HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS by Christine Rimmer Page B

at him through those big sweet brown eyes of hers, all innocence. “What?”
    “You need to call that school and tell them you won’t be attending in the spring.”
    Her lips thinned to a hard line. “Of course I won’t call them. I’m going, one way or another, no matter what.”
    “Later,” he coaxed. “In a year or two, after we’re certain you can handle it.”
    “I can handle it. And I’m taking the spring semester. This spring semester. You just see if I don’t.”
    Noah tried not to let out a long, weary sigh. She was so completely out there on this—nothing short of obsessed over it. She couldn’t go if he didn’t write the checks. And he had no intention of allowing her to put her health at risk. “We’ve been through this. It’s too soon.”
    “No, it’s not.” She shrugged off his grip. “It’s been two years since my last surgery. I am fine. I am well. And you know it. It’s not too soon.”
    He wanted a stiff drink and dinner and a little peace and quiet before he had to leave again in the morning. He wanted Alice, a lot. But he wasn’t going to have her for a while yet, and he understood that. “Please, Lucy. We’ll talk more later, all right?”
    “But—”
    He caught her shoulders again and kissed her forehead. “Later.” He said it gently.
    She shrugged him off again. “Later to you really means never.”
    There was no point in arguing anymore over it. Shaking his head, he turned for the stairs.
    * * *
    “I suppose you saw the stories in the Sun and the Daily Mirror. ” Alice sipped her sparkling water and poked at her pasta salad.
    It was Saturday, two days since Noah had gone back to America. Rhia had come to Alice’s for lunch. The sisters sat in the sunlit breakfast room that looked out on Alice’s small patio and garden.
    Rhia slathered butter on a croissant. “As tabloid stories go, I thought they were lovely.”
    “Tabloid stories are never lovely.”
    “In this case, I beg to differ. The pictures were so romantic. Noah looked so handsome and you looked fabulous. Two gorgeous people out enjoying an evening together at Casino d’Ambre. Totally harmless. Nothing the least tacky. Good press for Montedoro and the casino. And you both seemed to be having such a good time together. I don’t see what you’re so glum about.”
    She was glum because she missed him. A lot. It didn’t make sense, she kept reminding herself, to miss a man she hardly knew. No matter how smoking hot he happened to be. “I sold him Orion. He arranged to have the veterinarian at the stables yesterday for the prepurchase exam and he’s already sent the money.” He’d wired the whole amount after the exam, before he got the papers to sign. So very, very Noah.
    Rhia swallowed more pasta. “You’ve changed your mind about parting with the stallion, then, and want to back out of the sale?”
    Alice scowled. “Of course not. I’m a horse breeder. I can’t keep them all.”
    “Then what is the matter?”
    “Everything. Nothing. Did you see the flowers in the big Murano glass vase in the foyer?”
    “I did. The vase is fabulous. And the lilies... Your favorite.”
    “Noah sent them—both the flowers and the vase. He also sent a ridiculously expensive hammered-gold necklace studded with rubies.”
    “You know, I get the distinct impression that he fancies you.” Rhia ate more pasta and chuckled to herself.
    “What is so funny?”
    “Grumpy, grumpy.” Rhia was still chuckling.
    “He wants me to come and visit him in California.”
    “Will you?”
    “I haven’t decided. He also wants to marry me.”
    Rhia blinked and swallowed the big bite of croissant she’d just shoved into her mouth. Since she hadn’t chewed, she choked a little and had to wash it down with sparkling water. “Well,” she said when she could talk again. “That was fast.”
    “You don’t know the half of it.”
    Rhia set down her glass and sat back in her chair. “I’m listening.”
    “Oh,