A Royal Proposition by Marion Lennox

Author:Marion Lennox
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

And in the next room, Alastair lay and stared at the ceiling with a lot more uncertainty. There were things going on in his life that he no longer understood.

It had all seemed so straightforward, he thought grimly. After Lissa’s death he’d made the decision to stay uninvolved, and he’d succeeded. His life was what he wanted.

He had a profession he was proud of. He had more than enough money. And he had Belle, available when he needed her, with the thought of a couple of children down the track.

Children…

They’d be quiet little things, he thought, conjuring them from the darkness. Maybe they’d have pigtails and hula hoops. Whatever, they’d be kids for his mother to pamper…

Marguerite deserved grandchildren.

He checked out his vision of his children—but something strange was happening. Instead of faceless prettiness, as there always had been, he now had Penny-Rose’s face before him.

Rose, he told himself. It’s Rose… Not Penny-Rose. It was stupid, but it was important somehow. He had to keep this formal.

So she was Rose. But why did his kids suddenly have Rose’s twinkle, and Rose’s cheekiness, and…?

For heaven’s sake, no! If they had personality like Penny-Rose—no, Rose—then how could he not love them? he thought, and loving anything…

It didn’t work. He’d watched his mother break her heart when his father had died, and his own gut had been wrenched enough when Lissa had been killed. Lissa had been such a good friend that the hurt had been dreadful.

So… It was a lesson he’d learned the hard way, but he’d learned it well. You don’t give your heart!

He wasn’t giving his heart now. This was a marriage of convenience.

What had Rose said? ‘The convenience of the employer comes first.’

That was what he was, he thought grimly. An employer. He was paying her to be his wife for a year, and emotional ties didn’t come into it.

How could they? She didn’t need him long term. That was why he’d chosen her. She was Australian, and she’d be off home as soon as she had her money.

Leaving him with Belle.

Which was the way he wanted it, he told himself hastily. The way it had to be.

The sensible way.

As was Rose’s decision to wear his mother’s wedding dress. It was economical. Wedding dresses—especially ones suitable for a royal wedding—cost a fortune. She was saving him money with her decision.

Putting the convenience of the employer first!

So why didn’t she feel like one of his employees?

‘I’m not very good at this Cinderella thing,’ he said out loud. ‘I’m not comfortable with it. It’s the fact that she has nothing and deserves so much that’s making this all so damned gut-wrenching.

‘That’s why you gave her the dog.

‘That’s right. She has nothing. A dog can’t hurt.

‘And you’re comfortable with her wearing your mother’s wedding dress?

‘It’s sensible.

‘Hell!’

He turned over and pummelled his pillows, trying not to envisage Rose in his mother’s wedding dress. And then trying not to envisage Rose sleeping just through the wall. Could he hear her? There was a soft murmuring through the door.

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