HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS (14 page)

“No. It will be awful. Please,” Lucy wheedled. “Why don’t we just go, avoid all that?...But I...Well, all right, if you think it’s best...Mmm-hmm...” A hard sigh escaped her. “I know, I do, I understand...”

About then Alice reminded herself that she hated eavesdroppers. And now she was one. She tapped on the door and it swung partway inward.

Lucy sat on the bed, a cell phone to her ear. She caught sight of Alice. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes went saucer wide.

No doubt about it. She had a coconspirator on the other end of the line.

A boyfriend, maybe?

Or someone who’d agreed to loan her money for New York?

Lucy pulled herself together and wiped the guilty look off her face. “Alice!” She waved her forward and spoke nervously into the phone again. “Ahem. Yes...Mmm-hmm. That’s right. I really have to go.” She disconnected the call and set the phone on the nightstand. “Come on in.” She patted the spot beside her on the bed.

Alice shut the door and went to sit beside her. “Sorry I interrupted...”

“Oh? What?” Lucy fluttered her hands about. “The call, you mean? It was nothing. Just a friend. What’s going on?”

Alice considered asking Lucy the same question. But she hardly knew where or how to begin. And really, she shouldn’t have been listening in on Lucy’s conversation. “Have you met my cousin Jonas Bravo and his wife, Emma?”

Lucy blinked. “Jonas Bravo, as in the Bravo Billionaire? The one whose brother was kidnapped by their psycho uncle when he was just a baby?”

“That’s the one.” Amazing. Even Lucy knew the old story. Jonas’s younger brother, Russell, had been nicknamed the Bravo Baby. Russell grew up in Oklahoma under a different name, never knowing his real identity until the truth came out years later.

Lucy picked up her cell phone, stared at it for a moment then set it back down. “I’ve never met them, but Noah knows Jonas Bravo, I think.”

“Yes. They’ve done business together, Noah and Jonas. Jonas and Emma were here, at the party Saturday before last.”

“I didn’t meet them. But I only stayed downstairs for an hour or two....”

“Jonas is a great guy. And Emma is a sweetheart. I love her. They have four children, two girls and two boys. I think the eldest is ten or eleven now. And Jonas has an adopted sister, Amanda, who’s in her teens. Emma’s invited us out to their Bel Air estate for a barbecue and pool party this Saturday afternoon. You’re included.”

Lucy wore a distant look. Preoccupied. Not quite present. She frowned. “Um. Saturday, you said?”

“That’s right. We would leave in time to be there at two.”

“We?”

“You, me and Noah....”

Lucy sighed. “I don’t think so.”

Alice put an arm around her. “Come on. Consider it, won’t you? It will be fun.”

Lucy pulled away. “No, really. You two go on. I have...a few projects I’m working on. I need to keep focused.”

* * *

Alice dressed for riding, and she and Altus went to the stables. She was tacking up Golden Boy when Noah came to find her. She told him that she’d talked to Lucy about Saturday.

“Will she come with us?” He looked so hopeful it made her heart ache.

She shook her head. “She said something about the projects she’s working on....”

His big shoulders drooped a little. He stuck his hands into his pockets. “She spends her life hunched over that damn sewing machine.”

She turned back to Golden Boy and cinched up the saddle. “Well, I saw her breakfast tray. At least there’s nothing wrong with her appetite. I swear she licked her plate clean.”

Noah laughed at that and didn’t seem quite so sad. He saddled a big gelding named Cavalier and they rode up into the mountains for the day.

She didn’t tell him about Lucy’s mysterious phone call.

Yes, she felt a bit guilty for keeping that from him. But she shouldn’t have been listening in anyway. And Lucy had a right to a secret admirer.

But what if she’s found someone to pay her way to New York?

Alice doubted it. It would be a lot of money. Several thousand for an apartment and furnishings, living expenses and tuition, fees, books, supplies and whatever else.

But say, just for the sake of argument, that Lucy did have a generous friend who’d agreed to bankroll her dream....

Alice couldn’t help thinking that it wouldn’t be a bad thing. True, she couldn’t bring herself to write the check that Lucy needed, couldn’t bring herself to betray Noah’s trust. But Lucy
was
her friend. Loyalty counted with Lucy, too.

So Alice kept her mouth shut about the cryptic conversation she’d overheard that morning.

* * *

Saturday, Alice and Noah left for Los Angeles early in the morning. They went in one of Noah’s limos, Altus in the front seat with the driver.

The drive only took about an hour and a half.

But Alice wanted to play tourist before the barbecue at Angel’s Crest. So they drove down Hollywood Boulevard, past Grauman’s Chinese and all the gold stars embedded in the sidewalk. And then they went to Beverly Hills and had coffee at the Beverly Hills Hotel. They drove down Sunset and Alice gawked at all the giant billboards advertising movies and rock groups and lawyers to the stars.

They arrived at Jonas and Emma’s right at two. The whole family was there. Alice forgot her worries about Lucy. And Noah seemed more relaxed, too. He laughed often and treated her with open affection. They swam and played Marco Polo and water volleyball with the children. And later they all sat down outdoors to heaping plates of Texas-style barbecue.

At seven Emma started herding her children upstairs for their baths. Alice and Noah changed back into their street clothes. Jonas urged them to stay—overnight, if it suited them. The house was bigger than Noah’s, with guest rooms to spare.

But Noah squeezed her hand and she understood that he wanted to get back. That was fine with her. They hadn’t planned to stay late anyway. Alice went upstairs to tell Emma goodbye. The kids were running around, the girls and the older boy already in their pajamas. The youngest one, Grady, was still splashing in the tub.

Emma embraced her. “You come back soon....”

The children’s voices echoed on the upper landing as Alice went down the stairs. Noah was at the door shaking hands with Jonas.

The car waited right outside, the engine running in the warm twilight.

Altus held the door for her. She ducked in as Noah got in on the other side. He put his arm around her.

She leaned against him. “That was fun....”

His lips touched her hair. “Yeah. A good day....”

Alice felt more hopeful than she had in weeks. Noah
was
a good man. And she wanted to be with him.

Most of the time, it felt so right with him, as though she’d known him all her life—or been waiting to know him. He touched some place deep within her heart that no other man ever had.

Alice sighed, settled her head on his shoulder and thought about how every day she fell more in love with him.

Yes, he had a giant blind spot about Lucy, and serious control issues. And he always seemed to keep something of himself apart from her. Even with all that, she wanted what they shared to last.

She snuggled in even closer, breathed in the wonderfully familiar, deliciously exciting scent that belonged only to him and considered just saying it:
I love you, Noah. I love you very much.

But then he would only start pushing for a yes on the question of marriage.

And she wasn’t quite ready to go that far—not yet, anyway.

* * *

The driver pulled up at the foot of the wide steps leading to Noah’s front door. Someone had parked a black luxury SUV over by the low wall that surrounded the koi pond.

Noah frowned at her. “Were you expecting anyone?”

“No. Maybe a friend of Lucy’s?”

His frown only deepened. They got out. Hannah was waiting in the open doorway, the light from the foyer behind her silhouetting her tall, slim form. They mounted the wide front steps with Altus close behind.

One good look at the older woman’s face and Noah demanded, “What’s the matter, Hannah?”

The housekeeper spoke quietly. “Prince Damien is here. He and Lucy are waiting for you in the family room. Lucy has informed me that tomorrow the prince is taking her to New York.”

Chapter Eleven

N
oah hadn’t cracked any heads in fourteen full years. But he burned to crack one now: Damien’s, to be specific.

Hannah saw his expression and got out of his way. He headed for the family room.

Behind him, Alice tried to slow him down. “Noah, wait. Please....”

He ignored her and kept going, through the foyer, down the hallway, past the kitchen, to the family room, with the heels of Alice’s sandals tapping in his wake.

They were there, the two of them, just as Hannah had said they would be, sitting in the soft white chairs in front of the arched windows. Lucy popped to her feet at the sight of him. Dami rose, too, but more slowly.

A chain of obscenities scrolled through Noah’s mind. He demanded, “What kind of crap are you pulling here, Damien?”

Alice came up beside him. “Noah. Can you please just settle down?”

He hit her with an icy look. “Are you involved in this?”

She stared at him. “Involved? What are you talking about?”

Lucy spoke up then. “Stop it, Noah. Alice had no idea that I talked Dami into helping me. You just leave her alone.”

He whirled on his sister. “Are you out of your mind? You can’t just—”

She cut him off with a cry. “Yes, I can, Noah. And I will. Dami has a place I can stay and he’s loaning me the money I need.”

Noah felt a fury so hot and so total, it seemed that the top of his head might pop off. He swung his attention to Damien. “Why? I don’t get it. Because of Alice? This is some sick revenge because I want to marry your sister?”

Dami stood there and looked at him as if
he
was the one who’d gone over the line. “Of course not, you idiot. Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I ought to...” He took a step toward Damien.

Alice grabbed his arm. “Noah, don’t....”

At the same time, Lucy tried to step in front of Dami as if she was going to protect him, all ninety-eight pounds of her. “Stop it, Noah. I mean it. You stop it right now.”

“It’s all right, Luce,” said Damien, and he took her by the shoulders and moved her out of the way. His bodyguard, who’d been standing by the doors to the loggia, stepped closer. Damien signaled the man back.

Lucy insisted, “I
called
him, all right? I called Dami and I begged him to help me. He’s my friend, okay?”

Noah made a low scoffing sound. “Oh. Right. Exactly. Prince Damien is such a hero. The Player Prince only wants to be your
friend.
”

“He
is
my friend, Noah! He’s my friend, and that’s all. Just my friend, and a very good one, thank you. And yes, he’s a hero, too. Because he knows how much this means to me and he’s willing to help me, willing to go up against
you.
He’s not blinded like you are, Noah. By fear and by the things that happened years and years ago. He sees me as I am now, not as I used to be, and he knows how long I’ve waited, for all of my life so far. He knows it’s finally time I came into my own.
He
knows that I’m ready.” The tears rose, clogging her voice, making those big brown eyes of hers shine too bright.

About then he started feeling like the monster in the room.

Which was insane. Not true. He was the only one here who understood the risk, the only one determined to keep Lucy safe, to make certain she didn’t push herself too far and end up at death’s door before he could get there and save her.

“Noah.” Alice still had hold of his arm. “Can we just sit down, please? Can we just talk this over like civilized adults?”

“Civilized,” he growled at her.

But she had his attention now. She gazed steadily up at him, pleading and determined, both at once.

And from behind them, Hannah said, “Do what Alice says, Noah. Sit down. Lucy will be leaving in the morning, one way or another. Now’s the time to make your peace with that.”

Noah glanced back at her. She stood next to Alice’s bodyguard, and she met his gaze, unflinching. He couldn’t bear it. He shut his eyes.

And his father’s face rose up, laughing, on the morning of the day that he died. Laughing and grabbing his mother for a hug and a kiss, heading off to work like it was any other day, with no idea that he would never be back again.

He shook his head, blinked away the image—but it only got worse. Next he saw his mother lying on the couch in that cramped run-down bungalow they rented after the bank took their house. His mother, her face sickly pale, clammy with fever sweat, her eyes red and dazed looking, insisting that she was fine, there was no problem. No need for a doctor, it was only a little cold....

Alice still held his arm. And she was nudging him, guiding him to a chair.

He dropped into it, feeling disconnected, as if this was all some weird, awful dream. Alice sat beside him. She took his hand and twined her fingers with his. He let her do that, even held on.

Her hand felt solid, her grip sure and strong. At that moment she seemed the only real thing in the room.

Lucy and Damien sat down again, too. Hannah came over from where she hovered by the kitchen and took the last chair.

He heard himself ask Damien, “When you called to apologize to Alice, were you already planning this?”

Damien shook his head. “Lucy called me a couple of days later.”

Alice cleared her throat and asked Lucy, “Was that Dami on the phone Wednesday morning, when I came to your room and asked you to come with us to Angel’s Crest?”

“Yes, it was,” said Lucy proudly.

“What?”
He turned accusing eyes on Alice. “You never said a word.” He started to pull his hand from hers.

She wouldn’t let go. “I was eavesdropping, and it was none of my business. Lucy left the door open a crack or I never would have heard a thing.”

“You should have told me,” he insisted. He might have been able to stop this madness before it went so far.

“I shouldn’t have been listening,” she said slowly and clearly, as if maybe he didn’t understand English very well. “It was a private conversation.”

Lucy chimed in, “Alice kept it to herself because
she
understands that I’m an adult and I have a right to my privacy.”

“You damn well don’t have the right to go cooking up harebrained schemes that put your life in danger.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Noah. My life is not in danger. I’m perfectly fine.” She swung her gaze to Damien. “Listen to him, Dami. And you kept telling me I needed to try again to get through to him. Ha. Like that was ever gonna happen.”

Noah winced. Was he really that bad? He only wanted her safety, only cared about her well-being.

Dami said gently, “Easy, Luce. Calm down.”

Noah swung his gaze on his so-called friend and longed to leap up and punch his lights out. But he stayed in his seat, held on to Alice and reminded himself that he was thirty-five years old and there were better ways to fight than with his fists.

Lucy turned on him again. “At least I finally got Dami to see that
you
were never going to listen to me. I... Well, I admit I just wanted to sneak away, not to have to go through this.” She raised both hands as though to indicate the five of them sitting there, the tension so thick it seemed to poison the air. “But Dami said I had to face you. That you had a right to know exactly what was going on.”

He sent another furious glance in Damien’s direction. The last thing he needed to hear right now was how wise and enlightened Damien was.

Lucy was still talking. “So here we are. Now you know. Dami’s flying me to New York. My things are all packed and outside in the car. Our plane leaves at eight in the morning.”

Noah just stared at her. His mind seemed to have locked up. He had to stop her. He just couldn’t seem to figure out how.

Damien said, “I own an apartment building in NoHo—near Greenwich Village? There’s a vacant one-bedroom. Luce will have that.”

Alice squeezed his hand and coaxed, “I’ve been there. It’s a lovely old building. And the apartments are roomy, especially by New York standards.”

He blinked and looked at her again. “You’re all for this, aren’t you?” His voice sounded strange, without inflection, to his own ears.

She answered softly but firmly, too, “I think Lucy is ready, yes. If you’ll recall, I’ve been clear on that. But in the end, Noah, it’s not what
I
think that matters. And it’s not what
you
think, either. It’s Lucy’s choice. And now she’s found a way to make it happen.”

Because of your brother,
he thought, but decided not to say. Yeah, he could beat the crap out of Damien for letting Lucy talk him into this, for sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong. But Lucy was the key here.

And she wasn’t budging. He couldn’t get through to her.

She was going. There was no protecting her from herself anymore. One way or another, she would go to New York.

And somehow he would have to learn to live with that.

He met Lucy’s wary eyes. “All right. If there’s no way to stop you,
I’ll
take you. Give me a couple of weeks to put things on hold here. We’ll go to New York, get you a place, get you settled in, get your new doctors and services lined up. I’ll arrange to get you access to your trust fund. I’ll—”

Lucy put up a hand. “No. You’re not doing that. You don’t get to go with me and take
care
of me, Noah. The whole point is that you have to let me go, let me stand on my own at last, let me make a life that works for me.”

He did turn on Damien then. He couldn’t seem to stop himself. “So what, then?
You’re
going to take care of her?”

“Of course he’s not!” Lucy cried. “How many times do I have to say it?
I’m
going to take care of me. Dami’s only going to take me to New York, show me my new apartment, loan me an embarrassing sum of money and then go back to his own life—which, if you think about it, is way more than enough.”

Damien said quietly, “I’ll make sure she’s safe, Noah. I won’t leave until she’s settled in.”

Alice leaned close to him. She didn’t say anything, just held tight and steady on to his hand. Hannah sat silent, too, her brow furrowed.

None of them agreed with him. Not one of them took his side in this. They didn’t know what he knew, hadn’t seen what he’d seen.

He couldn’t deal. Couldn’t take it all in. Couldn’t come up with a way to get even one of them to see the situation as he saw it. He turned to his sister again. Her wide mouth was set, her gaze unwavering. He accused, “You’ll do what you want to do, then, no matter the cost.”

“I
have
to do it, Noah.”

“That’s a lie.”

Alice chided, “Noah, don’t...”

He pulled his hand free of hers. There was nothing more to say. “This conversation is through.” He stood. “Good night.” And he turned on his heel.

Alice called after him. “Noah. Please...”

He kept walking. He didn’t stop or look back. Through the kitchen, down the hallway to the foyer, up the stairs to his rooms.

He went inside and slammed the door.

* * *

Alice winced at the sound of the door slamming upstairs. She wanted only to go up there, to be with him, to try to ease his suffering at least a little bit.

But it seemed wiser for the moment to leave him alone.

Hannah caught her eye and echoed her thoughts, “Give him a little time....”

Lucy worried her lower lip. “I knew this was going to be awful. I was so right.”

Dami suggested rather sheepishly, “You could always slow down a bit, give the poor guy a chance to get used to the idea that you’re going.”

Lucy shot him a startled glance. “Are you backing out on me now?”

“No. But if you want to think it over a little more—”

“I don’t. We’re going,” she said sharply. And then, more softly, “Please?”

Dami shrugged. “Well, that settles that.” He stood. “Allie, a few words, just the two of us?”

Alice got up and followed him out to the loggia.

“You probably don’t believe this,” he said when they were alone in the cool autumn darkness, “but I’m honestly not the least happy about causing all this trouble.”

“So, then, why are you doing it?”

He stared off toward the garden. “I’ve seen her designs, and she’s shown me the clothes that she’s made. She’s so talented. It’s wrong to hold her back.”

Alice phrased her next question with care. “I have to ask. Lucy says you’re her friend and nothing more. I’m going to be backing both of you up with Noah after you go. If the two of you are more than friends, I need to know the truth.”

Dami groaned. And then he swore. “How can you ask me that? Lucy’s very sweet. But she’s like a child. I’ve never been attracted to the wide-eyed innocent type.”

“She’s
not
a child, Dami. In many ways, she’s quite mature.”

He stuck his hands into his pockets and cast a glance at the distant moon. “Please. I swear to you on my honor as a prince of the blood. Luce and I are friends. That’s all.” Alice had known him all her life and she could tell when he was hedging. He wasn’t. Not this time. “Peace?” He held out his arms to her.

Alice accepted his embrace. When she pulled back, she said ruefully, “I only wish Lucy could have found someone else to come to her rescue.”

Dami made a low ironic sort of sound. “Her options were limited. And for more than a year she’s been trying to get Noah to give her a little independence. But he’s been locked up tight, absolutely sure something awful will happen to her if he lets her get out on her own. In the end, I couldn’t
not
help her. She’s got a fine opportunity and she doesn’t want to let it slip through her fingers. She has to make the break.”

Alice wrapped her arms around herself against the slight chill in the air. “Noah might never forgive you. He might never forgive any of us.”

“I think you’re wrong. He loves his sister. When push finally comes to shove, he’s going to accept that Luce is a grown-up and that she’s also fully recovered after that last surgery she had. He’ll realize that he doesn’t have to take care of her anymore. He’ll see that her leaving was the right choice.”