‘I’d love to.’ Gabi eyed the tree. ‘But we’ll need a lot of decorations.’
‘I thought we could go and buy some. The nearest town has a Christmas market. If we go this afternoon and we wrap up so we look inconspicuous I doubt anyone will recognise us. Because no one will have figured out where we are yet. We have the place to ourselves. My housekeeper will pop in with supplies but otherwise we are going to fend for ourselves.’
Without the trappings of royalty, not even a skeleton staff. Just them. Her heart skipped a little. ‘Then let’s go. Show me to my room and I will get myself disguised in the twinkle of an eye.’
‘Hold on. To complete the disguise.’
She grinned as she saw what he held out. A pot of bright red nail polish. ‘Perfect. I’ll see if I can think of any more royal protocols to break.’
To her own surprise her tiredness had melted away, replaced by an anticipatory buzz of...happiness. Careful, Gabi. No, for this break she didn’t want to be careful. It was OK to be happy—for a few days she would be free of royal rules and duties. She wanted, needed, to make the most of it.
* * *
Cesar glanced down at Gabi as they walked through the medieval town, over the ancient cobbled streets, thronged now with Christmas crowds. Chatter and laughter hummed on the air, redolent with the scent of spiced wine and Christmas delicacies.
‘This is magical,’ Gabi breathed, gesturing upwards at the glittering, sparkling illumination of the Christmas lights that looped and twinkled overhead in an array of stars. A reflection of the sky itself.
‘Yes,’ he agreed, and realised he didn’t mean the setting, beautiful though it was. He meant her—she looked relaxed and happy, her lips curved up in a generous smile, her eyes sparkling as she enjoyed the atmosphere and bit into the enormous pretzel he’d bought for her.
The fluffy red hood completely hid her chestnut hair and also shielded her face from passers-by, and, dressed simply, she blended into the crowds. Cesar wore a woollen hat and had also wrapped a scarf round the lower half of his face. They looked, in fact, like any other couple out to do some Christmas shopping and the security detail were discreet enough to be virtually indistinguishable from the crowds.
They approached the cluster of stalls that made up the market, each one displaying goods and wares that caught the senses. Bright woollen garments, delicacies and pastries, glühwein and marshmallows and hot chocolate. And Christmas decorations.
Gabi lingered over the choice and Cesar took the chance to watch her, the care with which she examined each trinket, the concentration on her face as she debated colour schemes. ‘We could go for a blaze of colour or we could keep it simple. What do you think?’
‘I really don’t mind. What do you normally do?’
‘Normally I try to do a theme around a book. Christmas books mostly, though I did do a wizard theme one year.’
‘That sounds hard.’
‘It was a bit. But I enjoyed it—I really did. It was worth it to see the kids’ faces when they came in. And I’d always hang little wrapped chocolates on there as well. Because kids deserve to have a magical Christmas.’ Her eyes fell on a young couple with a family nearby, absorbed in the study of a nativity scene. ‘Like them. You can see the love there and the magic of Christmas.’ The dark-haired woman leant down to listen to what her daughter said, dropped a kiss on her head, and the father lifted his son up to show the toddler something and beamed as the little boy pointed in excitement.
Seeing the sadness in her eyes, Cesar knew that she was thinking of the loss of her mother. ‘And adults deserve the same. So this next two days will be devoted to Christmas magic.’
The sadness vanished and there was her beautiful smile again. ‘Then let’s make the tree a magical one. We’ll go for white and gold and make it the kind of tree that you’d find in a fairy tale. Let’s go and decorate.’
CHAPTER ELEVEN
‘RIGHT,’ SAID GABRIELLA. ‘We need a plan. The lights have to go on first, then the tinsel.’
‘I am completely in your hands,’ Cesar said, and revelled in the blush that touched her cheeks. A satisfaction that morphed into a desire to kiss her, an urge that was hard to deny. If she married him, of course, then they would be able to kiss whenever they wanted, the idea both scary and wonderful. Scary enough to cause him to focus on winding the lights around the tree.
The next hour was...fun, he realised when, breathlessly, they surveyed the end result of their efforts. The tree swirled with magic, illuminated by the white lights that twinkled and glinted, the gold ornaments lit by the flames of the fire. The whole creation was topped by a star of multi-faceted crystalline beauty.
‘One last thing,’ he said.
Gabi turned to him in question and then her face broke into a smile as he pulled a box out of one of the shopping bags.
‘Chocolates,’ he explained. ‘To hang on the tree. For us.’ He glanced at the tree slightly guiltily. ‘As long as it doesn’t spoil the overall pattern.’
‘Chocolate can never spoil anything. Thank you. This was really thoughtful.’ For a second he held his breath. Half hoping, half terrified that she would kiss him again. His cheek still tingled from the butterfly kiss she’d given him in the car.
She stepped forward and then back again as if common sense had overcome desire; perhaps she too had the same breathless, heady sense of nerves.
‘You’re welcome.’ He gestured to the sofa. ‘Come and sit down and survey the splendour of our creation and I’ll go get us some hot chocolate.’
* * *