Invitation to the Prince's Palace / The Prince's Second Chance: Invitation to the Prince's Palace / The Prince's Second Chance

Perhaps some of his questioning came from the relief of knowing he hadn’t blown his chance of avoiding being locked into a miserable marriage as part of his bargain with his father.

Melanie’s gaze meshed with his. ‘Are you quite sure you want to do this? I want to help you and help the people of Braston, but in the end what you do has to be really what you want.’

‘I’m sure.’ He got to his feet and lifted the picnic basket. ‘We may not get much done today other than the meeting with my father if he is available, but Dominico will want to get the ball rolling on a few things.’

Melanie agreed. Now that she had committed to marrying Rikardo, she wanted to get things moving.

She didn’t want to stop and give herself too much time to think about the next month and the three that would follow it.

That might have been rather easier for her before they shared that kiss. Mel stumbled slightly on the uneven ground. She didn’t want to think about the kiss, either! Her heart still beat hard from its impact.

‘I have you.’ Rik’s hand shot out and grasped her arm.

And I have received the most moving kiss I’ve ever experienced.

Not that Mel had a great deal of experience. Her life with the family had kept her busy. Oh, she’d dated here and there with men that she met out in her ‘normal’ world. At the fresh produce store, or once it was the delivery guy from the local butcher’s shop. There hadn’t been a lot of time or opportunity.

There is always the time and the opportunity if you want it enough.

Well, now there was a prince.

No, there wasn’t. Not like that. She wasn’t dating Prince Rik. She was going to marry him, but that was for an agreed purpose that had nothing to do with romance. Right. So she was safe from getting any of the wrong kind of ideas about him or anything like that.

Why then, with Rik’s hand on her arm, and the memory of a kiss still fresh in her mind and stamped on her lips, did Mel feel anything but safe?

From what? Falling for him? That would be insane. Much more than falling down a rabbit hole or wearing sparkling magic shoes that would take her anywhere.

So focus on getting back to the palace to start this process that will help lift the country’s economy. Rather than thinking about kisses, you should think of how you can find out as much as possible about truffle crops so you really can be of help to Rik for the short time you’re here.

‘Do you have books about truffle cropping in the palace?’ She glanced towards the prince.

Yes, the prince! That was what Rik was, and Mel mustn’t forget it. And since when had she started to think of him as Rik?

He said you could.

And if you have a shred of self preservation left, then you should address him as ‘Your Highness’ or something equally distancing, in person and in your thoughts.

‘I have books at the palace and also at my personal home up in the mountains.’ He glanced at her, and then up and beyond her to where those two tourists had found their way to what to Mel looked like a sheer wall of ice.

Rikardo had a second home in the mountains?

Well, duh, Mel. He’s got to be about thirty and he’s a prince. Did you think he’d still live permanently in a couple of rooms in the palace? Even if those rooms were quite glorious and added up to more like a small house. ‘I’d like to look at the books, if that would be okay. I’d like to learn more about the industry.’

She might not be able to do anything to help with the problems they’d had, but if Rik planned to harvest truffles from the royal grounds that, too, would be rather special. Maybe there were records about that, as well.

‘The kitchen staff would have special truffle recipes, wouldn’t they? Maybe handed down through the centuries? I’d love to see those!’ Mel tried hard to walk normally and not lean into him. He still had hold of her arm and her silly response receptors wanted to melt into his side as though they had every right just because he’d kissed her.

He might be marrying Mel, but he was doing that to help him avoid a committed relationship.

And Mel was marrying him to help him out, and she didn’t need to add the complication of being attracted to him to that mix. So it was just as well they’d shared that kiss and put it behind them. They could get on with the business end of things now.

As if it will be that easy, Mel. What about the wedding preparations? The fact that his father will think the two of you want to marry for real?

‘I need to have the right things to say to your father!’ The words blurted out of her with a panicky edge she didn’t anticipate until it was too late to cover it up. ‘That is, I don’t want to be unable to answer any questions he might ask about how we met, how long we’ve known each other, that kind of thing.’

‘We met through your cousin Nicolette when I was at university in Australia. Six months ago we came across each other on a computer forum and we’ve been chatting online and on the phone ever since.’ He turned his head and deep blue eyes looked into hers. ‘I wanted you for my princess. You are calm and pleasant and I felt I could spend the rest of my life with you. It’s not the entire truth, but it’s as close as we’ll get.’

‘Okay. That will work. I know the years that Nicolette was at university, though I didn’t attend myself.’ There was one other issue, though. ‘What’s my story? Why did I say yes?’

Before he could answer, she shook her head. ‘If your father asks me that question, I’d rather tell him that I will do everything in my power to be as supportive of you as I possibly can in all the time we’re together.’

He dipped his head. ‘Then stick to that. Commitment to me is implied in such statements. My father should find that more than acceptable.’

‘Wh-what will be expected … otherwise?’ Mel asked the question tentatively, and she didn’t want to be tentative. She needed to know, therefore she was asking. She straightened her spine. ‘When we’re married, will we be in your suite as we are now, or … ?’ Despite the straighter spine she couldn’t quite bring herself to put it into words.

His gaze met hers. In it was steadiness. ‘For the sake of appearances we would be sharing my room and … bed at first. This is something that can be managed with a little creative imagination without needing to cause you undue concern. Just for the look of things, you understand?’

‘Just—just part of our overall practical arrangement. Yes. I understand totally. That’s very sensible.’ Mel tried not to stutter the words, tried to sound mature and au fait with the situation and what it might entail. They might be sleeping together at the start—her mind tried to boggle and she forced it not to—but they wouldn’t be sleeping together. Not, well, you know. Not like that. She drew a breath. ‘Right. That’s okay, then. We can make that work.’

‘We will, Melanie, so do not worry.’ His words again held reassurance.

And Mel … relaxed into that reassurance.

They were at a turn in their downward descent where the two mountainsides faced each other when a cry ripped through the air, shattering her composure and bringing Rikardo to an abrupt stop.

‘Damn. What’s the man doing? He’s tangled in his equipment!’ Rik dumped the picnic basket and strode towards the source of the cry.

Mel followed, and after a few moments managed to spot what Rik had already seen. A man dangled against that icy outcrop. It was one of the two men she’d seen earlier. The other—Mel couldn’t see.

‘Stop, you fool!’ Rik spoke the words aloud but they were too far away for any hope that the man might hear them.

Even so, Mel echoed the sentiment.

The prince let out a pithy curse. ‘If he keeps trying to get loose, he’ll drop to the bottom.’ He didn’t slow his pace, but he turned to glance at her. ‘There’s no one anywhere near except us. I’ve rappelled that section many times. I have to see if I can help while we wait for a rescue team to get here.’

He already had a cell phone out, and quickly called for assistance and explained the situation and that he would see what he could do until the rescue team arrived.

Mel could hear someone at the other end insisting the prince must not go anywhere near the dangerous situation, before Rik said, ‘Get help here as quickly as possible’ and ended the call.

She bit back the inclination to ask him if he would be safe enough. ‘What can I do, Rik?’

‘Keep yourself safe. Do not follow the path I take. Follow the path that’s cut into the mountain and you’ll reach the same destination. It will take longer, but I’ll know you are not at risk. When the rescue team starts up the mountain, point them to where I am.’ He strode ahead confidently.

Mel followed at the best pace she could manage. Each moment counted and Rik quickly got ahead of her, and then cut a different path towards the ice-bound cliff. After a few minutes she could hear him shout to the man first in English, and then in French. The conversation continued in French, and Mel could only guess what was being said.

She struggled on, determined to reach Rik and be of help if she could. She was within shouting distance herself when she looked back and saw the rescue team starting up the mountain. Mel waved to them and pointed to Rik’s location, and got a wave back from the leader of the team.

Mel kept going, and then there was the man, dangling in mid-air, and Rik saying something sharp and hard to a second man at the top of the cliff before taking that man’s unused equipment and kitting up.

The third prince of Braston was over the edge in a breathtakingly short time. Mel didn’t go any further, then. She wasn’t sure she could have if she tried. Instead she stood frozen in place, completely unable to breathe as all the concern for his safety that she’d pushed back rushed to the surface and threatened to overwhelm her.

She bit back the instinct to call out, ‘Be careful.’ Considering what he was doing, he would already be at the bottom of the cliff if he weren’t taking care.

Nevertheless, what followed made Melanie’s blood chill. She’d never watched ice rappelling. It looked risky, and it was obvious from the way he tried to control his slip that Rik didn’t have the right boots on his feet for the job.

The stranded man, despite Rik’s instructions that even Melanie could tell were to stay still and wait whether they were in French or not, continued to tug and pull at the tangle he was in. Did he want to end up at the bottom of the mountain?

‘Your Highness, you must wait for us!’

‘Please, Prince Rikardo, you must come away from there!’

The words were called as the rescue team came close enough to see what was happening, but it was too late. If Rik didn’t do something about this man, he would kill himself. Panic had the man in its grip. The second man showed no apparent interest in proceedings, sitting there with a blank look on his face.

Had Melanie looked like that when she’d taken that medication and faded into sleep?

He’s taken some kind of illicit drug, Mel. You’ve seen enough of that in Melbourne to recognise it. No doubt Rik recognises it, too.

‘You have to make sure that second man doesn’t interfere with what Rik’s doing or do anything stupid himself.’ She spoke the instruction to the head of the rescue team as they drew close. ‘He’s under the influence of something. It’s likely that both of them are, because Rik’s struggling to get the stranded one to listen and stop fighting to get free.’

Rik had rappelled out beside the man. He couldn’t untangle him, but he was trying to calm him. At his own risk! Even now the man reached for Rik with clawing hands!

‘Oh, please, be careful,’ she whispered.

She didn’t notice that she’d called him Rik as she spoke to the rescue team, or that she’d spoken as though she had every right to that authority. Mel didn’t care.

The next ten minutes felt like a lifetime. When the man was hauled up, Rikardo followed. He moved with confidence. Mel had made her way to the top and wanted to grab him once he got up there and …

Shake him? Check that he was unharmed?

Kiss him a second time?

‘All is well, though I have asked the team to take both men to the nearest hospital and have them checked over, drug tested and, if need be, charged by the police.’ Rik’s words were spoken across a very calm surface.

But beneath that calm must be all the anger over the stupidity of those two men.

‘Your Highness …‘ One of the rescue team approached.

‘I am well and unharmed but you must excuse me now,’ Rikardo said with respect, and firmness.

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.