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From Doctor To Princess?: From Doctor to Princess? / The Doctor's Cinderella
Annie Claydon
Susanne Hampton
About the Authors (#ud65e59a7-5521-5b05-ace0-e0fd12bf648e)
Cursed with a poor sense of direction and a propensity to read, ANNIE CLAYDON spent much of her childhood lost in books. A degree in English Literature followed by a career in computing didn’t lead directly to her perfect job—writing romance for Mills & Boon—but she has no regrets in taking the scenic route. She lives in London: a city where getting lost can be a joy.
Married to the man she met at eighteen, SUSANNE HAMPTON is the mother of two adult daughters, Orianthi and Tina. She has enjoyed a varied career path, but finally found her way to her favourite role of all: Medical Romance author. Susanne has always read romance novels and says, ‘I love a happy-ever-after, so writing for Mills & Boon is a dream come true.’
Also By Annie Claydon
Discovering Dr Riley
The Doctor’s Diamond Proposal
English Rose for the Sicilian Doc
Saving Baby Amy
Forbidden Night with the Duke
Healed by the Single Dad Doc
Stranded in His Arms miniseries
Rescued by Dr Rafe
Saved by the Single Dad
Also By Susanne Hampton
Unlocking the Doctor’s Heart
Back in Her Husband’s Arms
Falling for Dr December
Midwife’s Baby Bump
A Baby to Bind Them
A Mummy to Make Christmas
Twin Surprise for the Single Dco
White Christmas for the Single Mum
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
From Doctor To Princess?
Annie Claydon
The Doctor’s Cinderella
Susanne Hampton
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09588-4
FROM DOCTOR TO PRINCESS? & THE DOCTOR’S CINDERELLA
From Doctor To Princess? © 2018 Annie Claydon The Doctor’s Cinderella © 2018 Susanne Panagaris
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#ua599df91-45dc-5dca-a2a6-09d1dff0adc1)
About the Authors (#uc0e86384-db50-567b-8bfa-363d53984053)
Booklist (#u2408baa6-45c6-5375-b0d7-acea9d4ba43b)
Title Page (#u6d71c423-9ad0-52c6-9b8b-922643086f53)
Copyright (#ufea52829-e06e-5609-a3d5-20a61682b473)
From Doctor To Princess? (#uff9c68a1-883a-51c5-a753-e91e3fed7a2f)
Back Cover Text (#u56ae063b-fe47-53aa-8fe2-3b8db0c878fc)
CHAPTER ONE (#u64bd6051-6629-5475-86a6-2ee2f5cd2e3b)
CHAPTER TWO (#uddbfd73a-900d-54f8-9898-471a08cc69d6)
CHAPTER THREE (#u446bc908-ccb3-5993-adbc-aff662821c08)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ufaf6030f-ccdd-5a4a-ac55-c1d7fdb541cb)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u2bc16174-387d-5fcc-8e94-783bfde44750)
CHAPTER SIX (#u905cd1dd-2474-5bf5-a006-fefc60e0be26)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#ub330d813-f8bb-5834-b19e-17c6295aaca3)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#uc53ff9d8-b217-5818-bd0f-e8d0ce9b6c2f)
CHAPTER NINE (#ufd5a4175-ee20-5829-add3-701c5ad5da61)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EPILOGUE (#litres_trial_promo)
The Doctor’s Cinderella (#litres_trial_promo)
Back Cover Text (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
From Doctor To Princess? (#ud65e59a7-5521-5b05-ace0-e0fd12bf648e)
Annie Claydon
He’s her reluctant patient...
But might she soon be his royal fiancée?
Dr. Nell Maitland escaped her unpleasant former boss to become private physician to Dr. Hugo DeLeon—who’s also a crown prince! But doctors make the worst patients—especially when they’re as distractingly handsome as Hugo. When her past catches up with her, Nell must fake an engagement with the prince who makes her heart pound! Might she become his princess for real?
CHAPTER ONE (#ud65e59a7-5521-5b05-ace0-e0fd12bf648e)
THE LEATHER CAR seat creaked slightly as Crown Prince Hugo DeLeon shifted, trying to find a more comfortable position. There wasn’t one. He’d only been out of the hospital for twenty-four hours, and the pain in his left shoulder was normal. It would subside in a day or so, and he knew that impatience wasn’t going to make him heal any faster.
All the same, he was impatient. And if his father thought that he was helping Hugo to get back to normal, then he wasn’t.
There wasn’t a great deal of choice in the matter, though. The King of Montarino was accustomed to being obeyed, and when he had visited his only son in the discreet private ward of the hospital, he’d made it clear that he was taking no arguments. He’d smiled at Hugo, in much the same way as any father would, and told him that his duty to his country was clear and very simple. He had to get better.
In order to make sure that his son’s recovery went smoothly, the King had recruited a doctor who would stay with him at all times over the next month or so. Hugo had still been drowsy from the anaesthetic and his back hurt from having lain still while the pacemaker had been inserted into his chest, but he had got the message. His father didn’t trust Hugo to look after himself, and so he was appointing a minder to do it.
He hadn’t told Hugo much about this minder, other than that she was a woman, eminently qualified, and that she was due to fly out from London today. The last detail was another smart move on his father’s part, because Hugo knew most of the doctors in the small principality of Montarino, particularly those who were well qualified in cardiology. He might well have been able to wriggle out of the arrangement with any one of them, but this woman was an unknown quantity.
He wondered briefly whether she’d come equipped with tranquillisers and physical restraints. And, more to the point, whether she’d been briefed about the requirement for discretion. Hugo assumed that she had, because discretion was one of the codes that his family lived by, and his father never let anyone forget it.
‘That’ll be her...’ His bodyguard sat in the front seat of the car, and had the advantage of an unobscured view. Hugo squinted through the tinted windows, and saw the chauffeur walking across the forecourt towards the airport’s short-stay car park. Beside him was a young woman with mid-brown hair and a supple sway to her walk, which made the short hairs at the back of Hugo’s neck prickle slightly.
Probably another one of his father’s carefully reasoned choices. Hugo had to admit that he wasn’t known for saying no to beautiful women, but unusually the King had misjudged the situation this time. A career woman, particularly a doctor, wasn’t someone that he could contemplate giving any part of his heart to.
‘She doesn’t look too formidable.’ Ted spoke in English, turning slightly in his seat to display the hint of a smile.
‘I wouldn’t bank on looks. She’s managed to keep hold of her suitcase, and I imagine that Jean-Pierre did everything he could to wrestle it away from her.’ Hugo turned the corners of his mouth down. The first thing his father’s chauffeur would have done was to try to relieve their guest of her luggage and wheel her suitcase for her.
‘I must be getting slow, I missed that.’ Ted had done nothing of the sort; he just hadn’t seen fit to mention it. In the five years that he’d been with Hugo, since his retirement from the British police force, the two men had learned to read each other’s thoughts and trust what they saw. It had been Ted who had happened to mention that he’d heard that the doctor was being picked up from the airport this morning, and Hugo had made the expected decision to go with the car to greet her. Sizing her up before anyone else at the palace got the chance to speak with her couldn’t be a bad thing.
