Page 24 of A Touch of Charm
“I know! That’s even better! I’m the only girl in the world with a princess governess!” Mary twirled and danced through the room until she seemed to grow dizzy and bumped into Andre, who’d just entered.
Even though she didn’t mean to, Thea burst out laughing.
“Ouff!” Andre exclaimed when Mary crashed into him, seemingly dizzy from twirling in her pretend ballgown, but the impact seemed somewhat overstated. He bent down and picked Mary up.
“What was that all about?” His face brightened immediately when his eyes met Thea’s, but she still shook in mirth.
“I’m the only girl in the world with her own governess princess!” Mary declared, and Andre smiled.
“She’s rather extraordinary, Miss Mary. I agree that you are the luckiest girl in the world.”
And even though Andre avoided Thea’s gaze, she gasped and forgot to laugh.
“I’ll be a doctor today,” Mary declared when Andre held her back. “Where’s my first patient?”
Andre chuckled. “You need to study medicine before you can be a doctor.”
“Oh, they won’t let me. I’m a girl,” Mary said. “Let’s pretend today!”
Thea didn’t like that. “You will make them let you because you will know so much, and be so smart that they won’t deny you a place at university.”
With a skeptical glance, Stan surveyed the scene while moving his injured shoulder ever so slightly, his eyes narrowing slightly as he silently communicated his discontent and pain.
“Where did you study?” Mary asked as she cupped Andre’s face.
“In Vienna,” Andre answered.
“Then I must learn German in addition to Latin, Miss Thea… ahem, Princess—”
“Yes, dear. And I shall help you to learn everything that I can. But until then, why don’t you begin as Dr. Fernando’s assistant?”
Stan let out a groan of disapproval but didn’t say anything else.
“I could be a nurse!” Mary clapped her hands together, and Andre shot Thea a look.
“Nurses know almost as much as doctors, sometimes even more,” Andre said, which only earned him a frown.
“I want to be your nurse today!” Mary said, pursing her lips when Andre set her down.
He smiled and extended a hand to her as if asking the little girl to dance. “It would be my honor, Miss Mary, if you agreed to be my nurse until the real nurse, Wendy Folsham, returns.”
Mary put her hand in Andre’s, and he escorted her out of the room and down the hall. Thea followed them and felt the smile melt away. She’d never been jealous, but there was a tinge of envy that she couldn’t deny, for she wished it was her hand in that of the dashing doctor.
Again. Thea thought she had to banish this infatuation from her mind. She couldn’t possibly fall for the doctor, could she?
A few minutes later, still pondering Andre’s most pleasing physique, she couldn’t recall why it was that she didn’t merely throw herself into his arms. Ideally naked.
No, she mustn’t.
She was a princess on the run, trying to escape a loveless union with a Habsburg prince from Austria.
She wasn’t free to let love fall where it may.
But could one stop it from falling, then? Didn’t the Romans already say, “Alea iacta est?” The die is cast. It was a phrase attributed to Julius Caesar as he crossed the Rubicon River, signifying a point of no return. She wasn’t going back either, so forward and onward was the only way.
Could she follow her heart?
Thea felt heat creep to her face as she stood quietly in the doorway of Andre’s treatment room, watching him work with an intent focus that captivated and comforted her.
