Free The Prince’s Bride by Julianne MacLean Page B

touched. He covered her hands with his own. “I apologize for
     being rough with you today. That was inexcusable.”
    “It’s fine, Nicholas. What did d’Entremont say?”
    Without looking up, he answered the question at last. “He told me that he knew my
     mother many years ago, and that they were lovers.”
    Véronique drew back in surprise.
    “D’Entremont said he loved my mother deeply and passionately, and that he never loved
     anyone else as he loved her.”
    Véronique shook her head in disbelief. “But he was married for almost twenty years
     and had three children with his wife. From what I know of it, it was a happy marriage
     until the day she died.”
    “Happy. Content. Yes. D’Entremont held his wife in the highest regard, but he never
     let go of the undying love he felt for my mother.”
    Véronique leaned closer. “Was this before she married your father, or after?”
    Leaning back, Nicholas said flatly, “It was after.”
    Véronique paused and wet her lips. There was obviously a great scandal brewing here,
     and she was uneasy about pressing Nicholas for more information, but she had so many
     questions.…
    “After my brother, Randolph, was born,” he continued, “my mother spent time in Paris—a
     full year with distant relations while my father was immersed in the rising tide of
     the Petersbourg Revolution. He was a general in the army then, not yet king. According
     to d’Entremont, he and my mother met at a political assembly in Paris and fell in
     love, almost at first sight. Many months later, my father discovered her adultery
     and threatened to take Randolph away from her, and never allow her to see him again,
     if she did not return to Petersbourg immediately.”
    “What happened after that?” Véronique asked.
    Nicholas leaned his head back on the chair and gazed up at the ceiling. “She went
     home like a proper, dutiful wife.”
    Véronique touched his knee. For a long while he did not move. Then he lifted his head
     and regarded her intently in the flickering light from the candles.
    “She gave birth to me eight months later.”
    Véronique absorbed this shocking piece of news and considered what it meant for Nicholas.
     Not only had his mother betrayed her vow of fidelity, but his father had been ruthless
     in his desire to keep his wife’s adultery a secret. For those reasons, Nicholas had
     never known that he was not a true blood royal, that the king was not his father.
    In addition to that, his brother, Randolph, was only his half brother. The same would
     be true of his sister, Princess Rose. Nicholas was not only the wild and wayward middle
     child of a dead monarch; he was a secret bastard son. He had no claim to the throne.
    He was also the son of a man she despised with every breath in her body.
    “What will you do?” she asked, pulling her hand away.
    Nicholas shrugged. “I have no idea. My brother knows nothing of this, nor does my
     sister.”
    She gave him a moment to consider the future, then could not help but ask the question
     that was screaming for an answer in her mind.
    “Why did he tell you this now?” she asked. “Why did he kidnap you, like some primitive
     barbarian lord?”
    Nicholas breathed deeply. “He was desperate. He wanted to see me urgently, and could
     not risk that I would refuse, or put him off.”
    “Why so urgently?”
    Nicholas paused. “Because he is dying, Véronique, and he needs an heir.”
    She blinked a few times. Her astonishment, and the hatred she felt for d’Entremont,
     was making her feel rather nauseated. “He is dying?”
    It was selfish of her, and she was ashamed of herself for thinking such thoughts,
     but she could not help but wonder what it would mean for her family. D’Entremont held
     the deed to her home and had agreed to sign it over to her upon completion of this
     task. She had brought Nicholas here, as promised. He must now sign the property over
     to her … he must. And quickly.
    “Has he