The Royal’s Pretend Wife (12 page)

Frightened? When he said the word, it made sense. She was frightened. Badly. Now she could either hide it and retreat behind the facade that had served her so well for so long, or she could stand up and own it. With this man, there could only be one answer.

Trinity took a deep breath, steadying herself as best she could. “Do you know what is going to happen tomorrow?” she asked.

He frowned.

“A fake marriage ceremony?”

“A marriage ceremony,” she said, her voice weighted with sorrow. “I…I know I agreed to this. I'll go through with it, but…but I wanted something real.”

“Something real…” he echoed.

“Yes. I know it's a silly dream, but I wanted something real. When I stood in front of a crowd of people and said my vows, I wanted them to be real. I wanted them to be true, and…and I couldn't…I'm sorry.”

To her surprise, Apolo nodded at her with understanding. “We are pretending to be married. But this…this was not what you expected. You want the truth, and nothing else will do.” His voice was sympathetic, like a balm applied to her wounded spirit. She nodded.

“It's silly, I know,” she whispered, leaning into his arms. “The actress who wants something real…”

“No,” he said forcefully. “The
woman
who wants something real.” He paused, and then he began again. “We'll go through with this,” he said, “but we are not going to speak vows up there. There is…well. Tomorrow, we are going to stand in front of the world, and we will say what is in our hearts.”

“In our hearts…?”

He smiled at her, holding her close.

“Yes. You wanted the truth, and you shall have it.”

“Apolo…”

“Shush. I need to arrange things with the host. Go back to the others, they will be missing you.”

The day passed in a blur after that. After she had calmed down sufficiently, she went to join the other women who were going through fittings for their gowns. With such a rush, they would be fairly simple, but there was still a great deal of work that needed to be done.

The moment that Carolina saw her, the other woman yelped with relief and ran to her, trailing lengths of satin and tulle.

“Oh, darling, are you all right? Are you upset?”

Trinity shook her head, smiling just a little at Carolina's concern. “I…I was merely overwhelmed,” she improvised. “Weddings are such stressful things, after all, and I guess I didn't sleep well last night.”

It looked like Serafina was going to make some pointed remark, but Trinity beat her to it.

“Are you ready to walk down the aisle again, Serafina? From everything you've gone on about, it feels like you might not want another trip.”

Unexpectedly, Serafina grinned. “And miss out on the best fights of my life? Never.”

The bridal specialists they brought in measured, sewed, and connived, and by the end of it Trinity's gown was complete. It was a long dress with a high waist and elegant folds falling right to the ground. It was inspired by the designs of ancient Greece, and the finishing touch was a golden circlet of pearls and beaten gold leaves.

By then it was dark, and she received the unwelcome news that the brides would be kept apart from their grooms. She would have dearly liked the chance to speak to Apolo about his mysterious words, but apparently they were not going to be given that opportunity. Instead, she spent the night in a small suite with Carolina and Serafina. At the very least, their bickering was distracting. She thought that she would never be able to fall asleep with tomorrow hanging over them, but finally she drifted off.

The next day, the brides in all of their pale finery were taken to an ancient chapel some distance outside of London. It was a gorgeous stone church on a rolling green. It had rained that morning, so everything was crystal clear and sharp. The air smelled fresh and clean. In any other circumstance, Trinity would have been thrilled to be there, but not knowing what was to come sent a roil of fear through her body.

Apolo had told her that she would get the truth, but what in the world would that mean? How would it all play out?

The brides were herded to a small room close at the back of the church, where they would each wait for her turn to perform.

“I think I was actually less nervous at my real wedding,” Carolina said with a laugh. “This is all so fast!”

Soon enough, the producers were ushering Carolina forward, and the crowd—Trinity had no idea where the congregation had come from—cheered as she said her vows. From the small room, Serafina and Trinity could hear her over a speaker.

“Don't be so nervous,” Serafina said, rolling her eyes. “You've done this before.”

She wished she could tell the other woman that no, she hadn't, but then the producers were calling Serafina up. Now she was alone with her fears. She had never had stage fright this badly before.

She paced back and forth for what felt like an eternity, and then, finally, they called her forward.

At the end of the aisle, handsome in his dove-gray suit, stood Apolo. His face was solemn, even stern, but she could detect a hint of a smile in his eyes. As she walked down the aisle, she noticed something else.

There was no officiant.

What in the world is he up to?
Trinity wondered.

When she finally reached the front, he took her hands and turned to face her.

“There is no priest here today because there needs to be no blessing of a love that is already true. Instead, here and now, I will speak the truth as I know it to you.”

There was a brief stir through the crowd at his announcement. Completely unruffled, Apolo let it die down before he began.

“From the moment I met you, I knew that you were special. You were like some angel that had come down to visit the earth from Heaven. Perhaps you lost your way, and perhaps you wish to go home, but I will always be so happy that you chose to come and stay with me.

“From our first words, you have delighted me and challenged me. I know that I am a better, wiser and kinder man because of you.

“From the first time we touched, I knew that I never wanted to stop.

“From the first time we kissed, I know I was lost. This is the truth, and so I swear it in this holy place in front of all these people. I love you, Trinity, and my heart belongs to you.”

Her eyes were wide as she took in his words. It was his truth, and now she had to give him hers.

“Sometimes, in my life, I have felt lost. Sometimes, I do not know where to turn or what the future holds. When I saw you, it was as if I had discovered the direction that I always wanted to take. Your passion for your country and your family makes me better, shows me what home should look like and how it should love you.

“When you touch me, I feel as if I am awake for the first time in my life. When you kiss me, I know that everything will be all right.

“You are the man who has my heart, forever and always. I love you, and this is my truth.”

She saw Apolo's blinding grin for a split second before he pulled her in for a deep kiss. The audience burst into cheers, and she pulled back just enough to look into his dark eyes.

“I will tell you the truth for the rest of my life,” she whispered.

“Forever, and longer than that if we have it,” he replied.

EPILOGUE

Five months later

On a hidden beach under a clear blue sky, Apolo and Trinity stood close to the sands and gazed into each other's eyes. Between them, a priest recited the ancient vows that had been used by the Buros royal family for generations, and around them clustered their closest friends and family.

Tonya, who was responsible for all this, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. Apolo's brother Augustine watched the proceedings with a watchful expression of quiet joy. Somehow, Trinity's best friend from school, Anastasia, had even managed to pull herself away from whatever good work she was doing now to attend.

“And do you swear to love each other, cherish each other, and be each other's peace in a world of war and strife?”

“We do,” they said in unison, and the gathering broke out into wild applause.

The priest uttered the final blessing, and they fell into each other's arms.

“Did you imagine we would end up here?” Apolo whispered as they broke apart.

“No,” she said, “but now I know that we begin here today. Everything else…this will be our lives together.”

As they turned to greet their friends and family, Trinity had a moment of disbelief that it had happened like this. Somehow, an offer for the strangest job in the world had turned into the romance of a lifetime.

She shook her head in disbelief, and then with a wide smile on her face, she took her husband's hand and walked towards their new life together.

THE END

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Chapter One

The gallery opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was a star-studded event that attracted New York's best and brightest. Everywhere Anastasia McFadden looked, she saw another luminary, another genius, another gleaming socialite or eager playboy. She knew that fortunes and connections were going to be made tonight, and people's lives were going to change forever.

So why wasn't she more excited?

Anastasia was not a tall woman, but she always said that she made up for it by being enthusiastic. With chocolate brown hair that tumbled in an artful fall around her shoulders, wide blue eyes and a heart-shaped face, she had the looks and background to be one of New York's elite if, as her mother said, she would “just put a little more effort into it.”

As a matter of fact, her mother was heading for her right now, a slightly inebriated older man in tow.

“Anastasia, there you are. I've been looking everywhere for you!”

Holding her glass of punch as if it were a shield, Anastasia smiled weakly.

“Hi, Mom. I'm sorry—I was off talking with Senator Crawford about the clean water initiative going on in Boston…”

Her mother made a polite little noise that nonetheless managed to convey her entire lack of curiosity about what her daughter had been doing.

“Well, that's very nice, dear, but I've been wanting you to meet Jack here. Jack's the executive vice president of Goller and Sons, the chemical concern, and…”

Suddenly Anastasia's mother narrowed her eyes at her daughter and briskly turned to the man who was standing behind her and looking just a little confused.

“Jack, dear, don't move a muscle, all right? I just want to have a word with my daughter for a moment, and then I'll let you two get to know each other.”

The man started to say something, perhaps to protest, perhaps to simply ask which way to the bathroom, but her mother's gorgon stare froze him in his spot.

“Not one muscle!”

It was fascinating, Anastasia thought, how her mother could put so much threat into just a few words while she was smiling so happily. That smile dropped the moment she hustled Anastasia behind a tall pillar, relatively screened from the rest of the crowd.

“I did not bring you here so that you could trap Senator Crawford in a conversation that will not end about some dirty water.”

Anastasia smiled a little, because if there was anything that irritated her mother, it was someone who refused to cower.

“His fault, Mom. He started speaking about how rowdy the protestors were, and I just wanted to tell him all about why they were there.”

Her mother eyed her, a spark of anger in her blue eyes.

“You are acting as if you don't want to be here at all. This event is one of the highlights of the season, and you are kicking your heels like a girl trapped at a middle school dance.”

Anastasia sighed, because her mother wasn't wrong.

“I'm sorry. I know I'm out of sorts. I…I don't know what's going on with me recently.”

Her mother looked at her more closely, some of her ire being diluted with genuine concern.

“Your father and I have both noticed it, sweetie. You've been down.”

What could Anastasia really say to that? She had been. At twenty-five, it felt like she had been making the social rounds of New York for a lifetime. She did what good she could, she made friends, and she went to the parties, but it was all beginning to feel so false and tiring. She dated, of course, but it didn't help that the men that her parents kept introducing her to were all wealthy and fantastically dull. At best, they were amused by her conservation projects. At worst, they simply assumed it was an adorable hippie phase that she would grow out of once she had been “settled” with children.

“I think I'm just getting a little tired of New York,” she admitted.