A Royal Wedding(101)

Julienne looked around the room nervously, wondering how she was going to cope with this questioning. So far so good—but she was used to the convent, used to quiet. She prayed and read and recited poetry and bible verses. And she dreamed.

For the last few years she’d helped the sisters with the younger girls. She’d been old enough to go away to university, but when she wrote to her guardian about applying he didn’t respond.

So she stayed at the convent and lived a simple, quiet life. Mother Superior had allowed her to enroll in some online college courses and helped her study—and in fact she was well on her way to earning a degree in European history. But lately her interest had flagged. History wasn’t really where her heart lay. It lay in a very secret place where she’d been forbidden to go—many times. What she lived for was not allowed to someone of her stature. The fact was, the Princess of Emeraude loved … to cook.

Pastries, mostly. Fortunately the woman who was the convent cook—and Popov’s wife—thought her ambitions were wonderful and indulged her whenever she could get away with it.

But that was then. Now she was in the real world, dealing with a real man, and she knew she had to be on her toes. And she definitely did not want him to know about the pastry business. That was her special secret.

“Okay,” he said, still not clear on what her day had been like before she’d walked into the casino. “So you found someone to drive you down here to the city. But you didn’t tell them at the convent that you were leaving?”

“Oh, no. They would never have let me go.”

He nodded, feeling slightly reassured.

“In fact,” she went on, feeling chatty now, “I put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on my door, saying that I was studying for an exam. Then I rigged up a dummy in my bed and tiptoed out.”

He groaned and looked pained. “That is the oldest trick in the book.”

She nodded. “It’s old because it works. I’ve done it before.”

“What?” He was back to visions of dangerous boyfriends and hot cars, despite what she’d said, and it was shocking how much he hated that scene as he imagined it. “Julienne …”

She shook her head at him. “Don’t worry, it was just so that I could take walks in the hills without people hunting me down and telling me to be careful every step I took. The convent is a nice, quiet place, but everyone knows what you’re doing at every minute of the day and it can get suffocating.”

“Oh.” It was embarrassing how relieved he felt. “I see.”

“So when I decided I had to come find you, I used it again. It was easy.”

He grimaced. “Why did you feel you had to come all this way? Why not write a letter or send an email? Or even pick up the phone and give me a call?”

She looked outraged by his suggestions. “Are you kidding? I wrote letter after letter detailing all the indignities I was forced to live under at the convent.”

He was glad he’d missed those. “Itemizing your complaints, you mean?” he noted cynically.

“Of course. And I’ve got a few.”

He grimaced. “Spare me.”

“Why should I? You haven’t exactly been a hands-on guardian of late. I thought I deserved a little more personal care. But you never responded.” She shrugged. “If the mountain won’t come to you, you’ve got to go to the mountain.”

He raised a cynical eyebrow. “I’m a mountain now, am I?”

She favored him with an impish grin. “Kind of. You’re big and scary, anyway.”

He groaned, but she ignored that and went on.

“I begged you to come and see what conditions were like for yourself. Letter after letter. Didn’t you read any of them?”

He shrugged. “In truth, I don’t remember reading anything of the kind.” He frowned, thinking that over. “Perhaps my secretary read them.” He looked up and decided to go a step further. “Read them and thought them too childish to pass on to me.”

“Oh!” Now she was angry. “That’s just outrageous.”

He bit back his grin and pretended to agree. “You’re absolutely right. She should have let me know how things stood.”

“Indeed,” Julienne said indignantly, ready to confront the woman on the spot. “Where is she?” she added, looking around as though she thought she might be lurking in the shadows.