Page 5 of His Royal Bride Replacement

As she reached the museum doorway, she heard a raised voice and stepped back, staying out of sight.

‘But this can’t happen!’ Alessio was ranting. ‘It’s not possible. The weddinghasto go ahead. It can’t be postponed or cancelled. Get her back, she’s your daughter—

‘What do you mean she’salreadymarried?’ Alessio growled in audible disbelief.

Eyes wide with astonishment, Rosy grimaced on his behalf.

‘No, there’s nothing more you can do. But she could have told me herself. I apologise for raising my voice.’ Moments afterwards, he tossed something down on the display case surface, probably, she surmised, his phone, the call clearly finished.

Silence fell and Rosy appeared in the doorway. In the act of raking long brown fingers through his black luxuriant hair, Alessio stilled to stare at her.

‘How long have you been standing there?’ he demanded curtly.

‘I heard you on the phone and stepped back out of view,’ Rosy admitted honestly. ‘It didn’t seem like the right moment to interrupt.’

‘Then I must ask you not to repeat a word of what you may have overheard. In case you haven’t guessed, the wedding of the century has tanked,’ he murmured with sardonic bite.

‘I couldn’t repeat anything even if I wanted to. I had to sign an NDA my first day here,’ Rosy pointed out. ‘And I’m only here now because I wanted to thank you for having my bike picked up and repaired.’

‘Your…bike?’ Alessio repeated blankly.

‘Yes, you had it repaired for me and I am grateful. You were kind to me that day.’

‘I’m sorry. I’m not quite with you,’ Alessio breathed in a raw undertone. ‘I’m in shock.’

‘Understandably, if the wedding’s not going ahead.’

‘It can’t. My bride married her bodyguard last night and took off to New York with him,’ Alessio spelt out flatly, studying her in the workmanlike overalls that only enhanced her tiny, slender frame, her bubbling vibrant curls restrained in a topknot arrangement. Not a scrap of make-up and still exquisite. Rosy, that was her name and it suited her. He still hadn’t checked through that file on her background, had deliberately ignored it after his PA had asked him why he had asked for it in the first place. In fact, he had felt rather guilty and a little embarrassed for requesting that unnecessarily intrusive check.

‘It sounds like you dodged a bullet,’ Rosy whispered awkwardly.

‘No, it’s more like Graziana has exploded a bomb in my life…in this country…andin her own.’

‘I’m so sorry.’ Rosy began to back away as she heard the sound of steps approaching and reckoned his coffee was about to arrive.

Trying not to think about the shock news she had overheard, Rosy went back to work. Lucy was a perfectionist and had left a list of tasks to be accomplished during her absence, more than could be easily accomplished in the hours available. Of course, Rosy had had a week at home while her ankle recovered and undoubtedly her boss felt that she had to compensate for that time off. After all, everything and everybody within the Sedovian palace was gearing up towards the royal wedding. The wedding that wasn’t going to happen now, she reflected, and then quickly suppressed the thought. Would the special tours of the palace, the museum and the art gallery even still go ahead? Right now, it felt as though the whole of Sedovia was preparing for the wedding. And now it wasn’t going to happen…

Before she suppressed the feeling, a current of sympathy for the Prince filtered through her. He was being jilted and with minimal warning. He had been very much in shock. Rosy reckoned that the whole populace would go into shock when the news broke, as break it must very soon. Princess Graziana had seemed demure and dignified, not the type to throw her cap over a rainbow and run off with an employee, although Rosy had heard other rumours about Alessio’s bride-to-be following her brief stays in the household. That she was very demanding and spoilt, prone to angry outbursts and definitely not a fan of Alessio’s more casual approach to formality.

By the time Rosy was riding home on her bike, her mood was sombre. She was thinking of how a wedding cancellation would impact the family hotel and her heart sank. A lot of people had booked on a special royal wedding package that had chosen the Cathedral View Hotel as one of a small, exclusive selection for discerning guests. All those guests might well cancel now and Vittoria and Patrick’s finances would sink without trace. There was nothing left in the kitty for rainy days. The rainy days fund had been used up last winter when guests had been few and the final renovation bills had come in even higher than expected. Rosy broke out in perspiration. The truth was that if the wedding failed to happen, her family’s business would probably go bankrupt sooner rather than later.

* * *

Alessio didn’t pause to speak to anyone on his impatient walk back to his private apartments. As he poured himself a whiskey, he told himself that nobody had foreseen the likelihood of Graziana’s defection, he least of all. Graziana had never struck him as the impulsive, passionate type. Indeed, Alessio had found her quite averse to any sort of physical intimacy, which he could now better understand if she had been involved in a secret affair all along. Even so, the wedding arrangements had begun only six months earlier and she had insisted then that a marriage of convenience would be a perfect fit for her. In fact,shehad been the one to float the idea of their marrying first.

‘I’m not getting any younger,’ she had said briskly. ‘You need a wife and a child and you’re only a couple of years younger than I am. It could work.’

And at the time, if Alessio was honest with himself, it had felt like the end of the world on his terms, because he hadn’t felt ready for marriage, but he had also known that Graziana would probably be a very popular candidate. Everyone had been ecstatic when they’d announced their engagement. Graziana had also appeared fully involved in every tiny wedding detail. There had been no hint that there was anything amiss, except perhaps when she’d stepped back from him when he’d attempted once to close his arms round her and said, ‘I’d prefer to wait for all that until we’re married.’ Not a problem, he had decided at the time, concluding that his future bride was just not a very physical person, refusing to allow his reflections to linger on what that disappointing discovery meant for him.

With the few facts he knew chasing revolving circles inside his brain, Alessio groaned out loud. Well, if Graziana had found true love, he wished her well. He felt a little foolish now for having practised celibacy on her behalf for so many months. But had she the smallest idea of what a nightmare she had unleashed on her widowed father and the economy? So very many business ventures were invested in the wedding occurring. But what could he do about any of it without a bride? Find another one? Pull some magical woman out of a hat like a white rabbit?Impossible!Stop dwelling on it, he urged himself.

In an effort to distract himself, he lifted Rosy Castelli’s file off his desk. She had impressed him even before she had overheard that ghastly exchange with Graziana’s unfortunate father. She had not made a fuss over her accident either, had been stoic, practical and controlled. And then, after hearing that bombshell phone call, she had not lied and faked ignorance, she had been honest about having overheard and had apologised, even offered a little sympathy. And now that he was single again, he didn’t have to feel guilty for thinking that Rosy looked exquisite even clad in paint-stained workmen’s overalls. But she wasstilla member of staff, he reminded himself circumspectly before he travelled further down that dangerous road.

He glanced at the file he had opened, and it was the figures that grabbed his attention first because he had worked as an investment banker for several years. Rosy’s family were trying to run a business on a shoestring and sailing very close to the wind in their indebtedness. They would likely be ruined by the collapse of the wedding-based celebrations.

And there his mind was, right back where he didn’twantit to be, hammering away at Graziana’s betrayal and what a disappointment his supposedly perfect bride had turned out to be.

* * *

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