Courted: Gowns & Crowns, Book 1 (33 page)

She said these last words with heavy finality, nodding graciously as she finished, and he could sense her pulling away from him, feel her turning to look for the van, the cab, even a donkey that might carry her away from all the scrutiny once more—away from him.

Except he couldn’t let her go. It had all come down to this, and he could now, at last, see his future stretching out for him. A future not of battles and glory, perhaps, but a future that filled him with excitement just the same.

He laid a hand on her arm as she tried to move away. “There is…one more thing, Emmaline.”

Chapter 23

Emmaline blinked at Kristos, her inner resolve crumbling. Did he have any idea how close she was to bursting into tears? She hadn’t realized what she was doing, walking up here. Now just standing next to him was almost more than she could bear.

Nevertheless, she forced herself to remain still as Kristos turned to her, his face achingly gorgeous, his golden eyes intent. And then she realized that the cameras were still on him, on both of them, and she forgave him in an instant. Because if there was a video of this somewhere, which surely there would be, it would be one more memento of him. One more gift.

One more memory of when, for the briefest, most magical, and most insane of times, she’d been a real-live princess.

“Emmaline,” he said, and his voice wobbled in a way she’d never heard before. She tried not to frown, but his eyes suddenly looked almost desperate too, the conflict of emotions clear on his beautiful face.

What was wrong? What was upsetting him so?

She almost asked him outright, but he picked up her hands in his and held them together, his eyes intent on hers. “Emmaline, I am in love with you.”

The gasp that swept the crowd was loud and instantaneous, and Emmaline knew she echoed it. Her jaw dropped, and she could tell that she had tried to pull away from Kristos without realizing it, simply by the strength of his tightening hands on hers. “It’s possible I fell in love with you the first time I saw you, but ever since that moment, I’ve simply fallen deeper. Your beauty, your music, and your kind heart have made you more of a princess than anyone I’ve ever met in my life. I would be honored if you would be my princess too.”

She blinked at him, then froze as his words caught up to her, her eyes going wide.

“Kristos!” she said, the word wrung from her as if it was bursting out of her heart. “What are you saying?” Her mind raced to find a way to explain away his bizarre words, his completely unexpected declaration.

His face was infinitely tender, as if there was no one in the courtyard besides the two of them, no one watching but the bright Garronia sun. “I’m saying that I love you, Emmaline,” he said, bringing her hands to his lips. “And that I hope you love me. In fact I hope that you’ll—at least consider—something more between us. Perhaps much more.”

“Of course, I…Kristos?” Emmaline gaped as Kristos sank to one knee, his left hand still grasping hers as he used his right hand to pluck off one of the official-looking emblems on his uniform, holding it up to catch the sunlight. “I regret that I am ill-prepared for this moment, but I can’t wait any longer to ask this. So please accept this as my promise for now.”

He placed the tiny pin into her palm, his touch calm and reassuring even as her entire body trembled. “Emmaline Aurora Grace Andrews, you will always be my princess.” Kristos’s words seem to ring out in the courtyard, and it suddenly felt like the whole world was holding its breath. “Will you also marry me?”

“But what, what are you—” Suddenly realizing that the time for explanations was not now, that now was only for words—one word in particular, one word that she never expected to be able to say, not and mean it like this, with her whole heart and soul, and with every fiber of her being. “Yes!” Emmaline gasped. “Yes, Kristos, yes, I will.”

Kristos closed Emmaline’s fingers over the military pin, though her hand shook so badly that he suspected she’d lose the thing any moment. He stood and fumbled for his mic, turning it off as a roar of approval and excitement went up all around them.

Emmaline just stared at him as he stood. “Could you possibly explain to me what just happened?”

“For the rest of my life.”

She blinked, and a renewed rush of emotions swept over her face. She didn’t believe him, he realized. She thought this was another stunt, another step in the process needed to extricate herself from Garronia. But her expression when he’d proposed—her eyes… There had been no mistaking her reaction to him then. Her mind might not be willing to believe what had taken place between them, but her heart had.

Still, Emmaline clutched his hands, turning her face resolutely forward to the crowd with a smile before he leaned into her. “We’ll need to go greet my parents. And I almost certainly need to apologize to yours.”

“My—oh—” Emmaline blinked at him. “My parents are never going to believe this.”

“Then we should start explaining it to them.”

He turned and called an order, and it was Dimitri, of course, who took it. Dimitri who grinned fiercely at him, then turned away to commandeer the Crown’s communications tech. Then Kristos glanced back to Emmaline’s wide eyes, wanting more than anything to kiss her again. She was his. Or at least, she had the promise to be his. It was enough for the moment. There would be time for them to discuss the reality of what he had just proposed. The requirements of the Crown, Emmaline’s own true desires. There would be time for them to learn more about each other as people from two very different worlds. For now, he had only his heart to trust. And that was more than enough.

Emmaline’s natural caution surged to the fore, of course. As he knew it would, though he loved her all the more for it. “Kristos, even if you did finally read that dossier on me, you don’t know me at all. We just met this week.” She sounded like the words were being yanked out of her with pliers, but she pushed forward doggedly. “I am honored—truly honored—if this is what you want, but how can you know that? You didn’t know I existed before you ran into me on the beach.”

“I’m thinking of renaming that beach.”

“That is not the point!” She brought her head up, desperation and confusion and that same deep well of sadness behind her determined eyes. “This isn’t a decision you can rush into, you more than anyone. It’s a decision that will affect your entire life! Your future—your people… You’ve known me three days!”

“Five, technically,” he said. “I understand your confusion. I have often been told that time seems to pass more swiftly when I’m around.”

Emmaline blinked at him, apparently shocked that he could joke at such a momentous time. And in truth, he should be as startled as she was, should be as nervous and unsure.

But he wasn’t. Not in the slightest.

“I kept coming back to you,
koukla mou
. I couldn’t stay away. From the first time I met you, you seemed to draw me into your sway. I could no more stop touching you than I could stop breathing. I want to share your life with you, to listen to your music—and for you to pursue that music, however you wish to pursue it …whether that’s back in your American university, or in any concert hall in the world, as long as you always return to me. At this point, I don’t think I could bear this life without you.”

“But that’s… You’re not considering everything. I need to make a list.”

He smiled. “Then put this on it. When I saw you in the sea, fighting against the current, it was not my obligation to go and retrieve you—it was my right. When I saw you in the Visitors’ Palace, it was not my job to find you, to pull you into my arms once more—it was my duty. Not to my country, but to myself. If I hadn’t taken you away from your hotel and into the mountains, I would never have forgiven myself. I would have snuffed out the one light that has ever shone brightly for me. I would have lost my guiding star.”

“But,
Kristos
.”

“Emmaline.” His words were firm enough that she glanced up to meet his gaze, her face seemingly transfixed for a moment, the two of them caught in time. “You said it once, but I need to hear again, before we take another step. Do you love me?”

Her eyes widened, but she nodded without hesitation. “Yes, I love you. I do.”

“And when did you start loving me?” Somehow, he’d managed to edge closer to her, the tide of photographers forgotten, the shouted questions, their urgent cries merely part of the backdrop now, falling away.

“I—I don’t know,” Emmaline said, biting her lip. “You weren’t there, and then you were. In front of me, in the center of my mind. Like you’d been there all the time.” She waved a hand nervously. “When you talked about your love for your country. Your dedication to your fellow soldiers, I loved you then. And I loved you when you laughed and raced down that mountain in that ridiculous—that ridiculous jeep…” She tried to laugh, but it sounded more like a sob. “And when I saw you for the first time, when you practically knocked me over. I probably fell in love with you then too.”

“So many times you have fallen in love with me, and we have only just met.”

“I know, but—” Emmaline sighed, and tears did slip down her face now, though her smile was tremulous, vulnerable. “That’s different. I’ve been making up impossible stories for most of my life.”

He leaned forward to kiss her in earnest, ignoring the renewed cheer that sounded around the courtyard. “And I have been waiting for you just as long.”

Emmaline allowed Kristos to steer her toward the side, and suddenly there was a man in front of her with an enormous headset, smiling kindly as he slipped it over her hair, then adjusted the mouthpiece in both hands. “Your father!” he shouted as she stared at him, and Emmaline blinked at him.

How is that possible?
“Dad?”

“We can hear you!” Her father spoke but he was shouting, and Emmaline heard the sound of clapping, and knew her mother must also be on the line. She couldn’t stop her tears from falling then. Someone pushed a soft white cloth in her hand, and she nodded, the only action she could manage for a moment when no words would come. Her father shouted again into her continued silence. “Are you okay?”

“Yes—Yes!” Emmaline said quickly. “Ah…did they tell you? Do you know what just happened?”

“You just got
proposed
to is all I could make out,” her father said gruffly. “Some woman who said her name was Catherine told us.” He hesitated. “Those people over there are hard to understand, Em.”

“I know.” She half choked on the words, caught between laughter and tears. “You get used to it.”

“Well, your mother heard the word ‘wedding,’ and she hasn’t stopped smiling.” His voice broke a little, and Em felt another surge of waterworks threaten. “So I guess we’ll figure everything out eventually. But I understand from whoever that woman is who just spoke to us, your young man loves you very much, and that…” He sighed again. “Well, that’s really all any of us needs.”

They spoke a few moments more, then said their good-byes, Em promising to call again as soon as she could, and it was only with great effort she pulled the headset from her hair, her hands spasming on it as if she could touch her mother’s hand across all those miles.

“Emmaline.” The word was rich and full of joy, and Em turned in Kristos’s embrace to see Queen Catherine before her now, holding out her hands. Em stepped out of Kristos’s arms and placed her own hands into the queen’s, reassured by their strong grip.

“I—I guess I don’t really know what to say.”

“Kristos was never one to wait when there was the opportunity to rush in full tilt. But in this case, I couldn’t be happier for his haste—though perhaps his sense of decorum could use some work. It was clear to everyone that you didn’t see this coming.”

Em’s eyes widened a little, her stomach tightening in concern. “Was that bad?”

“Bad?” Catherine shook her head. “It was probably the best reality TV stunt never scripted. If only we’d lined up advertisers beforehand, we could have made enough money to fund Garronia into the next century.” She frowned at Kristos. “Still, I hope you don’t plan on making such a public spectacle of your life going forward.”