It had. She didn’t tell him that but he’d learn it anyway. Just after they’d pulled Rafael out, a final tremor had come through. The mass of mud had settled again, and their basement refuge had turned into what would have been a mass grave.

She shivered.

‘Damn,’ he said and struggled to sit up.

‘Rafael, no.’

‘Then lie down beside me,’ he said, his voice gaining strength. ‘A man’s got to say what a man’s got to say. Dammit, I should go down on bended knee.’

On bended knee…

‘I don’t think any of us are capable of bending for quite a while,’ she whispered, and amazingly she heard herself chuckle. His tug was insistent. Well, what the heck. She hauled back the covers, wiggled in and lay down beside him.

He pulled her as close as he could, he turned his face to hers and he kissed her.

Fourth kiss? It was the best, she decided. It was the best by a country mile. It was a kiss of release of terror. It was a kiss of love. It was a kiss of promise.

‘You know we can’t go further,’ he said, his voice laced with passion as finally he let her go. Only an inch, mind, but release her he did. ‘I’m so full of drugs…’

‘And you need to sleep.’

‘Sleep be damned,’ he said. ‘Kelly, will you marry me?’

‘Yes.’

‘Just like that?’

‘Just like that.’

‘It’s putting you in the royal goldfish bowl again,’ he said, holding her close.

‘But I’ll be in it with you,’ she whispered. ‘And with Matty. If it’s a goldfish bowl with you guys or a big wide world without, it’s a no-brainer.’

‘I’m your second prince.’

‘Kass was no prince,’ she said scornfully. ‘He might have been born royal but he never earned the title. You, however…You’re prince through and through.’

‘I’m a toy-maker.’

‘And an equestrian,’ she said, snuggling against him. He was wearing pyjamas. Self striped, flannel pyjamas. They’d have to go, she thought. Maybe not right now, though. A girl should show some restraint in the face of an injured hero.

He’d asked her to marry him!

‘I guess riding again wasn’t so bad,’ he admitted.

‘Your father loved it.’

‘My father would have loved you.’

‘My son loves you already.’

‘Kelly,’ he murmured and the strength had left his voice again. He had been heavily sedated to put his shoulder back in, she knew. He should be asleep.

‘Yes, my love?’

‘We can be a family?’

‘Yes.’

‘A royal family?’

‘I’ll even wear a tiara,’ she teased and the hand around her waist tightened.

‘Kelly?’

‘Mmm.’

‘I’m probably not capable of anything at all…’

‘No, but…’

‘No, but I can try,’ he said. ‘You know I asked you to marry me?’

‘Yes.’

‘And if a thing’s promised then it’s as good as done-right?’

‘I guess,’ she said dubiously, not sure where this was going.

‘Then I have a wife,’ he said in sleepy satisfaction. ‘I have a princess. And, as a princess, as a wife, there are certain duties you’ll be expected to face.’

‘I…I guess.’

‘Then we might as well start now,’ he said, resigned.

‘Um…right.’ She thought about it. She twisted and pushed herself up so she was looking down into his beloved face. He was smiling. He was even laughing! And the look in his eyes…

It was a very royal look. It was a look of complete seduction.

‘I only have one good arm,’ he whispered as he tugged her down to him. ‘Kelly, my love, my princess, my wife, I need help right now.’

‘To do…to do what?’

‘To take off these pyjamas!’

As coronations went it was magnificent.

Crater, as Secretary of State of Alp de Ciel, had been to the coronations in each of the Alp countries. He’d watched with wonder and with outright envy as the new generation of royals had taken their places as leaders in their countries, leading the way to prosperity for all.

They were here now. Prince Raoul of Alp d’Azuri was here, with the Princess Jessica, with their little son Edouard and with their twin daughters, Nicky and Lisle. Prince Maxsim of Alp d’Estella was in the next pew, with his Pippa and Marc and Sophie and Claire and bump. Prince Nikolai of Alp de Montez, with his beloved Princess Rose, with no bump as yet, were free to be best man and matron of honour. There might be no bump, but by the way they were looking at each other Crater knew the succession of Alp d’Estella was assured.

As it was assured here in Alp de Ciel. For this coronation was also a wedding.

‘I’m damned if we’re dragging all these dignitaries here twice,’ Rafael had decreed. ‘You say the coronation has to take place almost immediately. That’s how Kelly and I feel about our wedding. Besides, Anna will kill me if I drag her away from New York twice in a month, and I’m tired of her yelling at us. So we combine.’

So combine they did. The vast and ancient cathedral in Alp de Ciel’s capital was full to bursting. Every dignitary worthy of the name was crammed in, plus representatives of all walks of life in Alp de Ciel. The staff from the diggings in Australia sent representatives, beaming with approval at this happy ending for a loved staff member. Pete, as senior representative, was giving the bride away. Even Rafael’s work team from Manhattan was here-his disabled staff-as many as could fly over. Rafael was planning a local workforce with the same background. It was an outward sign of the changes that were already sweeping the country.

‘For this government is of the people, for the people, by the people, starting now,’ Rafael and Kelly had decreed, and Crater agreed entirely. Their attitude meant a motley guest list, but so what? Royalty was changing for the better, in ways Crater could only wonder at.

Everywhere Crater looked there was approval-and no more so than at the end of the aisle where one small page-boy was holding a ring, waiting impatiently for Kelly and Rafael to need it.

Matty had reacted with joy to the news of Rafael and Kelly’s engagement, whooping and bouncing with an excitement that made him seem less of a Crown Prince and more of a little boy with the world at his feet. From the time of the landslip the castle seemed to be tumbling with new life and new puppies and a kid who’d been released from his royal imperatives.

His lessons from Crater had been quartered. ‘For there’s all the time in the world for Matty to learn his royal obligations,’ Kelly had decreed. ‘For the next twenty years, those obligations are the responsibility of his parents.’

His parents…

For Matty had parents now and he approved entirely. Rafael would be his father as well as Prince Regent. Matty thought that was the neatest thing in the whole world. In the mornings he bounced into bed with Kelly, hugging her tight, claiming to the world that he had a mother he loved.

His Aunt Laura was in the front pew, weeping into a still inevitably paint-spattered handkerchief. Matty couldn’t figure that one out. Why was she crying? He was watching this wedding with joy and love and anticipation of a very good party.

If they’d just get on with it.

And so they did.

‘With this ring I thee wed…’

Rafael took the ring from Matty and he placed it on his bride’s finger. His bride…Kelly, who’d embraced the royal wedding with enthusiasm and love. Her dress was truly wondrous. She looked like an Elizabethan bride, a true royal princess. Her dragon train swept out behind her, the golden embroidery shimmering in the sunlight streaming through the ancient stained glass windows. She looked truly regal.

But she also looked like a woman in love. She smiled mistily up at her bridegroom and the whole cathedral seemed to dissolve.

There wasn’t a dry eye in the house, Crater thought, wiping away a surreptitious tear himself. And then, as he thought of what approached-the formal joining of these four nations to become one mighty Federation, he abandoned trying and let his tears flow freely.

These four Princes with their brides…Who said love couldn’t conquer all? he thought. Love was making a damned fine fist of conquering all, right here, right now.

And the next morning-the first morning of their married life-they started as they meant to go on. Prince Rafael and Princess Kellyn rode together at dawn.

For their wedding gifts to each other were horses. Blaze would be ridden and loved and cared for, as would the other horses in the stables, but Blaze had been a part of Kass’s life. He belonged to Matty now.

Kelly and Rafael needed to find their own future.

So they’d stolen two days from the mad preparation for the wedding and they’d spent those days looking at horses. They’d found Kelly’s mare first. She was a silky-coated two-year-old, a soft grey with white markings, fearless and gentle in equal measure. She’d been bred for sale, but the farmer who’d bred her couldn’t bear to part with her. Until now.

When the word had gone out that the Princess Kellyn needed a horse, she’d been quietly proffered. Her name was Cher, meaning beloved, and she already was.

And for Rafael…Nero had taken longer to find, and in the end they’d had to travel to Italy. But he was worth every moment of travelling time. Nero was all black. When they’d first seen him, he’d seemed too big, too powerful, too breathtaking. But Rafael had mounted him and looked down at Kelly, his eyes gleaming with excitement and pleasure.

They’d bought him. Of course they’d bought him. For this was what the future held for them. Excitement and pleasure and challenge.

Hard work and commitment.

Love.

They rode side by side now, silent, each overwhelmed with the enormity of the step they’d taken, the pleasure-no, the bliss-of the night before and the knowledge that this was the beginning of their life together.

They emerged from the woodlands to the open pastures. Here the horses could have their heads, taking the gentle rise at a gallop. Finally they reached the summit, where the land swept down again deep into a valley before rising to the Alps beyond.