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‘And my mother?’ he asked, bracing himself for the inevitable reply.
‘She’s alive,’ Zabrina said, very quietly.
He froze. ‘Are you serious?’
She nodded. ‘Totally serious. Your mother is alive and well, Roman. She sent you this.’
She bent and reached into her handbag and pulled out a small pouch and inside was a delicate necklace—a cheap silver chain with a blue enamel bird dangling from the end. ‘It’s a bluebird,’ she whispered, as she let it spill into his open palm. ‘The symbol of Missouri state, where she comes from. She sent it to Olga, with one of her first letters. She wants to see you. We could invite her to the wedding, if you like. Or you could go and see her on your own, if...if you don’t want the wedding to go ahead.’
His fingers closed around the little locket. ‘You’re saying you want to call it off?’ he husked.
Zabrina closed her eyes in despair as she watched him replace the necklace in the pouch and put it in his pocket. How could he be so dense? How could he fail to see the evidence which was before his eyes, that she wanted him so much she would walk to the ends of the earth for him? But deep down she knew the answer to that. Because he hadn’t been shown enough love in his life—that was why he couldn’t recognise it. His trust in love had been destroyed and this was her chance to help him rebuild it, and she had to take it, no matter what the outcome. Even if he felt she now knew too much about him, to be comfortable with them sharing a life.
‘Calling it off is the last thing I want to do,’ she said. ‘I want to be your wife more than anything in the world, because I love you, Roman. I think I’ve loved you from the first time I saw you, when you were Constantin Izvor. I loved you as the man, not as the King, but I love the King too—if that makes sense. You make me laugh and you bring me joy, and, yes, you can be infuriating at times but I’m sure I can, too.’
‘Zabrina—’
‘No. Let me finish, because this bit is important,’ she said in a low voice which, infuriatingly, had started shaking. ‘When I told you all those things about what I expected from our marriage, I was wrong. When I said I would turn a blind eye if you wanted to have affairs with other women, I don’t know what I was thinking. Well, I do actually, but I wasn’t being honest with myself. Because the truth is that I would be beside myself with jealousy and rage if you ever touched another woman. I want you exclusively, Roman, maybe even a bit possessively. So if that isn’t your idea of what you want out of a royal marriage, then—’
‘Zabrina, Zabrina, Zabrina.’ He pulled her into his arms and smoothed his thumb down the side of her face as if he were seeing it for the first time. ‘I never wanted that kind of marriage and the thought of you being with anyone other than me repels me. In fact, the idea of you being jealous is rather reassuring—because we both know that I’m capable of feeling it, too.’ He paused and his voice was a little unsteady. ‘Except that I will never give you cause to be jealous, because I love you, Princess.’
‘You don’t have to say that,’ she whispered.
‘I know I don’t. I’m not in the habit of saying anything I don’t mean and I don’t intend to start now. But learning how to express myself is a whole new skill set, so you will have to make allowances for me.’
She smiled. ‘Oh, I think I could manage to do that, my darling.’
She touched her fingers to his jaw and Roman could see the wonder shining from her face and her sweet expression smote at a heart which was already full and somehow all the pain was just draining away from him, leaving him feeling as if he’d shed a heavy burden he hadn’t even realised he’d been carrying. It would have been so easy to kiss her and allow their bodies to help heal the pain and take away the sense of time wasted, and a mother’s love denied. But this was too important to take the easy way out. He needed to find the right words to say to her and make sure she believed them. ‘Just like you,’ he said slowly, ‘I fell in love the first time we met and wished you weren’t a princess so I could just go ahead and seduce you.’
‘But you seduced me anyway!’
‘So I did.’ He sighed. ‘I don’t know if you can appreciate just how out of character that was for me, Zabrina—to shrug off my sense of duty and make as if it didn’t matter. And I resented you for that. I resented your power over me.’
‘You never wanted a woman to have that perceived power over you again,’ she guessed slowly. ‘Because you didn’t want to risk being hurt again. I understand that. But I will never hurt you, Roman—certainly not intentionally—and if I do, then you must tell me and we’ll talk about it.’
He felt his heart lurch. ‘I want to marry you,’ he breathed. ‘If I could marry you here and now, then I would. And because these words do not feature in the official Petrogorian ceremony I will say them to you now. You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met—both inside and out. You are brave and strong and caring and I am blessed to have you in my life. I love you with every fibre of my being, Zabrina. Believe me when I tell you that.’
‘Oh, I do,’ she whispered, the break of emotion in her voice fracturing her response. ‘I so do.’
EPILOGUE
‘OH, ZABRINA, YOU look so beautiful.’ Eva clapped her hands over her mouth as she stared up at her big sister. ‘Like a real queen!’
‘That’s because,’ said Daria, glancing at the diamond-encrusted watch which had been a bridesmaid gift from her future brother-in-law, ‘in approximately an hour’s time she will be a queen! Are you nervous, Zabrina?’
Zabrina shook her head so that her tulle veil shimmered. ‘Not nervous,’ she said softly. ‘Just happy.’ She sighed. So very happy. Because Roman made her happy every second of every day. Soon she would legally be his wife and she couldn’t wait. She wanted to start on this new phase of life with him. The two of them, together, as man and wife. She heard the sound of distant trumpets playing a triumphant Petrogorian fanfare and, turning to both her sisters, she gave a smile so wide it felt as if it might split her face in two. ‘Shall we go?’
As they nodded, she reached out and took the fragrant white bouquet from Silviana, the gilded doors were flung open and she began to make her way down the aisle towards her beloved King. Embroidered with over one thousand tiny pearls, the train of her dress was heavy, which meant she had to walk slowly. But she wanted to walk slowly. She wanted to make the most of every second of her wedding day to her one true love. To the powerful soulmate who had emerged from all the turmoil and heartbreak as a different man,
once all the barriers with which he’d surrounded himself had come tumbling down. She could see him standing waiting for her beneath an arch of flowers, his pewter eyes dark, a gleam of anticipation in their depths as he watched her approach. dpg
Faces turned as she walked—some she recognised but many she didn’t. Her parents were there, of course. Her mother sitting bolt upright in her recently cleaned ‘best’ crown and her father paying rather too much attention to the busty redhead seated at the end of the row. Zabrina found herself wondering how they would adapt to being grandparents. Maybe a brand-new generation would bring a little light and freshness into their cynical relationship. You could but hope.
Along the aisle she moved, watching heads incline and women curtsey. There were members of the Albastasian aristocracy alongside their Petrogorian counterparts—as well as royals from Maraban, from Greece and from Britain. There were A-list actors and academics—and a devastatingly handsome but rather dangerous-looking Sheikh called Zulfaqar, whom Daria had been flirting with all during the rehearsal last night. Zabrina intended have a stern word with her sister after the ceremony and warn her off, because apparently the desert King had a terrible reputation with women. But for now, she just wanted to reach her beloved Roman and say her vows.
Her heart was beating very fast as she handed her bouquet to Daria, and as she saw Olga sitting in the front row, with three of her grandchildren, Zabrina felt a great tremble of emotion. Maybe she was more nervous than she’d thought. But the moment Roman grasped her fingers within the warmth of his, she felt nothing but a powerful sense of excitement and contentment filling her heart.
‘You look beautiful,’ he murmured.
