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Despite his bone-deep misery, Rafe had to smile at his younger brother. “Just being here is help enough.” Regret for the years he could have had with Roland coursed through him and he tossed an arm around the other man’s shoulders in a quick and affectionate hug.
When they reached the chauffeured limo waiting at the exit, Rafe was surprised to see his father seated inside the car.
Before he could utter a greeting, Victor held up a hand. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“You do?” Rafe smiled wryly. “Good, because I’m not sure I do anymore.”
“Raphael, I’m sure you think I’m being so helpful out of a desire to link my house with the Wyndhams’.” He grimaced. “And I admit, there’s a part of me that would like that very much. But that’s not why I’m here. In fact, I’ll leave if you’d prefer I not involve myself in your life.”
It was a shock to see that his father’s intent blue eyes were the same ones that stared back at him every morning. Quietly, he said, “I believe you have my best interests at heart, Father. And that’s good enough for me.” And he realized it was true.
The moisture that gleamed in the older man’s eyes embarrassed them both, and there was silence in the car for a moment.
The Grand Duke inclined his head. “I never should have tried to force you into a marriage based on—”
“Lies?” asked Rafe.
“Half truths, at the very least.” The older man cleared his throat. “I know what it’s like to love someone. And it was clear when we saw you together that you and Elizabeth were very much in love. Being my son, it’s entirely possibly that you’ve done something unforgivably stupid—”
Both his sons laughed and the tension in the vehicle dissipated.
Then Rafe sobered. “I hope it’s not unforgivable.”
Slowly, hesitantly, his father reached over and laid a comforting hand on his son’s knee. “We’ll do whatever we can to help you make it right.”
Several hours later, a servant knocked on the door of the smoking room where Rafe, his father and his brother were closeted.
The Grand Duke bellowed, “Enter,” and Trumble came into the room, carrying a single sheet of paper on a silver tray.
“A telephone message for you, Your Grace.”
Victor practically leaped on the man. “Well, give it here! What does it say?” The paper slipped from his grasp and fluttered toward the floor, but before it could land Roland had snatched it up again.
“The Princess has arrived at the palace,” he announced. Then he cleared his throat. “She, ah, visited a man, an American attorney named Samuel Flynn in Catalina, Arizona, before leaving the States.” He looked questioningly at Rafe. “Friend of yours?”
Rafe shook his head. “Apparently a friend of hers,” he said in a grim tone.
“Will she see you if you call on her?” asked his father.
“Not a chance.” Once he would have endured torture rather than admit to his father that he’d made a mistake. Today, it no longer seemed to matter.
“Well, then, we’ll have to get you in without being announced.”
Two hours later, Victor’s limousine was pulling up to the guardhouse at the palace gates.
“The Grand Duke of Thortonburg and my son Roland, Prince of Thortonburg,” he announced imperiously to the guard as the man checked the two men seated in the rear interior of the vehicle.
The guard punched some buttons on the face of a cell phone and received permission to admit them. As the gates slowly opened, and the limo rolled into the lush green gardens that led to the palace, Roland eyed the back of their chauffeur’s head and chuckled. “Very good, Father. Very good.”
The chauffeur glanced over his shoulder, blue eyes gleaming. “Thank you, Father.”
In the end, it was even simpler than Rafe had anticipated.
Roland and the Grand Duke left him along a deeply wooded riding path close to the inner edge of the estate. Striding along the path, Rafe looked around to get his bearings. He’d chosen this location because he knew the woods grew up to the edge of the gardens near here. The guards around the palace grounds generally stayed within sight but not necessarily within hearing of the royal family. With that in mind, he hoped to get close enough to the house so that when Elizabeth came out for a stroll, he could speak to her even if he had to sit out here all night.
He couldn’t believe how easy it had been, considering the King’s well-known fetish for security. But the Grand Duke would never be expected to be a threat. And since the King’s own security team had personally approved any chauffeurs entering any premises where the royal family was in residence, the man driving the Grand Duke’s own limo had been cleared when his uniform insignia identified him as someone previously checked out.
To his right Rafe could see the beginning of a small clearing. As he got a better look, he muttered, “I’ll be damned.”
