Men In Uniform: Captivated By The Prince. Lynn Raye Harris

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      ‘I know it isn’t the usual huge and very valuable stone,’ he began, ‘and perhaps it isn’t the type of thing you might have been expecting. But this ring has a provenance that no other piece of jewellery can boast.’

      It might have been made for her, Emily realised as he settled it on her finger. Dainty ropes of rubies and pearls wound around the circumference with a ruby heart as the centrepiece of the design. ‘Tell me about it,’ she repeated.

      ‘There was a Prince of Ferara named Rodrigo,’ Alessandro began. ‘He fell in love with a beautiful young girl called Caterina. Rodrigo had this ring made for her…’

      As his voice stroked her senses Emily tried to remain detached and remind herself that Alessandro was only telling her a story. But it wasn’t easy when her mind was awash with alternative images.

      ‘On his way to ask for Caterina’s hand in marriage, Rodrigo’s horse shied, throwing him unconscious into the lake. Robbed of her one true love, Caterina decided to join a religious order.’

      Emily tensed as Alessandro switched his attention abruptly to her face. ‘What happened to her?’ she asked quickly, full of the irrational fear that he could read her mind and know it was full of him rather than the characters he was telling her about.

      ‘Caterina’s horse shied on the way to the convent,’ he said casually, the expression in his eyes concealed beneath a fringe of black lashes. ‘When she recovered consciousness this ring was right there by her side.’

      The ruby heart seemed to flare a response, making Emily gasp involuntarily.

      ‘So, did she join the religious order?’

      ‘She couldn’t.’

      ‘Couldn’t?’

      ‘That’s right.’

      ‘Why not?’

      ‘I should take you home now, if you are to have an early night before your flight to Ferara tomorrow,’ he said restlessly, as if he wished he had never started the story. ‘I have another business meeting in about—’ He frowned as he glanced at his wristwatch. ‘About ten minutes ago.’

      All the romance…all the tenderness…had vanished from his voice as if it had never been. Of course it had never been, Emily thought, angry for allowing herself to get carried away. Alessandro’s fairy story was just part of the play-acting they were both forced to endure…and the ring was just another prop.

      ‘I’ll take good care of it,’ she said, closing her fist around the jewel-encrusted band.

      ‘I’m sure you will,’ he murmured as he straightened up. ‘Shall we go?’

      It was an instruction, not a question, Emily realised. ‘You don’t have to see me home,’ she said quickly. ‘I’ve made you late enough already.’

      ‘I’m taking you back,’ he insisted in the same quiet determined tone that made it impossible to argue with him.

      Alessandro left her at the door to her apartment, refusing yet another invitation to cross the threshold. ‘Li vedro in Ferara, Emily,’ he said, waiting until she had closed the door.

      ‘Yes. See you in Ferara, Alessandro,’ Emily confirmed softly, turning away from him to face the empty room.

       CHAPTER FIVE

      IT SEEMED to Emily that everyone in Ferara had cause to celebrate apart from the main characters in the drama that was about to unfold.

      From one of the windows in the turret of the huge suite she had been given for her few remaining days as a single woman she had a good view of the cobbled thoroughfare outside the palace walls. Bunting and banners in the distinctive Feraran colours of crimson, blue and gold hung in colourful swathes across the street, along with numerous posters of the soon to be married couple…Emily Weston and Prince Alessandro Bussoni Ferara. Es and As, intertwined.

      For once Emily was forced to agree with her mother. It hardly seemed possible!

      She had been awake since dawn, when all the unfamiliar sounds of a new day in Ferara had intruded upon her slumbers. Only then had she begun to drink in the unaccustomed luxury of her new surroundings—and with something closer to dread than exhilaration. The setting was everything she might have dreamed about—if she’d been a dreamer. One thing she had not anticipated was how it might feel to be set adrift in a palace that, however fabulous, was full of endless echoing corridors where everyone but she seemed to know exactly what was expected of them.

      Ferara, at least, was far lovelier than she had ever dared to expect. On the drive from the airport the countryside that had unrolled before her had been picture-postcard perfect. A landscape of lilac hills shrouded in mist, some crowned with quaint medieval villages shielding fields cloaked in vines, and clusters of cypress trees standing on sentry duty against a flawless azure sky.

      The Palace of Ferara was constructed around a sixth century Byzantine tower, and seemed from a distance to be balanced perilously on the very edge of a towering chalky-white cliff face. Rising out of the low cloud cover as they had approached by road, both palace and cliff had appeared to be suspended magically in the air. But as they’d drawn closer Emily had seen that the stone palace was both vast and set firm on towering foundations.

      No wonder a Princess of Ferara needed so many clothes, she mused as she retraced in her mind those parts of the palace she had already been shown. The sheer number of rooms was overwhelming.

      Tossing back the crisp, lavender-scented sheets, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and headed towards the glass-paned doors leading onto her balcony. Even in the early-morning sunshine the mellow stone already felt warm beneath her naked feet. Staring out across the city, she felt like an excited child, monitoring the progress of some promised treat…Except that she wasn’t a child any longer, Emily reminded herself, pulling back. She would have to be totally insensitive not to realise that the people of Ferara had high hopes for this marriage, and all she had to offer them was a sham.

      She dragged her thoughts from harsh reality and they turned inevitably to Alessandro, and how long his business would keep him from Ferara. The best she could expect was that he would turn up for their wedding. Then they would get on with their own lives—separately. She would stay on in Ferara, of course, and act out her part as promised. But what did Alessandro have planned? Would she see him at all?

      Shaking her head, as if to rid herself of pointless speculation, she reached for the telephone and dialled an internal line. After several rings she remembered that Miranda and her parents would probably have already left for their promised tour of Ferara.

      So, what did a ‘soon to be’ princess do in her spare time? Ring the office, she told herself, trying another number.

      ‘Force of habit,’ she explained to the uncharacteristically bewildered Clerk of Chambers who normally organised her working life with unfailing efficiency. ‘Yes, OK, Billy. See you at the wedding then.’

      She tried to hang on to the familiar voice in her mind, but when she replaced the receiver the room seemed to have grown larger and even emptier than before she placed the call.

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