Invitation to the Prince's Palace (9 page)

And then he stripped out of the equipment he’d commandeered, took Mel once again by the arm, and started down the mountain with her.

Mel walked at his side. ‘I’m so glad you knew what to do up there. I’d like to see you do that properly one day, with all the right equipment, because I think you would be amazing at it.’

* * *

I’d like to see you do that properly one day…

Melanie’s words rang in Rik’s ears as he put his Italian sports car through its paces on the way to his mountain retreat home.

Her words were a salve to the anger he’d bitten back over the stupidity of those two men. Had they
wanted
to get themselves killed? The other one, when questioned, had said he was waiting for his turn to go out ‘alone’ and that ice rappelling was ‘easy, man’.

The man had been so far gone that he hadn’t even comprehended the danger his friend was in. Well, they were both safe now.

Rik let the thoughts go and turned his attention to his driving. He’d held back until he reached the private road that led to his home. This road, he knew better than the back of his hand, every turn, just how much he could give behind the wheel to release the pent-up energy that came from that stressful rappel in someone else’s untested equipment. He’d needed this.

* * *

He’s going too fast.
Mel couldn’t get the thought out of her head. Her logical mind understood that Rik had control of the car. It was clear he knew this road well. The road itself was wide with plenty of room for dual traffic and yet it was a private road. They hadn’t seen any other cars and she guessed they were quite unlikely to do so.

All of this made infinite sense. The paralysing fear inside Mel did not make sense. Her fingers curled into the edges of her seat. Her heart pounded with a mixture of apprehension and the need to get out of this situation at any cost.

‘Please stop.’ The words whispered through her clenched teeth, whispered so quietly that she didn’t know how Rik could have heard them.

All Mel knew was that she wanted out of this car. Now.

‘Melanie.’ A voice tinged with remorse broke through her fear. The car began immediately to slow and Rik said, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you were uncomfortable.’

It’s all right. I’m fine. There’s no need to slow down or stop.

In her mind, Mel entertained these polite thoughts. But her instincts were in a very different place. She struggled to breathe normally, to not throw her door open and try to get out. The reaction was so intense and so deep that it completely unnerved her. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think clearly, didn’t know what to say to him, didn’t understand why she had ended up feeling like this.

Within moments the car moved much more slowly and fingers wrapped firmly around the hand nearest to him. ‘Do you need me to stop the car completely, Melanie? My house is less than a minute away and I’d rather get you there if possible.’

The roaring in her ears started to recede but Mel was still a long way from calm. Her fingers tightened around his. ‘I don’t know what came over me. I feel stupid for the way I’ve reacted.’

‘You are certainly not stupid.’ Rik spoke these words softly as he drew the car to a stop in front of his mountain home. The place was maintained for him, but did not have permanent staff. They would be alone here, and he was glad for that now to give Melanie a chance to recover.

Whatever had happened during the trip had affected her deeply, and he felt she would benefit from space and not having to deal with anyone new just for the moment.

Had the panic come on because of all the pressure he’d put on her? It was a lot to ask a woman to become his temporary princess, to work with him to fool his father into believing the marriage was intended to last a lifetime.

It was a lot for her to find herself here under confused circumstances let alone the pressure Rik had added to that load for her.

You must take care of her. Give her time to calm down.

He got out of the car, opened her door for her and took her hand to help her out. His home was chalet-style, built of log and with a sharply pitched roof. Large windows gave beautiful views from every part of the home and were one-way tinted for privacy. Rik doubted that Melanie noticed any of it. Her face was sheet-white and the hand he held within his trembled.

‘Let me get you a hot drink, Melanie.’ He led her inside and to a comfortable leather sofa in the living room.

‘Thank you. It is a bit chilly, isn’t it?’ Melanie sank onto the sofa and didn’t argue about who should be preparing the beverages.

Rik didn’t waste time, and quickly returned with coffee for both of them. He took his seat beside her. ‘This will take the chill away.’

The rooms were centrally heated, but she’d clearly had a shock. It would take time for her body to return to a normal temperature.

Rik had brought that shock about. He had put too much on her. Bringing her to Braston with her waking up from a long sleep to discover she was in the middle of Europe instead of in Sydney. He’d asked her to replace her cousin and briefly marry him. Had piled all the worries about the country onto her, and then had left her to cope with her concern for him while he rappelled onto an icy cliff in dangerous circumstances to deal with a man who didn’t want to hear reason, and another who could have added more trouble to the mix.

To cap it off, Rik had come up here to get away from things, and the speed of his driving had frightened her enough that she hadn’t been able to even tell him what was wrong.

As Melanie sipped her coffee and colour began to come back into her face Rik set his drink down and turned to her. ‘I am sorry that you were afraid during the drive up here.’

‘You weren’t to know that I would react like that. I didn’t know it myself.’ She forced her gaze about the room before meeting his eyes. For the first time since leaving the car, she seemed to see her surroundings.

Maybe that, too, helped her, because she said valiantly, ‘It was worth the trip. This is a lovely home and the views are amazing. And I feel much better. I’m sure I won’t have that kind of problem again.’

‘I am pleased that you’re starting to feel better. What happened to you? Do car trips always make you uneasy?’

Back in Australia, she’d checked when he collected her from outside Nicolette’s home that he felt fresh enough to drive. Rik hadn’t thought anything of it.

‘That’s the first time I’ve been in a sports car. They go very fast.’ As she seemed to consider what had happened she frowned. ‘I don’t understand this myself. I don’t drive, but I’m not usually the type to panic unnecessarily, and with hindsight I
know
that you had control of what you were doing.

‘I’m just sorry that I spoiled the drive for you,’ she said. ‘You obviously needed an outlet after dealing with those two foolish men and keeping your calm so well, both before and after.’

Rik
had
needed that outlet. Sometimes keeping his cool came at a cost to his blood pressure!

‘I felt like telling them off myself for being so stupid,’ she added hotly, ‘and I wasn’t the one who had to risk life and limb to go out and stop that first man from falling to his death!’

Maybe if she learned to drive herself, she might feel better informed and more confident to assess the skill of other drivers when they were behind the wheel.

They were side by side on the sofa, and Rik became very conscious of that as they fell silent and gave their attention to their drinks.

After a moment, she spoke with a slight teasing tone in her voice. ‘You make very good coffee. Is it allowed, for a prince of the realm to do such tasks as make coffee?’

‘And do them well?’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I think in today’s world it is, and I would go hungry and thirsty up here if it weren’t.’

She was a plucky girl. Resilient. The thoughts came to Rik and lodged. He couldn’t help but admire her for that.

‘Do you think I could have a tour while we’re here?’ she asked. ‘I’d love to see the rest of your home.’

‘Absolutely.’ Rik got to his feet and held out his hand to help Melanie rise.

He was getting in the habit of that, of reaching for her hand far too often…

But you will need to do things like that to make the upcoming marriage plans seem realistic to your father.

Even though Georgio would not expect it to be a love match, he would still expect such demonstrations.

‘The meeting with my father has not yet been arranged. I think it can wait for a little longer yet.’ Rik drew a breath. ‘I’d like some time to restore a better mood before I tackle that talk, to be honest.’

‘Then I’m glad I asked for the tour.’ Mel melted the moment Rik confessed his need to prepare for the talk with his father. And she truly did feel so much better now. ‘We can stay here as long as you want. It’s a beautiful place.’

Rik was good company and they’d just sort of got engaged, so why shouldn’t they stay here for a bit, if they wanted to? She could use the time to ask a few questions about how they would work their way through the next few months, too.

‘I’ll need a wedding dress.’ Visions of past royal marriages scrolled through her mind. ‘Something very simple that won’t cost the earth.’ She turned to Rik. ‘How do we pull off a wedding in a month?’

‘With a really good wedding planner, and, as you’ve already realised, with the most simplified plans possible.’ He started towards the rear of the house and said firmly, ‘Now let me show you the rest of my retreat, and all the views. I think they’re worth seeing.’

They were, and Mel looked out of floor-length windows at some very lovely scenery before Rik toured her through the rest of his home. It was surprisingly humble. Well, not humble. It was a delightful four-bedroom chalet-style home but it certainly wasn’t, well, a palace.

‘I love this place,’ she blurted. ‘If it was me I’d be up here all the time. Normal-sized rooms, calm atmosphere, no one to tell you what to do.’

‘You’ve just worked out the secrets of my attraction to this home.’ He smiled and led her into the final room.

It was an office, with a desk and computer and shelves of books about… ‘Oh. Can I look at some of those? Do you have ones that show what the truffles look like when they’re harvested? History books? Anything about the
royal
truffles? Cooking? The growth process from beginning to end and the uses of truffle hogs?’

‘Yes to all of that. And I trained Rufusina under the tutelage of Winnow. There is a photo album.’ Rik brought out the photo album and a selection of books and before Mel knew it she was nose down in some gorgeous pictures, and some very interesting information. He didn’t have cookbooks, but he told her that some of the old recipes were still produced at the palace and described some of the dishes.

‘Truffled turkey. I’d like to cook that.’ Mel thought back through her cooking career. ‘The closest I’ve come to cooking with truffles is using truffle-flavoured oil a few times.’

Rik’s brows lifted. ‘You had a career as a cook?’

‘Yes, working for my aunt and uncle.’ Mel glanced at him through her lashes. She’d thought he would have known that already.

They were seated with her on the swivel chair, and him leaning back against the corner of the desk in his office. It wasn’t a large room, and as she let herself register the cosiness, his closeness, Mel suddenly became breathless. ‘I cooked for them for years. Cakes and desserts were my speciality, but I cooked all the meals, including for dinner parties. They liked to schmooze wealthy—’

She coughed and turned her attention back to the books. ‘These are wonderful resources. It’s an intricate industry. You’ve done well to get the black truffles growing commercially here.’

‘Not so well in the past two years.’ Rik glanced up and towards the windows.

The frown that came to his face made Mel follow his glance.

She hadn’t noticed the change in atmosphere, but now she saw it. ‘I didn’t know it had started snowing.’

‘Yes.’ He got up from the desk. ‘Why don’t you select what books you’d like to bring back to the palace when we return, while I see what’s in the kitchen that we can have for our lunch?’

Not that Mel minded either way and it wasn’t as though Rik were trying to trap her into spending time with him here. He’d probably enjoy the time away from the palace while he could, but would have been just as content to be up here by himself.

Something in his expression still made her ask. ‘How long do you think it will snow?’

CHAPTER SIX

I
T SNOWED
all that day. When darkness fell, Rik closed the curtains throughout his chalet home and turned to face Mel.

While Rik appeared completely calm Mel couldn’t say the same. She stood rather uncertainly in the middle of the living room.

With the prince. Up here in his chalet where he’d just made the decision that they wouldn’t be leaving until morning. So they would be here. All alone. Together. For all that time.

‘It won’t matter too much?’ She asked the question in a deliberately businesslike tone that somehow managed to emerge sounding chatty and confiding and breathless all at once. Mel forged on. ‘That you can’t get back tonight, I mean?’

Even despite the tone, Mel would have said she did well, that the question was at least focused on whether he might have problems because he couldn’t attend to duties at the palace tonight.

Yes. That was a good way to put it. ‘Your duties—?’ Really, she felt quite relaxed about this whole situation.

After all they were just staying in a different location for a night. She’d slept in a bedroom within Rik’s suite of rooms last night, which was rather intimate when you thought about it, and that hadn’t bothered her.

Not even when you leapt out of bed the next morning because you could hear him speaking just outside your closed door? Because you wanted to get through the shower and look your best for him before he saw you? Because you hadn’t been entirely certain whether he’d pulled the covers over you the night before when you might not have looked your best?