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“Bad luck,princesita,” he murmured, and he didn’t try very hard to keep his feelings out of his voice. “That means you’re stuck with me, after all.”
“That’s the point,” she argued. “I don’t want to be stuck. I don’t wantyouto be stuck!”
He smiled at her, because if she’d thought she was his before, she had no idea what was coming. He’d waited his whole life to love another this much, and now she was more than that. Now she was a family. “But I do.”
And then, to make absolutely sure there would be no talking her way out of this or plotting something new and even more insane than the secret twin sister who was watching all of this from her spot on the bed, he wrenched open the door behind him and called for King Geoffrey himself.
“Make him hurry,” he told the flabbergasted attendants as they raced to do his bidding. “Tell him I’m seeing double.”
* * *
In the end, it all happened so fast.
King Geoffrey strode in, already frowning, only to stop dead when he saw Natalie and Valentina sitting next to each other on the chaise. Waiting for him.
Natalie braced herself as Valentina stood and launched into an explanation. She rose to her feet, too, shooting a nervous look over at Rodolfo where he lounged against one of the bed’s four posters, because she expected the king to rage. To wave it all away the way Erica had. To say or do something horrible—
But instead, the King of Murin made a small, choked sound.
And then he was upon them, pulling both Natalie and Valentina into a long, hard, endless hug.
“I thought you were dead,” he whispered into Natalie’s neck. “She told me you were dead.”
And for a long while, there was nothing but the church bells outside and the three of them, not letting go.
“I forget myself,” Geoffrey said at last, wiping at his face as he stepped back from their little knot. Natalie made as if to move away, but Valentina gripped her hand and held her fast. “There is a wedding.”
“My wedding,” Rodolfo agreed from the end of the bed.
The king took his time looking at the man who would be his son-in-law one way or another. Natalie caught her breath.
“You were promised this marriage the moment you became the Crown Prince, of course, as your brother was before you.”
“Yes.” Rodolfo inclined his head. “I am to marry a princess of Murin. But it does not specify which one.”
Valentina blinked. “It doesn’t?”
The king smiled. “Indeed it does not.”
“But everyone expects Valentina,” Natalie heard herself say. Everyone turned to stare at her and she felt her cheeks heat up. “They do. It’s printed in the programs.”
“The programs,” Rodolfo repeated as if he couldn’t believe she’d said that out loud, and his dark gaze glittered as it met hers, promising a very specific kind of retribution.
She couldn’t wait.
“It is of no matter,” King Geoffrey said, sounding every inch the monarch he was. He straightened his exquisite formal coat with a jerk. “This is the Sovereign Kingdom of Murin and last I checked, I am its king. If I wish to marry off a daughter only recently risen from the dead, then that is exactly what I shall do.” He started for the door. “Come, Valentina. There is work to be done.”
“What work?” Valentina frowned at his retreating back. But Natalie noticed she followed after him anyway. Instantly and obediently, like the proper princess she was.
“If I have two daughters, only one of them can marry into the royal house of Tissely,” King Geoffrey said. “Which means you must take a different role altogether. Murin will need a queen of its own, you know.”
Valentina shot Natalie a harried sort of smile over her shoulder and then followed the King out, letting the door fall shut behind her.
Leaving Natalie alone with Rodolfo at last.
It was as if all the emotions and revelations of the day spun around in the center of the room, exploding into the sudden quiet. Or maybe that was Natalie’s head—especially when Rodolfo pushed himself off the bedpost and started for her, his dark gaze intent.
And extraordinarily lethal.
