Page 23 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
Really? Because she felt weak. She felt as though she was capitulating to something inside herself that had nothing to do with personal agency and everything to do with wanting to be near him. To know him.
If she walked away now, she would go back to that blurry version of herself. She would never know who she could have become if he was in her life.
The one thing she did know about herself was that she wasn’t a coward. She didn’t shy from something simply because it looked difficult.
She bit her lips and nodded. “Yes. I’ll marry you.”
CHAPTER SIX
ITWASN’TMUCHof an exaggeration to say Claudine’s life changed in an instant.
The fact was, it had already changed when she had leaped from the speedboat to swim away from her life as a pageant contestant, but she could have gone back to her old life from there. It would have been altered and she would have faced challenges, but she wouldn’t have given her lifetosomeone else.
That was how she felt as Felipe whisked her under cover of darkness to the royal palace on Stella Vista.
By then, she had spoken briefly to her mother, who was now ensconced in a private and well-secured clinic for protection against paparazzi and anyone else who might try to reach her. They were planning to visit her after they announced their engagement.
“You’ll meet my parents in the morning,” Felipe said as he showed her into a private apartment. “Relax, eat. Ask Vinicio for anything you need. Speak to no one but the staff in these rooms.”
Did she feel guarded by Vinicio? Yes, but she soon realized this wasn’t any apartment. It was Felipe’s personal wing. The luxurious space was neat as a pin and included a small, well-stocked kitchen along with a breakfast room, a parlor, an office, a private terrace and a massive bedroom.
She perused the handful of photos on the walls. They showed Felipe in his youth, before he had been scarred, when he was still capable of smiling, and later, when that line on his face seemed to harden the rest of his features into its current hostile expression.
There were no photos of his brother.
She pressed her fist to the knot in her middle and turned on the television. It was set to a news channel and the broadcaster spoke in Italian. Market numbers ran along the bottom.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,signorina.” Vinicio materialized before her.
“Why not?”
“The coverage of your disappearance is unflattering.”
“Tome?” She pointed at herself, astonished.
“Sì.Prince Felipe is allowing it for the moment to maintain the illusion you are missing, but you may find it upsetting.” He turned off the television. “Perhaps we could run you a bath? Ippolita?” He moved into the bedroom that Claudine had only peered into.
A maid emerged from a dressing room. The pair exchanged some words in Italian.
The young woman smiled and nodded, then went back into the dressing room.
“Ippolita doesn’t speak English, but she’s been with us for some time and is fully vetted. Prince Felipe asked her to see what she could find for you at the local boutiques.”
“Oh?” Claudine leaned to see into the dressing room where the young woman had been hanging gowns and women’s clothing alongside shirts and suits.
“You’ll be flying to Paris after your engagement announcement,” Vinicio continued. “I’ve arranged for designers from Milan, New York and Tokyo to meet you there. You’ll soon have abundant styles to choose from.”
Claudine could hardly keep her jaw from dropping to the floor. She often wore designer clothing for the pageants, invariably on loan and always with great trepidation, given their value.
Ippolita reverently drew a peignoir off a hanger and presented it in a drape across her arms, anxiously searching Claudine’s face for approval. It was almost too pretty to consider wearing with its lilac-colored satin and oyster gray lace.
“It’s beautiful.” Claudine blushed slightly, wondering what Ippolita was implying by offering it, but the stunning quality of the piece had her reaching to turn over the small label attached with a loop of satin ribbon. “Local?”
Ippolita nodded.
Claudine had not won as many pageants as she had by not understanding how the game was played.
“You should include this designer with the rest,” Claudine suggested to Vinicio. “Most contestants wear the big names because that’s what we’re offered.” It was lucrative for the pageant to promote them and made it more likely for a contestant to be chosen as an ambassador for those products in future. “I find it wins hearts when I wear something made by a designer in the host country, even if it’s only a neck scarf.”
