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“A little, maybe. But I think that’s what I like about you.”
“That I’m inexperienced?” She thought men liked women who knew how to please them.
“That you’re not afraid to admit it. That you embrace your values, not lean on them. You have no idea how rare that is.” He touched her cheek. “Although, I fear your honesty might get you into trouble one of these days.”
“My father always told me, nothing bad can come from telling the truth.”
“In that case, he would have been very proud of you.”
She felt the beginnings of tears prickle in her eyes and laid her head back against his chest, so he wouldn’t see. “You think so?”
“I do.”
He could really be quite sweet. When he wanted to.
“They’re bound to be wondering where we’ve disappeared to,” he said. “We should get back before they dispatch a search party.”
Though she would be content to stand here all day, wrapped up in his strong arms, just the two of them, she knew he was right. And as she backed away, she took heart in the fact that today had brought them one step closer to the ideal future that she knew they would have together. Things were falling right into place.
“Let’s go,” she said.
He reached out and took her hand, laced his fingers through hers and led her out of the woods.
“By the way, I wanted to ask you about something.” She told him about the woman who had been staring at her Monday. “She wasn’t in any of the profiles. I thought maybe you’d know who she was.”
He shrugged. “There were so many people there.”
“She would be hard to miss. Long, dark hair, very beautiful. And she never took her eyes off us.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t being honest with her. He’d been by her side the entire day. Surely he would have noticed someone staring. Wouldn’t he? Or maybe, people stared at him all the time.
Besides, what reason did he have to lie? She was probably just being paranoid again.
The walk back to the palace went far too quickly, and when they reached the steps, Phillip’s valet was waiting for them.
“An urgent call from the prime minister, sir.”
“I’ll take it in my office,” Phillip told him, then turned to Hannah. “I enjoyed our walk.”
He was wearing one of those secret, just-between-us smiles, and it made her feel warm all over.
“Me, too.”
“We should do it again soon.”
She had a feeling he wasn’t talking about the walking part. “I’d like that.”
As he started to walk away, Hannah called after him.
“Phillip.”
He stopped and turned to her.
“Would you have dinner with me tonight?”
There was a slight hesitation before he said, “I can’t.”
No explanation, no excuses. No apology.
The sting of disappointment was quick and sharp. Can’t, or won’t? she couldn’t help but wonder as he turned and walked away. Why, after they’d had such a good time together, would he not want to be with her? It didn’t make sense.
You are not going to let this bother you, she told herself as he disappeared inside, then she walked back over to the blanket where she’d left her things. Only then did she realize that his jacket still hung on her shoulders. But even that couldn’t shelter her from the chill that seemed to settle deep in her bones.
They’d taken a huge step forward today. She felt as if they really connected.
Why then, did it feel as though, for every step they took forward, they took two back?
Six
Phillip had just hung up the phone with the prime minister when the door to his office flew open and his sister barged in unannounced.
His secretary stood in the doorway behind her, looking both pained and apologetic. “Princess Sophie to see you, sir.”
Even the most loyal of servants were no match against Sophie. Phillip dismissed her with a wave of his hand, and she backed out of the room, closing the door behind her.
“I see you’re back,” he said.
In lieu of a civilized greeting, she said, “You’re an idiot.”
Obviously she was in a snit over something. He sighed and leaned back in his chair, curious as to what he had done to provoke her this time, and sure he was about to find out.
“Your fiancée was barely here a day and you took off? To go hunting? That was harsh, even for you.”
He wasn’t even sure why she cared. And because he didn’t owe anyone an explanation, least of all her, he didn’t give her one.
“She must scare the hell out of you,” she said.
Instantly his hackles went up, and before he could stop himself, he warned her, “Don’t even go there.”
Leave it to Sophie to know exactly which of his buttons to push. From the moment she was born, she had made it her mission in life to torment him, as sisters often did.
“She’s the real deal. But you already know that, don’t you? That’s why you’re so determined to keep her at arm’s length.”
She couldn’t be more wrong. He was doing Hannah a favor. But Sophie would never understand that. “You’re in no position to give me relationship advice. Who did you run off with the other night, Sophie?”
Her smug smile was all the answer he needed.
“You’re coming to a family dinner tomorrow night,” she told him. “You and Hannah, at my residence.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
Though he was inclined to refuse, for no reason other than the fact that she demanded it, he realized it was probably a good idea. Were Hannah to befriend Sophie, she might be less unsettled in his absence. She had looked utterly crushed when he refused her dinner invitation. He liked Hannah, and he didn’t want her to be unhappy. But he couldn’t change the person he was.
“All right,” he told Sophie.
She looked surprised. “Really? And here I was all prepared to pull out the brass knuckles.”
He would have guessed as much. But, after the heated disagreement he’d just had with the prime minister, he simply wasn’t in the mood for another fight. “What time would you like us?”
“Seven o’clock. And bring a bottle of wine. In fact, bring a red and a white. I’m making roast leg of lamb.”
“You’re making it? Well, I’ll be sure to bring a bottle of antacid, too. And perhaps I should put the palace physician on high alert as well. Just in case.”
Pleased that she had gotten her way, she ignored the jab. Besides, she knew as well as he did that the insult was unfounded. She had trained at one of the most prestigious culinary academies in all of Europe, and was an accomplished, gifted chef. It was a passion that had been vehemently discouraged by their parents. But Sophie somehow always managed to get what she wanted.
It both annoyed and impressed him.
“I’ll see you both tomorrow then,” she said.
He kept his face bland. “I can hardly contain my excitement.”
She only smiled.
“Is that it?” he asked.
“I suppose you noticed Madeline on Monday.”
The mystery woman Hannah had asked him about. Of course he’d noticed her. She would have been hard to miss, staring at them the way she had been. “What about her?”
“It would seem she’s back to her old tricks.”
“Forgive me if don’t shudder with fear.” Madeline was of no consequence to him or Hannah, which was why he hadn’t felt the need to explain who she was. She was nobody.
“You know how she can be. Anything to get attention.”
“And confronting her would only feed that need. She’ll get bored and find someone else to antagonize.”
“She could do some damage in the meantime.”
He seriously doubted that. “Is there anything else you needed?”
Sophie shook her head, obviously exasperated with him. “Does your fiancée have the slightest clue how difficult you can be?”
He didn’t respond.
“So, I’ll see you both tomorrow evening?”
“We’ll be there.”
She flashed him one of those cryptic, I-know-something-you-don’t smiles. One that made him uneasy. Then she was gone.
Forget Madeline. Sophie was the one he should be worried about. This whole dinner scenario seemed a bit too…domestic for her taste. Why did he suspect that there was more to this than she was letting on?
Hannah had just finished a quiet dinner alone in her suite, a meal she’d had little appetite for, when Elizabeth knocked on the door.
“You should have left hours ago,” Hannah scolded her. She may have been a palace employee, but for heaven’s sake, she needed a life of her own outside of work. It seemed as though she was always there.
“I was just finishing up a few things,” Elizabeth told her. “I was on my way out when a call came in for you.”
“Who is it?” She was hoping maybe a friend from back home. God knows she could use a friendly voice right now.
“It’s your mother,” Elizabeth said, then added, “Again.”
This was the fourth call since Hannah left Seattle. Hadn’t her mother gotten the message that Hannah wasn’t ready to talk to her? She was still too bitter and angry. It was very possible, if Hannah talked to her in her current state of mind, she might say something she would later regret. Like she had the last time they spoke.
“Tell her I’ll call her back.”
“She said it was urgent.”
She would say just about anything to get Hannah’s attention. To get her to come to the phone.
“She sounded upset,” Elizabeth added.
Hannah felt a slight jerk of alarm. She remembered the last urgent call from her mother. She had been in the university library studying for exams, so engrossed she almost didn’t answer her phone, when it buzzed in her pocket. And when she heard her mother’s distraught voice, her heart sank.
Sweetheart, you need to come home. Daddy wasin an accident….
But he was gone now, and she couldn’t imagine anything urgent enough to warrant a return call. “I’ll call her tomorrow.”
Elizabeth didn’t say a word, but she had this look. Not quite disapproval, because a palace employee would never be so bold as to disapprove of anything a royal did or said. It was more the lack of emotion that was giving her away. It was obvious she was trying very hard not to react. Or maybe it was Hannah’s own guilty conscience nagging at her. Either way, Hannah knew exactly what she was thinking.
And she was right, of course. “I know, that’s what I said yesterday. So technically, today is tomorrow. Right?”
“That is true,” Elizabeth agreed.
“You think I should call her, don’t you?”
“It’s not my place to pass judgment.”
Maybe not, but Hannah was pretty sure that’s what she was thinking. And the truth was, her mother wasn’t likely to stop calling. Not until Hannah gave her the opportunity to apologize for her inappropriate behavior these past few months.
Maybe it would be best, to ease her mother’s guilt and Hannah’s, if they cleared the air. And besides, it was what Daddy would have wanted. Hannah had always been more like him than her mother. So many times her father had told her, “Your mother isn’t like us, Hannah. She’s fragile. You just have to be patient.”
But sometimes her mother could be so insecure and vulnerable it had been difficult even for her. Not that she was a bad person. She needed constant reassurance that she was loved and appreciated. At times her neediness was utterly exhausting.
