The Prince’s Captive Wife

CHAPTER TEN

HOW had she ever said that? Stood up to the queen? Holly sat on the magnificent four-poster bed and tried to stop her teeth chattering. Deefer huddled in her arms and shook in sympathy.

‘It was you,’ she told him. ‘You made me feel brave.’

She didn’t feel brave. She felt small, insignificant and very alone.

‘When do you think we’ll see Andreas?’ she whispered.

Deefer licked her face.

‘Yeah, your kisses are great,’ she told him. ‘But they lack a certain finesse.’

She stirred restlessly, trying to quell the rising sense of fear and loneliness. How could she stay here alone? But if Andreas didn’t intend staying here, was there a choice?

Maybe there was. But if she went home now it was the end. And she’d married for a reason. It was crazy to walk away now.

‘And he’d probably haul me back in chains,’ she whispered. ‘I’m a captive wife, Deefer. I’ll end up like Tia. Obedient and fearful after years of marriage.’

Another lick.

Unbidden her eyes filled. Dammit, she would not cry. She carried the little dog over to vast French windows opening to a balcony overlooking acres of manicured gardens.

A vision sprang to mind-dusty paddocks, gum trees, and a small white grave.

‘You’ll like it at Munwannay,’ she told Deefer. ‘And at least I’ll have you with me this time.

‘But I want it all,’ she whispered to herself. ‘I want you and Andreas and Munwannay. I want to be a family.’

‘You’re flying out at dawn. I have a list of contacts over there for you to work your way through.’

Andreas stared at his brother, his dark eyes clouded. ‘I can’t leave Holly here.’

‘You can’t take her with you. You need to move fast and move alone. You’ve trained in security-you’re the only one with the skills and inside knowledge and discretion to do this. And you know what happens if the stone isn’t found.’

‘I don’t give a damn about the stone.’

‘Do you think I do?’ Sebastian asked incredulously. ‘But like me, you care about our country. You care about our people.’

‘Zakari would make a decent ruler.’

‘We don’t know that,’ Sebastian said ruthlessly. ‘And there’s too much at stake to take a chance. You don’t have a choice.’

‘I’ve never had a choice,’ Andreas said grimly.

‘Not when the livelihood of our people’s at stake. No.’

‘And when the stone’s found?’

‘Then you might find you like being a prince again,’ Sebastian said, and allowed himself a glimmer of a smile. ‘As I might relish the chance to be king. But meanwhile we do what we have to do, and we do it now. The security chief is here to brief you. Let’s go.’

Two a.m. He opened the door with stealth as if he was wary she might be sleeping. Yeah, she might be sleeping if she wasn’t so on edge every nerve ending felt frayed and exposed and standing on end.

He’d also forgotten one pup. Deefer was out of bed the minute the door opened, bounding across the bedroom, yelping in delight at seeing his long-lost friend.

Holly followed the examples of her nerves and sat bolt upright. ‘It’s a bit early in our marriage to come creeping in after midnight,’ she said scathingly. ‘Wouldn’t you say?’

‘I had to-’

‘Go to Greece. Your mother told me.’

‘I’m not going until tomorrow.’

‘Oh, goody.’ She glanced at the clock on the gilt bedside table. ‘But it is tomorrow. Do we have one day left before you go.’

‘Holly, I’m sorry, but…Yes, it’s today. I need to go early this morning.’

‘You have to save the world. Your mother told me.’

‘What else did she tell you?’ he said, sounding apprehensive.

‘That Deefer has to sleep in the stables.’

‘I can see you took that one on board.’ The pup was wriggling ecstatically round his legs, practically turning inside out. He hadn’t had his beach run today. He was one bored dog. Andreas scooped him up, turned him over and started scratching his tummy.

‘Don’t start making up to my dog,’ Holly snapped and Andreas smiled, walked across and sat on the bed. It was a very big bed. Huge. There was no reason Holly’s heart should lurch just because Andreas had sat down.

Maintain the rage, she told herself breathlessly. It was the only defence she had in this situation and she surely needed a defence.

‘Your mother says I need to have deportment lessons.’

‘It’d be excellent if you would,’ he said.

‘Why would it be excellent?’

He put Deefer down onto the carpet, wriggled the fringe of the ancient Persian rug until Deefer was distracted and then left him to it. This conversation, it seemed, was more important than a mere priceless heirloom.

‘Holly, maybe we could have a real marriage,’ he said cautiously.

‘A real marriage.’ She repeated the words dumbly, trying to figure why she felt as if all her breath had been sucked out of her. Three little words. A real marriage.

‘Our plan of a royal marriage has worked far better than we dared hope. The people are seeing you as my Cinderella bride. You have enormous public sympathy. Sebastian thinks it could work.’

Sebastian. ‘Does he just?’ she retorted, fighting for equilibrium. ‘I’ll have you know-’

‘And I want you.’

There it was again. Whoosh. The same gut feeling she’d felt at seventeen, the moment her father had introduced her. Multiplied by about a million.

‘If you want me,’ she said softly, almost to herself, ‘then it’s not about Sebastian. It’s not about this country. It’s about us.’

‘That’s right,’ he said, and tugged the covers aside, pulled her up so she was hugged against him and softly kissed her. ‘It’s all about us.’

‘But tomorrow…’

‘I am a prince,’ he said, almost sadly. ‘I need to do what I need to do. I won’t let this country be ruined. But for now…For now, my heart, there’s only you.’

Until dawn, she thought, but it could only be a fleeting thought for Andreas was holding her, possessing her, demanding she respond and how could she help but respond?

He was right. There was only them.

Until dawn.

She woke and he was gone. She stirred in the too big bed, drowsy and sated with the after effects of loving. She turned sleepily to his side of the bed and it was empty.

Even Deefer wasn’t with her. She looked over to the door and he was there, his little black nose pressed against the vast oak panelling. Andreas was gone, and Deefer had the air of a pup who’d be faithful for years.

‘Come back to bed, Deef,’ she whispered, but the pup just whined and put his nose hard against the crack at the base of the door. She flung back the covers and padded across to him, picked him up and carried him back. She slid back down under the covers and held him close.

A real marriage. Huh!

‘You’ll like Australia,’ she whispered. ‘You can be a real dog on the farm. And me…I can go back to being the real me.’

The lonely me. The me who mourns a dead baby and a lost love.

‘Yeah, the Miss Haversham me,’ she said, blinking and sitting bolt upright as she heard the echoes of what she’d just thought. ‘Sitting alone for years in cobwebs and crumbling wedding cake.’

There was a knock on the door. A maid put her nose around, looking apologetic.

‘If you please, ma’am,’ she said. ‘Her Majesty, Queen Tia, has scheduled your deportment lesson at ten. She says breakfast will be served for you in the grand dining room at eight, and an etiquette master will be on hand to show you through the protocols.’

She closed the door.

‘Wow,’ Holly whispered. ‘Protocols, eh? We’re having protocols instead of eggs and bacon?’ She shivered. ‘You know, Deef, I want to go home.’

But…

‘I said I’d make a go of this marriage,’ she said, addressing a spine that was starting to sag. ‘Andreas says we need to be married and I believe him.’

But…

‘But nothing,’ she told herself. ‘Don’t even think about being homesick. Go bury yourself in…protocols.’

He was gone for eleven interminable days. Days when she wasn’t permitted out of the castle gates.

‘Everyone thinks you’re still on honeymoon,’ she was told by the bureaucrat who headed the public relations department for the royals. ‘The public doesn’t know Andreas has gone to Greece. Your honeymoon is a perfect front.’

A perfect front for a marriage. Sure. They were supposed to be on honeymoon, ensconced in their sumptuous apartments, gloriously in love. Andreas was in Greece. She was in…protocol hell?

‘You will walk three steps behind your husband at all times. Watch his feet-the moment he pauses, you pause. If he turns back, if he attempts to speak to you, come up to within a step of him, listen, smile, make your response brief, never look as if you’re disagreeing and then step back. Your husband is royal and you’re not. He takes precedence in everything.’

‘Yeah, but he’s not here to take precedence,’ she told Deefer on day eleven. She’d taken the little dog for a walk in the palace grounds-to the south because cameras could penetrate to the north and it was imperative she wasn’t seen walking disconsolately alone. Even here she didn’t feel at ease. There was music playing from the palace balconies. The princesses, she thought, wincing. She’d hardly seen them. They’d been too caught up with their own personal concerns to spend much time with her. And she didn’t like their choice of music.

She didn’t like this place.

‘It’ll be better when I get home,’ Andreas had assured her in the brief phone calls he made. He’d sounded stressed and tired, which was the only reason she couldn’t yell at him. Though eventually she’d yell. Quietly of course. In a very deferential manner. If he ever returned.

She’d been thinking for too long. She’d taken her eyes off her pup. She hauled herself to attention but it was too late. Deefer had headed off at a run towards the palace’s ornamental lake.

Uh oh. Deefer had found the lake a week ago and there’d very nearly been trouble. Swans…

‘Get back here,’ she yelled in her best authoritative voice. But whether he heard her over the music or not, Deefer wasn’t paying attention. He was bored. Holly had spent the morning in interminable lessons. The servants didn’t like him wandering. They seemed to have almost a phobia about pets, instilled by the old king. He wasn’t permitted anywhere Holly wasn’t, so he’d been locked in her apartment.

Border collies were bred to work. It was in him, an innate instinct to get out in the fields and round things up. And the only things here to round up were the palace swans, scattered on the far side of the ornamental lake, spread randomly over the grass as they searched for snails.

And now…Creatures randomly spread were an offence against nature for one highly bred collie. Deefer was round the lake in a blur of canine happiness, reaching the swans long before Holly could reach him; long before her yells had any impact.

He launched himself into their midst, yipping with high-pitched excitement, but working with the innate intelligence of his breed. After that first initial scattering he’d figured his mistake. Now he was racing round the outside of the entire group, causing them to rear up, flap their wings in alarm, back away, snapping, screeching…

A lesser pup than Deefer might be intimidated. These birds were three times his height. But a dog had to do what a dog had to do. He was darting in and out so fast the birds could hardly figure what he was doing. He had them totally bewildered. Amazingly they were even starting to cluster together. He was herding them like a professional. Why didn’t they fly away? Holly thought, racing past the massed bushes between her and her dog.

And it was no longer just Holly who was panicking. There were shouts from the palace balconies, audible above the music. Others were running as well-the man Holly recognized as the head gardener and two younger men.

She glanced sideways at them as she ran-and then her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. One of the men had a gun. A rifle. He was raising it. Aiming…

‘No,’ she screamed. ‘No.’

But the guy still had his gun levelled. He wasn’t looking in her direction and the music was louder where he was. Could he hear her?

‘No,’ she screamed again. ‘He’s mine.’ But the man was steadying. His companions had paused to give him freedom to aim.

She was so close. She rounded the last clump of bushes and launched herself in a flying tackle she didn’t know she was capable of. But too late? Too late? The gun exploded in a blast of noise. She felt a sting across her cheek and heard a man’s shouted expletive.

But she had him, Deefer, an armload of overexcited pup. She was lying full length, rolling with him under her, hugging him, weeping, while swans went everywhere. She didn’t care, she didn’t care, she had her pup. He was wriggling. He was okay. She closed her eyes…

‘Holly…’

And amazingly, miraculously, she heard him. It was a shout from far away, but even so she heard the terror above the music.

Andreas.

Her face stung. She could feel the warm trickle of blood seeping down her cheek.

But Deefer was safe. He was wriggling frantically in her arms, desperate to escape, to continue his very important task.

‘Holly!’ The yell was nearer now, and someone switched the music off. She opened her eyes and rolled over, still holding her pup in her arms.

Facing men. All of them seemed to be groundsmen of some description. The guy with the rifle was staring down at her with horror. He was backing away, and by the look on his face he was expecting to be shot himself.

Then he was shoved aside, with such force that he almost fell. And Andreas was bending over her, his face such a picture of dread that she instinctively put her hand to her face in case his expression was right and the shot had been…dreadful.

It wasn’t. She could feel a faint scoring of her skin and the blood was a mere trickle.

‘It’s just a scratch,’ she said, more forcefully than she intended. Maybe she even sounded indignant, for the faces around her sagged in relief. But she only had the most fleeting of glimpses, for Andreas was bending over her, his fingers touching her face, his eyes searching for something more serious than the scratch on her cheek.

‘My love,’ he breathed, his voice cracking with raw fear, and he gathered her into his arms and tugged her hard against him. Somewhere in the middle Deefer, squashed, gave a muffled yelp of protest. But he was ignored.

Was she dreaming? She didn’t care. Holly abandoned herself to the feel of Andreas holding her, to the feel of his shirt against her face. She’d be bleeding all over him and how much was the royal shirt worth? She didn’t care. She stayed right where she was, unmoving, feeling his heartbeat, feeling his strength and his protection.

Her man had come home. When she most needed him, he was there.

It couldn’t last. There were voices behind them, the men around them trying to explain, trying to justify. Finally Andreas put her back from him. Deefer stuck his nose out from between them, but both of them were holding him now. Andreas swung Holly and dog into his arms, then sank so he was sitting on the grass with his wife cradled against him, the little dog held in their four loving hands.

‘Who shot my wife?’

It was a voice she’d never heard before. It held such anger, indescribable fury mixed with the remnants of fear, that Holly shivered. Andreas’s hold on her tightened.

‘Well?’

‘If you please, sir…’ It was the youngest of the groundsmen, the one with the gun. He took a step forward, and by the look on his face it was clear he was expecting the step to be his last.

‘He was trying to shoot Deefer…’ Holly managed, though her voice only managed a squeak. She looked up at the boy and thought he shouldn’t be so afraid. Not when things were okay. Not when she had Andreas. ‘I…At home we have to shoot wild dogs that get into the cattle.’

‘That’s it,’ the boy said eagerly, and the eldest of the groundsmen nodded.

‘That’s right,’ the man said. ‘We’ve had five swans killed over the last year. Something’s getting in through the boundary fences. The king’s orders are to shoot to kill whatever it is that’s killing them.’

‘When my wife’s in line of sight?’ Andreas said incredulously. ‘When you all know it’s her dog?’

‘I didn’t know it was her dog. And she just came flying from nowhere,’ the young man muttered, sounding sullen now. ‘No princess can run like that. And she just threw herself at the dog…’

‘If I hadn’t you would have killed him,’ Holly managed, defiant from the safety of Andreas’s arms.

‘Is she safe?’

The imperious demand from behind made them all start. A woman was making her way through the group of groundsmen and the men were falling back to let her past. It was Tia-of course it was. She was dressed in an immaculate linen suit and pearls that must be worth a king’s ransom. Her heels were totally unsuitable for walking on the grass, but then would any shoe dare to sink if Tia was wearing it?

But she looked…frightened.

‘She’s safe, Mother,’ Andreas said thickly and Tia’s face showed instant relief. But only fleetingly. She had herself under control in an instant.

‘I saw the dog attack the swans. You know your father’s orders. These are his swans. He’ll protect them at any cost.’

‘At the cost of Holly’s life?’ Andreas demanded incredulously. ‘I can’t believe you’d think that.’

‘Your father-’

‘My father’s dead,’ Andreas said flatly. ‘It’s not what he thinks now. It’s what you think.’

‘Of course it’s not what I think.’ She turned to the groundsmen, dismissing them with a wave. ‘Go back to work. I don’t hold you responsible for the girl’s hurt. You were following the king’s orders.’

‘But…’ the young groundsman stammered, still dazed.

‘My son’s wife will recover,’ Tia said. ‘I can see from here it’s a scratch.’ She permitted herself a wintry smile. ‘She’ll hardly sue.’ Then as the men hesitated she lowered her voice a notch. ‘Leave. Now.’

They went. Leaving Andreas holding Holly and Deefer, and the queen looking down at them, her face impassive. With Andreas glaring back at his mother as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

‘I don’t understand why the swans didn’t just fly away,’ Holly muttered, searching for something-anything-to take the look of anger from the faces of both mother and son.

‘They have their wings clipped,’ Tia told her. ‘They can’t.’

‘Despite the fact that swans will always come back to their home lake,’ Andreas said softly, his voice still laced with fury. ‘But my parents clip their wings to make sure.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake…These are your father’s orders,’ Tia said. Her voice wasn’t as sure as it had been. She sounded suddenly shaky. ‘You know that, Andreas. It’s the way things are. And I told her to keep the dog in the stables.’

‘Holly comes with a dog. This is Holly’s home, Mother.’

‘It’s not my home,’ Holly said, struggling in his arms. He released her, reluctantly. She pushed herself to her feet and Andreas followed. She was feeling a little bit sick, she discovered. Her legs weren’t as steady as she wanted them to be. She needed to pull away from both of these royals-she needed to face them square on-but she needed Andreas’s support. But she still knew what needed to be said. ‘My home’s in Australia and I’m leaving.’

‘You can’t leave yet,’ Tia said, shocked, as Andreas’s expression snapped into a frown, and Holly shook her head.

‘I can leave any time I want. Isn’t that so, Andreas?’

He tugged her tight against him. She could feel the tension in his body; she could feel how close he was to snapping. There were tensions here that didn’t have anything to do with her. There were tensions she didn’t understand.

‘That’s right,’ he said softly, but there was no mistaking the steel behind the quiet words as he met his mother’s gaze, unflinching. ‘Holly married me to get us out of a mess. She’s fulfilled her part of the bargain. We’ve told the press that she’ll keep her property back in Australia, with intermittent visits from me. She’s free to go.’

‘Sebastian thinks it will be better if she stays,’ Tia said sharply.

‘Sebastian does not rule my private life,’ Andreas snapped. ‘As my father no longer rules yours. Maybe we both have to learn that. Meanwhile my wife is my business. If I say she can go, then she can go.’

‘Thanks very much,’ Holly managed and would have wrenched away but he was still holding her hard against him. Her face was still bleeding. A droplet splashed on the white cotton of her shirt. She put her fingers up to her cheek and he noticed.

‘I need to get you inside and have that seen to,’ he said ruefully.

‘She will stay,’ Tia said in a voice that sounded almost desperate.

‘How are you going to clip my wings?’ Holly said shakily. Shock was setting in for real now. Deefer was limp in her arms as if the little dog also realized just how close they’d come to calamity. ‘I’m free,’ Holly said, forcing herself to continue. ‘Andreas…Andreas is my husband but that’s not enough to hold me. I’m going home.’

Ignoring her protests, he carried her out through the palace kitchens to a room that was set up as a first-aid centre. The vast palace staff would make a first-aid centre essential, Holly thought, though she wasn’t up to thinking much. She lay back in Andreas’s arms, she hugged Deefer and she let him take her where he willed. She might have sounded defiant before Tia, but inside she was a wimpering wreck.

‘Wh…when did you get back?’ she managed as he shoved open the clinic door with his foot and carried her inside.

‘Ten minutes ago. I came to find you straight away.’

‘You could have come earlier,’ she whispered and then thought if he’d come even a couple of minutes earlier she might have been distracted enough not to notice what Deefer was doing until too late. She shivered involuntarily and his hold on her tightened.

‘Hell, Holly, I thought you’d be safe.’

‘Yeah, well, you will have thugs with guns.’

‘They’re not my thugs.’

‘No, but they’re hired by your family. And you’re a part of this family, Andreas.’

‘I am,’ he said grimly, and then a buxom, motherly woman hustled into the room, all starch and cluck, and they couldn’t talk for she took over their talking for them.

It was as Holly had thought-a long scratch, only bleeding in the middle. The bullet had barely grazed the surface. But the nurse examined it from all angles, then discussed with Andreas whether it was worth calling in the royal physician. ‘No,’ Holly said hotly, but she was ignored, though their conclusion was the same. But the wound was cleaned and dressed with all the care in the world.

At the end of her ministrations Holly was left with a face that any self-respecting bacterium would find blocked from twenty paces, and a huge white dressing that would have done a lobotomy proud.

‘You know, when I’m rounding up cattle I get plenty of scratches as bad as this,’ she said as finally the nurse released them from her clutches and they left the room. ‘FFrom overhead branches. They sure don’t get dressed like this.’

‘They should,’ Andreas growled.

‘You’re suggesting I install a first-aid clinic at Munwannay with your money?’

‘If you want one, you can have one.’

‘I don’t want one,’ she said, revolted. They were walking slowly back to their apartment. Andreas was holding Deefer tucked under one arm. With his other hand he was holding Holly’s. She should pull back, she thought. This was such a temporary marriage. But he was holding her as if he loved her.

She’d go home soon, she thought drearily. This morning’s events had cemented that for her. But she’d remember this. Two brief snatches of time with the man she’d love for ever. One time ten years ago. And now…Her hand tightened convulsively and he looked down at her and smiled.

‘You missed me?’

‘That’s an unfair question.’ She swallowed, not wanting to ask but knowing she needed to. ‘Will you be staying? Or…do you need to go away again?’

‘I do,’ he said seriously. ‘Tomorrow.’

‘For how long?’ she whispered, her heart sinking.

‘I don’t know.’

‘I can’t stay here…without you.’

‘I understand that,’ he said, and the hint of a smile disappeared from his face. ‘I hoped…but today, yes, it’s clear. Deefer is a dog bred to be a working dog. You’re bred to be free. I will not let my mother clip your wings.’

‘She couldn’t.’

‘She could try. This whole damned household will try. My mother is a good woman but she’s been ruled by my father for too long to escape the royal protocol.’

‘You wouldn’t…’ She hesitated but it had to be said. It had to be asked. Pride or not, this was her man and she had to fight for him if she could. ‘You would never consider…coming to Australia?’

‘I will visit,’ he said.

Visit. Of course. Once a year?

‘Of course,’ she said flatly. ‘To keep up the pretence of our marriage.’ And then because she couldn’t help herself she added…‘How often?’

‘I don’t know,’ he said honestly. They were in their apartment now. He led her over to the bed and they sat side by side. He set Deefer onto the floor but the little dog was subdued. He knew things were grim. He huddled in against Holly’s legs and stayed.

‘I can’t do as I want, Holly,’ he said. ‘I was born into this job.’

‘And your country needs you.’

‘It does,’ he said simply. ‘Whether it knows it or not.’

‘I…That’s okay,’ she said and swallowed. ‘I didn’t really expect you to come back with me.’

‘I’ll come as often as I can.’

‘You know, maybe it’d be better if you didn’t,’ she said miserably. ‘You were gone for years and I couldn’t forget you. If you keep popping back every six months or so…’

‘I’ll come more often than that.’ He turned her face to his and kissed her on the nose. ‘You are my wife.’

‘In name.’

‘In law,’ he said strongly. ‘I want you, Holly. I want you here, in my bed, but I accept that’s not possible. My father clipped the wings of his wild creatures. I will not.’

‘Andreas-’

‘Hush,’ he said and gathered her to him. ‘Just hush, my love. Yes, I have to leave again tomorrow, and I’ll arrange for you to leave as well. I’ll organize a boat to take you to Greece. I have friends there who’ll see you cared for; who’ll organize your forward journey to Australia. The press will be told there are urgent matters you need to attend to in Australia. There’s no need to fear Sebastian will haul you back. The scandal would be worse than if we’d never married.’

He had it all planned, she thought numbly. She should protest. But all she could do was listen.

‘Money’s already been transferred to your working account,’ he was saying. ‘You’ll find the mortgages on Munwannay have been cleared. There’s a lump sum for restocking and money for staffing. You’re to get good staff, mind, Holly. You’re to have skilled help or I’ll know the reason why. By the time I visit, I expect to see the Munwannay I first saw-a vibrant, working farm. A family home.’

‘I-’

‘You can do this, Holly,’ he said strongly, not letting her interject. ‘It’s what you’ve always wanted. And there will be no long-term problem here. Our people understand royal marriages. They think it’s wonderful to have an Australian princess, but they know my royal duties have to take precedence. It will be accepted.’

‘But Sebastian-’

‘This has nothing to do with Sebastian now.’

‘Or your mother?’

‘No. But I owe them a duty of care-that’s why I need to keep looking for the diamond.’

‘And you owe me…’

‘What I owe you I’ve paid in full.’

‘Have you, Andreas?’ She swallowed hard, trying not to cry. ‘Have you? Oh, you’ve married me in all honour. You’ve given me the Cinderella story. Now you’ve paid for my happy ever after. I should be grateful. But…’ She swallowed, fighting for words. ‘I want more,’ she managed, but she looked into his eyes and knew he didn’t understand.

‘Holly, this was a business arrangement,’ he said softly. ‘A marriage of necessity. I’m sorry it can’t be more.’

‘Well, so am I,’ she snapped, suddenly furious. ‘Business arrangement? No way. Not on my part. I made my vows and I meant them.’

‘Yet you don’t wish to stay.’

She stared at him, baffled. He didn’t get it. Was it only she who was hungry for what was just in front of them, so close but yet so far? She ached for him to hold her in his arms, to tell her she was indeed his wife, that he’d never let her go. Instead he talked of his duty of care to his family.

‘I think you should go now,’ she whispered.

‘Go…’

‘Back to wherever you’ve been diamond hunting. Or wherever.’

‘I don’t leave until the morning. I’d hoped-’

‘Well hope away, Your Highness,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve just had a very nasty shock. I’ve been shot at and I’m wounded. I have a headache and if you think I’m going to bed with you when I have a headache…’

‘The Holly I knew would never let a headache stop her.’

‘Yeah, well, the Holly you knew was a dope,’ she whispered. ‘The Holly you knew has gone far enough in this royal charade and can go no further. Enough, Andreas. Leave please.’

‘Holly…’ He caught her hands and drew her round, forcing her to face him. ‘I can’t believe you mean that.’ He smiled, that fabulous, gentle, seductive smile that made her toes curl, that was the source of all the trouble in the first place. ‘You don’t want me?’

‘I can’t want you,’ she said miserably. ‘Can’t you see that? Please, Andreas, no more. To be kind…just leave.’

What had she done? He stared at her for a long, tension-filled moment, his face expressionless. Then, without another word, he stood up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. She was left staring after him in dismay.

She’d sent him away.

He was leaving anyway in the morning.

But she wanted this night.

It wasn’t going to make anything better, she thought drearily. She’d thought she could take as much of Andreas as he offered, but all his nearness did was make her ache for more.

He’d gone. She didn’t have to see him again. She could stay in her room for the rest of the day, plead headache, sleep, then when she woke he’d have left.

A stronger woman would fight for him.

Was it strong to stay in this place? Submit to endless protocol, endless absences, the clipping of her wings?

‘I’d be a bird in a gilded cage,’ she whispered to Deefer, hugging him close. ‘I can’t. Even for Andreas.’

Yet to leave him…

I’m not leaving him. He’s doing the leaving.

If you walked to the door now and called him back he’d come.

Until dawn.

‘Oh, Deef.’ She was crying, stupid helpless tears slipping down her cheeks, one after another. She hated crying. She never cried.

Andreas made her cry.

‘Which is as good a reason as any to leave,’ she told her dog. ‘I have to go. I must.’

It’d break her heart.

No. Her heart had broken years ago and the pieces were still apart. For a few short days the pieces had made a tentative effort to heal. But it hadn’t worked. Of course it hadn’t. Cinderella was for fairy tales.

She had to go…home.

He walked outside, into the palace forecourt. The sun was blazing down on the marble columns, the shining granite steps radiating heat. The white pebbles of the paved surfaces shimmered in the sun, and the vast ornate fountain gave no sense of relief. This was formality at its finest. Formality at its worst.

He lived here. It was his life.

He thought of where Holly was heading-to a vast outback wilderness, a place where nature couldn’t help but win over any attempt to tame it, and a wave of longing swept over him so strongly that it felt as if he had to physically brace himself against its force.

Munwannay and Holly.

Holly.

He couldn’t keep her here. Her place was in Munwannay. How he’d ever thought he could hold her this long…

He’d brought her here against her will and he would not keep her. Despite Sebastian. Despite his mother. They were wrong. Holly was wild and beautiful and free and he would not tame her.

His fingers were clenched so hard into his palms that they hurt. He stared down and saw he’d pierced the skin on one palm. It hurt, but compared to the gut-wrenching pain inside it was nothing. To let her go…

He had to let her go.

There was a stir behind him. He turned to find two servants pushing the door wide, and Sebastian striding out towards him.

‘I told you I wanted to see you the minute you arrived,’ he snapped.

‘Holly needed me.’

‘I have no interest in what Holly needs. You know this matter’s urgent. I want your report and I want it now. For me to have to come and find you…’

‘Unforgivable,’ Andreas said dryly. ‘You want my head off at dawn?’

‘Don’t be facetious. You know how much is at stake. I need you to be focused.’

‘Of course.’

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed. ‘I mean it, Andreas.’

‘Of course you do,’ Andreas said wearily. ‘And, yes, I know how urgent it is. Yes, I know how much our country is depending on me staying focused. It’ll happen. Holly’s leaving tomorrow for Australia.’

‘What?’ Sebastian snapped, his features darkening in displeasure. ‘I told you, I wanted the marriage to last.’

‘And I’m telling you the marriage is over,’ Andreas replied, and his voice sounded strong and sure, two emotions that were surely as far from the truth as it was possible to get. ‘Short of locking us in a dungeon there’s nothing you can do about it, brother. So set your public relations department to make as good a job of it as they can, but the thing’s not negotiable. Holly goes home tomorrow. End of story.’