Marion Lennox - Princess Of Convenience

Incorporating his country.

But not Jess. Jess only in name.

She was waiting on his decision and that decision had to be made now. He glanced through to the bedroom-and there was Edouard.

Edouard.

He’d been prepared to marry Sarah because of Edouard.

There was only one answer to be given.

‘Thank you, Jess,’ he told her. ‘I would very much like to marry you.’

Raoul left soon after, walking away as a man stunned.

He might well be stunned, Jess thought as she prepared for bed. This marriage would affect her not at all. For Raoul, however, it would be life-changing. She’d thrown him a challenge he hadn’t been able to refuse but she knew very well what it meant to him.

He’d decided to marry his cousin, Sarah, and then do what she intended-leave and return to his old life. But the marriage she offered came with strings-taking up his responsibilities-and she knew that he’d be feeling as if the floor had been swept from under him.

So she made no demur as he bade her a stunned goodnight and left her.

With Edouard.

Which had its own problems. She approached the bed and stared down at the child curled up in sleep. And her gut clenched in pain. To sleep with him…to feel the warmth of his little body…

No.

She’d sleep on the settee in the sitting room, she decided.

But when she was ready for bed she checked on Edouard again and found he was awake. His eyes were wide and scared, as if he’d woken mid-nightmare. ‘Cosette,’ he whispered, but it was a hopeless little whisper, as if he didn’t really want Cosette, but she was all he knew-and who was this?-and no one would comfort him anyway.

Jess couldn’t bear it. What was she about, thinking of her own pain when this little one was so needful? She sat down on the bed beside him and she took his hand.

‘No, Edouard,’ she said softly. ‘Cosette’s left me with you for a bit. You remember me. I’m Jessie. I’m the lady who gave you Sebastian.’

The terror receded from his eyes. Just a little. He’d remembered a small comfort. ‘Sebastian,’ he said and his spare hand searched the bedclothes and found the bear in question. But his fingers still clutched hers. ‘Jessie,’ he whispered and his eyes closed again.

She was held.

She should pull away.

But she didn’t. She sat looking down at him. She moved slightly and his hand clutched her tighter. Finally she conceded defeat.

She was ready for bed. She didn’t need to leave.

She slid under the sheets.

One warm little body sidled closer. Snuggled.

Oh, God.

What had she done? She lay and stared into the night, her emotions a kaleidoscope.

She’d agreed to marry Raoul.

More. She’d fallen for one little boy. She didn’t want to do it-more than anything she was trying to hold herself rigid in the night-but he was so needful. It would have taken a superhuman effort not to put her arms around him and hold him close and let herself smell the clean-soap smell of a tiny child.

Dom…

She was going to choke. The emotions…

There was a faint knock on the door. She didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She was going to cry.

‘Jess?’

It was Raoul. The door opened slowly and she could see his outline in the doorway. He was wearing a big, loose sweater instead of his dinner jacket. His body filled the doorway.

His presence filled the room.

‘Are you OK?’

She couldn’t answer. She was so close to tears. He approached the bed, and she looked up at him in much the same way Edouard had looked at her. Fearful. Not knowing what to say.

She saw his face twist and she knew that he realised what was happening.

‘I wanted to walk,’ he whispered, sitting down on the bed and laying his hand on her hair. It was a gesture she might have made to reassure Edouard. Like Edouard, she needed reassurance. She needed…Raoul?

‘I had so much to think about,’ he went on. ‘I’ve spent half an hour wandering the gardens thinking of what I was going to do-how I was going to cope-and then suddenly I remembered that Edouard was still here. That I’d left Edouard in your room. And for you to sleep with Edouard…’

‘It’s OK,’ she managed, and he shook his head. His fingers started raking her curls, almost absentmindedly.

‘It’s not OK,’ he told her. ‘Sure, I know it’s something that you’ll do and I can’t think what else is to be done tonight, but I know what you’re asking of yourself. After losing your Dominic, to hold Edouard… It’s one of the bravest things I’ve seen and I’ve been in some desperate situations in my time. Jess, how can I help? Shall I take him back to my room?’

She shook her head. Soundlessly. But she’d wept a little-just a little. He laid a finger on her cheek, he felt the damp track of tears and he swore.

‘You’re not responsible for Edouard,’ he told her, almost fiercely. ‘I’ll not make you responsible as well.’

‘It’s OK,’ she made herself say. ‘He needs me. For tonight he won’t let me go and I don’t blame him.’

‘But you’ve done enough.’

‘I can’t leave him.’

‘Maybe not.’ He sighed and glanced around, obviously working on a plan. ‘Tell you what. You sleep with Edouard and I will, too.’

‘What?’

‘You needn’t worry,’ he told her and there was that crooked smile she was starting to know so well. ‘I’m not insinuating myself into your bed. But you can’t tell me that being here with him by yourself isn’t painful.’

‘Yes, but-’

‘All I’m saying is that I’ll be here, too,’ he told her. He lifted a quilt that was lying over the foot of her bed and took a couple of pillows from the mound she’d discarded. ‘I’ll sleep on the settee,’ he told her. ‘Right here. It’ll make it different. You’re not sleeping alone with a child. You’re sleeping with both of us. Sort of a pyjama party without the movies and the popcorn.’ His fingers touched her hair again. Gently. Questioning. ‘Will that help?’

How could it help? But strangely she knew that it would.

‘There’s no need,’ she whispered and he nodded as if his question had been answered.

‘There is a need.’ He stooped, and ever so gently he kissed her. Lightly. Softly. Wonderingly. ‘Sleep well, my Jess. My heroine. My bride. Sleep well and know that I won’t burden you further.’

He left her then. She lay and listened as he made up the settee. It was crazy. There was no need. She couldn’t sleep if he was here.

She heard him settle in his makeshift bed.

‘Goodnight, Jess,’ he told her.

She’d never sleep.

She lay with Edouard warm against her and Raoul not ten yards away.

‘Just lie there and think of England,’ Raoul’s voice said into the night, and amazingly there was laughter behind the words. ‘Or Australia. Whatever takes your fancy.’

She smiled.

She’d never sleep.

She slept.

THEIR marriage took place the next morning, before the rest of the world realised the inhabitants of the royal palace were even awake.

For that they had Henri to thank. The elderly butler did his rounds early-at six. He had found Cosette and the rest of the staff missing, and he discovered that Edouard was not in his bed. He’d then gone to find Raoul and found him missing, too. Finally, starting to panic but not panicked enough to tell Louise, he’d checked Jess’s room, and his relief at finding them all present and correct was almost comical.

And when Raoul told him what he and Jess intended to do, he’d almost wept. He’d stood, stunned, while Raoul explained what was planned-and then he moved into action.

‘Well, if you’re going to marry I’d suggest you do it now,’ he told them, smiling as if he’d been given the world. He glanced at the still sleeping Edouard. ‘You leave the little one with me while you go and tie the knot,’ he told them. ‘I’ll take him to his grandmother.’

‘He might be upset,’ Jess told him.

‘He may well be,’ Henri agreed. ‘But what you’re doing is intended to make his life a whole lot less upset. It’s the best idea I’ve heard of in my life. Get on, the pair of you. There’s a magistrate down in Vesey. He’s a friend of mine-not a government man-and he’ll bend over backwards to make sure everything’s done legally. Tie the knot before Marcel and his government cronies come up with objections, and be back here in time for breakfast. I’ll have the champagne cold.’

He was brooking no argument. Even when Edouard stirred and woke he proceeded calmly, lifting the little boy-and attached teddy-into his arms before anyone could demur. Edouard whimpered a little, but Jess was there, pressing Sebastian close.

‘You’re going to your grandma now,’ she told him. ‘Henri will take you. Grandma wants to see Sebastian and his new trousers. Your uncle Raoul and I will be back soon.’

Edouard stared doubtfully from Raoul to Jess-but he was a child accustomed to whatever was thrust at him. His face shuttered a little but he sank against Henri’s chest and allowed himself to be carried away.

His stoicism almost broke Jess’s heart, but it firmed her in what she was doing. This marriage would give Edouard security and that was all that mattered.

‘OK?’ Raoul asked, as Henri disappeared with his charge. Jess nodded. She was feeling really strange, standing here with this man, in her nightdress and her bare feet-and she had a feeling this strangeness was just going to get a whole lot stranger. But she was right. This was a plan that could work.

‘No doubt at all,’ she told him. ‘Let’s get married.’

Raoul gave her a quizzical look and she managed to smile.

‘There are not a lot of women who’ve said that to you, I bet,’ she told him. ‘Even among your thousand.’

He gave her a sideways grin at that. ‘How do you know, Miss Cocky Boots?’