Page 33 of The Princess and Her Mercenary

Keane was such a great listener. He seemed to want to know everything about her. He asked about her colour preferences, he asked about her friends and family. He even asked about her shoe size. He genuinely listened to all of her answers and asked follow-up questions. It was obvious he cared about her responses. Ndari was happy to tell him everything and anything he wanted to know. She was an open book and she was very pleased that he wanted to read.

After Guinness, he took Ndari to the Old Jameson distillery where she laughed and asked, “More booze?”

He shrugged. “Told you, we're getting the tourist shit out of the way first. Gotta do the tours.”

“Gotta do the tours,” she repeated with a terrible fake Irish accent.

They went through the distillery and Ndari had another few drinks. She was starting to feel the alcohol in her system. Her head was spinning a bit, and she felt a euphoric uplifting sensation.

She loved spending time with Keane, having drinks and wandering around, looking at everything. After they finished at the distillery, they wandered through an outdoor flea market where she commented on the coloured doors of the residential houses. They were bright and beautiful, red, green, blue, yellow.

“Why are they all painted like that?” she asked, pointing at a door.

He flashed her a grin. “The doors of Dublin,” he said. “Originally, they were painted that way to distinguish them from each other, but now I think it has more to do with the individual homeowners and their artistic expressions.”

“That's very romantic and thoughtful coming from you,” she commented.

“I’m very fucking romantic,” he assured her.

She laughed, “Where to next?”

Twenty minutes later, she found herself standing in front of a huge old church.

“St. Patrick's Cathedral,” Keane told her.

“I hadn’t pegged you as a churchgoing kinda guy,” she said.

He gave her a raised eyebrow look. “Definitely not. But you can't come to Dublin without checking out at least one Cathedral. Plus, thought we could get married while we’re here.” He said it so casually that it took her a moment to catch on.

“Married!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah, married,” he confirmed. “We're going to get married anyway, may as well be here.”

Her heart pounded and she tried to convince herself that he wasn't serious, but she knew better. Keane was always serious. Even when he was joking, he was always truthful. “You know we can't get married right now, right?”

“Why the fuck not?” he demanded. “Are you married to someone else?” He sounded genuinely angry at the thought, as though the idea hadn’t occurred to him before.

“Of course not! You know I'm not married to anyone else,” she said impatiently. “We just can't get married right this second.”

He gave her a hard stare and didn't bother to repeat himself. She knew what he would say anyway, why the fuck not?

“I don't want to get married this way,” she said reaching for his arm and squeezing him. “As though it's some kind of clandestine thing. I mean I've always wanted the pomp and ceremony, of course. The big white dress, the church.” He pointed his thumb at the Cathedral behind them. She rolled her eyes. “Not just any church, something that we choose together. And I want your mother there and my brother and the rest of my family. Not like this.”

“All right,” he relented. “Besides, don't think we can get the paperwork together in time to get married by the end of the day. Maybe we can try for the day after tomorrow.”

She laughed and smacked him on the arm. “Maybe we should give it a few weeks…” When he gave her a stern look, she added, “Just until the palace guards settle down and my brother is willing to come without wanting to murder us.”

They did the Cathedral tour. At the end, as they were leaving, Keane said, “Now we go see the Dublin that I know.”

Which heralded an evening of wild entertainment and even wilder fun. They danced. They laughed and they talked. Ndari had a few more drinks until she was truly tipsy, laughing in Keane’s arms and pointing at the bright passing lights as they took a taxi from one pub to the next. It was the most fun Ndari had ever had in her life. Even though she would sometimes do things to shake up her royal life, bar-hopping had never been on her list. Now that she was experiencing it, she wanted to do it all over again.

Their time in Dublin was like Paris and Prague. They were wrapped up in each other, rediscovering the world through each other’s eyes. Only Dublin was even better because there was something about the Irish city that spoke to the heart of Keane. She could see a kind of relaxing inside him. And whatever it was that called to him was calling to her too. In just one day she had fallen in love with this magical Irish city.

It was nearing midnight and they were at their final pub for the evening when Keane decided to cut Ndari off. She made a face at him. She was finally getting into the whole beer drinking thing.

"I'm not ready to go home yet,” Ndari complained.

“But I'm ready to have you to myself.” Keane wrapped his arms around her waist and held her close.

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