Free [Montacroix Royal Family Series 02] - The Prince & the Showgirl by Joann Ross Page B

a lovely one, he couldn't resist baiting her. Just a little.
    "That's not exactly what I heard." His eyebrows rose only a fraction, but enough to register his disbelief.
    Sabrina felt the warm color rise in her cheeks and was grateful for the subdued lighting. "If I was at all hesitant, when Princess Chantal first requested we perform, it was because I didn't believe that our music was in keeping with the solemnity of the occasion."
    Good . Her voice was cool and calm and belied her embarrassment that the prince had been told of her initial reluctance.
    She had, of course, been outvoted. Both Ariel and Raven, not to mention Dixie, had jumped at what they considered a golden opportunity. Which it had turned out to be, Sabrina was forced to admit.
    As soon as Mary Hart had announced the news of their upcoming Montacroix concert on Entertainment Tonight , the remaining three months of their nine-month tour immediately sold out. In fact, the promoter was considering adding second shows in Dallas, Los Angeles, and a third in Las Vegas.
    He arched a dark brow. "You expected me to prefer Mozart? Or Bach?"
    "Something along those lines." Sabrina remembered what Chantal had said about Prince Eduard's preference for chamber music.
    "Mozart will be performed at the actual coronation. But the family wanted something contemporary for the public celebration."
    "Chantal assured us that we were exactly what the coronation committee was looking for."
    Actually, she'd said something about shaking up a few old fogies, but Sabrina decided, for the sake of discretion, not to reveal that little bit of information.
    "Chantal can be quite persuasive when she puts her mind to something."
    "So I've heard."
    Sabrina recalled reading an interview in Vanity Fair where Montacroix's quintessential princess stated that she'd known right away that the dashing secret service man was destined to be her life mate. It had, Chantal had admitted blithely, taken a bit longer for Caine to accept that idea.
    The door behind them opened with a blinding flash of summer sunlight that turned Sabrina's hair to molten gold. The electrician Noel had summoned entered the theater with a self-confident swagger, tool belt swung low on his hips like a gunfighter.
    "Well, glory be, if it isn't the answer to all our prayers," Ariel called out on that same husky Southern voice daytime television viewers had come to know so well. It was, Sabrina thought with an inner smile, the voice of a woman interested in a man.
    Since Sonny's death, Dixie had become even more vocal in her desire for a grandchild. Perhaps, Sabrina considered, Ariel might be the one to get their mother off their collective backs.
    After collapsing onstage during the second act of Private Performances , Sabrina had undergone an emergency operation that had left her unable to ever have children. At the time, Arthur had assured her that it didn't matter. They had, after all, agreed that they didn't want children.
    Afterward, when she had escaped her husband's controlling attitude and had begun to think for herself, Sabrina had realized that it had been Arthur who had never wanted a child. And, like everything else in their marriage, Sabrina, eager to please, desperate to be loved and accepted, had simply gone along.
    Faced with the knowledge that she would never be a mother, Sabrina had experienced a deep sense of loss. But then she'd gotten the plum role of Maggie and was too busy with work to dwell on her loss. But there was still not a day that went by that Sabrina didn't feel a fleeting pang of regret.
    "The lights will probably be back on soon," she said, thinking that the electrician would undoubtedly work at triple speed to impress her sister. Then again, he might be reluctant to rush the job, which would require him to leave. Sabrina had seen it happen before— grown men practically falling all over themselves to earn so much as a glance from Ariel Darling. Having been absolutely faithful and sheltered during