“So do I. My favorite stories when I was a little girl were about princesses. Would you like to hear one?” She took their smiles as assent. “Once upon a time there were two princesses and their names were Karina and Bethany.”
“That’s us.”
* * *
Gabriel paced his office, impatient for Stewart to arrive with news that the twins had been settled into the palace. In his hand was the single photo he’d kept of Marissa after they’d broken up. He’d sealed it in an envelope and shoved it in the back of a drawer. Why he’d kept it was a question he was brooding over now.
After a long, unproductive strategy session with Christian regarding Marissa’s daughters, he’d sent his brother home. Although he had rooms for his use in the palace, Christian liked his privacy and only rarely stayed in them. Sometimes Gabriel suspected that if either of his brothers had a choice they would give up their titles and any claim to Sherdana’s throne. As it was they spent almost no time in Sherdana. Nic had gone to university in the US where he’d met his business partner and only returned when he absolutely had to, while Christian spent most of the year out of the country pursuing his business interests.
As close as the triplets had been growing up, the distance between them these days bothered Gabriel. While he’d known, as eldest son, that he’d be in charge of running the country someday, he’d never expected that his brothers wouldn’t be around to help.
Stewart appeared as Gabriel was returning Marissa’s photo to the envelope. Glancing at the clock he saw it was almost three in the morning. He’d sent his private secretary to check on Marissa’s daughters half an hour earlier.
“Well?” he demanded, pushing to his feet.
“They arrived at the palace a couple hours ago and I arranged to have them escorted to the nursery in the north wing.” It had seemed prudent to squirrel them away at the opposite end of the palace, far from where the royal family was housed.
“Have you seen them?” He wanted to know if the girls bore any resemblance to him, and could scarcely restrain himself from asking the question outright. Christian had cautioned that a DNA test would have to be performed before Gabriel let himself get emotionally involved. It was good advice, but easier agreed to than acted upon.
“Not yet.”
Gabriel’s temper flared. “What have you been doing?”
The private secretary wasn’t fazed by his employer’s impatience. “I went to the nursery, but they appear to be missing.”
“Missing?” He couldn’t imagine how that had happened. “Didn’t the lawyer say they had a nanny? Did you ask her where they are?”
“She’s gone. Apparently she was escorted from the palace by one of the guards an hour ago.”
“Escorted...? On whose authority?”
“Lady Darcy’s private secretary.”
Unable to fathom how she’d gotten involved, Gabriel stabbed his fingers through his hair. This business with Marissa’s daughters was fast spiraling out of control. “Have you spoken with her?”
“It’s three in the morning, sir.”
And if two little girls weren’t missing, he might be inclined to leave his questions until morning. “Tell her I want to speak to her.”
“Right away.”
His private secretary wasn’t gone more than five minutes. “Apparently she’s in Lady Darcy’s room, sir.” Stewart paused. “With the girls.”
Dismay shouldered aside irritation as Gabriel headed for the wing that housed his future bride. An encounter between Olivia and Marissa’s daughters was a problem he hadn’t anticipated. No doubt she would have questions about them. She was proving more troublesome than he’d expected based on their limited interaction before he’d proposed. Christian had warned him there was more to Olivia than a pretty face and polished manners, but she’d done an excellent job keeping her agenda hidden. The question was why.
Gabriel knocked on the door of Olivia’s suite, agitation adding sharpness to the blows. His summons was answered more quickly than he expected by a pretty woman in her early thirties, wearing a classic blue dress and a frown. Her eyes widened as she spied him standing in the hall.
“I’m here looking for two little girls who’ve gone missing from the nursery,” Gabriel said, his tone courteous despite the urge to push past her. “I understand they are here. May I come in?”
“Of course, Your Highness.” She stepped back and gestured him in. “Lady Darcy, Prince Gabriel is here to see you.”
“If you’ll excuse us,” Gabriel said, gesturing her out before entering the dimly lit suite and closing the door behind him.
His gaze swept the room in search of his fiancée. He spied her by the fireplace. She looked serene in a simple cotton dress, her hair in the same updo she’d worn to the gala. So she hadn’t yet gone to bed. This thought made his attention shift to the large bed where he spied a lump beneath the covers.
“Sorry for the late visit,” he told her. “But two children have gone missing.”
“Bethany and Karina.”
She knew their names. What else had she found out?
“What are they doing here?” he asked the question more sharply than he’d intended and saw her eyes narrow.
“They each had a bowl of ice cream and fell asleep.” Her sweet smile had a bit of an edge. “They were terrified of that horrible woman who’d been hired to look after them and refused to sleep in their own beds. So I brought them here.”
“And plied them with ice cream?”
“Their mother just died a few days ago. Strangers tore them from the only home they’d ever known and brought them to this big, scary place. Do you have any idea how traumatic all that was for them?”
“The nursery is not scary.”
“It was for them. And so was that awful woman who was taking care of them.”
“Is that why you had her escorted out of the palace tonight?”
Olivia’s eyes flashed. “I suppose you’re going to tell me it wasn’t my place to fire her, but she reminded me of the villain in every children’s story I’ve ever read.”
Her outrage was charming and Gabriel found his annoyance melting away. “How did you come to meet them?”
“I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d go for a walk. When I got to the stairs I could hear their cries and the nanny’s scolding. They were running down the hall away from that woman and the things she said to them.” Olivia’s lips tightened. “I would like to speak to their father about her. First thing tomorrow morning if at all possible.”
“The situation with them is a little complicated,” Gabriel told her, his gaze once again drawn to the lump in the center of the mattress.
“Then explain it to me.”
This was what Gabriel had been wrestling with all evening. What he was going to tell the world about Marissa’s daughters was a small issue compared to how he would explain things to his parents and the woman he would soon marry.
“Some matters need to be cleared up first.”
Olivia’s hard stare searched his expression for a long silent moment before she spoke. “What sort of matters?”
He couldn’t tell her that the girls were none of her business when she’d already taken their care upon herself. At the same time, he didn’t want to claim the girls before the matter of their heritage was cleared up.
“Perhaps you’re referring