as a member of the royal family, or shunned because there was no father?
Telling Marcus she couldn’t marry him should have given her some sort of relief from all this mental anguish. But it hadn’t. If anything, she’d been more miserable these past two days than she’d ever been in her life.
Dominique wanted to give her child everything it needed and deserved. Including a good father. Which she knew Marcus would be. The nurturing and guidance he would bestow upon a child would lay the foundation for a strong, responsible adult. Just the sort of person her father would expect his grandchild to grow to be.
But Marcus didn’t love her. And in all good conscience, she couldn’t bind him to a situation that would make him miserable. Right now he believed love wasn’t important. But later he would see that a marriage without that main ingredient would be an empty union. Eventually, he might even want his freedom so that he could search for someone he could love.
If more marriages were based on duty and honor there would be far fewer divorces.
The memory of Marcus’s words goaded her until she raised up on the side of the bed and dropped her head into her hands.
Maybe he was right, she thought wretchedly. Maybe it hadn’t mattered to her mother long ago when Josephine’s parents had ordered her to marry a man she’d never met. At least the marriage had lasted.
The thought of her mother had her quickly sliding off the bed and pushing her bare feet into her shoes. If anyone could advise her about arranged marriages, it would be the queen. But whether the woman would want to talk about such an intimate thing with Dominique would be anyone’s guess. The only thing she could do was try. For her baby’s sake and her own.
Prudence was out running an errand, so she didn’t have to give her lady-in-waiting an excuse for leaving the suite. Which was a good thing. Prudence was beginning to suspect that something out of the ordinary had occurred between Dominique and Marcus. Her lady-in-waiting had even gone so far as to question Dominique about their leaving the sitting room together two days ago. But Dominique couldn’t bring herself to tell Prudence that everything between Marcus and herself, including their friendship, had ended.
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