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The Ordinary Princess
Liz Fielding
Laura could see that Crown Prince Alexander of Montorino needed a holiday - from being a prince! He was so stiff and formal; he needed to lighten up and have some fun. For just a few days he would be ordinary, like her. Go shopping, go to the park, wash up - and Laura would be his guide…. Alexander found Laura to be like a breath of fresh air.She didn't stand on ceremony, and she told him what to do, not the other way around! It was the perfect partnership, one that Alexander wanted to last forever - until he discovered Laura's secret….
It was extraordinary, she thought, watching him scrape dishes, load the dishwasher.
Yesterday he had seemed as distant as the stars. This evening she was totally at ease with him. Far from being the cold, arrogant prince that his photos suggested, he was intelligent, stimulating, amusing.
“You’re not making a bad job of that,” she said.
“For a man?”
“For a prince. I don’t imagine you’ve done it before.”
“No, but it is simply a question of applying logic and order to the task.”
She exploded into a fit of giggles as he closed the dishwasher door, looked at the settings, chose one that seemed appropriate and then switched it on.
“I’m afraid the champagne has gone to your head,” he said.
“No, honestly.” It was the fact that he hadn’t put any detergent in the machine that was so funny.
Welcome to
The lives and loves of the royal, rich and famous!
We’re inviting you to the most thrilling and exclusive weddings of the year!
Meet women who have always wanted the perfect wedding…but never dreamed that they might be walking up the aisle with a millionaire, an aristocrat, or even a prince!
But whether they were born into it, are faking it or are just plain lucky—these women are about to be whisked off around the world to the playground of princes and playboys!
Are their dreams about to come true? If so, they might just find that they are truly fit for a prince….
Look out for more HIGH SOCIETY BRIDES, coming soon in Harlequin Romance
.
The Ordinary Princess
Liz Fielding
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ONE
‘FIRED? What do you mean, you’ve been fired?’
‘Sacked, dismissed, given the heave-ho. Released to explore alternative employment opportunities.’
Again.
‘I know what the word means, Laura. I was querying the reason.’
‘The usual reason, Jay. I have this total inability to concentrate on the task assigned. I’m too easily distracted. In short, my former employer decided that I was more of a liability than an asset.’ And with that Laura Varndell picked up her glass of wine and raised it in an ironical toast. ‘Here’s to the end of my career which today ran into reality and sank without a trace.’ And she emptied the glass.
It seemed an appropriate moment to fling it dramatically into the fireplace to underline the end of all her dreams, but since her great-aunt’s flat lacked this useful amenity, and flinging it at a radiator didn’t quite have the same appeal, she held it out for a refill instead.
Her great-aunt Jenny—known universally as Jay—obliged and, understanding the need for food at such moments, pushed a comfortingly large dish of pistachio nuts in her direction.
It said much for Laura’s state of mind that she wasn’t tempted.
‘All right, let’s have it. What did you do this time?’
Jay said this with the unspoken suggestion that, having gone out on a limb, used her contacts—more than once—to get her young niece’s stumbling feet on the path to her chosen career, she was not particularly amused that she’d messed up.
‘Nothing,’ Laura said. That, of course, was why she’d been directed to the exit by her boss. ‘Well, when I say nothing that’s not strictly true. I did do something.’
‘Just not what you were told to do, hmm?’
‘Just what anyone with an ounce of humanity would have done in my place,’ she replied, stung by the unspoken criticism.
‘I see.’ This said with a convince-me sigh. ‘Why don’t you start at the beginning.’ Jay refilled her own glass as if anticipating the need for fortification.
‘I was despatched to cover a demonstration by a senior citizens’ action group. The news editor—’
‘Trevor McCarthy? I knew him when he couldn’t spell the word “editor”,’ Jay said.
Laura had a momentary and deeply pleasing mental image of her fierce news editor as a junior reporter being chewed out by her great-aunt the way he’d chewed her out today. Before directing her to the exit. Then, ‘Yes, well, Trevor said that even I couldn’t get into trouble with a bunch of OAPs.’
‘In other words he’s still stupid. You attract trouble like a magnet. One day it’ll get you the kind of story that will go around the world.’
‘Not if I haven’t got a job.’ Then, ‘To be fair to the man—’ although why she should since he’d sacked her, she didn’t know ‘—it should have been simple enough.’
‘It’s simple enough,’ he’d said. ‘Even a child could do it.’ Implying that was about her level of competence.
‘My brief was to get some quotable quotes, take a few pictures of the oldies in revolt—his words, not mine,’ she said quickly, as her own favourite ‘oldie’ gave her a sharp glance.
‘But?’
‘I wasn’t looking for trouble,’ she said, anxious to make that point at the outset. ‘I was talking to this really sweet couple, asking them why they were out on a demo when they could have been at home with their feet up in front of the telly, a cup of tea and a toasted bun within easy reach—’
‘Being patronising must be catching. Did they hit you with their placard?’ Jay enquired dryly.
‘No! We were getting along really well, talking about the stupid preconceptions people have about the old. You’re the one who’s always banging on about the fact that you don’t hand over your ability to reason in return for your pension book.’ She grinned. ‘When you’re not back-packing through a snake-infested jungle or canoeing down some gorge or other.’
‘But?’ her aunt persisted, refusing to be side-tracked.
‘But then the old chap sort of keeled over. Collapsed at my feet. I couldn’t just ignore that, could I?’
Her aunt’s expression suggested that she was withholding judgement pending explanations. ‘What caused the collapse?’
‘Well, his wife was convinced—I was convinced—that it was a heart-attack.’
‘But it wasn’t.’
‘The doctor—and it was hours before he saw a doctor—suggested that it might have been over-excitement. But we didn’t know that and I couldn’t leave them in the middle of the street, could I?’
Her aunt’s face clouded. As a photojournalist she’d covered many war zones and undoubtedly been faced with such dilemmas on a regular basis. But she’d been a professional. Had never forgotten why she was there. She’d always got her story.
‘I imagine,’ she said, after the slightest of pauses, ‘that at this point in the narrative McCarthy asked why you didn’t just call an ambulance, summon assistance from a marshal and find someone else to interview?’
‘When you put it like that it sounds so simple.’
‘It is simple. But I guess you had to be there, hmm?’
‘It was all a bit of a muddle, to be honest, and the queue in A&E was horrendous. There’d been an accident on a building site. A wall had collapsed—’
The newsdesk had been trying to contact her about that. They’d wanted her to leave the protest march and cover the building site story, but of course she’d had to switch off her mobile phone in the hospital. She should have phoned in, told them what was happening, but she’d been too intent on staying with the story she had.
‘The old lady was so frightened. I couldn’t just leave her there. You do understand, don’t you?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I understand.’ Her tone suggested that she understood that her great-niece was an idiot. But a sweet idiot.
‘By the time he’d been seen by a doctor and I’d got back to the demo I’d missed a mini-riot and thirty-two senior citizens being arrested for committing a breach of the peace.’
‘But you did have a human interest story about an old man who’d collapsed from over-excitement,’ Jay pointed out.
‘Well…’ She shrugged, helplessly. ‘No, actually.’
‘No? You didn’t get some heart-wrenching tale of hardship from this pair? In return for all your help?’
Laura shrugged awkwardly. ‘Apparently their son is something big in the City. He would have been absolutely furious with them if they’d got their names in the paper.’
‘You mean he’s a pompous ass who’s embarrassed by the fact that his parents have minds of their own?’
‘Well, maybe, but you can see his point.’ She faltered beneath her aunt’s uncompromising gaze. ‘Maybe not.’
‘You are too kind for your own good, Laura.’ Then, because there was no answer to that, she asked, ‘What will you do now?’
Laura sighed. ‘I don’t know. According to Trevor, I ought to forget journalism as a career. Maybe he’s right. I haven’t exactly covered myself with glory. Apparently a bleeding heart liberal like myself should stick to something more suited to my temperament.’ She winced as she remembered his withering scorn. ‘In fact he suggested I look for full-time employment as a nanny.’
‘In other words he hasn’t forgotten the incident with that woman who left you holding her baby.’
Laura closed her eyes and banged her forehead on her knees. ‘I’m utterly useless. I’ll never make a journalist.’
Jay looked as if she might be about to say something—but thought better of it. ‘You’re just young, that’s all. And a bit soft.’
‘They weren’t amongst the adjectives Trevor used when he told me to get out and never darken his door again unless I had something he could put on his front page without turning his newspaper into a laughing stock.’
‘He said that, did he?’ Jay leaned forward and topped up her glass. ‘That doesn’t sound like the sack to me.’
‘No, I got the subtext. My great-aunt is a personal friend of the newspaper’s owner so he’s covering his back. But, let’s face it, he’s safe enough.’
‘All you need is the right story.’
‘I refer to the answer I gave earlier.’
‘Hey—’ Jay leaned forward, touched her chin, forced her to look up ‘—whatever happened to your ambition to become a great crusading journalist?’
It had been her ambition for as long as she could remember to emulate her great-aunt, see her byline on stories that moved the world. ‘Like you? It’s time for a reality check, Jay. I’m not going to make much of a difference if I get side-tracked by sweet old things who need their hands held. I should have been there today, reporting the anger of people who are sick of not being listened to. I should have been at that building site, asking questions about safety. Making sure people know what’s going on around them. I should—’
‘If you realise that, your day hasn’t been entirely wasted. Unless, of course, you plan to just give up and sit there feeling sorry for yourself?’
Laura shrugged, found a smile from somewhere. ‘Just give me a minute, okay? I’ll get over it.’
‘What you need, my girl, is a good old-fashioned scoop. The inside story on someone famous should do it.’
‘Oh, that’ll be easy.’
‘I didn’t say it would be easy. I was the one who tried to persuade you that you should forget journalism and look for a sensible job.’
Laura pulled a face. ‘My father was a mountaineer, my mother a travel writer, and you spent a fair amount of your time in the world’s trouble spots. The family genes would appear to have a sensible deficit.’
Her aunt reached out, touched her arm briefly. Laura blinked, pasted on a smile.
‘Even so, I’ll pass on an exposé of someone rich and famous, if you don’t mind. It isn’t my thing.’
‘You aren’t in a position to be choosy, Laura. The important thing right now is to get you back in favour with the boss. If you really do want to be a journalist?’
