The Royal Wedding Collection, Volume 1 by Sharon Kendrick

Author:Sharon Kendrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781488037153
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE JOURNEY DOWN the mountain was thankfully uneventful. The snow that had fallen earlier in the day had frozen into an ice sheet, which reflected the brilliant gleam of the moon and the countless stars suspended in the dark-as-ink sky.

Halfway down, they swapped the snowmobile for the four-by-four. As Aksel had predicted, the snow was deep in the valley, but snow ploughs had cleared the roads and eventually they reached Storvhal’s capital city Jonja and saw the tall white turrets of the royal palace rising out of the dense fog that blanketed the city.

Mina turned to him. ‘Why have you brought me here? I thought you were taking me straight to the airport.’

Aksel was forced to stop the car in front of the ornate palace gates while they slowly swung open. He turned his head towards her so that she could watch his lips move. ‘All flights are grounded due to freezing fog. You’ll have to stay at the palace tonight.’

A bright light flared outside the window. ‘What the hell…?’ Aksel’s jaw tightened when another flashbulb exploded and briefly filled the car with stark white light. ‘I hadn’t expected press photographers to be here,’ he growled. The gates finally parted and he put his foot down on the accelerator and gunned into the palace grounds.

‘You’d better prepare yourself for the reception committee,’ he told her tersely as he parked by the front steps and the palace doors were opened from within.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ll see.’

As Aksel escorted Mina into the palace she understood his curious comment. Despite it being late at night, a dizzying number of people were waiting in the vast entrance hall to greet the prince. Courtiers, palace guards and household staff dressed in their respective uniforms bowed as Aksel walked past. There were also several official-looking men wearing suits, and Mina recognised the young man with round glasses as Aksel’s personal assistant, Benedict Lindburg. She knew there must be a buzz of conversation because she could see people’s lips moving, but it was impossible for her to lip-read and keep track of what anyone was saying.

The crippling self-consciousness that Mina had felt as a child gripped her now. She hoped no one had spoken to her and thought she was being rude for ignoring them. Instinctively she kept close to Aksel and breathed a sigh of relief when he escorted her into a room that she guessed was his office and closed the door behind him so that they were alone.

Aksel’s eyes narrowed on Mina’s tense face. ‘I did warn you,’ he said, stepping closer to ensure that she could see his mouth moving. ‘It must be difficult to lip-read when you are in a crowd. At least you can charge up your hearing-aid batteries while you are at the palace.’

‘What do all those people want?’

He shrugged. ‘There is always some matter or other that my government ministers believe requires my urgent attention.’ His life was bound by duty, but for a few moments

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.