Prince Charming (24 page)

She looked sharply at him. He gave her a regretful smile, a trace of calculation in his ice-green eyes.

“They can dissolve the marriage, Lady Daniela, and they will. Believe me, they have the power.”

“But you don’t understand, I owe Rafael. He spared my life and freed my friends! I gave him my word. I can’t go back on it.”

“If you owe him, all the more reason to refuse him. Marry Rafael, and you wreck his life. Is that what you want?”

“Of course not. Why do you people treat him like a child? He’s a grown man and I’m the one he wants!” she cried, more plaintively than she had intended.

There was a silence. Orlando’s steady, pitying gaze seemed to ask,
Then why is he right now with Chloe Sinclair?

“My dear child,” he said at length, “I hate to see you get hurt. You’re so young. It really is unscrupulous of him.”

Her mouth quivered with hurt. “What do you mean?”

He shook his head. “I’ve seen him do this thirty, forty times. These affairs of his last a week, maybe a fortnight. Come, surely you’ve heard about his reputation.”

“It’s just talk,” she attempted.

“No, it’s not,” he said sadly. “It always starts out as though he has found the love of his life. Expensive gifts, pretty compliments, smooth talk. Seduction. And then he gets bored, I’m afraid. Chloe Sinclair is the only one who has been able to hold his interest for more than a month, and I think we can both guess why. You’re not like that,” he said, his gaze and his tone both softening. “You deserve better than that. Don’t allow yourself to be dazzled or you will end up looking the fool. He may be the crown prince, he may be my cousin, but as I am a gentleman, I’ll stand here and tell you, Lady Daniela, that when it comes to women, Rafael di Fiore is a cad. Surely this is not news to you. He gets away with everything because he knows how to draw women in. You’ll be under his thumb before you know what happened to you, and by then he’ll be on to some new plaything.”

She stared at him, holding back tears by sheer dint of will. Every word he’d spoken came as though he’d read it verbatim from a diary of her secret fears. A lump was forming in her throat as Orlando added, “I hate to be the one to break the news, but I think it’s safe to say you are just another of his whims. I’m sorry.”

She shook her head briefly and turned away, her heart pounding. She felt sick to the pit of her stomach. She had known. Oh, she had known he was too good to be true.

“I’m afraid there’s more,” Orlando said gently, opening the document box.

In sudden revulsion, she half-feared it contained bribe money to make her agree to give Rafael up, the final insult to her pride, but when he nodded for her to look inside, instead she saw five small portraits of young women. “Who are they?”

“These are the young ladies from among whom the prince was ordered to choose his bride.” He went on to describe briefly the bargain King Lazar had struck with his son, giving him the helm of Ascencion during his absence in exchange for Rafael’s promise to settle on one of the girls in the portraits. “This is the main reason I believe Rafe will be disinherited if he marries you,” Orlando said soberly. “He didn’t like his father ordering him to marry—taking away his freedom. Nor did his pride like it that these girls had already been selected without anyone consulting him. You see, I fear he is marrying you as a slap in the face to the king.”

“Oh, God,” she whispered in horrified shock. She lowered her head and shut her eyes, hating herself in that moment for her provincial naïveté.

What a stupid fool she was, walking right into that rake’s silky trap. How could she have thought that a golden god like Prince Rafael would want a scrawny red-headed tomboy like her—a criminal—when he had nearly half a dozen princesses to choose from for his wife and Chloe Sinclair for his lover? How could she have failed to see at once that his sole intention was to shock the world and infuriate His Majesty?

He had only been pretending last night, she realized. God, what a fool she had been, playing right into his hands! She shuddered at the thought of the liberties she had allowed him to take with her person, all against her better judgment. She had trusted him last night, body and soul, and he had been toying with her all along, the same way he had been toying with her the night of the ball when he had ordered his friends to procure her for his lecherous amusement.

What a hypocrite he was, extracting her promise of honesty in the jail when, meanwhile, he had been standing there lying to her about his own true motives.

I hate him,
she thought. She suddenly missed Mateo desperately, her one true steady friend. She missed Grandpapa and she wanted to go home.

“I have no doubt that in the king’s eyes, Rafe’s marrying you will be the last straw,” Orlando went on. “The throne will go to Leo. What will become of Rafe, I don’t know. What will become of Ascencion, however, that is the real question.”

Dani lifted her head, opening her eyes again. She crossed her arms over her chest, roiling with terrible hurt and fury as she stared out over the city. “If Rafael is such a despicable cad that he would do this to his father and to me, why do you want to see him ascend to the throne anyway? Maybe he doesn’t deserve it.”

“He has been trained all his life to be king. He’s not incompetent, he just lacks maturity. Hopefully, that will come in time. Besides, the only option is Prince Leo, who is but ten years old. A minor on the throne jeopardizes the stability of a country.”

She closed her eyes, struggling to think over the chaos of her emotions. “I don’t know what I am to do, Your Grace. I can’t simply refuse him. My friends are still in custody. If I go back on my word, Rafael will be furious. God knows, I don’t want to marry such a cad or bring down King Lazar’s fury on myself, but if I refuse him now, he could still send the Gabbiano brothers to the gallows. Even when they move to Naples, they will be watched, at least for a time.”

“That’s true. Well,” he said, drawing a deep breath, “considering that the wedding is to take place tomorrow, maybe it is too late to call it off. Perhaps our only hope at this point is to procure an annulment when the king and queen return.”

She glanced at him uncertainly.

“Do you understand what is required to obtain an annulment?” he asked in a delicate tone.

She shook her head.

“It means you must not…yield yourself to him. If the prince gets you with child…well, there is nothing more dismal than a king’s unwanted bastard,” he said in a low, rather bitter voice.

“I understand.” She looked away. That much of it was cause for relief, she thought, staring with a downward, dispirited gaze at her hands lying limply on the railing. Vulnerable hurt throbbed in her, but at least now she needn’t worry about dying in childbirth.

A few moments passed in silence. Dani glanced over her shoulder toward the hallway to see if Rafael had come back yet from his tête-à-tête with Chloe Sinclair. It would not do for him to see Orlando and her together, lest he suspect something.

“I confess, I didn’t know what to expect from a female highwayman,” the Florentine duke remarked. She looked over and found Orlando watching her. “Perhaps by law you should have gone to the gallows,” he murmured as he reached out and brushed his knuckle down the curve of her cheek. “Still, you are quite a find.”

She pulled away with a scarlet blush, confused by his improper caress.

“Give him up when the time comes, and I’ll make it my business to protect you from the king and queen’s wrath. Your willingness to lay no claim on Rafael will help me bargain with Their Majesties for your freedom. I can see to it that you are granted immunity for your crimes. If, at that time, you are still pure, well…”—he gave her a cool, enigmatic smile—“perhaps you and I can reach an arrangement of our own.”

“Don’t be indecent,” she forced out, shocked by his proposition. “When Rafael and I are married, you will be my kinsman, too.”

He slid her a dark, knowing smile, locked the document box, and walked away.

“
How
can you think to attach yourself to that scrawny little country wench?” Chloe spat, her blue eyes narrowed and cold. She paced back and forth across the salon, her gauzy gown swirling around her legs. “Do you really think
she
can satisfy you? Well, let me tell you, loverboy, the thrill will soon wear off! She’s just like the rest of them. She’s going to bore you out of your skull, and you’re going to come crawling back to me—but when you do, all you’re going to get is a door slammed in your face! Do you think I need you? I can have any man that I want!”

Rafe sighed.

“I can!” she shouted, taking another enraged step toward him. “Anyone! Nic, Orlando, even the king if I want him!”

“For God’s sake, have a little decency,” he muttered, unimpressed by her threats.

She trilled a brutal, nervous laugh. “Does that scare you, Rafie? Afraid I’ll have more fun in your papa’s bed? I’m sure I would. He’s still as virile as a stallion. The king is a
real
man, not like you.”

“And in thirty years of marriage, he has never once cheated on my mother. Pretty as you are, Chloe, I don’t think he’s going to break his record for you.”

She sneered at him. “You little mama’s boy. I should seduce him just to spite you. I’d wager he needs a good lay, because the queen’s nothing but a tired old hag.”

She would insult his mother now? he thought, checking his anger. “Ah, what a shame you think so, for Her Majesty has such a high opinion of you,” he said lightly.

His sarcasm flustered Chloe only for a heartbeat. “I know your mother hates me. She hates every woman who tries to get near you.”

He shrugged. “She’s merely a superior judge of character.”

“And you’re still tied to her apron strings! Maybe I’ll take Orlando instead. What do you say to that?” she flung at him.

“Sleep with the gardener if it soothes your vanity, my dear, I’m sure I don’t give a damn. It’s not as though you were chaste when I met you.”

“Bastard!” she hissed, but to Rafe’s surprise, she still didn’t throw her dalliance with Adriano in his face.

He knew something had been going on between his old boyhood friend and his mistress for some time, not that he particularly cared. He’d have to be blind not to notice. At nearly every social event, Chloe and Adriano could be found snickering together, making nasty remarks about people to each other behind their hands. The stunning pair were inseparable, constantly clinging to each other, doting on each other in a way that appeared mere abundant affection, but which Rafe had rather indifferently assumed was more.

“Maybe I will,” she went on. “Your cousin is
so
handsome and I hear he really knows how to satisfy a woman—”

“Frankly, I don’t care whom you take to your bed, so long as you understand that you are no longer welcome in mine,” he said sharply, out of patience with her.

She flinched, then fell silent, staring at him in reproach.

“You’ll bore of her,” she promised bitterly, then turned her back on him and walked over to the striped couch, where she sat. She crossed her arms under her sumptuous breasts, exhibiting them to best advantage, and glared straight ahead with a furious pout on her pretty lips, ignoring Rafe—or pretending to ignore him.

He stood by the window rubbing his temples. All her screaming had given him a headache, or perhaps it had been the sheer savagery of her attack.

You’ll bore of her.
Hell, maybe she was right, for all he knew. Half an hour ago, when Chloe had stopped him in the hall and stiffly asked to talk to him, he had walked into the salon full of resolution to end his affair with her before marrying Daniela.

But from the moment he’d stepped into the room, he had received an education on why and how exactly Chloe Sinclair alone had managed to hold him for four months. The reason, he had discovered, was that she knew exactly what to say and do to maneuver him however she liked. Though her manipulation was transparent, the fears she wielded against him were real. From the moment he had shut the door, she had played on his self-doubt like a spoiled child banging on the same key of a harpsichord, over and over again.

She’s using you. It’s obvious. You don’t even know her. She’d promise you anything to save her neck—and gain a crown for good measure! You’re so stupid, Rafe! You can’t trust her. What makes you think this girl is any different from the others? You’ll be bored of her in a fortnight.

Maybe Chloe was right. He was already deep in the redhead’s power. He marveled, chilled now to think of the things he had revealed to her last night about his deepest fears. She could use any of that against him. Maybe he had thrown himself into this rashly and too fast. How could he ever really trust his own judgment when he had blundered so often in the past?

But he had made public his intention to marry Daniela. He had declared it before the council, and marry her he would. To back out now would be to lose face entirely.

He looked over, jarred from his tangled thoughts, when he heard a sniffle. His heart sank, seeing that Chloe had started to cry.

She lowered her head and rested her fingers on the bridge of her nose, two teardrops spilling in unison down her cheeks, on cue. “Why do you make me say such ugly things? I hate you. I love you. I only want to make you happy.”

He stared at her, knowing he was being manipulated by the tears, but helpless all the same. He couldn’t stand to see a woman cry—and Chloe knew it. She probably even believed that she loved him, but he had long since known that the only person in Chloe’s world was Chloe. Still, he felt miserably sorry for hurting her.

When she sobbed again, he walked over to her, crouched down next to the couch where she sat, and wordlessly handed her his monogrammed handkerchief.

She took it and dabbed at her tears.

God, what am I doing?
he wondered heavily, suppressing a sigh. He thought of Dani and was afraid.

He lifted his lashes and coolly studied his mistress.

With her endless appetites and bewildering mood swings, Chloe Sinclair was a self-avowed bitch, but at least they were used to each other. She knew not to expect too much from him, and God knew they were compatible in bed. Maybe it was too soon to sever ties with her. After all, as long as Chloe got what she wanted, easy things like fine presents and lots of attention, she didn’t give him any grief. She didn’t shake him, trip up his defenses.