Page 62 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

Maddi might have objected to that if she’d had any right to. But she’d given up that right when she’d lied about who she was.

‘When did you know?’

‘Only a few hours ago. Your secret was a well-kept one,Princess Maddi.’

Maddi winced. ‘It’s not like that. I always knew, but my father...the King...made my mother agree that she wouldn’t make any claim to the royal family on my behalf as long as he was alive and paying her maintenance. When he died...she was ill. I wasn’t interested in finding out more. Thankfully she recovered but she never mentioned it and neither did I.’

Ari was facing her now, arms folded across his chest, muscles bulging. Even now distracting. His expression was almost sneering.

‘If I didn’t know you I’d assume you were lying. Who on earth would pass up the chance of entering a life of unparalleled privilege and luxury? No one but you.’

Maddi was sure he didn’t mean that as a compliment.

Then he said, ‘Maybe it’s time you faced up to the responsibility you bear, Maddi Smith. Time to step out of the shadows and stop playing at being someone else.’

Maddi whispered, ‘That’s not fair.’

She’d only just finally begun to believe that she could.

‘Isn’t it?’

His words resonated deep inside. Why hadn’t she wanted to pursue her birthright after her father had died? She could have gone to Laia long before Laia had come looking for her. She’d told herself she hadn’t been interested, as if she had some higher loftier ideal than wanting a life of luxury, but perhaps the reason was more prosaic than that.

A fear of rejection. Rejection by her sister. And by the people of Isla’Rosa. She’d never fully acknowledged this before now.

Fear had stopped her. Selfish fear of being hurt. She wasn’t brave and selfless, like Laia and Ari. She didn’t deserve to be a princess—even though these past couple of weeks had given her a real sense that shecouldbe. And that she wanted to be.

Somehow she managed to make her voice sound strong. As if she wasn’t falling apart inside. ‘Goodbye, Ari. I’m sorry...for everything.’

She left before she could hear if he’d even said goodbye. Probably not.

Everything happened so quickly after that. Her head was spinning by the time she was being ushered onto a small sleek jet as the sky lightened in the east...heralding another beautiful day in Santanger.

First of all, she’d deceived King Aristedes. Then she’d deceived the people of Santanger. But worst of all, she’d deceived herself.

Ari watched the small plane take off into the brightening sky. Just like that she was gone. The woman who had come into his life and turned it upside down and inside out. With her bare feet and her gap-toothed grin and her insatiable appetite—appetites.

His blood heated and he cursed out loud and turned away from the sight of the plane.

Damn her.

Damn her.

The marriage agreement with Princess Laia and Isla’Rosa was obviously dead in the water. But Ari had come to terms with that. There would be some other way around uniting their two countries in a peace agreement, although the marriage would have been a much neater way of doing it.

As much as he didn’t want to credit her with anything, he had to admit that Maddi had been the catalyst in helping him to see how entrenched he’d been about the idea of marriage. He had to concede that if Princess Laia had come to him again, to try and talk to him, he might very well not have heard her—again. He would have done everything in his power to persuade her.

And perhaps that was what she’d been afraid of—that he would try to appeal to the side of her that feared for Isla’Rosa’s future, the side of her that had grown up with a strongly ingrained sense of duty and responsibility. As had he.

Ari went over to his drinks cabinet. It wasn’t even nine a.m. but he didn’t care as he threw a shot of whisky down his throat.

Maddi had deceived him. She’d come here with one agenda—to protect her Queen.No, her sister. Her half-sister.

He still couldn’t quite believe what Antonio Chatsfield had told him. His friend had said, ‘You might want to sit down for this, my friend.’

Her father was the late King of Isla’Rosa. He was the man who had abandoned her mother.

Ari considered that for a moment—how she must have felt growing up, knowing that she was a princess but being forced into exile. And not becoming bitter about that. It would take an extraordinary human not to be swayed by such temptation.

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