The Prince’s Outback Bride

CHAPTER TEN

PIPPA woke and sun was streaming in the window. Her door was wide open, and the children were filing in.

They were dressed and washed and sparkling, the twins’ pigtails plaited, neat as pins, and full of importance.

Sophie was bearing a glass of orange juice.

Claire was carrying a plate of fruit.

Marc was balancing a tray holding toast, pots of jam and a tub of butter curls.

Max was bringing up the rear, carrying coffee.

‘Good morning,’ he said, and her heart felt as if it did a somersault. ‘Or almost good afternoon.’

She stared at the clock. Eleven!

‘We let you sleep in,’ Sophie said. ‘’Cos you were up in the night looking after Dolores.’

‘Oh, Sophie…’

‘I told them Dolores died,’ Marc said, matter-of-factly. ‘We’ve put more flowers on her grave. Sophie put pansies on and Claire chose pretty white flowers with yellow middles. They’ll die pretty soon but Max says we’ll all go for a drive later to a garden place. We’ll each choose what we want to plant on Dolores’ grave. And Max said we can light the candles every night for as long as we want.’

‘That’s…that’s lovely.’

‘But you need to get up,’ Claire said importantly. ‘’Cos we have a visitor.’

‘Who?’

‘Sort of a grandma,’ Sophie said and she giggled.

‘She says we can call her Grandma, anyway.’ Marc sounded a bit uncertain. ‘But she says only if you think it’s okay.’

‘Who is it?’ Pippa asked, intrigued.

‘My mother,’ Max said.

She blinked.

‘And she’s waiting for you to wheel her round the garden,’ He told the kids. ‘Use the ramp at the side door and don’t take her anywhere the wheelchair can get stuck.’

‘We won’t,’ Sophie said and dumped her orange juice and ran. Closely followed by Claire.

‘And I’m not going to be Crown Prince any more,’ Marc added, setting down his toast with care. ‘Max and me talked about it last night and we have a plan. It’s really good. But can I go and help wheeling? They might crash the wheelchair if I don’t.’

‘Go right ahead,’ Max said, placing his hand on the boy’s thin shoulder and giving him a squeeze of affection. ‘You’re a kid in a million.’

Marc gave a self-conscious grin, smiled shyly up at his hero-and bolted.

Pippa was left with Max. She should feel shy too, she thought. She didn’t. She just felt…right.

‘How soon is soon enough to ask you to marry me?’ Max said, and her world stilled.

‘What did you say?’

‘You heard.’ He set down the coffee pot on the floor. ‘I was intending to wait until you’d eaten your toast, but you’re far too beautiful to leave hanging around for long. Someone else might snatch you.’

‘I have three kids,’ she said, trying hard to keep breathing. Her heart was doing really funny lurching things. ‘No one else wants to snatch me.’

‘More fool them,’ he said and sat on the bed and pulled her into his arms. ‘They don’t know what they’re missing. I have the most wonderful woman in the world in my arms right now. How fantastic is that? I can’t believe my luck and I’m waiting not a minute longer. You need to say you’ll marry me, my lovely Pippa. You must. Please?’

Her heart was singing, but somehow she found the strength to pull away. He released her with seeming reluctance, but he did let her go.

She pulled far enough back until she could see his face. ‘Max, why?’

‘I love you.’ He smiled, that lovely, lurking smile that had her heart doing hand springs. ‘As simple as that. As easy as that. All the conniving I’ve done-the figuring, the way I’ve tried to structure our lives-and in the end it comes down to this. I love you, Pippa, and I love you with all my heart. I want to be beside you for as long as we both shall live. Everything else has to come in after that. We’ll organise our lives. We’ll organise the Crown and the country. But we’ll organise these things around the most important thing in my life. Which is being with you.’

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She’d surely forgotten how to breathe.

‘Say you’ll marry me,’ he said, urgently. ‘Pippa, I’m not asking you to step away from the children. I know you love them to bits, and, believe it or not, I do too. I thought last night how could I walk away from Marc? There’s been so many things to think about. For the last few weeks it’s been crazy. First it was how I could accept that I was truly a de Gautier. Then could I walk away from this country? After that how could I walk away from you? And now there’s the kids, worming their way into my heart. I love them too, Pippa, I love this whole damned catastrophe. I want to marry the lot of you.’

‘And take us to Paris?’It had to be said. She was torn between disbelief and a magic, wondrous hope.

‘No, here’s the thing,’ He said ruefully. ‘Because I can’t do that either. I listened to those elderly players yesterday saying their kids were having to leave the country. I thought about fractured families. I thought about this wonderful little country that can be so much if it’s well managed. And I thought about the buildings I’ve been proud constructing. Yes, I can be proud of my buildings but here…Pippa, here we can build a whole country.’

‘But how…?’

‘There’s so much we can do,’ he said, exultant. ‘The people who talked to me initially in Paris-disaffected citizens who are aching to be allowed to set decent government in motion-are desperate to help, and they will. If I stay on as Crown Prince…’

‘You’d take that on?’

‘Yes,’ He said firmly. ‘It’s not fair to ask that of Marc. It never was, but it’s taken the love of a wonderful woman to make me see it.’ He grinned. ‘And also to see that it might not be so much a burden as a privilege. I’ve talked to Mama. She’s agreed-with sadness but I’ll make her see it need not be a grief. We’ll set the DNA testing in place to prove things. But you know what? I’ve been thinking and thinking. I thought it’d be great if Marc stands to inherit. I talked to him about it last night and he agrees. So…We can formally adopt. The kids will be our kids, along with whoever else comes along. That way it’s Marc who stands to inherit. How perfect is that?’

‘But…’ It was too much to take in. ‘You love them that much?’

‘I love them so much I can’t do anything else,’ he said, and he tugged her into his arms and held her tight. ‘Pippa, last night I rang my mother in Paris. Like me, her life has been desolate since Thiérry died. We’ve put things on hold. But last night I talked to her about what we can do-what we all can do-if we have the courage to take this on.’

‘You’ve really asked her to…’

‘Yes,’ He said, stroking her hair, kissing the top of her head. ‘Yes, I did. I told her that once upon a time I remembered her talking of a vision she had of how this country could be. She married as a green girl, marrying the fairy tale. I told her we could live the real fairy tale. We could make this country great. And we could be a family.’

‘Your mother…’ She was finding it hard to get her mouth to form words.

‘You’ll love her,’ He said, urgently, putting her away from him a little so he could make her see. ‘She’s a wonderful, wonderful woman and she’ll love you to bits. You’ll love her to bits. She’s nervous now, but she’s brave enough to want to try, and she’s already falling for the children. She’ll help us, Pippa. There’s no way one person can be sovereign in this country. We need a family.’ He hesitated. ‘But there is one problem.’

‘Only one?’

‘She has a dog,’ he said, rueful. ‘A weird-looking mutt called Hannibal she saved from the street several years ago. She has him here.’

‘She brought her dog?’

‘I rang her last night and talked this all through with her,’ Max confessed. ‘Before I’d finished talking, she was organising plane tickets. She and Hannibal flew into Monaco at dawn and she hired a car to bring her here. She’s ready to be part of this, and so is her disreputable mutt. But, Pippa, it’s asking a lot of you. You’ll have three kids, a husband, a mother-in-law, a castle full of devoted retainers and a maniac dog whose sole desire in life is to destroy every shoe he ever sets eyes on. Beatrice says as far as she knows there’s never been a dog in this palace, and now it’s looking like Dolores might have been the start of a dynasty.’

His grip on her hands grew urgent. ‘I’ve thought it all through. All night…There’s been so much to think of. We could donate the kids’ farm to be the wildlife corridor you were so enthusiastic about. Maybe we could keep the house so we could visit every now and then-but not in midwinter. It’d almost be worth the plane fare to tell the Tanbarook supermarket ladies ourselves.’

He hesitated, waiting for her to smile. Waiting for her to say something. Nothing came.

‘But is it too much, do you think?’ He held her shoulders, desperately anxious. ‘Do you think you can take it on?’

‘I…’

‘And your nursing,’ he added, figuring he had to set all the facts before her before she refused or accepted. ‘There’s a hospital in the village. There’s been no young nurses in the place for years and it’s really run-down. I thought maybe you could take it on as your special project. There are more hospitals through the country. So much to do. And me…As soon as we’ve finished Blake’s house we’ll move on to rebuilding the village hall. I’ve had to move fast to stop demolition this morning and that’s only the beginning. There’s so much. We’ll make this country the greatest of the Alp Quartet. Raoul thinks he’s done well in Alp d’ Azuri. He doesn’t know the half of what great can be.’

‘Hush,’ Pippa said, half laughing, half crying. ‘Max, do you know what you’re saying?’

‘I surely do.’ He paused, his smile fading as their gazes locked. The plans fell away. There was only this moment. This man, and this woman.

‘Pippa, will you take us on?’ he whispered. ‘I know you haven’t been born into it. I know you can walk away. But we need you so much. Will you wave your wand, my wondrous fairy godmother? Will you marry me?’

She smiled at him, her eyes misting with unshed tears. Her Maxsim, Crown Prince of Alp d’Estella. Her own true love.

Would she marry him? How could she not?

And it was a first.

‘I never heard it said that any fairy godmother got to marry Prince Charming herself,’ she whispered, drawing him into her and holding him close. ‘But there’s always a first, my love. Move over, Cinderella. Yes, my lovely prince. My Max. My love. Yes, I will.’