Claiming The Royal Innocent. Jennifer Hayward

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      The beautifully appointed suite she was shown to at the back of the palace overlooked the formal gardens. It was done in gold and a soft moss green, the shimmery, wispy fabrics of the sweeping brocade curtains and the romantic overlay of the big canopy bed like something straight out of one of the fairy tales she’d devoured as a child.

      When a maid showed up minutes later with a beautiful silk nightgown and inquired if she needed anything else, Alex fought back the hot tears that gathered in her eyes. She’d accomplished what she’d come here to do. She would see her father. But what she wanted in this moment was for her brother to have believed her.

      She assured the maid she had everything she needed. Unable to sleep, she wandered out onto the terrace. The band, whose lazy serenade had been drifting through the open windows of the ballroom, stopped playing. Then there was only the buzz of the cicadas as she contemplated row after row of perfectly tended, riotous blooms in the floodlit gardens.

      A quiet knock reached her from inside the suite. Frowning, wondering who it could be at this late hour, she padded inside and inched the door open. Standing in the dimly lit corridor stood the princess, still clad in her silver gown.

      “I had to come.”

      Alex stared at her sister. The princess’s startling blue eyes were counterbalanced by a wide mouth and the high cheekbones that were a signature of her mother’s aristocratic haughtiness. Arresting rather than classically beautiful, Stella stared back at her, all of her earlier poise stripped away, her carefully applied dramatic makeup standing out in stark contrast against the pallor of her skin.

      Her quick intake of breath was audible. “Thee mou, but you two look alike.”

      “Who?”

      “You and Nik.”

      Alex swallowed hard, a tightness gripping her chest. Her legs felt unsteady, consumed by the emotion of the day, as if one more blow would fell them. She forced herself to move past it, stepping back to allow her sister in.

      Stella slipped inside and shut the door. “The party just finished. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

      “I couldn’t sleep.”

      “I expect not.”

      They regarded each other in silence, wariness and shock filling the air between them. She searched her sister’s gaze for the mistrust her brother had displayed, finding only bemusement and curiosity in return.

      “The king told you I was here?”

      “Of course not.” The princess’s lips curved in a wry smile. “At least not willingly. Nik is too protective for that. I overheard him and Aristos talking.”

      Her lashes lowered. “He is suspicious of me.”

      “My brother has to be cautious. He has a million grenades being lobbed at him every day with King Idas’s descent into lunacy.”

      Alex bit her lip, chewing uncertainly on flesh she’d already made raw. “You don’t doubt my story?”

      “When you look more like Nik’s sister than I do?” The princess shook her head. “My father’s affair with your mother was common knowledge. I think we’ve all lived with the possibility that something like this might result from his indiscretions. Although for it to happen now is a bit...startling.”

      “I didn’t know. I only found out a few weeks ago.”

      “Nik told me.” The princess regarded her silently. “I hope you are not disappointed. My father is an imperfect man. A great king, but an imperfect man. Manage your expectations. Do not expect him to be warm and fuzzy.”

      “I thought my father was dead,” Alex said quietly. “I’m not sure what I’m expecting.”

      The princess’s golden-tipped lashes fanned her cheeks. “I can’t imagine how you must feel. To find this out now.”

      Alex exhaled an unsteady breath. “Confused. Bewildered. I’m angry my mother lied to me. I feel...betrayed. And yet I know she did it for the right reasons. She wanted to protect me. How can I be angry about that?”

      “Easily.” Stella waved a hand around them. “She denied you this. Your birthright.”

      “Is it?” A vision of her beautiful, serene village filled her head. “I love my life in Stygos.”

      “You are a royal,” Stella countered. “A Constantinides. You could have had the world at your fingertips. Instead she took that away from you.”

      Had she? Or had her mother given her the safe, loved existence she’d always known?

      “Perhaps it’s about destiny,” Alex said. “Maybe mine was to live the life I have.”

      “Perhaps.” A glimmer filled the princess’s eyes. “The life of a royal has its challenges. I will be the first to admit that.”

      The reticence in her sister’s voice stirred her curiosity. “But the benefits outweigh the challenges?”

      “I’m not sure that’s an analysis I can make.” Stella’s lips firmed. “Do I think it’s my destiny to be where I am? Yes. Would I have chosen it if given the choice? That is the million-dollar question.”

      It certainly was. The cicadas buzzed their musical song as a silence stretched between them. Stella set a probing gaze on her. “I saw you dancing with Aristos.”

      Heat rose to stain her cheeks. She had been hoping that part of the evening would go unnoticed. Her inappropriate behavior had been uncharacteristic for her, foolish, particularly damning in light of her mother’s scandalous reputation.

      “It was a mistake,” she said quietly. “I was nervous. I’d had a couple of glasses of champagne...”

      “Aristos has that effect on women.” The princess’s mouth twisted. “A word of warning. He takes what he wants until you are too blind to see the danger. Before you know it, you’re hooked. Then he turns you loose.”

      She was clearly speaking from experience. Alex set her jaw resolutely. “It’s never happening again. After I talk to my father, I’m going home.”

      The princess regarded her silently. “I just met my sister,” she said softly. “I find I quite like the idea of having one. It would be a shame to lose her so quickly.”

      A throb consumed her chest. It grew with every breath, threatening to bubble over into an emotion too big to contain. Stella seemed to sense it, the thread that was close to breaking inside her. She stepped toward the door. “It’s late. We can talk in the morning. Better you get some sleep so you have a clear head as all of this unfolds.”

      And then she was gone, her exotic perfume wafting through the air. Alex’s mouth trembled as she shut the door. She stood, leaning against it, every muscle, fiber, of her body shredded, spent.

      As all of this unfolds. She was terribly afraid of the chain of events she had set into play tonight. A force she couldn’t retrieve. That in needing to know her father, by taking a risk that was so totally outside of her nature, she had not only СКАЧАТЬ