The Rebel Prince. Raye Morgan

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ bristling.

      “So now you’re ordering me around?” he said coldly to his friend.

      Will nodded. “I’m sure you’ll give me this much leeway,” he said softly. “For old times’ sake.”

      Monty stared at him for a long moment, then shrugged and turned to Emma. “Where’s your room?” he asked her.

      Her eyes widened. “I have no idea. I get lost every time I turn a corner in this place.”

      “How are you going to find it again if you don’t know where it is?”

      “Someone will tell us,” Will said.

      “It’s very high up,” Emma added, trying to be helpful. “A nice room. The sort of place that feels like if they locked me in and I grew my hair long…”

      “Rapunzel, Rapunzel?” Monty’s look of irritation stung. “There you go with the fairy tales again.” His gaze raked over her. “All right, go with Will. I’ll check on you later.”

      “Monty…” Will began in a warning tone.

      “You can keep your opinions to yourself,” Monty ordered, giving his friend a look that registered something close to disgust. “You don’t have to worry. She’s clearly not my type at all.”

      Will made a scoffing sound in his throat. “She’s female, isn’t she?” he said softly, plainly not meaning the comment for Emma to hear.

      But she’d heard all right, and her mind had cleared enough to know that she wanted to avoid a room visit from this man at all costs.

      “You don’t need to worry about me,” she said quickly, stepping a bit closer to Will. “The doctor will handle it.”

      He stared at her and she realized she’d been a little too obvious in her anxiety. No emotion showed in his eyes, but she could feel his hostility.

      “As you wish,” he said evenly. “Goodbye, Emma Valentine.”

      Reaching out, he took her hand and bent from the waist to brush her fingers with his lips. “Until we meet again.”

      He left her breathless but at least he was gone.

      “What did he do that for?” she asked Will as they started toward the castle elevator. Her hand was tingling and she rubbed it against her shorts.

      “He likes to keep us all on our toes by doing the unexpected,” Will told her cheerfully.

      He’d certainly fulfilled that image today, she thought with some irritation.

      “You’re the castle physician,” she said to the doctor. “What does Monty do?”

      “Monty?” He chuckled. “You might say Monty is a servant to us all.”

      She frowned, wishing she could really get rid of all the cobwebs so she could understand better what was going on around her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

      “All in due time, my dear. All in due time.”

      She was lost. Again.

      “They should hand out maps at the door of this place,” she muttered in frustration as she hurried down one hall and then up another, hoping to see something familiar—anything at all.

      It would also have helped if there had been someone to ask for directions, but the halls she went racing down were empty. Maybe she was lost in a ghost castle.

      But she knew better. It had only been a half-hour before that she’d had a visit from Myrna Luk, the castle housekeeper.

      “Well, he’s done it again,” she’d said as she breezed into Emma’s room. A pretty woman in her late forties, she seemed harried and overworked but managed to keep a friendly look on her face, which was more than most of the staff had welcomed Emma with.

      “Who’s done what?” Emma asked, reaching for her white uniform, anxious to show that she was ready to join in after having been AWOL for so long. She’d had a wonderful long nap and was feeling very much herself again. Dr Will had been to check on her and had been pleased with her condition. So things were looking up.

      “The prince, of course. Prince Sebastian.” The housekeeper put a hand up to smooth down the curls of her dark brown hair. “He’s here, crept in on us unannounced. The level of service for dinner will have to be raised. It won’t just be the duke and the duchess. It will be the prince as well.” She began counting out diners on her fingers. “And the Italian ambassador, so they tell me, along with his wife and sister. The chancellor of the treasury, the minister of defense and his wife. And of course, Romas, the old duke’s son, and…let’s see…”

      “The prince is here?”

      Emma was suddenly nervous. She’d been ready to meet the prince and begin working out menus with him, but when they had told her he wouldn’t arrive until the weekend she’d been disappointed, but secretly a little relieved. That gave her a little more time. And now he was here after all, and she didn’t feel prepared.

      “Yes, he’s here. And us being so shorthanded. So the chef tells me.” The housekeeper looked at Emma speculatively. “I know it’s not what you’re here for but you might as well pitch in. After all, you need to get the lay of the land and see how things are done around here. So…do you mind working with Chef Henri?”

      “No. No, of course not.”

      Emma was amenable but she wondered how Chef Henri would take it. When she’d met the man the night before she’d had the distinct impression he would have liked to see her filleted along with the fish course. Actually, she’d come face to face with a wall of hostility from most of the kitchen staff. It had been evident right away that they greatly resented that she’d been chosen as chef to the coronation over someone home-grown.

      “You look a little tired,” Myrna Luk was saying. “And Dr Will filled me in on your situation. Sure you’re up to this?”

      “Oh, absolutely.”

      Regardless of how she felt, she had to be up to it. After all, this was the housekeeper, the only person on the staff who had actually been nice to her so far, asking for help. If she couldn’t come through for her, she might as well give up and go home.

      “How are you getting on?” Myrna asked, looking her over a bit more closely.

      Emma hesitated, tempted to tell her the truth—that the staff was treating her like a redheaded stepchild. But what, after all, was that going to get her—except more antagonism from them? Anyway, this was her job and she had to take care of it herself.

      “Quite fine, thank you.”

      “Wonderful. Then I’ll tell Chef Henri that you’re willing.”

      “Yes.”

      Willing, surely. But able? That remained to be seen.

      Though she was refreshed from the best sleep she’d had in a week, she still hadn’t gone over what had happened that morning and come to СКАЧАТЬ