‘How...?’ It was a fight to breathe, let alone talk. ‘How do you know which wing I’m in?’
‘Because I made it my business to know.’ He inhaled deeply and she knew it was her scent he breathed in so greedily.
He kept his hold on her hand as he stepped back and gazed down at her.
At thirty-five Nathaniel’s face was a craggy cast of crinkles and lines, his impossibly tall body hard and rangy, testament to a man who enjoyed a varied outdoor life. His nose was strong and bumpy, his eyes that always seemed to spark with amusement were a pale green and he had a generous mouth that smiled often to create a dimple in his left cheek. Topping it all off was short brown hair that seemed to fight any attempt to be neat.
He had a magnetism which she had felt from their first introduction all those years ago.
He was the only man she had ever wondered about...
‘At one o’clock I will come to your door.’ He pressed a kiss to her knuckles. ‘I know your companion has the adjoining room so I will not knock. I will be there but I will leave our fate in your hands. If you don’t open the door I will go back to my room and you can pretend I was never there. But before you make the decision of whether or not to open it, ask yourself this—when was the last time you did something solely for yourself that wasn’t bound up in duty? You’re a princess, Catalina, but tonight I can teach you how to be a woman too.’
And with those words, he let go of her hand, bowed, and left the dance floor.
Three weeks later.
The stick with the pink line stared at Princess Catalina Fernandez mockingly.
Merry Christmas, Catalina. Here’s your surprise present.
All the poise she had spent twenty-five years perfecting had gone. All she felt now was a rabid terror eating her from the inside out.
Two blissful minutes when Nathaniel had entered her for the first time without protection before he’d withdrawn and sheathed himself. Two minutes of madness.
What was she going to do?
The nausea swelled up again and she retched, but her stomach was now so empty all that came out was bile. She didn’t know if it was the terror causing it or the new hormones taking over her body.
She brushed her teeth for the third time that morning but could still taste the acid on her tongue. She patted her face dry and stared at her reflection, trying desperately to force a smile to her pale face. In six hours she would sit down with her family for their Christmas feast. Aunts, uncles, cousins; those who worked at the palace and those that didn’t. They would all be there.
She breathed deeply, the exhalation coming out in ragged movements from lungs that seemed to have closed in shock.
A knock on her bedroom door brought her to her senses.
That would be Marion, her cousin and chief companion. Marion had brought Catalina’s breakfast to her earlier—the tray still remained untouched—and now would be ready to draw her bath.
She couldn’t confide in her. Marion had a sly side that Catalina had never warmed to. When she’d come of age and had been permitted to appoint her own ‘companions’, a House of Fernandez euphemism for personal staff, she’d been obligated to take Marion on. In a palace full of servants, personal staff always came from family, and Marion’s mother was sister to Catalina’s father.
She counted to five in her head and composed herself. Not with a single whisper of body language would she show that anything was amiss.
Stepping back into her room, she called out ‘Come in,’ and sat down at her dresser.
Except it wasn’t Marion who opened the door. It was her brother, Dominic.
There was nothing festive about the look on his face.
‘So...’ he said silkily, closing the door behind him. ‘It’s true. You’re pregnant.’
Thank goodness she was already seated or her shaky legs would have given way.
When the test had shown itself positive only half an hour ago she had known she wouldn’t be able to keep this a secret for long but she’d hoped for a few days’ grace.
She clamped her lips together and nodded. There was no point in lying. And little point in wondering how he knew. Privacy was an alien concept when it came to the female members of the House of Fernandez. Not trusting Marion, Catalina had been forced to take Aliana, a second cousin and one of her newer companions, into her confidence and had sent her out to get a pregnancy test. Aliana, barely eighteen, had left the palace on the pretext of some last minute Christmas shopping, promising to keep it a secret.
But nothing in the palace remained a secret for long. To keep one required a mental strength most people didn’t have, not when the King and his heir had a palace full of spies and the power to use the knowledge they gained to their advantage.
Catalina had kept her one true and most precious secret by never telling a soul.
Dominic took in her appearance with a critical sneer, then, without any warning, whipped his hand through the air and slapped her cheek. Hard. ‘Merry Christmas.’
Catalina didn’t allow herself to react, nor did she place a hand to her stinging flesh. Any response would give him what he wanted.
He loved nothing more than making her cry. He fed off it.
She hadn’t cried in front of him since their mother’s funeral seven years ago.
Suddenly she wished, with a desperation she hadn’t felt since the funeral that her mother were there. Just so she would be able to hold her and receive her words of comfort. How she missed her soft voice and gentle smile.
She even wished Isabella were there but her younger sister had escaped the House of Fernandez’s Christmas festivities to spend the period with her husband’s family.
‘Who’s the father?’
She pressed her lips together.
‘A virgin conception? How fitting.’ His mouth curved into another hateful sneer. ‘Nathaniel Giroud?’
Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t stop the little tremor that raced through her at the mention of Nathaniel’s name.
‘It is him.’
Such was the fury that spread across her brother’s face Catalina braced herself for another strike.
Instead, Dominic stooped down, close enough for her to smell his rancid breath. ‘You disgusting slut.’
She didn’t react. She wouldn’t react. It would only make matters worse. She didn’t even flinch when his spittle flew into her face.
‘Bad enough Helios dumped you, a pure-blood royal princess, for a commoner and that the whole world knows it, whatever the press release we issued might have said, but for you to then open your legs for that piece of scum...?’ Malice shone on his face. ‘You realise Johann was preparing to ask Father for your hand in marriage? That’s another prospect ruined.’
Bile crept up her throat, threatening to choke her.
‘You’re ruined; you know that? Johann won’t want you now you’re second-hand goods.’
She couldn’t breathe.
‘Giroud won’t want you either,’ Dominic jeered. ‘He screwed you to get one up on me. You were nothing but a game to him and an easy lay. I told you to stay away from him and now you must pay the price.’
He stared down at her, his face twisted in an ugly contortion. ‘Father will wish to speak to you. He will decide what needs to be done and what the consequences are to be.’
He made to leave