Jenny moved then, inconspicuously slipping to his side. She stood close and she took his hand, as if she realized just how big it was. Just how important this request was.

Defusing threats to create a future.

Refusing to stand alone for one moment longer.

‘I can’t…’ Carlos managed at last. ‘There’s nothing.’

‘Yes, dear, there is.’ Perpetua had found her voice, and she, too, slipped to stand beside her man. ‘Sports. Carlos loves them, loves watching them, but there’s never been enough money to train our teenagers. And the football stadium’s falling down.’

‘You like football?’ Ramón asked.

‘Football,’ Philippe said, lighting up.

‘I…’

‘You could give me reports on sports facilities,’ Ramón said, thinking fast, trying to figure out something meaningful that the man could do. ‘Tell me what needs to be done. Put in your recommendations. I don’t know this country. You do. I need help on the ground. So what do we have here? Assistant to the Crown for Education. Assistant to the Crown for Sport.’

‘And I’ll be Assistant to the Crown for New Uniforms for The Staff,’ Sofía said happily. ‘I’d like to help with that.’

‘I can help with floating,’ Philippe said gamely. ‘But can I help with football, too?’

‘And Gianetta?’ Perpetua said, looking anxious. ‘What about Jenny?’

‘I need to figure that out,’ Ramón said softly, holding his love close, his world suddenly settling in a way that was leaving him stunned. ‘In private.’

Philippe had finished his sausage roll now, and he carried the loaded tray over to his big cousin.

‘Would you like to eat one?’ he asked. ‘And then will you teach me to float some more?’

‘Of course I will,’ he said. ‘On one condition.’

Philippe looked confused, as well he might.

No matter. Sometimes a prince simply had to allocate priorities, and this was definitely that time. He tugged Jenny tighter, then, audience or not, he pulled her into his arms and gave her a swift possessive kiss. It was a kiss that said he was pushed for time. He knew he couldn’t take this further, not here, not now, but there was more where that came from.

‘My condition to you all,’ he said softly, kissing her once more, a long lingering kiss that said, pushed for time or not, this was what he wanted most in the world, ‘is that Señor Rodriguez changes my diary. This night is mine.’

The car came to collect her just before sunset. She was dressed again as Gianetta, in a long diaphanous dress made of the finest layers of silk and chiffon with the diamonds at her throat. Two maids and Sofía and Consuela and Perpetua had clucked over her to distraction. Sofía had added a diamond bracelet of her own, and had wept a little.

‘Oh, my dear, you’re so beautiful,’ she’d said mistily. ‘Do you think he’ll propose?’

Jenny hadn’t answered. She couldn’t. She was torn between laughter and tears.

Ramón’s kisses had promised everything, but nothing had been said. Mistress to a Crown Prince? Wife?

Dared she think wife?

How could she think anything? After a fast floating lesson Ramón had been swept away yet again on his interminable business and she’d been left only with his demand.

‘A car will come for you at seven. Be ready.’

She was ready, but she was daring to think nothing.

Finally, at seven the car came and Señor Rodriguez handed her into the limousine with care and with pride. The reverberations from this afternoon were being felt all around the country, and the lawyer couldn’t stop smiling.

‘Where’s Ramón?’ she managed.

‘Waiting for you,’ the lawyer said, sounding inscrutable until he added, ‘How could any man not?’

So she was driven in state, alone, with only a chauffeur for company. The great white limousine was driven slowly through the city, out along the coast road, up onto a distant headland where it drew to a halt.

Two uniformed footmen met her, Manuel and Luis, trying desperately to be straight-faced. There was a footpath leading from where the car pulled in to park, winding through a narrow section of overgrown cliff. Manuel and Luis led her silently along the path, emerged into a clearing, then slipped silently back into the shadows. Leaving her to face what was before her.

And what was before her made her gasp. A headland looking out all over the moonlit Mediterranean. A table for two. Crisp white linen. Two cushioned chairs with high, high backs, draped all in white velvet, each leg fastened with crimson ties.

Silverware, crystal, a candelabrum magnificent enough to take her breath away.

Soft music coming from behind a slight rise. Real music. There were real musicians somewhere behind the trees.

Champagne on ice.

And then Ramón stepped from the shadows, Ramón in full ceremonial, Ramón looking more handsome than any man she’d met.

The sound of frogs came from beneath the music behind him. Her frog prince?

‘If I kiss you, will you join your friends, the frogs?’ she whispered before she could help herself and he laughed and came towards her and took her hands in his.

‘No kissing,’ he said tenderly. ‘Not yet.’

‘What…?’ She could barely speak. ‘What are we waiting for?’

‘This,’ he said and went down on bended knee.

She closed her eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

This was happening.

‘This should wait until after dinner,’ he said softly, ‘but it’s been burning a hole in my pocket for three hours now.’ And, without more words, he lifted a crimson velvet box and held it open. A diamond ring lay in solitary splendour, a diamond so wonderful…so amazing…

‘Is it real?’ she gasped and he chuckled.

‘That’s Jenny speaking. I think we need Gianetta to give us the right sense of decorum.’

Gianetta. She took a deep breath and fought for composure. She could do this.

‘Sire, you do me honour.’

‘That’s more like it,’ he said and his dark eyes gleamed with love and with laughter. ‘So, Gianetta, Jenny, my love, my sailor, my cook extraordinaire, my heart…I give you my love. The past has made us solitary, but it’s up to both of us to move forward. To leave solitude and pain behind. You’ve shown me courage, and I trust that I can match it. So Gianetta, my dearest love, if I promise to love you, cherish you, honour you, for as long as we both shall live, will you do me the honour of taking my hand in marriage?’

She looked down into his loving eyes. Then she paused for a moment, taking time to gaze around her, at the night, at the stars, the accoutrements of royalty, at the lights of Cepheus glowing around them. Knowing also there was a little boy waiting as well.

Her family. Her love, starting now.

‘I believe I will,’ she said gently and, before he could respond, she dropped to her own knees and she took his hands in hers.

‘Yes, my love and my prince, I believe I will.’

Marion Lennox

Marion Lennox is a country girl, born on an Australian dairy farm. She moved on-mostly because the cows just weren’t interested in her stories! Married to a “very special doctor,” Marion writes Medical™ Romances as well as Harlequin® Romance. (She used a different name for each category for a while-if you’re looking for her past Harlequin Romances, search for author Trisha David as well.) She’s now had more than seventy-five romance novels accepted for publication.