Page 52 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

‘Yes, but I’m not who they think I am. They liked me because I’m a regular person.’

You’re a princess.

Maddi pushed the reminder down. Ari would not appreciate that titbit of information. Not now and not ever, she suspected.

It caused a maelstrom of emotions inside her. Pride to know that perhaps shecoulddo this princess thing—she’d really enjoyed today. But also a sense of yearning to be Princess Maddi, at Ari’s side legitimately.

Which would never happen. Because she wouldn’t ever have the bravery to risk that rejection. It would destroy her. She knew that it would destroy her. Because she was very much afraid that this crush was developing into something far deeper and more permanent.

No, she told herself desperately, going cold. It couldn’t be. She didn’t believe in it. It was chemistry...sex.Not love.

‘Maddi? You look as if you’ve just seen a ghost.’

She shook her head, struggled to regain her composure. ‘It’s...just been a long day.’

He took her hand. ‘You were a natural. Not many people could deal with a situation like that and connect with the people, but you did.’

Maddi swallowed the lump in her throat. He had no idea how profoundly moving that was to hear.

‘Thank you,’ she finally managed to get out, without sounding too wobbly.

She saw that they weren’t following the cliff road again and Ari said, ‘We’ll be back at the palace soon. We’re taking the helicopter. We wouldn’t see much from the car as the light is failing.’

Maddi was relieved. This whole day had been an emotional rollercoaster. ‘That sounds practical.’

The helicopter trip over the island was another vision. Little pockets of villages lit up here and there. Wider roads through the middle of the island and around the edge.

The city of Santanger glittered like a bauble. Again, Maddi saw that it was bigger than she’d thought, meandering high into the hills. In the city there were wide main streets and then smaller warrens of medieval streets. The cathedral was spot-lit.

They landed on the helicopter pad at the back of the palace and Maddi—once all the adrenalin had gone—realised she wasexhausted.

Ari led her back to his rooms. He said apologetically, ‘I need to take a call for a few minutes—do you mind?’

Maddi shook her head and stifled a yawn. She was also starving hungry, but fatigue won out. She took off the light jacket over her dress and pulled her hair tie out. She lay down on the bed, telling herself it would just be for a moment...

When Ari came back to his bedroom a short time later, he stopped in his tracks. Maddi was lying on the bed, on her side, curled up almost foetally. Hair fanned out around her head. Face resting on her hands. Breathing deeply.

It was the first time he’d been with a woman long enough to have this kind of a relationship. Most of his affairs had been brief, and had not ever encouraged any kind of domesticity. No lover would have dared to fall asleep in his company unless sex had been involved! And even then he hadn’t encouraged sleeping together. It gave the wrong impression—that he wanted them around apart from for sex.

It must have exhausted Maddi...the walkabout. They were exhausting at the best of times, and today’s had gone on an hour longer than scheduled purely because everyone had wanted to see Maddi so much.

No, not Maddi. Princess Laia.

Ari’s mouth tightened. He could imagine that if ithadbeen Princess Laia there today they would have followed the usual strict sequence of events. The people would have liked her, but that distance would have been there. The distance that anyone growing up as a royal cultivated over time.

She wouldn’t have been as open and warm with the people. Holding babies with sticky hands. Hunkering down to talk to children through the barrier. Or to an old lady sitting on a chair. Maddi had spoken to her for long minutes. The woman had been beaming when she’d walked away.

His mother had never even done that. She’d seen a walkabout as something that would dispel the necessary distance they needed to maintain, to perpetuate a vision of the royal family as sacrosanct. Perfect.

It had been anything but. Which was why Ari had always wanted to change things.

He’d changed things already in myriad ways—mainly in the sense of opening things up and presenting a more stable leadership to his people. They’d come to trust that he was different from his mercurial father. He was more dependable. He had the interests of his people at the forefront of everything he did. He was proud of his achievements.

Taking a wife and having a queen by his side was the next step. And, as much as he’d always known it would be Princess Laia, and that she’d do the job well, he had to admit that he hadn’t really had a sense of how that might look until today.

Until he’d seen Maddi in action. A woman who was natural and unaffected and warm. Compassionate.

A woman who is not destined to be your Queen.

---