Free MAID FOR A PRINCE: (Book 1) (Point St. Claire, where true love finds a way) by Robyn Grady Page B

have shown her to you.”
    Helene wanted to defend herself. She hadn’t gone anywhere near the goddess. But she felt too ashamed.
    Maybe her mother was right.
    Helene Masters was a big fat accident waiting to happen.
     
    They had lunch without either one mentioning the broken goblet. In fact, they hardly spoke at all. By bedtime, however, Darius seemed to have put the episode out of his mind. Helene only wished she could.
    How old were those goblets? How much were they worth?
    A splinter from the break had stuck in her heel. Every little throb worked to remind her and ramp up the guilt.
    When Darius came out of the bathroom, his broad chest on display above a pair of low-slung drawstring pants and his dark hair wet and tousled, she was propped against the headrest. One leg was crooked over the other knee while she tried to find that splinter.
    “I must have trod on a piece of glass,” she explained, as he unfurled himself like a big muscled cat along the bottom end of the bed. Sitting straighter, she put down her foot. She had to ask. “Was that glass very expensive?”
    Was it hundreds of years old?
    “That set was handed down to my sister from my mother.”
    Helene groaned. “Tahlia will hate me.”
    “My mother broke one a couple of years ago. Last time she was here, Tahlia broke one, too. She was upset—”
    “Terrific.”
    “But she also said she wanted them used. They aren’t heirlooms. I’m not certain where my mother picked them up, but they were always on the table when we visited here as a family. Tahlia will understand.” His face turned wry. “Although it’d be another story if I broke one.”
    He dropped a kiss on the top of her foot but as his thumb grazed the underside, he touched the splinter and she jerked.
    “I’m sure your sister loves you,” she said.
    “She would love having me out of her hair. She’s probably organized a string of midnight rendezvous with Otis. If Yanni weren’t around to keep an eye out, I’d be worried.”
    When his fingertip crossed that tender spot beneath her heel again, she tried not to flinch. “You mentioned a boy she likes. Otis?”
    “He’s one of two head grooms with our stables. He’s good with the horses. I was fond of him.”
    “Was?”
    He grazed the shard again and she squirmed. “It’s complicated.”
    “Teenage love always is.”
    He slid off the bed and returned to the room with a pair of tweezers. “From Tahlia’s bathroom,” he explained, stretching out along the foot of the bed again. “These past weeks since coming home from boarding school, my sister’s been a different person. Defiant. Moody. At least she is with me.”
    “Want some advice? Cut her some slack. Then she won’t need to defend herself so much.”
    “Guardians need to be firm,” he said, concentrating on her heel. “Children expect boundaries.”
    He pinched the tweezers and Helene swallowed a yelp. “Maybe you should let me have a go with those.” Adjusting his grip, he focused again. “Tahlia isn’t a child,” she told him as he tilted her foot the other way to take advantage of the light. “She’s a young woman with feelings.”
    “Hearts shouldn’t rule heads.”
    “You’re worried she’ll make the same mistake your uncle made. That your sister might one day choose an ordinary life over anything royal.”
    He held her foot more firmly and stuck his nose even closer. “If you’re trying to make a case for me to loosen the reins, won’t work.” Then he pinned her with a horrified look. “You don’t think they’d elope, do you?”
    “I only know you can’t stop an eighteen-year-old from being who she wants to be. Not in this day and age.”
    “Offering her an education at one of the best universities in the world isn’t exactly proposing torture.”
    “Might as well be if she’s separated from the one person she wants to be with. How long have they been seeing each other?”
    “A matter of months, but they’ve known each other for