The colour drained from her face. For the longest time she just stared at him, her mouth opening and closing but nothing coming out.
And then something in her demeanour shifted.
She got to her feet.
Somehow she stood taller than he’d ever seen her.
Padding slowly to him, her words had the same cadence as her pace but her quiet tone was scathing. ‘I haven’t trapped you into anything. We created a childtogether.’
‘You think I don’t know that? You think I don’t know the blame lies with me too? You pushed aside the fact of your virginity and I pushed aside the fact you were a princess and not a mere flesh and blood woman, and I didn’t have the sense to think about contraception, and now I’m trapped in a marriage to a woman I would never have married under any other circumstance. I’ve given up everything for this, my career, my privacy, my whole damn life!’
‘You gave all that up for our child,’ she snapped back. ‘Remember? If you’re trapped then it’s in a web of your own making. You married me because you didn’t trust me to put our child’s wellbeing first.’
He crossed his arms tightly around his chest and leaned down into her face. ‘You married me for your damn monarchy.’
‘No, I married you for my family because the monarchy means everything tothem, and so that my child could have its father in its life.’
‘You married me so you could continue being the perfect princess and redeem yourself in your mother’s eyes because being a princess is all you’ll allow yourself to be.’
‘Being a princess is who Iam!’
‘No, Alessia, you’re my wife too, but you wouldn’t even take one night off from your duties for my sister’s birthday when no one would have missed you at that show.’
‘I’d already committed to it, and how you have the nerve to say that when I gladly offered to have Mariella stay with us...’ Pacing the room, she threw her hands in the air. ‘You talk about everything you’ve had to give up, but what about all the things I’ve had to give up, like a whole future spent being a princess without ever having a prince on my arm? You won’t even come to my brother’s wedding!’
‘You knew my conditions before you agreed to our marriage,’ Gabriel raged. His unleashed fury and Alessia’s passionate defence of herself had his blood pumping through him in a way that seemed to be feeding his anger.
‘Conditions without compromise, that’s what they were, and I wasn’t allowed to impose any of my own, was I? As with our wedding and the home we live in, I wasn’t given a say. I had no choice because you gave me no choice. You talk a good talk about compromise but you won’t compromise on Amadeo’s wedding, will you, even when you know how much it would mean to me to have you there.’
‘I will not feed those vultures and I will not set a precedent. I don’t know how many times I have to say that.’
‘A precedent?’ she cried. ‘You call me a flesh and blood woman and then talk about precedents as if I’m nothing but some business contract?’
‘The woman I made love to that night was Alessia Berruti.She’sthe woman I committed myself to, the woman I made clear to you that I was marrying, but she’s not the woman I find myself married to, not when we’re here. The minute you step foot on Ceres your princess mask slips back on and everything becomes about duty, but I have committed myself and so I’m condemned to spend the rest of my life on this damned island hoping every day for a glimpse of the woman I thought I’d married. But you won’t throw those princess shackles off again, will you? Not if it means disappointing your mother again. I will always come second to your damned monarchy and your need to always be Princess Perfect so that you can bask in your mother’s approval.’
‘It’s not just for her! It’s who I am!’
‘It doesn’t have to be! Look how good things are between us when we’re away from this place. If you step away from your royal duties we can have that all the time.’
She stopped pacing and stared at him with shock. ‘Step away from being a princess?’
‘Why not?’ The thought of his wife quitting her royal duties was not something Gabriel had ever given serious consideration to, but now that the words were out, he grasped at them, for in that moment they made perfect sense. ‘You’ve played your part for your family. Marcelo’s married. Amadeo’s marrying soon. That’s two new beautiful Berruti princesses for the public to fall in love with, and soon no doubt new royal babies. You and I can build a new life away from here where you can be whoever you want to be.’
Alessia’s early pregnancy sickness had ebbed and flowed since the hormones of conception had kicked in. The nausea in her belly was the strongest she’d known it since the day they’d agreed the contract for their marriage. ‘Are you serious?’
‘Yes. You, me and our baby, away from this castle building our own private life together. You can take that princess mask off for ever and just be the woman I adore. What do you say?’
Eyes not leaving his face, she slowly wrapped her arms across her stomach. ‘If I consider it, will you consider coming to Amadeo’s wedding?’
He laughed. ‘If you come round to my way of thinking, neither of us will have to attend his wedding. I know you still feel guilty for your part in its being.’
She held his stare for a long time, tightening her hold around her abdomen. ‘But I want to go. It’s my brother’s wedding. And I want you to be there too, as my husband, to hold my hand and support me, because yes, I do still feel some guilt for it. But it’s not just about guilt. I want you there formysake, as my prince, for the biggest celebration our island’s had since my mother’s coronation.’ She took a long breath and quietly added, ‘Come with me, please. Be my husband and my prince for just that one day.’
She held her breath.
For a long time nothing was said between them. Not verbally. The flickering in his eyes told her more than words could ever say.
Now Alessia was the one to laugh, although there was no humour in it. ‘You accuse me of putting you second but I wouldn’t have to if you’d meet me halfway and just be my prince for family functions. I can’t help that there’s always press there too, but you knew it before you imposed that condition. I have no choice but to keep a huge chunk of my life separate from you because Iama princess, and this is the situation you’ve created, not me, and now you want me to give up who I am without meeting me even a fraction of the way.’ She shook her head. ‘You set me up for a fall right from the beginning. You engineered things in our marriage so I have no choice but to put you second.’