Page 30 of Prince She Shouldn’t Crave (Royal House of Halrovia #2)

Isolobello gleamed in perfection for the royal wedding between Prince Caspar and Princess Priscilla.

The capital and every town bedecked with garlands and banners for the event.

It was a magnificent morning for a celebration.

The sun shone golden in a flawless blue sky.

The weather, comfortably warm. Lena stood in the lounge area of her small flat.

Television droning in the background to stop her racing thoughts.

The churn in her belly as if it were full of snakes.

She looked down again at the heavy cream card of an invitation that had come six weeks earlier, delivered to her home by courier.

His Majesty King Constantine

requests the pleasure of the company of

Ms Lena Rosetti

at the marriage of

His Royal Highness Prince Caspar of Isolobello

with

Princess Priscilla of Halrovia

After what had happened between her and Prince Gabriel, she hadn’t been sure that her friendship with Cilla would survive.

Yet she held the unmistakable evidence that it had in her hands.

Whilst photographs she’d seen online from others displaying their invitations in excitement showed their names in calligraphy, hers had been written in the fine, elegant hand she knew to be Cilla’s.

It was personal and touching. But still, Lena’s heart kicked against her ribs.

She took a deep breath trying to settle it.

Lena slid the invitation back into her clutch purse with trembling fingers.

For a while she hadn’t known what to do, but as the RSVP date had approached, she’d found herself accepting the invitation.

So here she was, dressed and waiting for her allotted time to leave home for Isolobello’s cathedral.

The guests’ arrival staged to avoid traffic jams in the overflowing city, full of media and visitors wanting to celebrate what had been billed as the wedding of the year.

Yet right in this moment, she wasn’t sure she wanted to go.

Her teeth worried her lower lip, the fear at seeing Gabriel again almost throttling her.

He’d clearly made some changes in his life.

For some masochistic reason she hadn’t immediately cancelled news alerts for him.

The last headline she’d seen, after an important media release…

Heart of a Hero: Prince Gabriel’s Dyslexia Revelation Sparks Hope for Others

He’d done it. What she believed was one of the most important things she’d ever suggested to him. It had been at that point she couldn’t bear it any more and had shut the alerts down, because he was clearly moving on and so should she.

Lena rubbed at an ache in her chest, refusing to let the burn of tears spill over and ruin her make-up.

How could she face him? Sure, he’d sit up front of the cathedral with the other members of royalty, but still…

At least she was only invited to the ceremony.

The reception was a private family-only affair.

All she could do was cross her fingers and hope there was little chance of her catching any more than a glimpse of the man she’d walked away from, breaking her heart in the process.

In the distance the cheers of the crowd rose and fell like the roar of a winter’s wind.

Ebbing and flowing as some carriage or car paraded down the main street towards the cathedral, which she could see on the television as she’d watched throughout the day.

She checked the time. Her car would be here soon enough to take her, once most of the dignitaries had arrived.

She still had time to collect her thoughts, rein in her emotions.

Get herself in the mood for a day to celebrate love.

Something she now understood, deeply and viscerally, that she wanted for herself.

Only the man she wanted it with was unavailable, and not for her.

Lena took a deep breath. It was fine. She was fine. What had she expected anyway? A commoner and an illegitimate child, her father unacknowledged. Had she ever really contemplated that one day she might be Queen of Halrovia when things had started with Gabe?

The truth was, for a fleeting moment, she almost had. What she craved was for someone to love her , to choose her . To see her for who she was and not the family she’d been born into.

When she’d returned home from Halrovia, Lena had sat down to have some hard conversations with her mother.

But they were also some of the most real, because of her new understanding of what her mum might have gone through.

They’d spoken, and they’d cried. Both of them grieving.

She’d admitted what had happened with Gabe, what she’d felt.

Lena had expected her mother to berate her choice.

Instead, her mother had cupped her cheek and explained to Lena how she’d fallen in love with a man and hadn’t thought of the consequences till she’d been in too deep.

Too far in love and too lacking in confidence to contemplate life without him.

How much she admired Lena for her courage and her self-belief; having the strength to walk away.

Then they’d cried some more. So many tears had fallen that day.

But she couldn’t stay sad for ever. She had to keep moving.

She’d been in a kind of stasis long enough.

Whilst her teacher had always said, ‘There is a divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will’ , Lena realised the flaw in that quote.

It removed her agency. She’d spent enough time waiting for the universe to work things out for her.

Now she had to drive her own life. Which had led to her seeing a lawyer, as Gabe had suggested, to get her own advice on her father’s failure to provide for them.

And what she’d learned had changed her and her family’s life.

That they were entitled to part of the estate. A sizeable part.

So, she’d turned up to her half-brother’s office and demanded their share.

Not everything they were entitled to, but enough to keep her mother in her home, and her brother in university.

As for her, initially she’d balked at taking any money from her father’s estate but, as her younger brother had pointed out, neither of them had asked to be born, and some money, whilst not making them rich, gave her choices.

She didn’t have to work for anyone. She could complete her degree, start her own business.

And when the dust settled, that was what she’d do.

She’d have what she’d always wanted. An education. Financial security.

And yet it still seemed as if there was something, or someone, missing.

As she stood watching her country’s flags fluttering in the breeze out of her window, the clatter of horses’ hooves sounded in the distance.

That was weird, because the path of the procession to the wedding wasn’t close enough to her home to be able to hear the horses.

Perhaps they were mounted police patrolling in ceremonial uniform?

‘There’s something you don’t see every day. What are they doing?’

An announcer on the television. She turned and the two people onscreen, a man and a woman, were chuckling.

‘Perhaps they’ve left something behind?’ said the man. ‘The ring?’

Lena couldn’t see what they were laughing at, but surely no one had forgotten the wedding ring.

She tried to listen to what the announcers were saying.

Something about a carriage turning around.

However, the only pictures onscreen were of guests arriving at the cathedral.

The announcers said they had a reporter on the ground trying to find out what had gone on, except Lena was distracted by the clatter of hooves becoming louder on the roadway outside her apartment.

The rhythm and the sound suggesting horses working in unison, rather than individually.

She went to her window overlooking the cobbled street below as the announcers mentioned something about a residential area and a carriage.

In the distance she saw movement, and the reason for the sound became clear.

Horses. Six. Black. Carrying three riders in full livery of red and gold and pulling a gleaming open carriage.

Her heart leapt to her throat, beating a quick and thready rhythm.

She stood there gripping the window frame.

The wood cool and hard under her fingertips as the carriage came closer and closer.

Two men sitting in it. The broad back of one with unruly brown hair and another, whose hair was gold like the sun.

Lena gasped and pulled back. Slamming shut the windows as if trying to lock herself in.

She turned to the television as they talked about members of the public calling in saying the landau carriage carrying Aston Lane and Prince Gabriel of Halrovia was travelling through the back streets of the capital to an unknown destination.

It wasn’t unknown at all. They were in her suburb, on her street.

Lena didn’t know what to do, where to go.

Her thoughts whirled but none of them made sense.

The sound of the hooves echoing off the buildings either side of the narrow street below became louder and louder.

Lena wanted to put her fingers in her ears and pretend that this wasn’t happening as the hooves clattered, slowed and came to a stop what sounded like right outside her building.

She refused to look out. She stood in the middle of the lounge area of her apartment.

Waiting. For what? The building had security.

No one could get in. But, she knew, no one would keep out a prince .

Perspiration beaded on her brow. A trickle ran down the back of her neck as she tried to breathe.

The television droning in the background supposing what the Crown Prince of Halrovia was doing.

The whole scenario so bizarre and dissonant because she knew what he had to be doing.

He was coming to see her.

A knock sounded at the door. She jumped, the sound sharp and urgent. Without her thinking much, her feet took her to the door. Her hands trembling as she undid the chain. Methodically working the locks and opening it.

She gripped the door jamb to keep her upright as the man who had haunted too many of her dreams came into view, in a rush that pushed the breath from her lungs. Her Gabe.

No, not hers .

She might have liked to pretend but Prince Gabriel was his country’s, and always would be. He’d made it clear that he hadn’t considered a future with her. She’d done the right thing and set him free by leaving, as much as he’d freed her in the time they’d been together.

She couldn’t look at his face. Not yet. His clothes were easier. He was as perfectly, formally attired as she’d always remembered. More so today in his morning dress. The dark coat, paler grey striped trousers. Cream waistcoat. Soft pink tie…

Oh.

Her lips almost broke into a smile because Pieter would have hated it with the power of a thousand suns.

She focussed on the tie of that offending colour for a while, almost afraid to look anywhere else. But she had nothing to fear, not any more. In walking away from him she had shown just how brave she could really be.

‘Lena.’

Her name sounded like a benediction. She couldn’t help herself.

She looked up. To his full lips that had kissed and pleasured her till she’d wept.

Heat crept up her throat at the memories.

His eyes, the pale blue of melting snow in spring.

But even though the colour might have appeared cool, it was only an illusion.

Something about them, the look in them, blazed like the hottest of summer suns.

She didn’t know what to say, she could hardly remember how to breathe, so she blurted out the only thing that came to mind.

‘Th-they said you might have left something behind—what?’

Gabe’s Adam’s apple bobbed as his throat convulsed in a swallow.

‘You, Lena. Nothing else but you.’