To Dance with a Prince (14 page)

His press corps was instantly swamped with enquiries. When had he begun dating his dance instructor? Who was she? And especially, what was her background?

“This is the beginning,” he'd told her. “How do you want to handle it?” Meredith called her own press conference.

Yes, she was dating the prince. Yes, they had met while she taught him the dance number for
An Evening to Remember
. No, she was not worried about his history, because she had a history of her own.

And in a strong, steady voice, without any apology Meredith had laid herself bare. All of it. Wentworth. The too-young pregnancy. Her abandonment by the father of her child. The baby. The lost dance dreams. The grinding poverty. The tragedy that took her mother and her child. The insurance money that had allowed her to start No Princes.

She had left the press without a single thing to dig
for. And instead of devouring her, the press had
adored
her honesty, and the fact she was just one of the people. Unlike so many celebrities that the press waited breathlessly to turn on, their love affair with Meredith was like his own.

And like that of all the people of Chatam.

The more they knew her, the more they loved her.

And she loved them right back. She became the star of every event they attended, the new and quickly beloved celebrity. From film festivals at Cannes to her first ski trip to catch the last spring snow in Colorado, she bewitched everyone who met her.

She was astonishingly at home, no matter where he took her.

But the part he loved the most was that none of it went to her head. She was still the girl he had first met. Maybe even more that girl as she came into herself, as love gave her a confidence and a glow that never turned off.

Meredith could be on the red carpet at a film premiere one day, and the next day she was just as at home on her bicycle, visiting a Chatam farmer's market. She delighted in surprising brides and grooms in Chatam on their wedding days by dropping by the reception to offer her good wishes.

When he begged her to allow him to offer her security, she just laughed at him. “I've already been through the worst life can give out, Kiernan. I'm not afraid.”

And she really wasn't. Meredith was born to love. It seemed her capacity to give and receive love was endless.

And since he was the major benefactor of all that love, who was he to stop her?

Besides, he knew something he had not known a few
months ago, and probably would not have believed if someone had tried to tell him.

There were angels. And Meredith had two who protected and guided her. What other explanation for the series of coincidences that had brought them together? How had she landed right on his doorstep? How had Adrian come to be injured so that the right prince could meet her? How was it that Kiernan had gone against his own nature, and agreed to learn to dance? How was it he had seen something in her from the very beginning, that he could not resist?

From that first moment, watching her dance, Kiernan had known she held a secret that could change his life. Known it with his heart and not his head.

And only angels could have made him listen to his heart instead of his head.

But angels aside, there was no ignoring the very human side of what was happening to them.

He
wanted
her. He wanted her in every way that a man could want a woman. Their kisses were becoming more fevered. The times when they were alone were becoming a kind of torture of
wanting
.

The thing was, he would never take her without honor.

Never. What that other man had done to her was unconscionable. He would never be like him, never, ever remind Meredith of him. He would not use her obvious passion for him, or her willingness to have his way with her. He always backed away at the last possible moment.

There were honorable steps a man had to take to be with his woman. He had to earn his way there. It did not matter that it was his intention to marry her, and it
was, even though he knew they had only known each other a short while, only months.

But he knew his own heart, too.

And he knew it was time.

M
EREDITH WOKE UP
to a sound at her window. Something was hitting against it. She groaned and pulled the pillow over her head.

Kiernan was probably right. She was going to have to move to a building with security. That was probably some fledging reporter out there hoping to get the shot that would make his career.

Despite her attempts to ignore it, the sound came again, louder. A scattering of pebbles across her pane.

And then louder yet!

She got up, annoyed. They were going to break the window! But when she shoved it up, and leaned out, ready to give someone a piece of her mind, it was Kiernan who stood below her.

“What are you doing?” Her annoyance now was completely faked. Sometimes she could still not believe this man, a prince outside, and a prince inside, too, was looking at her like that. With such open adoration in his eyes.

Of course the feeling was completely mutual!

“I have a surprise for you.”

“What time is it?” she asked with completely faked grumpiness.

“Going on midnight.”

“Kiernan, go home and go to bed.”

“Quit pretending you can resist me. Get dressed and come down here.”

She stuck out her tongue at him and slammed the window shut, but she quickly changed out of her pajamas, yanking on an old dance sweatsuit.

“I see you are working hard at impressing me,” he said, kissing her on the nose as she reached the bottom of her stairs.

“As you are me,” she teased back. “Waking me at midnight. I have work tomorrow. We don't all have lives of leisure.”

This was said completely jokingly. She seemed, more than anyone else, to respect how hard he worked, and how many different directions he was pulled in a day. He was still savoring the newness of having someone at his side who was willing to back him up, to do whatever she needed to do to ease his burdens, to make his life simpler.

He held open the door of an unmarked car for her. Tonight as no other he did not want the press trailing them.

She snuggled under his arm. “What are you up to?”

But he wouldn't tell her.

They sailed through the roadblock he'd had put up to close the popular road, just for this one night. Meredith peeked out the car window with curiosity, and then recognition. “Are we going where I think we are going?”

The car stopped at the pull-out for Chatam Hot Springs. He held out his hand to her and drew her out of the car, led her up the path, lit by torches tonight, that led the way to the springs.

When they got there, he savored the look on her face. No detail had been overlooked.

There were torches flaming around the pool, but the bubbling waters of the springs were mostly illuminated by thousands upon thousands of candles that glowed from every rock and every surface.

“I didn't bring a suit,” she whispered, looking around with that look he had come to live for.

A kind of
pinch me I must be dreaming
look.

“There's a change tent for you over there,” he said. “You'll find a number of bathing suits to choose from.”

She emerged from the tent a few minutes later, and he, already changed, was waiting on the edge of a rock with his feet dangling in the water. He smiled at her choice. Though there was staff here, they were invisible at the moment.

“The black one,” he said with a shake of his head. “I was hoping for something skimpier. The red one, with the polka dots.”

“How did you know about the red one with the polka dots?” she demanded.

“Because I picked each one myself, Meredith.”

“That must have been very embarrassing for you,” she said. “Careful, the press will dub you the pervert prince.”

He leered at her playfully. “And let's hope it's deserved.”

This is how it was with them. Endlessly playful. Teasing. Comfortable. Fun. And yet the respect between them also grew.

As did the heat.

As she crossed the slippery rock to him he could easily see that the black tank-style suit was so much
more sexy than the polka dot bikini! Instead of sitting demurely beside him, Meredith pretended to touch his shoulders lovingly and then shoved with all her might.

And then turned and ran.

He caught up with her at the mud pool.

And they played in the mud, and swam and played some more until they were both exhausted with joy.

And then he sent her back to the change tent.

Where he knew all the rejected bathing suits had been whisked away, and in their place were designer gowns like the ones she had refused to let him buy for her for all the public outings they had attended.

While she changed, a table was set up for them and waiters appeared, along with a chef fussing about the primitive conditions he'd had to prepare his food in.

When she'd emerged from the change tent this time, Kiernan's mouth fell open. Meredith had stunned him with her beauty even in the off-the-rack dresses she insisted on wearing.

But now she had chosen the most racy of the gowns that he had picked out for her. It was red and low-cut.

She had even put on some of the jewelry he had put out for her, and a diamond necklace blazed at her neck and diamond droplets fell from her ears.

“I am looking at a princess,” he said, bowing low over her hand and kissing it.

“I've told you
no
to this extravagance, Kiernan.”

And yet, despite her protest, he could not help but notice that she was glowing with a certain feminine delight. She knew she looked incredible.

He led her to the table, laid out with fine linen and the best of china, and the waiters served a sumptuous feast.

She knew most of the palace staff by name, and addressed each of them.

When they had finished eating, she smiled at him. “Okay. I give it to you, you can't ever top this.”

“But I will.”

“You can't.”

He called one of the waiters and a cooler was brought to their table. Inside it was one Triple Widgie Hot Fudge Sundae and two spoons.

In that perfect environment, their worlds combined effortlessly.

“I love it all,” she said. “But you shouldn't have bought all the dresses, Kiernan. I can't accept them, and you probably can't return them.”

“I'm afraid as my wife you'll be expected to keep a certain standard,” he said. “And as your husband I will be proud to provide it for you.”

He dropped down on his knee in front of her, slid a box from his pocket and opened it.

Inside was a diamond of elegant simplicity. He knew her. He knew she would never want the flashy ring, the large karat, the showpiece.

And he knew her answer.

He saw it in her eyes, in the tears that streamed down her face, in the smile that would not stop, despite the tears.

“Will you marry me?” he asked. “Will you make my world complete, Meredith?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Of course yes, a thousand times yes.”

He rose to his feet, gathered her in his arms and held her. And his world finally was complete.

 

Meredith stared at herself in the mirror. She was in her slip at the dressing table, the bridal gown hung behind her. For a moment her eyes caught on it, and she felt a delicious quiver of disbelief.

Could this really be her life? A wedding gown out of a dream, yards and yards of ivory silk and seed pearls. Could this really be her life? Crowds had begun to form early this morning, lining the streets of Chatam from downtown all the way to Chatam Cathedral.

“You look so beautiful,” Erin murmured.

Meredith gazed at the girl behind her.

Despite the pressure to have a huge wedding party, Meredith had chosen to have one attendant, Erin Fisher.

“So do you,” she said.

“It's your day,” Erin said, nonetheless pleased, “just focus on yourself for once, Miss Whit.”

“All right.”

“Now don't you look beautiful?”

She
did
look beautiful. More beautiful than she could have ever imagined she was going to look.

And it wasn't just the wedding gown, the hair, the makeup.

No, a radiance was pouring out of her, too big to contain within her skin.

“Are you crying?” Erin asked in horror. “Don't! We just did the makeup.”

Meredith had been offered a room at the palace to get ready, and ladies in waiting to help her. She had said no to both. She wanted to be in this little apartment over her studio one last time. She wanted
her
girls to be around her.

Erin handed her a tissue and scolded. “I hope those are happy tears.”

Meredith thought about it for a moment. “Not really, no.”

“You are about to marry the most glorious man who ever walked and those aren't happy tears? Honestly, Miss Whit, I'm going to pinch you!”

“Don't pinch me. I might wake up.”

“Tell me why they aren't happy tears.”

“I was crying for the girl I used to be, the one who expected so little of life, who had such small dreams for herself. I was thinking of the girl who stood on those city hall steps, in a cheap dress, holding a tiny posy of flowers. I was thinking of the girl who felt so broken, as if it was her fault, some defect in her that caused him not to come, not to want to share the dream with her.

“If she could have seen the future she would have been dancing on those steps instead of crying. The truth? A different life awaited her. One that was beyond the smallness of her dreams.”

“My dreams were so small, too,” Erin whispered. “What would have become of me, if all that stuff hadn't happened to you? There would have been no Fairytale Ending group for me.”

By vote, just last week, the girls, with Meredith's blessing, had changed the name of No Princes.

Because sometimes there just were princes.

And because, even when there weren't, everyone could make their own fairy-tale ending, no matter what.

“I think the universe has dreams for all of us that are bigger than what we would ever dare dream for ourselves,” Meredith said quietly. “I even have to trust that losing my baby was part of a bigger plan that I will
never totally understand. Maybe it made me stronger, deeper, more able to love. Worthy of that incredible man who loves me.”

“Okay, stop!” Erin insisted, dabbing at her eyes. “My makeup is already done, too. Promise me, Miss Whit, that this day will be just about you and him. Not one more unhappy thought.”

“All right,” Meredith agreed, more to mollify the girl than anything else.

“We can't be walking down the cathedral aisle looking like a pair of raccoons,” Erin said.

“Maybe you should have invested in waterproof makeup,” a voice behind them said.

Erin whirled. “Prince Kiernan! Get out!” She tried to shield Meredith with her body. “You can't see her right now. It's bad luck.”

“Luckily, I'm not superstitious. Could you give us a moment?”

For all the confidence she was developing, Erin wasn't about to make a stand with the prince of her country. She whirled and left the room.

Kiernan came up behind Meredith, rested his hand on her nearly naked shoulder. “This is pretty,” he said touching her hair.

See? That was the problem with the promise she had made to Erin. This day could not be exclusively about the two of them.

“I thought it might be a little, er, too much,” Meredith said, “but Denise is in hairdressing school. It was her gift to me. How can you refuse something like that?”

“You can't,” he agreed. “Besides, it truly is beautiful.”

“You really shouldn't be here,” she chided him gently,
but the fact that he was here was so much better than a pinch.

This man was her life, her reason, her love, her reality.

“I had to see you,” he said softly, “I have a gift for you and suddenly I realized that you needed to have it now, that I wanted you to have it close to your heart today.”

All the gifts he had brought her over the course of their courtship could fill a small cottage. After they had become engaged, Meredith had quit asking him to stop. It filled him with such transparent joy to give her, a girl who had spent so much of her life with nothing, lovely things. She had learned to accept each gift graciously, because by doing so, she would receive the
real
gift.

His smile. A moment together in a busy, busy world. His touch on her arm. His eyes looking into her eyes with such wonder.

Now, Kiernan produced a small silver necklace, a cameo.

He pressed it into her hand, and she hesitated. When she touched a concealed button on the bottom of the locket it sprang open, revealing two tiny photos.

One was a picture of Carly, her head thrown back in laughter. And the other was a picture of her mother, looking young and strangely joyous.

“Where did you get this? My mother hated having her picture taken. And she so rarely looked like this, Kiernan. She looks so happy here.”

“Ah, princedom has its privileges. I had the whole island scoured until I found just the right photos of both of them. Do you know when that was taken, Meredith? The picture of your mother?”

“No.”

He named the date.

The tears spilled. The picture had been taken on the day of Meredith's birth.

“I wanted them to be with us,” he said gently, “as close to your heart as I could get them.”

“There goes the makeup,” she accused him, and there went her idea that the day belonged to him and her, exclusively. What a selfish thought to entertain! This day belonged to Carly and her mother, too.

“You look better without it. The makeup.”

“I know, but Rachel is in cosmetology.”

“Let me guess. A gift?”

“Yes.”

“And by accepting it, you
give
the gift just like the day you agreed to marry me.”

The door to the room whispered open again.