Page 31 of Second Chance Prince
Edwina narrowed her blue eyes at him. “I bet you can’t do it any better.”
Ernest laughed. “No, because I am a boy. I bow.”
“It’s not fair,” Edwina declared, “why do boys always get the easy option?” And she flounced off.
“Don’t laugh,” Vivienne murmured a warning. “It only makes her worse.”
Niki and Ernest exchanged a grin, and it occurred to Roberta that Niki was very good with children and younger people. It was only his peers and the older members of his court he had trouble with. He would make a good father.
She quashed the thought as soon as it appeared in her head and told herself not to be ridiculous. If Niki was ever a father, then it would be with another woman, and if that sent her spirits plummeting then she must ignore it.
Niki and Ernest were shown to their rooms and left to settle in, with the instruction from Vivienne that there would be tea and cake set out in the drawing room when they were ready to join the family.
Roberta was just thinking that the welcoming had gone off better than she had imagined when Olivia took hold of her arm in an unbreakable grip and tugged her into the linen cupboard below the stairs. Luckily, she had handed the baby over to Ivo earlier—Roberta did not think the baby would enjoy the confines of the cupboard—but it still felt as if Roberta had done something wrong.
Disoriented in the gloom, Roberta tried to protest.
“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t like it,” her sister said in a determined voice. “This isn’t real. It’s some sort of game you are playing.”
Roberta’s nerves jumped and skittered even as she made her voice firm and convincing. “Why wouldn’t it be real? Why shouldn’t Niki and I be wildly in love?”
Olivia narrowed her eyes, and in the half-light she lookedjust like Edwina. “You mistake me. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be wildly in love with Prince Nikolai of Holtswig, except that…” She chewed on her lip. “I can’t see you being very happy in the role of his royal wife. It will be so restrictive, and Roberta, you are such a free spirit while he is…Well, very buttoned-down and conservative. He is an eighty-year-old man in a young man’s body. I think, for you, it would be a match made in hell.”
Roberta watched her carefully. “So it isn’t so much that we might not be in love as that you think we are ill-suited? Don’t they say opposites attract?”
“They do say that,” Olivia agreed wryly, “but I have not found it to be so. Ivo and I are deliriously happy”—her eyes shone—“and we are very similar in most ways.”
“Niki and I do have some similarities,” Roberta said firmly. “We both had difficult childhoods. And he is not as ‘buttoned-down’ as you think. It is just a veneer he hides behind. Olivia, he is actually quite shy.”
Olivia didn’t seem to know what to say to that. After a moment she decided on, “You know your own mind, Robbie. You are a grown woman, and I won’t presume to tell you what to do with your life. But I would hate to see you unhappy. I went through a similar situation, and I am just so glad I saw sense in time and chose Ivo.”
“I know you mean well—”
“I also remember the girl who told me she was going to live her own life. That girl is still inside you, and I can imagine her feeling trapped and miserable. There, I have said my piece and will be quiet.”
“Please don’t worry,” Roberta said, her voice a little husky withemotion. “I know what I’m doing.”
Olivia hesitated, and then embraced her and held her tightly. “Come to me if you need to. I will help you in any way I can.”
When they had surreptitiously left the cupboard, Roberta wasn’t sure whether to feel happy to know her sister cared so much, or miserable that she was deceiving her. The trouble was the deceit no longer seemed real. She had developed feelings for Niki. She was beginning to think that she was the one who could make his life better, easier, if he would let her.
She was beginning to dream things she had no right to dream.
The drawing room was full of people, and it seemed that Ernest and Edwina had already formed a bond. They sat together, Edwina giggling, while Georgia glared. Georgia could be jealous of her younger sister, so Roberta hoped this would not cause another ruckus between them. At least Antonia was there to keep the peace.
When her grandmother had ruled over Grantham, only the adults would have been allowed to gather in the drawing room for tea, with the children banished to the nursery. Vivienne had a much more carefree attitude to family events, so everyone was allowed here, including Austin, Lily, and Baby Edward.
Roberta was glad to see Freddie Hart across the room. She still shuddered when she remembered the attempt on Niki’s life at the theater. Freddie was speaking in a low, serious voice to Gabriel, and she wondered if there had been any news about the would-be assassin.
“There you are!” the dowager exclaimed, and they all turnedto stare.
Chapter Sixteen
Niki was used to being stared at, but this felt different from the formal affairs he attended. More personal. He tried to maintain his composure as he took in the elegant drawing room and the Ashtons gathered there, but he couldn’t seem to slip that mask back on as easily as usual. His hands were clammy, and his breath was tight in his chest, as if he was losing control.
Was it because there were children in the room? And a baby!
Such a lapse in protocol would never have occurred in Holtswig under his father’s rule. Nor his grandfather’s, who refused to allow the younger members of the family to mingle with the older. Because he was the heir, Niki had been the exception, but he had always been instructed to stand silently and observe and listen.
