How to Love a Princess (16 page)

For an unemotional man,
the Captain didn’t recognise himself when Gascon bustled his way through the
troops and he found himself wanting to throw his arms around the massive
bodyguard and kiss him on both cheeks.

Gascon took one look at
the situation and surmised the gist of it without being told a word. “What is
going on here?”

“I want to go outside—”
Catherine started.

“And I won’t let her,”
Nicolas finished.

Gascon expelled a noisy
breath as he watched them glaring at each other. “Why?”

“For fresh air.”

“It’s too cold out there.”

They both sounded like
petulant, stubborn teenagers and Gascon was suddenly feeling old enough to be
their grandfather. “Did either of you consider the simple solution of a coat?”

“That’s not the point,”
they barked in unison, turning their glares on him.

“I rather thought so.” He
stepped between them, facing Catherine with his back to Nicolas and spoke in a
low voice that only she could hear. “Dismiss the guards, Catherine.”

Her chin went high. “I
should relieve them all from their duty for insubordination.”

“Everyone is depending on
Nicolas to save your mother. How can you expect them to choose between you and
their queen? You know better than to abuse your power.”

The gentle rebuke
scattered the rage that had temporarily taken control of her. Her head was
throbbing. She was so very tired. The emotional stress of the day had undone
her and her worst fear had been realised. She’d used her power to thwart
Nicolas. Only, she hadn’t exactly succeeded.

She slowly turned to look
at her guards, whose loyalty had never wavered before this moment. “The
situation is under control,” she told them. “You may return to your posts.”

The relief was palpable on
each and every face, most of all the Captain’s. As they watched the guards
depart, Catherine murmured, “It isn’t just my mother, is it?”

“The men respect Nicolas.
If he actually manages to heal the queen, he’ll be a national hero.” Not that
her failure tonight would stop the famous de’Ariggo temper next time, Gascon
thought.

“They’d never dare
hesitate when I’m queen.”

“I’m not so sure.”

She frowned up at him,
startled by this viewpoint. Gascon, of all people, should know better. He knew
the history of her grandfather and great-grandfather. He’d held her hand at age
five when her father had packed his bags and stormed from the castle, never to
return.

As if he could read her
thoughts, Gascon shrugged a shoulder. “I told you he is different.”

“Catherine,” Nicolas
called in a deadly quiet voice.

She spun back to him, then
gulped at the look on his face. He was angry. Very angry.

“That was the worst case
of a temper tantrum I’ve ever seen.” His features were so tensed, his lips
barely moved as he spoke. His eyes were dark, deep and narrowed to slits.
“Don’t try it on me again.”

With that, he loped past
her in long strides that quickly took him across the hall and up the stairs.

“If the guards had
forcibly removed him, he’d be storming off in the opposite direction,” she
predicted. Nicolas might command more authority than any of the previous men in
her family, but underneath, they were all the same. “The only reason he’s not
heading for the door is because he managed to overrule me, this time. His pride
is intact.”

“Will you never cease
underestimating the man?”

“I’m not underestimating
him, Gascon. I’m protecting him.”

“If you say so.”

Catherine rubbed at her
throbbing temples. The day had been one long fight and the end was nowhere in
sight.

“He passed your test,”
Gascon mused. “Will you listen to your heart now instead of your past?”

“What test?” she
countered.

Gascon wasn’t misled by
the denial. Catherine might not admit that she was sounding out the prospect of
her and Nicolas, not even to herself, but her heart would not remain quiet.

For the first time in
years, Gascon saw a light flicker in the blackness of her world and said a
silent prayer that the harsh legacy left to her would not snuff it.

7

C
atherine
didn’t need to speculate long on Gascon’s comments. Even if last night was some
kind of subconscious test, she was about to have the real thing.

“You need to shut down the
mines,” Nicolas stated, barging into her office without knocking and pulling up
a seat at the opposite end of the desk as he slapped a folder down in front of
him.

That he chose to sit as
far as possible from her was not lost of Catherine. He was still livid about
last night. Her heart, meanwhile, spiked at his news. “If this is your way of
informing me that you’ve identified the poison, your bedside manner is severely
wanting.”

Nicolas gave himself a
mental kick on the shin.

He’d been so wrapped up in
his alarming discovery this morning, yesterday’s yield was old news and he’d
completely forgotten that he hadn’t yet told her. “I’m sorry, Catherine. Yes, I
found a match in the rock samples and I’m working on the serum to fight the
triggered infection and counteract the invasion. The procedure is complex, but
I’m hoping for a positive result by tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank God,” she
murmured on a breathless sigh.

As he watched, he could
almost see the dark aura that had been weighing down her spirit depart, tilting
her lips up into their natural curve as it ascended, rubbing out the faint
lines above her brow that he’d mistaken for early aging, washing the tiredness
from her eyes.

As furious as he was over
her childish performance with the guards, he was happy that he’d been the one
to put a smile back into her soul. If she’d allow him, he’d spend the rest of
his life ensuring that it stayed there.

After last night, however,
his confidence had slipped another notch.

She stretched her arms
over the desk, as if reaching for him, her gaze shimmering with the hope inside.
“How can I ever thank you?”

Reach for me.

Hold onto me.

Trust in me enough to keep
me.

He shook the thoughts
loose and let them go before answering. “You can thank me by shutting down
those mines.”

“I’m listening,” Catherine
said, putting away her happiness to savour later. There were a hundred and one
reasons why production could never be stopped, but his concerns would be
addressed and some other solution found.

Nicolas leaned back in his
seat and folded his arms. “The rock contains a poisonous mineral, undiscovered
to the general public as yet although I’m sure your experts in America and
Russia are well aware of it and its properties.”

“No one’s going to
accidentally grind a lump of rock into a fine powder and ingest it,” Catherine
contributed thoughtfully. “Half the earth must be made up of minerals that are
inadvisable for consumption.”

“This morning I found
traces of the mineral in all the plant and grass samples taken directly out of
the rock.”

“That seems reasonable.”
Catherine pulled a notepad closer and started jotting down notes. “I’ll call an
immediate meeting with the supervisors and—” She glanced up. “I’d appreciate if
you’d attend, to share your information firsthand.” At his nod, she looked down
again and continued with her notes. “Pamphlets will be released throughout
Ophella as a special alert. We’ll need an emergency briefing on each shift
change before the miners go down—”

“Wait a minute,” he
interrupted. “You still intend to send the miners in?”

“I’ll take every
precaution in the book and more, but the mines stay open.”

“It’s not enough.”

She sat back. “Nicolas,
our hills are flush with vegetation that is harmful to the body. The only
difference, other than that this was purposefully administered in a crime
against my mother, was our ignorance of its existence and lack of medication in
the case of contamination up to now.”

And so the argument began,
spinning loops inside her head. No matter what measures she proposed, Nicolas
was insistent that all the mines be shut while he completed a thorough
investigation and produced a conclusive report.

“I’ll put one mine at your
disposal,” Catherine conceded eventually, her stomach clenched at the
repercussions. Russia and America would not easily accept the reduction. “I
can’t do more than that.”

Nicolas jumped to his
feet, palms banged down on the desk. “You can do anything you want to. You’ve
spared no pains to ram the extent of your power down my throat, now all of a
sudden your hands are tied?”

She pushed up from her
chair to meet his angry stare. “This goes beyond Ophella’s borders. If the
problem was more serious, a threatening epidemic or widespread contamination,
then I’d be forced to bear the consequences and take your advice.”

“It is serious. We have no
idea of the extent of the contamination.”

“The mines are a secure
site,” she said firmly. “Disaster of any nature can and will be contained,
which is much more than I can vouch for if we shut down production.”

“Spare me the melodrama,
Catherine.”

“Melodrama?” she
spluttered.

His brows went up in
unspoken contempt, draining her energy, her anger, her fight. She sank into her
chair to stare at his dark, grim face.
So, this is how it begins.
If she
didn’t already know the ending, she’d prepare for battle.

But she did know.

It was one of the endings
she’d hoped to avoid by leaving him four years ago. The preferred one,
considering the alternative.

Taking her cue, Nicolas
dropped down with a growl of frustration. “Why are you doing this? Just because
you can? To push me away again?”

“Don’t make this
personal,” she said wearily.

“It already is.”

Catherine shook her head
at him. “I don’t make decisions concerning Ophella on a whim. Don’t for one
moment think I’ve forgotten that my mother is a victim of attempted murder and
this mineral was the weapon. There’s more to consider here than you can
possibly imagine.”

“Obviously,” he barked
sarcastically. “Forgive me, but I have a problem imagining anything worse than
risking human life.”

“So do I,” she assured
him.

His anger was so tangible,
she felt as if she could reach out and touch it. She didn’t want to. She wanted
to soothe the hardness from his jaw, bristled and shadowed from missing his
morning shave. She wanted to wave a magic wand and melt the darkness in his
accusing eyes.

Instead, she took a deep
breath and expelled it slowly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to make
arrangements in lieu of what you’ve told me.”

“You can’t dismiss me so
easily.”

She’d never be able to
dismiss him, she countered silently. Her love for him would be carried to the
grave. “I do appreciate your concerns, Nicolas, and I understand your
frustration. If there was a way, I promise you, I’d shut down those mines until
I had your clearance and permission.”

“There is way,” Nicolas
shot back. “But you’re not prepared to take the loss.”

“The mines have made us a
rich country,” Catherine agreed in part. “Rich enough to sustain a few month’s
loss in production without even noticing it.”

She tapped her pen on the
desk, wondering why she was still arguing, debating how much she could actually
say. As much as she trusted Nicolas, this was a matter of national security.
“We have contracts with powerful countries. Join the dots and draw your own
conclusions.”

He stood, kicking his
chair back in disgust. “I have and I don’t like what I see.”

“You are an idealist,” she
said as he turned away. “You’ll always find one thing or another to disapprove
of until the day you get to Heaven.”

He made no acknowledgment
of having heard her.

Her eyes followed him as
he walked from the room, hungry for every detail of his broad back, the glossy
brown waves of healthy hair that hadn’t been trimmed in over a month and curled
up into his neck, the way his lean, muscular body filled the well worn faded
denims. She looked and looked, until the door slammed between them, and then
she leant back and closed her eyes, adding the picture to her private store of
memories.

It wouldn’t be long now.
He’d closet himself inside his lab until he’d perfected the serum and then he’d
leave. She wasn’t even sure if she’d see him again.

Not long, she assured
herself, then she could begin her own healing process from scratch again. As
daunting as the prospect was, she’d survived it before.

Meanwhile, she had a
country to save and she needed her mother’s advice. Maybe she was wrong and
Nicolas was right. Maybe she was playing God with her people’s lives and taking
needless risks.