‘You don’t seem very excited,’ observed Rachel, her own eyes shining. ‘I mean, most people would be jumping up and down to get a Royal request!’ She picked up the letter again and read it as reverentially as if it had been a Dead Sea Scroll. ‘I just can’t believe it! A letter from the Mardivinian Bureau of Tourism,’ she repeated wonderingly. ‘Asking us for our professional advice!’
Ella sighed and she gave her assistant a weak smile. Rachel was young and enthusiastic, but those very qualities—which had led Ella to employ her in the first place—were also those that would make it difficult for her to understand why she had no intention of accepting this job. Though when she stopped to think about it what could she say to anyone that would make the facts believable?
How about if she just blurted it out? She could just imagine how the conversation would go.
Actually, it’s just a ruse to get me to go to Mardivino, Rachel.
And why is that, Ella?
Well, the Prince rescued me from a stricken boat, only I didn’t know he was a prince at the time. He subsequently came here for dinner and I slept with him, and when I discovered that he had deceived me I told him I never wanted to see him again.
She chose her words carefully. Perhaps professional concern might be more advisable. ‘To be honest, Rachel, I’m not sure if I can spare the time to go,’ she prevaricated.
Rachel stared at her as if she had gone stark, raving mad. ‘But I can handle the office here—you know I can!’ A hurt expression came over her face. ‘Unless, of course, you don’t think I’m capable of running the office—though you’ve let me do it before!’
‘Of course I don’t think that!’
Rachel was shaking her head. ‘I mean—this is like something out of a fairy tale!’
Maybe it was, thought Ella—but not in the way that Rachel meant. It was certainly like the part in the stories where the apple you bit sent you into a century-long sleep, or where your glass carriage became a pumpkin. The dark side of the fairy story…
‘It could turn out to be a bigger project than a small firm like ours can handle.’
Rachel lifted her hands in a gesture that said, So what? ‘If it’s too big, then we just take on more staff!’
Ella stared at her assistant as an idea slowly began to take shape. A solution that would not just save her skin, but thrill Rachel into the bargain. And one that Prince Nicolo Louis Fantone Cacciatore couldn’t possibly object to…
‘Do you want to go down to the village and buy some bread for our lunch?’ she said innocently.
As soon as Rachel had gone, Ella picked up the thick sheet of cream paper with the heavily embossed crest at the top and dialled a number with a shaking finger, hardly able to believe that it would get her straight through to the palace at Mardivino.
But it did, and she very nearly dropped the receiver when she heard the rich, silky voice. ‘Si? Nicolo.’
So how did she address him now? As Nico, or Nicolo, or Prince, or—perhaps most appropriate of all—as rat!
‘Nico?’ she said coolly, without any kind of formality.
Within the quiet, opulent splendour of his palace office, Nico could feel the deep, dark throb of his pulse as he heard her voice. As he had known he would. ‘Ciao, Gabriella,’ he said silkily. ‘Did you get my letter?’
‘How else do you think I knew your number?’ she questioned coldly.
His pulse quickened further. He was a man who constantly sought new adventures, and he had never before realised what a turn-on insolence could be. ‘So when will you be arriving?’ he enquired pleasantly.
Oh, but her reply was going to give her such great delight! A tiny revenge, it was true—but an empowering one, which would go a little way towards healing some of the hurt and humiliation she felt. ‘I won’t be. I’ll be sending my assistant instead.’
There was a pause. ‘Oh, no, you won’t,’ he said softly.
She ignored the silken threat in his voice. ‘She’s very capable—and this will be a wonderful opportunity for her!’
‘But it is not your assistant that I want, cara—it is you.’
Despot! Well, he had better learn that she was not one of his subjects, and he couldn’t just dictate to her as if she was. ‘I think it’s time I enlightened you, Prince Nicolo. Point one—it is pretty pathetic to invent a job just because you want to see someone again, especially when she has no desire to see you—ever! And, point two—either my assistant comes or you can kiss the “job” goodbye.’
He gave a low laugh, curling his long fingers around the phone in an instinctive movement of delicious anticipation. She was just crying out to be conquered, as he had conquered mountains and oceans ever since he could remember.
‘Point one, Gabriella—your ego may be vast enough to regard this as simply a ploy, but my need for your services is genuine.’
‘Oh, really?’ she questioned disbelievingly.