Free How to Love a Princess by Claire Robyns Page B

that would one
day display another man’s ring. Admitting, finally, that it was over.
    Catherine hadn’t died.
She’d chosen to leave him.
    He’d been dumped. Rather
callously and abruptly, but would he feel any better about it if she’d used
sweet words and let him down easy over a reasonable period? The result remained
unchanged. He’d loved Catherine. She hadn’t loved him. He could blame her all
he wanted, but that didn’t change a damn thing.
    And here she was again,
making it absolutely clear that she chose Geoffrey over him. The man was a
buffoon, but it wasn’t even that.
    No man would ever be good
enough for her.
    Other than himself.
    Nicolas looked to her
worried face as he dropped her fingers and braced his hands on his knees. Hands
that had saved lives, cured epidemics, uncovered untold secrets of the human
body. He could do so much, but he couldn’t make this woman love him, he
couldn’t force her heart to feel what wasn’t there.
    “You do what you have to
do, Catherine,” he said softly, tenderly, resigned, “and I’ll do what I have
to. Don’t say it,” he added when she opened her mouth. “Don’t ask me again to
not abandon your mother. You know I won’t.”

 
     
     
     
    4
     
     
     
    C atherine
let herself into her mother’s room. The heavy brocade curtains were drawn,
allowing the morning sun to filter soft light through the net lace. Dr. Stanzis
glanced up from the makeshift office he’d established in one corner near the
window and she gave him a nod. She came here every day to sit with her mother
for a couple of hours and he appreciated the break.
    Once he’d left, she pulled
the chair closer to the bed and settled in, holding her mother’s hand.
Sometimes her mother was strong enough to sit up and talk. Other times she
merely dozed on and off. Catherine looked over her mother with a careful eye,
searching for signs of improvement. Pronounced blue veins showed on her lowered
lids. Her dark hair was shot with silver and terribly thinned. Her cheeks were
gaunt, her skin pale, hanging off her like a white T-Shirt stretched from too
many bad washes.
    “I love you so much,
mother.” She stroked the limp hand and choked down a rising sob. “Don’t leave
me. Please…”
    “Catherine?” Her mother’s
eyes fluttered open. “Darling, you’re here.”
    “Of course I’m here,”
Catherine said lightly, forcing a gaiety she was far from feeling. “Tell you
what! Why don’t I take you outside for half an hour? The sun is warm today and
we’ll wrap you up tightly.”
    “Why not?” Some familiar
mischief seeped into her mother’s faded eyes. “Dr. Stanzis specifically forbid
it.”
    Catherine chuckled. “We’ll
make a point of letting him find out what we’ve done, unintentionally, of
course.”
    She quickly called for
Gascon and, between the two of them, trussed her mother from head to toe in a
luxurious quilt and carried her downstairs. Catherine ran to retrieve the
wheelchair and Gascon tucked her mother in comfortably.
    “Leave us for a while,”
she told Gascon, then pressed her mother’s shoulder gently and added, “Don’t
forget to mention our little outing to Dr. Stanzis. We want to hear all the
details of his apoplexy.”
    “The two of you are acting
like teenagers,” Gascon groused, but he could not hold off a wide grin.
    In the end, they stayed
out the entire morning. The winter day was truly mild and Catherine was too
heartened by the life in her mother’s eyes and the colour on her cheeks to
argue when she insisted she wasn’t ready to go back inside.
    “There you are,” called
the familiar voice that never failed to stutter her heart. Nicolas sprinted the
last few yards to reach them. He moved to stand in front of the queen. “I heard
that Catherine had broken you out and I was starting to worry that you’d
actually made it to the border.”
    Queen Helene laughed. A
little croaky, but it was a laugh.
    Catherine was too on edge
at their