Four
“S o, young lady, why the long face?”
Cara jumped at the sound of a voice. She’d thought she’d found the perfect hiding place. A little sitting nook, tucked in a seldom-used corridor. She’d been trying to avoid Michael since that kiss a few days ago. Thankfully, it wasn’t Michael who’d discovered her, but Ambassador McClinnon.
“I’m fine, sir. How was your day?”
He took a seat across from her. “Paul and I went fishing this morning. He doesn’t relax enough. When I visit I’m under the queen’s orders to see to it he does. Anna might not have been born a royal, but she does have the regal command mastered.”
“And did it work today?” she asked.
She loved Parker’s parents. They were hardworking advocates for Eliason.
“He didn’t catch a garn-darned thing, but he did spend a lot of time laughing, so I’m thinking it did.”
Every now and again a hint of the ambassador’s southern roots slipped into his voice.
“Garn-darned?” she asked, smiling at the term.
He chuckled. “Sometimes there aren’t any swearwords like the ones of your youth.”
Cara looked up from the seating chart she was working on.
Actually reworking.
She’d come up with a version based on Shey and Parker’s suggestions, and now was trying to incorporate the queen’s personal assistant Esme’s suggestions as well. She felt like she was walking a tightrope, trying to keep everyone happy.
“Did you know that you can’t sit Parker’s godmother near her great-uncle Sven because back in the day they had a fling?” she asked.
He smiled warmly. “The heart is a fickle thing. It can carry a torch or carry a grudge for decades. Love and hate, it’s a fine line.”
“I can’t imagine carrying a grudge against anyone I loved.”
“Then you’re a rare lady,” he said with a wistful note in his voice.
“You can imagine someone who can?”
“Let me tell you a little story. When I was more than a bit younger, there was this girl at home. I fell in love with her in kindergarten. We got caught snitching cookies and sat in the corner together. I couldn’t imagine a life without her. She was my everything.”
The ambassador got lost for a moment in the memory of his girl.
“What happened?” Cara finally asked.
“We had a volatile relationship all through school. We fought, we made up. The making up was especially sweet. One time after a fight, she was working a kissing booth and I paid to kiss her…. Oh, how we made up that time.”
Lightly his finger brushed his lip, as if he could remember the feel of that kiss all these years later.
“Where is she now?” Cara asked.
“One fight, we didn’t make up. I was waiting for her to apologize. I guess she was waiting for me to, as well. All I know is one day she was gone and it was too late. I left and went to graduate school and her family all moved away. I came home and she was gone.”
He paused a moment. “How on earth did I start talking about Pearly?”
“Pearly?” Cara asked weakly.
Cara’s bookstore back in Erie, Pennsylvania, was located on Perry Square. Right across the park there was a beauty salon, Snips and Snaps, where the square’s version of a town crier, Pearly Gates, worked.
The ambassador’s Pearly couldn’t be the same one. But for the life of her, Cara couldn’t imagine two Pearlys roaming the U.S.
“Pearly Gates. Oh, that girl was a pistol. Kept a fella on his toes. She’s probably long since married, with a house full of kids and grandkids. Pearly was the type who needed a family.”
“Pearly Gates?” she murmured more to herself than to the ambassador.
“I know, it’s an unusual name. She used to say her mama named her Pearly Gates to remind herself that her daughter came from heaven. Her mama, and the rest of the world, needed the reminder because Pearly had a bit of the devil in her.”
Cara’s suspicion was confirmed.
She’d heard Pearly tell that very story. Pearly’s childhood sweetheart here in Eliason…Who would have thought?
But Cara knew that the ambassador was wrong. Pearly had never married, never had that house full of kids and grandkids. But she did have a family. A large extended one that encompassed all of Perry Square. Pearly was truly the square’s heart.
“She sounds like something special,” Cara said. More than sounded. Cara knew firsthand just how special Pearly was.
And she was coming to Eliason for the wedding.
Cara thought about telling the ambassador, but decided against it. She’d let them both be surprised.
“Oh, she was special,” he said, wistfully. “I’ve often wondered where she is now. Her whole family scattered to the four corners of the earth it seems.”
“And here you are in Eliason, the friend of a king.”
“Yes, it sometimes still feels surreal. Back then I was just Buster McClinnon and I planned on being with Pearly forever.”
He suddenly gave himself a little shake and stood. “I apologize. You were sitting enjoying a quiet space to work in, and I came and interrupted with an old man’s remembrances.”
“It’s too bad all my interruptions weren’t as pleasant,” Cara assured him.
“Forgive my interference, but I wondered if you needed any assistance.”
“I’ll figure this seating chart out, but thanks.”
“Not with that, with Michael. I’ve noticed you playing hide-and-seek with the prince.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said as a sinking feeling hit her. If Ambassador McClinnon had noticed, then who else noticed?
“Your secret’s safe with me. I think everyone else is so wrapped up in the wedding plans that they haven’t seen that something’s going on between the two of you.”
Before she could deny it, he said, “And there is something. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not right now, but thank you.”
“Any time my dear. Any time.” The ambassador slowly walked away, and Cara thought she heard him murmur, Pearly.
Cara didn’t want to think about what the ambassador had said. She wasn’t even sure how they’d moved from discussing seating charts to love.
The ability to turn a conversation…Pearly Gates had it as well.
It was easier to think about reuniting Pearly and the ambassador at the wedding than to think about her problems. So she made a quick call to Parker, filled her in on the wedding plans and then on finding Pearly’s love.
“I’ve known Ambassador McClinnon all my life. You’re sure he meant our Pearly?”
“Positive. There couldn’t be two Pearly Gates in the country.”
“In the whole world,” Parker added.
They both laughed and then Parker launched into one of her Jace-itis attacks. She gushed and raved about her fiancé, about their plans. Cara had learned just to let the attacks run their course. An occasional oh, or really was all it took to keep Parker going.
Shey was known to have Tanner-itis on occasion, but she didn’t seem to gush nearly as much as Parker. But the fact that Shey gushed at all showed the true depth of her feelings.
“Oh, hey, Jace is here,” Parker said. “I’ve got to run.”
“No problem. Just wanted to let you know about Pearly and keep you up-to-date on the plans.”
“Thanks, Cara. Not just for the call, but for everything.”
“You know I’d do anything for you and Shey.”
“The feeling’s mutual,” Parker said.
Cara had tears in her eyes as she hung up. She’d read that pregnant women were more emotional, but she’d never expected this.
She wiped her face and started gathering up her papers.
“ Cara mia, what’s wrong?”
“Oh, jeez. You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” She jumped to her feet, wiped at her eyes again and tried to do a circumspect sniff.
So much for her quiet hideaway. Tomorrow she’d have to hunt a new one out.
That was the good thing about the castle—there were a lot of nooks and crannies.
“I didn’t sneak,” he said. “A prince never sneaks. You were just too preoccupied with your crying to hear me approach.”
“I wasn’t crying.”
He trailed a finger down her left cheek and held it out for her to inspect. It was obviously damp.
“My eyes were watering,” she said. “Allergies, I think.”
“What are you allergic to?” he asked, not appearing to believe her.
“Princes.”
Oh, that was good. She was keeping track of all her best comebacks to share with Shey. She was doing her friend proud.
“Really?” Michael asked. “You didn’t seem allergic when I did this….”
Cara knew what he was going to do, just like she knew she should run. But she simply stood there and waited, a shot of anticipation coursing through her body as he pulled her into his arms.
“Not allergies,” he whispered softly against her neck. “I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong. If it’s possible, I’ll fix it.”
“I don’t need anyone to fix my problems.” First Parker, now Michael. “I’m an adult, and I’m totally capable of addressing my own problems. The only thing I need right now is a good allergy pill.”
“Cara mia.” That’s all he said, just that absurd pet name she’d found so endearing that first night and now grated on her every last nerve.
Okay, so maybe it didn’t always grate as much as it should. Right now, as a matter of fact, it felt sort of sweet.
He kissed her softly on the cheek, and, needing to put some space between them, she took a step back.
The kiss, rather than comforting her, only left her hungry for more.
He grabbed her arm softly and held her in place, then pulled her gently toward him. She could have pulled away, should have, but she didn’t.
“Cara mia,” he murmured as his lips touched hers.
This kiss didn’t have the hunger the other one had. It was soft and spoke of understanding and empathy.
It melted the last of Cara’s resistance.
She wanted this man even though she knew it was too soon to feel anything but a superficial attraction. She knew it in her head, but couldn’t seem to convince her heart of anything but the fact she wanted him. Wanted him with a growing passion she didn’t know how to extinguish.
As if it knew, the baby fluttered again.
Just a small brush, as soft as Cara imagined a butterfly’s wings would be. She pulled back from Michael and her hand flew to her stomach.
For a moment she almost reached for Michael’s hand, to place it on the baby…their baby. But that moment was fleeting and she remembered he didn’t know yet.
“Cara?” he asked, staring at her—studying her. This time it was far more intense than it ever had been before.
The time had come. She faced the inevitable and said, “Michael, we have to talk.”
She had to tell him and now was as good a time as any.
“I’ve been saying we have to talk for almost a week while you played your little seek and hide.”
“Hide-and-seek,” she corrected.
He just glared. “Played your games. Is it mine?”
“What?” She was sure she’d heard wrong. Michael couldn’t be asking what she thought he was asking. But he was staring at her stomach as if she had some big belly-button ring poking out.
“You’re pregnant,” he said flatly. “Is it mine?”
“I—” Her first impulse was to deny she was pregnant, even though she’d been just about to tell him.
She didn’t.
Instead she asked, “What on earth would make you say such a thing?”
“Three months,” he said with certainty. “I can do the math. You’re three months along. When were you going to tell me? Or were you going to tell me?”
“Why would I tell you? I’ve been dating a man named…” She paused a moment and then blurted out the first male name she could latch onto, “Stuart.”
She’d been reading E. B. White’s Stuart Little to the kids at Titles’ story time before she’d left Erie. Stuart was a good name.
“Ha.”
Michael wasn’t buying it. That much was clear.
Cara felt a bit insulted. After all, was it so hard to believe that another man might have found her attractive enough to date? “You don’t think someone else would be interested in me?” She didn’t have to fake the annoyance in her voice.
How dare the conceited prince feel as if once a woman had known him she was ruined for all other men.
Okay, so it might be true—was true—but still, if he thought so, it just made his swollen head seem almost too swollen for him to get his crown on.
Not that she’d ever seen him in a crown.
Still she was sure he had one and at the rate his ego was growing…
“There is no Stuart.” Michael didn’t look quite as sure of himself.
“Well, I call him Stu for short. He’s a nice man. A normal, home-by-five-every-night sort of man.”
“What does this Stuart do for a living?”
“He’s a…” Again she scrambled for an answer. “A professor at Gannon. That’s how we met.”
She was warming up to the fictional Stuart. He had no royal baggage, no hang-ups at all. He was perfect for her. “He came into Monarch’s and Titles for coffee and a book. We started talking, and before long we were dating. We’re still dating.”
“You’re doing more than dating if this baby’s his. How far along are you?”
“Thr—” She almost blurted out three months, but caught herself.
“Just barely,” she said instead.
“Why won’t you just admit the truth? I know there’s no Professor Stu.”
She should have thought of this before. Stuart was the perfect out. Her idea of Michael being the baby’s benevolent godfather would still work. He wouldn’t have to deal with the scandal of having an illegitimate baby.
“Put yourself in my place,” she said gently. “You’re a prince. Royalty. Something I’m not. Think about what it would be like if this were your baby, not that I’m admitting that,” she added hastily. “You have to think this through. If this baby were yours—and I’m not saying it is—but if the baby were yours, it wouldn’t just affect you and me, it would effect your people. You have obligations that have to take precedence. I may not be royal, but I’m pretty sure a prince can’t have an illegitimate baby.”
“Which is why we’ll get married.”
Cara didn’t mean to, but she snorted a ha that was even more emphatic than the one he’d used about her fictional Stuart.
“I don’t think so,” she assured him. “Again, you’re a prince, I own a bookstore. You can’t marry me. Think of the country.”
“There are any number of things I’ll do for my country, for my people. Who I marry is something I won’t let them dictate.”
“What about your parents? What would they say?”
She could only imagine their disappointment and disapproval. She didn’t want to cause them either—she genuinely liked Michael and Parker’s parents.
“They already love you.”
“Then what about me? Don’t you think I deserve something more than being the woman you had to marry?”
“I was looking for you—”
She cut him off. “Michael, you have to think about this. Think long and hard. Weigh all the options. Whatever happens next will affect more people than just us.”
“What did Parker say?” he asked.
“About the baby?” She shook her head. “I haven’t told her. Haven’t told anyone but my doctors.”
“You didn’t tell Parker?” He sounded surprised.
“At first I didn’t say anything to her and Shey because I didn’t want to take any of the attention from their weddings. I planned to tell them after their honeymoons.”
“And when were you going to tell me?”
“Not you, Stuart.”
Gently, so gently it was almost her undoing, he brushed a finger down her cheek. “ Cara mia, I understand your fears and concerns. We’ll work through them. But I know in my heart that this is our baby, that there is no Stuart. This baby was conceived on the most magical night of my life.”
“When we kissed, the baby moved,” she found herself blurting out.
She wasn’t admitting there was no Stuart, or that the baby was Michael’s, at least not until he gave the situation some thought. But she longed—no, needed—to share it with him.
“It’s kicking now?” he asked.
“No kicking,” she said. “Just moving. Small flutters. You can’t feel it outside yet, but inside, I can feel it.”
“Our baby.” He reached his hand toward her, and for a moment she thought he was going to caress her stomach, but the moment passed and his hand fell back.
“I need to think about this,” he stated.
“Yes, you do. In the end, you’ll realize that there’s your duty to your country and to your family, that has to be your priority. I promise you that this baby will never know a moment of want, of need. This baby is already loved.”
“Cara,” he started but then just shook his head and walked away.
Yeah. That went well.
Cara felt tears well up again.
Damned allergies.