AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And now? Now she didn’t know what she wanted, what to do. No, that wasn’t true. She wanted to kiss Jack again. But she couldn’t, not while he had no idea who or what she was. Not when her heart seemed so firmly on the line.
To her surprise—and her relief—Jack seemed to act completely normally over breakfast and if the shadows under his blue eyes were darker than usual, well, there were lots of explanations for that. Maybe she’d read him wrong, read the situation wrong. Maybe for him the kiss had been nothing more than a passing whim, he’d just been taking advantage of what was undeniably a very romantic situation. But when Sally volunteered to take the now washed and dressed girls down to see the farm animals, the look he gave Arrosa made it clear that a reckoning was due.
‘Fancy a walk?’ he asked so casually that if she hadn’t been so attuned to him, hadn’t seen the pulse beating in his throat, hadn’t observed his almost preternatural stillness she might not have known the request was more of a command.
‘Sure, let me just get my bag.’ She took a few minutes in her tent to breathe and compose herself, before pulling on a cardigan and grabbing her bag. Neither spoke as they made their way to the clifftop path which wound steeply down to a wide pebbly cove and started to make their way across the rocky beach.
‘I owe you an apology,’ Jack said at last, his jaw tight. ‘I misread the situation last night. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Please accept my apologies. It won’t happen again.’
There it was, a get-out. Arrosa could say yes, he had misread the situation and they could both pretend she hadn’t touched him, hadn’t explored the austere planes of his face, hadn’t pulled him so tight against her she could still feel him imprinted on her.
But she wasn’t a liar. ‘You didn’t misread the situation. I wanted to be there with you, I wanted to kiss you and I wanted you to kiss me. I was all in, Jack. You don’t need to apologise.’
‘Okay...’ Now he looked confused. ‘Was it too soon? Were we moving too fast?’ His brows drew together. ‘Or are you in a relationship?’
Arrosa didn’t know what to say. In one way all of the reasons were true. ‘Jack...’ She had no idea where to go next. Her hands curled into fists as she took a deep breath. She had to be honest. He was a good man, he deserved the truth from her. ‘Yes to all those reasons and no at the same time. I’m not seeing anyone romantically, but my life isn’t my own, Jack. That’s why I’m here in Cornwall. I’m enjoying a few weeks’ freedom before I pledge myself to Asturia. I know, I have always known, that my happiness will always have to come second. And so I shouldn’t have kissed you. It was selfish of me because I knew I couldn’t pursue it any further, but I just wanted something that was mine, just for once.’
His expression grew even more confused. ‘Do you mean you’re going to become a nun?’
She laughed, although in some ways the analogy fitted. ‘No, although many of my ancestors were. Convents were always a good way to deal with wayward daughters and unwanted wives. Look, Jack, my full name is Arrosa Artega...’
She waited but now he just looked blank. Her name obviously meant nothing to him.
‘That’s a pretty name,’ he said carefully, obviously wondering where this was going.
‘Thank you. But this is about more than my name. Okay.’ She looked out to sea, trying to find the right words. ‘What I am about to tell you can go no further, because it doesn’t just affect me. It affects Clem as well. And I really want you to know that I didn’t mean to mislead you, I certainly didn’t mean for things to escalate between us. But they have and that means you deserve the truth. I’m not a diplomat, Jack. I’m a princess. And in a few weeks’ time the laws of my country will be changed to enable me to become next in line to the throne and the next monarch.’
There, it was out, and with it a load she hadn’t even known she was carrying.
Arrosa cast a quick glance in Jack’s direction to try and gauge his reaction. For a moment she could have sworn she saw hurt flit over his face, only to be wiped away as if it never was as his expression became shuttered.
‘I must be very slow,’ he said, his voice curiously polite. ‘Did you just say you’re a princess?’
‘I didn’t mean to deceive you...’ she started but he dismissed her apology with a casual wave of his hand.
‘Please don’t worry about it, Your Highness. Is that the right title? You’ll have to forgive me; I’m not used to addressing royalty.’ Each word hammered into her, and she flinched.
‘Rosy is fine. Look, Jack, like I said, this isn’t just my secret. It involves Clem as well and that means I can’t tell you everything, but I really want to try and make you understand.’
‘Honestly, there’s no need. You’ve been slumming it with the common people, that’s absolutely fine. I hope I helped you relax.’ His tone was still ultra-polite, deceptively casual, but she could see by the beat of a pulse in his cheek and the tensing of his jaw that polite was the last thing Jack Treloar was feeling right now.
For a minute she toyed with the idea of turning her back on him, heading back to the campsite and gathering her things before returning to the cottage. In a few weeks’ time she’d be back in Asturia and would never see him again. Besides, she didn’t owe him any explanation.
But then again, that wasn’t exactly true. She’d allowed herself to step into his carefully ordered life. She’d offered to look after his girls, suggested this camping trip. She’d entangled herself with him, gained his trust—and that she knew was a rarity for this proud man.
Now he thought she’d betrayed it, betrayed him, and after he’d allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of her. No wonder he was so cold. She deserved it.
They’d reached the end of the beach, only rocks ahead until the point of the headland. The nearest rock was flat and smooth and Arrosa headed to it and sat, staring out at the horizon. Jack halted a few metres away and tried to calm his tumbling thoughts, quell his instinctive anger.
How could he have been such an idiot? How could he once again have fallen for a woman who didn’t have any interest in him apart from as a diversion? A momentary dabble in the real world before stepping back into her gilded life.
It hadn’t taken him long after their marriage to realise that Lily had been more interested in his reputation than Jack himself. He had been supposed to be a summer rebellion, the local lord of the manor’s daughter slumming it with the village bad boy. Her marriage to him, their baby, a continuation of that rebellion. She’d loved him in her own careless way, but she had never really been in love with him, he knew that now, maybe had always known it.
And now he had once again fallen for a woman who came from a different sphere, who had no long-term interest in him. He was a fool.
‘Jack,’ she said quietly, almost helplessly. ‘Please let me explain.’
His first instinct was to refuse, to walk away, but there was something heartbreakingly vulnerable in her straight-backed posture and so instead he nodded curtly. He owed her nothing, but she could have her say.
