Royal Affairs: His Princess of Convenience / Her Royal Wedding Wish / The Secret Princess

“And hurt your parents?” It took a courageous man to say that to her. She was touched that he would put her feelings first. Her watch said it was almost eight now. “No, Antonio. We have the rest of our lives to plan our own vacations when we can get away. I don’t want us to start off our marriage by alienating your parents. What difference does it make where we go?”

Something flickered in the recesses of his eyes. “Thank you for saying that. I like it that my new bride is adaptable and sensitive enough not to hurt their feelings. Have you done all your packing?”

“Yes.” It was a good thing Elena had done some shopping with her and had insisted on her buying a couple of bikinis. “You never know when you need beachwear,” her friend had confided. Maybe Elena had known about the location of the vacation spot her parents had planned for them and wanted Christina prepared for any eventuality. “How about you, Antonio?”

“I’m ready as I ever will be.”

“Then I’ll freshen up and meet you downstairs.” She got up from the table and hurried into the bathroom for one last look in the mirror. After applying a new coat of lipstick, she walked into the bedroom and noticed her suitcase was missing. She could count on Lindsay and Louisa to make certain her wedding things were packed and returned to the royal palace in Voti.

All she needed was her purse and gloves. When she left the bridal suite and started down the stairs, she discovered Antonio waiting for her in the foyer of the palazzo.

He stood there looking tall and heartbreakingly handsome. His brilliant blue gaze swept over her in a way that sent her pulse racing. “Will you accuse me of using a platitude to tell you how beautiful you look this morning?”

“Even with bags under my eyes from lack of sleep?” But she smiled as she said it.

“Even then,” he murmured. A tiny smile lifted one corner of his lips. “As you said earlier, any onlookers will speculate on the reason why and consider me the luckiest of men.”

She took the last step, bringing her closer. “You’re good, Antonio. I’ll give you that.”

He cocked his head. “What do you mean?”

“I think you know. Aren’t you afraid all these compliments are going to turn my head?”

The smile disappeared. “If you want to know the truth, I’m afraid they won’t.”

While she stood there confused again and wondering how much truth was behind his statement, Guido, his father’s chief of staff, opened the doors. “Your Highness? Princess Christina?”

Guido had addressed her as Princess. She’d better get used to the title, but the appellation was still foreign to her.

“If you’re both ready, your cases are stowed in the limousine. Your helicopter is waiting in Monte Calanetti to fly you to Genoa.”

“Grazie, Guido. We’re coming.”

She preceded Antonio out to the smoked-glass black limousine with the royal crest on the hood ornament. Guido held the rear door open for her so she could climb in, then shut the door. Antonio went around the other side and got in, shutting the door behind him. He slid close to her while they both attached their seat belts.

“This is nice,” he murmured, and grasped her hand. “I’m excited to be going off on a trip with my new wife. I only wish I knew where.”

She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. “Your sister may have given me a hint, but I didn’t realize it at the time.”

“What did she say?”

“She made sure I bought some bathing suits when we went shopping. Did you pack one?”

“I’m sure mine is in my case somewhere.”

“Do you think Hawaii or the Caribbean? I’ve never been to either destination.”

“I have.” He released her hand long enough to pull the note from his pocket. “According to this, it’s someplace where neither of us has been before.”

“That’s right. I forgot.”

“Our parents probably collaborated. It ought to be interesting.”

“I agree. From what Elena has told me, you’ve been all over the world.”

He smiled. “Let’s put it this way. I’ve traveled over many countries without ever landing.”

Christina returned his smile. She’d taken many helicopter trips with Marusha into the more inaccessible areas of Kenya’s forested interior, so she was no stranger to the sensation of liftoff or landing. Before she knew it, they’d arrived on the outskirts of the village where their helicopter was waiting.

Antonio helped her out of the limo into one of the rear seats of the helicopter. He climbed in next to her while Guido placed their cases inside, then got in the copilot’s seat for the short flight to Genoa. Passing over the Tuscan countryside was a constant delight.

Once they boarded the royal jet with its insignia in huge gold lettering, Christina was introduced to the pilot and copilot before being given a tour. She was struck by the staggering opulence inside and out. To her mind, the platinum curving couches, mirrored ceilings and ornate bathroom were out-of-this-world outrageous.

With an office, a gourmet kitchen and two bedrooms, all extravagant to the point of being ridiculous, she imagined the plane that contained a cockpit meant for the emperor of the universe must have cost in the region of millions upon millions of dollars.

Antonio must have been watching her, because he said in a quiet voice, “Is there any question in your mind why our country is outraged by the unnecessary spending of my own parents? Papa bought this off an oil-rich sheik. When I’m king, I have every intention of selling it to the highest bidder and using the money to bolster Halencia’s economy and put more funds in your charity foundation.”

When she thought of the relief that money could bring to the Kikuyu people, she wanted to throw her arms around his neck in joy, but she didn’t dare with Guido and the steward in hearing distance.

After they sat down on one of the couches, Guido made a surprising announcement. “This is where I leave you, Your Highnesses. When you reach your destination, you’ll be met and taken to your vacation paradise. After the plane lands, you’ll be flown in a helicopter to your own private paradise. There’ll be no phone, television or internet service there.”

What?

While she sat there stunned, she could tell by the lines around his mouth that Antonio wasn’t amused either. “Guido? You’ve gotten us this far, but I refuse to travel any farther until you tell me where we’re going.”

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt to say that you’ll be arriving on the other side of the world in approximately twenty-one hours from now.”

“That’s not much help,” Antonio said in a clipped voice.

“I’m only following the king’s orders. Is there anything I can do for you before I leave?”

Antonio turned to her. “How about you, Christina?”

She had compassion for Guido, who was loyal to his king first. “I don’t need anything. Thank you for everything you’ve done.”

“You’re welcome. Enjoy your honeymoon.” He bowed to Antonio before leaving the plane.

In a few minutes the engines screamed to life and the fasten-seat-belts sign flashed on. Before long the jet headed into the sun. Once they’d achieved cruising speed, they got up from the couch and moved to sit in the lavish dining area where the steward served them a fabulous lunch.

“Don’t be upset with Guido. It’s obvious your parents’ big surprise is important to him and to them.”

One eyebrow lifted. “Twenty-one hours one way takes a lot of fuel. Round-trip means thousands more dollars being paid out from the public coffers. It isn’t right.”

She sat back while she sipped her coffee. “I agree, and I admire your desire to change the dynamics of the L’Accardi family’s spending habits. But for now, why don’t we decide to be Jack and Jill, two normal people who got married on a whim, and have just been given a windfall from their oil-rich uncle in Texas who wants to make us happy.”

“Oil?”

“Why not? When we return to civilization, that’s the time to start trimming the budget.”

When she didn’t think it was possible, he chuckled. “Jack and Jill, eh?”

She nodded. “One of the American girls from Texas at the boarding school had the name Jill, and her brother’s name was Jack.”

By now his eyes were smiling. “I’ll go along with that idea. What do you say we go to one of the bedrooms and watch a movie where we can be comfortable?”

Each bedroom had a built-in theater. She wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I’ll find my suitcase and change my clothes.”

He reached across the table and grasped her hand. “I’m sorry you’re not able to show off that lovely white outfit in Paris.”

A warm smile broke out on her face. “Don’t be.” She wouldn’t forget the way he’d stared at her when he walked out on the terrace earlier that morning. Christina had seen a glint of genuine male appreciation in his eyes that brought her great pleasure. “We’ll do Paris one of these days.”

Feeling his gaze on her retreating back, she walked through the compartment and found the bedroom where both their cases had been placed. She took hers and crossed the hall into the other bedroom.

After putting it on the queen-size bed, she found a pair of lightweight pants in dusky blue and a filmy long-sleeved shirt with a floral pattern of light and dark blues combined with pink. It draped beautifully against her body to the hips.

The white suit went in the closet before she slipped into her casual clothes and put on bone-colored leather sandals. After removing the pearl tipped sticks from her hair, she exchanged the pearl studs for gold earrings mounted with star-shaped blue sapphire stones. As she was applying a fresh coat of lipstick, she heard a knock on the door.

“Antonio?”

He opened it but didn’t enter. “Come on over to the other bedroom when you’re ready.”

Her heart started to thud. “I’ll be there in a minute.”

* * *

Antonio had changed into jeans and a sport shirt. Normally he would have put on the bottoms of a pair of sweats and nothing else for the twenty-one-hour flight. But out of consideration for Christina, he needed to make his way carefully for this journey into the unknown. Their honeymoon was in the process of becoming a fait accompli.

He’d experienced two heart attacks already: one at the altar when his fiancée appeared in her white wedding dress and lace veil. The other attack happened this morning when he first saw her on the terrace ready for their trip to Paris wearing a stunning white outfit. When he heard her call out his name just now, he should have known to brace himself for the third attack.

“Enter if you dare,” he teased. Antonio had stretched out on the bed with his head and back propped against the headboard using a pillow for a buffer.

“Ready or not,” she countered, and came into the room. The incredibly beautiful woman dressed in blue appeared, and the sight almost caused him to drop the remote. With her shiny hair, she lit up any room she entered. How could he have ignored her for so long? The few phone calls and visits to her had been made out of duty. The busy life he’d been leading in California had included hard work and one certain woman when he had the time.

Thoughts of his future marriage for the good of the country had only played on the edge of his consciousness, as did the woman who’d been thousands of miles away in Kenya. He couldn’t go back and fix things, but he could shower her with attention now. They didn’t know each other well yet, but had made a start last night when their passion ignited.

Antonio recognized that he needed to treat her the way he would any beautiful woman he’d just met and wanted to get to know much better. He patted her side of the bed. “Come and join me. We have a choice of five films without my having to move from this spot.”

She laughed and pulled a pillow out from under the quilt. The next thing he knew she’d thrown it at the foot of the bed and lain down on her stomach so she could watch the screen located on the other side of the bedroom. “Why don’t you start the one you’d like to see without telling me what it is?” she said over her shoulder.

Christina made an amazing sight with those long legs lying enticingly close to him. “What if you don’t like it?”

“I like all kinds of movies and will watch it because I want to know what makes my husband tick.”

His heart skipped a beat. “You took the words out of my mouth.” He clicked to the disk featuring a Neapolitan Mafia gangster film. “I only saw part of this when it first came out.”

“I’m sure I haven’t seen it. Italian films are hard to come by when you’re out in the bush. This is fun!”

He found it more than fun to be watching it with the woman he’d just married. She made the usual moans and groans throughout. When it concluded she turned on her side and propped her head to look back at him. “I heard that the Camorra Mafia from Naples was the inspiration for that film. Were there really a hundred gangs, do you think?”

“I do.”

“Did any cross the water into our country?”

“Three families that we know of.”

“Do they still exist?”

“Yes, but were given Halencian citizenship at a time when our borders were more porous. They’re no longer a problem. What I’m concerned about is creating high-tech jobs. Tourism and agriculture alone aren’t going to sustain our growing population. I have many plans and have been laying the groundwork to establish software companies and a robotics plant, all of which can operate here to build Halencian industry.”

“So that’s what you’ve been doing in San Francisco all these years. No wonder you didn’t come home often.”

“Are you accusing me of being a workaholic?”

Her eyelids narrowed. “Are you?”

“I make time to play.”

“Since I won’t be able to go to sleep for a long time, what can I do for you, my husband?”

“How about reading to me?”

The question pleased her no end. “You’d like that?”

“I saw a book in your suitcase. Have you read it already?”

“I’m in the middle of it.”

“What’s it called?”

“Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. He wrote about South Africa and the breakdown of the tribal system. It’s not the part of Africa I know, but it’s so wonderful I’m compelled to finish the book.”

“I never got around to reading it,” he said.

“Tell you what. I’ll read you the blurb on the flyleaf. If it interests you, I’ll read from the beginning until you fall asleep.”

“I’m surprised you don’t carry a Kindle with you. Aren’t physical books heavy to carry when traveling?”

“They can be, but I really like to hold a book in my hands. They’re like an old friend I can see peeking at me from the bookshelf, teasing me to come and read again.”

“I’ve decided you’re a Renaissance woman, Christina.”

“That’s a curious word.”

“It really describes you. You’re a very intelligent woman. I see in you a revival of vigor and an interest in life that escapes most people. You’re more intriguing than you know.”

If she was intriguing, that was something. “When did you discover that?” she asked without looking at him.

“It happened when you were just fifteen. I drove you and Elena to an old monastery in the woods above Lake Geneva. When we went inside, you were able to translate all the Latin inscriptions in those glass cases. I detested Latin and at eighteen I still needed a tutor for it. To hear you translating for us, I was so stunned at your expertise, it left me close to speechless. Do you remember that time?”

He remembered that? It caused her pulse to pick up speed. “Yes. I was showing off to you so you wouldn’t think that your sister was spending time with a complete numbskull. My mother hated it that I was such a bookworm and would rather read than go to tea with a bunch of girls who only talked about boys and clothes.”

“This conversation is getting interesting. When did you first become interested in boys?”

“Actually I was crazy about them at a very early age.” Pictures of Prince Antonio and Princess Elena were constantly in the news. From the time she was about eight, she always liked to see photos of the famous brother and sister in the newspaper accompanying their family on a ski trip or some such thing.

He was the country’s darling. By the time she met him in person, she’d already developed a crush on him that only grew after being with him. Of course all the silliness ended when she left Montreux and had new experiences in Africa. Once in a while she and Marusha would see him in the news, but until Elena’s brush with the law he’d been as distant to her as another galaxy.

Antonio broke into laughter. “The secret life of Christina Rose. How scandalous.”

She chuckled. “Marusha had plenty to tell me about tribal mating rituals of the Kikuyu. In fact, she kept me and Elena royally entertained most nights after lights went out. We’d stay up half the night talking. She had a crush on this security guard who was guarding a VIP at the Montreux Palace Hotel.

“You know how beautiful Marusha is. Well, we’d walk past him and she’d say things to him to capture his interest. He never spoke, but his eyes always watched her. He was tall, maybe six foot five, and he kept his arms folded. He was the most impressive figure I ever saw and I think he was the reason she could handle being in Montreux when she’d rather be home in Africa.”

Laughter continued to rumble out of Antonio.

“Your sister had other interests. There was a drummer in the band that played at this one disco we were ordered not to visit. He was crazy about her and kept making dates with her. She only kept one of them. It was through him she met other guys, the kind she finally ended up with who got thrown in jail for drugs.”

“Let’s be thankful she has grown up now, but don’t stop talking,” Antonio murmured. “I could listen to you all night. What masculine interest did you have?”

Christina didn’t dare tell him that there was no male to match Antonio. His image was the one she’d always carried in the back of her mind. “Oh... I always loved men in the old Italian movies. You know, Franco Nero, Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio De Sica.”

“No Halencian actors?”

“No. I’ve liked a couple of British actors too. Rufus Sewell...ooh-la-la.” She grinned. “Now, there is a male to die for! So, which actress did it for you?”

“That would be difficult to answer.”

“You don’t play fair. You manage to get a lot of information out of me, but I ask you one question and suddenly you play possum.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you play dead like a possum when you don’t want to reveal yourself. The possum does it for protection. It’s a very funny American expression and it describes you right now. What are you hiding from? Is the truth too scary for you?”

“Have a heart, Christina. I’m not nearly so terrible a womanizer as some of the tabloids have made me out to be. They’re mostly lies.”

“That’s all right. You just keep telling yourself that. When I married you I forgave you for everything. But I’ve talked your ear off, so excuse me for a minute.”

She hurried into the other bedroom and grabbed the book from the table, and then she returned to Antonio. “Are you still in the mood to be read to, or are you ready to confess your sins?”

“Yes and no.”

He was hilarious.

“All right, then. Here’s the quote from it. ‘Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear.’” She read the rest.

A long silence ensued before Antonio murmured, “That’s very moving. Tell me something honestly. Are you going to miss Africa too much?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve spent ten years of your life there. So many memories and friends you’ve made.”

“Well, I’m hoping that from time to time I’ll be able to fly to Nairobi to keep watch over the foundation, which I plan to continue with your permission.”

“There’s no question about that.”

Good. “But our marriage is my first priority, and your needs come first and always will with me.”

“You’re wonderful, Christina, but that isn’t what I asked, exactly. Did you leave your heart there?”

“Certainly a part of it, but I could ask you the same thing. Do you feel a strong tug when you think of San Francisco and the years you spent there?”

“I’d be a liar if I didn’t say yes.”

“I didn’t expect you to say anything else. As for me, I’ve decided I have two homes. One there, where I’ve always been comfortable, and now the new one with you. I see them both being compatible. When you long for San Francisco and want to do business there, I’ll understand.”

“You’d love it there. I want to take you with me and show you around.”

He couldn’t have said anything to thrill her more. “And maybe you can fly to Africa with me for a little break from royal business.”

“We’ll make it happen.”

She studied him for a long time. “Is there a woman you had to leave who’s missing you right now? Maybe I should rephrase that. Is there someone you’re missing horribly?”

Antonio should have seen these questions coming, particularly since he hadn’t slept with her last night. “I haven’t been a monk. What about you?”

A quick smile appeared. Her appeal was growing on him like mad. “I’m no nun.”

For some odd reason he didn’t like hearing that.

You hypocrite, Antonio. Did you want a bride as pure as the driven snow? Did you really expect her to give up men while she waited four years for you to decide when to claim her for your wife?

“Who was he?” His parents’ affairs had jaded him.

“A doctor who’d come to Kenya to perform plastic surgery on some of the native children. Once I came back to Africa with the engagement ring on my finger, he left for England three days later.”

“I kept you waiting four years,” Antonio muttered in self-disgust.

A frown marred her features. “Antonio, none of that matters. I’m your wife! But you still haven’t answered my question. Is there a woman who became of vital importance to you before you had to fly home to get married?”

He got off the bed. “The only woman of importance was one I got involved with before our engagement, Christina.”

“Then you’ve known her a long time. If there’d been no engagement, would you have married her?”

“That’s hard to say. I might have if I’d decided to turn my back on my family and wanted to stay in California for the rest of my life. But when your call came telling me about Elena’s problems and I talked to her, I realized how binding those family ties really are right from the cradle.”

“I know that all too well,” she whispered. Christina had obviously been talking about the relationship with her parents.

“The accident of my being born to a king and queen set me on a particular path. To marry a foreigner and deviate from it might bring me short-term pleasure. But I feared I’d end up living a lifetime of regret.”

She shook her head. “How hard for both of you.”

Her sincerity rang so true he felt it reach his bones. “Though I continued to see her after the engagement party, nothing was the same because we knew there would have to be an end. We soon said goodbye to each other.

“In a way it was a relief because to go on seeing her would not only have made a travesty of our engagement, but the situation was totally unfair to her and you. My sources at the palace confirmed that the country was suffering and there were plans afoot to abolish the monarchy. I knew it was only a matter of time before—”

“Before you had to come home and marry me to save the throne,” she broke in. “I get it.”

“Christina—” He approached her and grasped her hands. “Do you think it’s possible for us to forget the past? You know what I mean. When I said my vows in the chapel, I meant what I said. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. Can you still make that same commitment to me after knowing what I’ve told you?”

Her marvelous eyes filled with tears. “Oh, Antonio, I want you to know that when I made my vows at the altar, I was running on faith. Now that faith has been strengthened by what you’ve just admitted to me. If we have total honesty between us, then there’s nothing to prevent us from trying to make this marriage work. You’ve always been the most handsome man I’ve ever known, so my attraction to you isn’t a problem.”