His Desert Bride By Demand (Mills & Boon Modern) by Lela May Wight

Author:Lela May Wight [Wight, Lela May]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2022-06-30T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

HE’D DISMISSED HER. Left her to prepare on her own for a situation she’d never dreamt she’d be in. Three days to turn herself into a queen. One week until she became a wife.

She wasn’t ready. How could she be? She was Charlotte Hegarty, survivor of addict parents. The daughter of alcoholics. What right did she have to these things now being offered to her?

She closed her eyes.

She would not fail.

Her dad had been wrong.

‘Shukran.’

‘Hasan jidana.’

Selma, her personal assistant, smiled. ‘Very good, Your Royal Highness.’

Charlotte wriggled in a little celebration dance and pressed her toes into the bedspread.

‘Charlotte,’ she corrected for the umpteenth time. She wasn’t royal yet. She was a royal-in-waiting until tomorrow, and even then... Your Royal Highness?

‘You cannot learn a language with many nuances in a few days,’ said Selma.

Charlotte crossed her legs. ‘I know.’

‘In time, you will learn,’ Selma soothed her impatient student. ‘The palace will provide a tutor—’

‘A tutor can’t teach me what you can before the announcement.’

‘Of course it is your choice, but the brain is much like a sandwich.’ Selma pressed her palms together as she sat on the edge of the bed ‘Too many ingredients and the filling spills out.’ She clapped. ‘Splodge.’

Charlotte laughed. Hard. And then covered her mouth with her hand.

‘It won’t be funny when you can’t remember anything because you’ve tried to digest too much and your stomach is still full and yet you must eat more sandwiches.’

‘Are you hungry, Selma?’ she asked, displacing her hand from her mouth. ‘All your analogies are about food. You should have eaten with me. There was way too much food for just one person!’

‘I’m always hungry—and you are always hungry for knowledge, yes?’ Brown eyes twinkled beneath dark arched brows. ‘Because you eat very little and ask many questions?’

‘Nerves,’ she confessed easily. ‘It seems important to know as much as I can about my new home, and you’ve been an excellent teacher.’

‘The best way to gain new knowledge is to let it sit with you.’ She pointed to the mountain of plump pillows at Charlotte’s back. ‘Sleep, and let your subconscious do the hard work.’

‘I don’t think I’ll sleep.’

She hadn’t slept well since she’d arrived, and the thought of tomorrow’s schedule wound her up too tightly to sleep now. Her eyes wandered longingly to the box of supplies she’d been gifted, which was sitting beside the low-slung sofa on the far side of the room. Her fingers itched to pull the paper free, to take the pencils from the packs and escape into herself.

Art. It was right there. Waiting for her to claim it. As it had been every night since her arrival. The one thing that made her her. She pushed down the longing because only later, when she was alone, would she continue to rediscover that part of herself.

‘But you must rest.’ She pulled her gaze back to Selma. ‘Go.’ She shooed her off the bed with the back of her hand. ‘I’m so sorry... I didn’t think...’ She paused.

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