How to Propose to a Princess Read online

  Fausta sat on her legs in her favorite chair. “I’ve been doing a little part-time volunteer work at the hospital four days a week on the pediatric ward. He’s a family practice doctor who was checking up on a patient and we became acquainted.” That was the simplified version.

  “I’d say it’s more than an acquaintance at this point,” her father asserted. “I understand you spent time at his apartment in town this evening.”

  “Yes. Nico made dinner for us.”

  A frown marred his features. “If the press finds out, the publicity won’t be good for the doctor, whom Lorenzo tells me he helped get taken on at the hospital last year. As for you, any mention in the media could color your prospects for the kind of royal marriage we’d like to see for you.”

  Her cheeks grew hot. “Don’t worry, Papa. You don’t have to find a new position for Nico in Rome to keep us apart. He would never accept your money to get him settled in order to salvage his reputation or mine.” Once he had a lead on his parents, Nico would leave the country on his own.

  Her mother looked pained. “I can’t believe you spoke to your father like that, Fausta Rossiano.”

  Neither could she, considering his heart condition. For the first time since she learned he had heart trouble, she’d forgotten because she was in so much pain over Nico. But never again!

  “I’m sorry, Papa, and meant no disrespect. I hope this hasn’t distressed you too much. The fact is, neither of you needs to be concerned. Earlier tonight Nico and I ended our relationship.”

  When he did come over to the pediatric ward to look in on a patient, he wouldn’t find her there. She’d leave fifteen minutes early every evening to escape.

  “Mia figlia—” Her father eyed her soulfully. “Why is it you continue to refuse the suitable men who’ve wanted to get to know you? All your mother and I want is your ultimate happiness. Prince Cesare is very anxious to spend time with you.”

  Fausta slowly got to her feet. “I know that, but I have to be attracted, Papa.”

  “Darling,” her mother spoke up. “If you’ll give some of them the opportunity to be with you, I know you’ll meet one who will steal your heart.”

  If only her parents knew. Tonight her heart had already been ripped out of her body...

  Right now, she was in such agony, she was desperate to be alone. “If you don’t mind, I have a headache and need to get to bed.” I need to phone Aunt Ottavia and get away from here. “Please forgive me.”

  Her father stood up first and gave her another hug. “Don’t be upset with me, dolcezza.”

  “I’m not, Papa. You need to know I never want to hurt you or Mamma.” She kissed him and her mother before walking them to the door. “See you tomorrow. Buona notte.”

  The second they left, Fausta ran to her bedroom and reached for her cell phone. Her whole body was shaking. Thankfully her aunt answered.

  “Fausta, darling—how wonderful you’re calling me!”

  “I hope you’ll still think it’s wonderful when I ask if I can come tomorrow and stay with you for a few days.”

  “Nothing would make me happier! I can tell something’s wrong, but I won’t ask right now. You can tell me after you get here.”

  Tears had started to gush down her cheeks. “You’re a lifesaver, Zia. I’ll let you know my arrival time as soon I’ve made arrangements.” She had to let the hospital know she wouldn’t be able to volunteer her services for the next week. Something unavoidable had come up. “Love you.”

  “Love you, cara.”

  Fausta hung up and threw herself across the bed, utterly gutted by what Nico had told her. To never know his love because he felt he had to take his journey through life alone? It would surprise her if she were still alive by morning, let alone physically able to fly far away from the man who’d changed her world forever.

  * * *

  Late Monday afternoon a fragmented Nico had just dealt with his last patient when his cell phone rang. It wouldn’t be Fausta. He’d made certain of that by the brutal way he’d broken off with her. Though ending their relationship had been the only fair thing to do, he’d been in agony since driving her back to the palace on Friday night. Another minute in his apartment and he would have taken her to bed.

  Nico was aching for Fausta and didn’t dare be around her now. Otherwise that whole speech he’d made that they couldn’t be together anymore would have been for nothing. Aware she was his weakness, he’d promised himself that if he had a patient admitted to the hospital today, he would ask Dr. Silvio from the medical group to make the rounds.

  He glanced at the caller ID and frowned. It was the duca. Something had to be wrong for him to phone this soon after the last visit to Biella.

  “Enzo?” he blurted after clicking on.

  “I’m glad you answered, mio ragazzo. Since I know you’re busy, I’ll make this fast. Can you come to the castello tomorrow? I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t of the most vital importance.”

  Nico’s hand tightened on his cell in reaction. “Did Pippa fall again, or are you having trouble breathing? Tell me the truth.”

  “Calm yourself. It’s nothing medical, but we must talk.”

  Maybe this call had to do with the fact that Enzo had been chatting with his friend Prince Lorenzo. By now the king knew about Nico and Fausta. Enzo could be warning him there was trouble ahead. That made the most sense, but after Friday night, Nico had already taken care of the problem and was one step ahead of him.

  “Enzo—why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind right now?”

  “No, no. I have to see you in person.” Why? Nico didn’t understand. “Can you get someone to cover for you for the day?”

  His brows lifted in reaction. Enzo was being surprisingly mysterious and insistent. “Yes, of course.” After all the older man had done for him over the years, he could never turn him down. “I’ll come first thing in the morning.”

  “Grazie, Nicolo.”

  The click sounded before Nico could even say goodbye.

  Curious and intrigued by the nature of Enzo’s unexpected call, he hurried out to the front desk.

  “Dina? An emergency has arisen, and I’ll have to be out of the office until Wednesday. Would you call the patients scheduled for tomorrow and make other appointments for them? If one of them needs to be seen immediately, ask Dr. Silvio’s nurse to fit them in.” The two doctors helped each other when necessary.

  “I’ll take care of it, dottore.”

  He nodded and left the building. After grabbing some dinner and doing errands, he drove to his apartment and checked any new emails before getting ready for bed. The urgency of Enzo’s strange request had happened at a vulnerable moment for Nico, who needed to keep busy.

  If that phone call hadn’t come when it did, he might have found himself walking over to the pediatric ward. His pact with himself was so fragile, he knew every honorable intention would have been lost the moment he’d seen Fausta.

  Eventually he went to bed, but sleep was lost on him. He’d put Giorgio on his dresser, but the sight of him was so painful, he put him in the closet. At five in the morning he rolled out of bed to shower and shave before taking off for Biella. He brought his medical bag just in case.

  During the trip, he relived that day with Fausta in the country. The unforgettable memories of her while they visited the orphanage and the pig farm made him groan with longing for her.

  By 7:30 a.m. he arrived at the castello full of questions. A limo with smoked glass was parked in the courtyard. Something was going on. Nico expected that Enzo was out for his morning horseback ride. Curious, he walked around the rear to the stable first. Sure enough, he found his mentor emerging from the stalls with a trim, distinguished-looking, well-dressed man.

  Silver threaded his dark hair and clipped beard. He was of average height and probably in his early sixties. Nico had n
ever seen him before.

  Enzo hurried toward him. “Nicolo—you’re here even sooner than I’d expected!”

  “After your phone call, I almost came last night.”

  While they hugged, he could feel the other man’s steel gray eyes riveted on him as if in disbelief. It gave him an odd feeling.

  After letting him go, Enzo turned to the other man. “What do you think, Signor Bruno?”

  The visitor walked around them while he kept studying Nico. “The resemblance is uncanny, Signor Frascatti. There can be no mistake. Even without a DNA match, he’s the one without question.”

  The man spoke Italian with a noticeable Slovenian accent. What did he mean “he’s the one”? Nico’s gaze darted back to Enzo for clarification.

  “Dr. Nico Barsotti? May I introduce you to Signor Basil Bruno. He’s the head of the secret service for the country of La Valazzura who has been our visitor at the castello.”

  What kind of business did Enzo have with this man? “How do you do.” Nico shook hands with him. La Valazzura bordered Italy and Slovenia. That explained his accent.

  “You have no idea how pleased I am to meet you at last, Dr. Barsotti. I’m here on official business for my country.”

  Nico shook his head. “What am I missing here?”

  “I understand you’ve been searching for your parents since you were old enough to ask the Mother Superior of the Sant’Agate Orphanage where your mamma was.”

  Nico’s heart started to thud. No one knew that information except Enzo, and more recently, Fausta.

  “It pains me that over all these years, your heritage has had to remain a complete secret in order to save your life.”

  What? “Are you saying they’re alive?” The mention of Nico’s family filled him with an excitement he’d never known before.

  “No. I’m sorry to have to tell you they are not.” Just as quickly, Nico’s spirits plummeted. “Your mother, Nedda Corelli, living on her own with you far from the capital in the village of Mesecino near the Slovenian border, died soon after you turned two years old.”

  The news shook Nico to his core. The woman who’d brought him into the world and had raised him for his first two years was gone? Just when her existence had been revealed? He couldn’t bear it. In his dreams he’d imagined a reunion that would make up for the years he’d missed.

  “And my father?” he asked in a hoarse voice.

  “He died ten days ago in the capital city of Azzura after being bedridden with heart failure for the last six months.”

  Only ten days ago he’d been alive? Nico was aghast.

  “With his death I’ve finally been able to bring you out of hiding.”

  What in heaven’s name was the man saying? “Are you sure I’m the person you should be telling this to?”

  “Without question, but let’s begin at the beginning. Yesterday I flew here to meet with Duca Frascatti.”

  Sick with pain and shock, Nico looked at Enzo. “How long have you known about all this?”

  “I knew nothing until last evening, Nicolo.”

  “The duca has been in the dark like everyone else,” Signor Bruno explained. “But through my sources, I’ve known about his association with you for years. Last evening we spent hours talking about you and the remarkable life you’ve led so far.”

  Nico shook his head. “Forgive me if I’m still incredulous.”

  “Who wouldn’t be? However, I’ve shown him all the documentation he needed and he can vouch for me.”

  A warm sun shone down on Nico, but he felt a chill. “I trust Enzo with my life, which means I’m willing to hear you out.”

  “I’m glad you said that because now that you’ve arrived, I have the great honor to fill in the missing facts about your origins and heritage. But for both your sake and the duca’s, maybe we should go inside and sit down to talk. This will take some time.”

  Nico didn’t move a muscle. “Who am I, signor?”

  The man smiled. “You’re very direct and so much like your father, who was my close friend, it’s uncanny.” Maybe Nico was dreaming. “You were legally christened Massimo by your mother, a fitting name for you since it means ‘the greatest.’ You were her treasure and the joy of her life.”

  With those words Nico found it difficult to swallow.

  “To fully answer your question, you are the illegitimate, only born, living child of Carlo Umberto Fernando di Savoia, king of La Valazzura.”

  King Carlo had been Nico’s father?

  He staggered in place while the world reeled on its axis. Nico remembered hearing something about the king’s recent death on the news. He thought he must be hallucinating.

  Stupefied by what he’d just been told, he glanced at Enzo for verification.

  A smile lit up his mentor’s eyes that was unmistakable. “You’re King Carlo’s son, all right. From a photograph I’ve been shown, you look so much like he did in his twenties, I thought I was seeing double.”

  “It’s true,” Signor Bruno corroborated. “Here. You can keep this.” He handed Nico a two-by-three-inch black-and-white photo from his breast pocket.

  With a trembling hand, Nico reached for it. After one look at the man in the picture, he gasped aloud. Enzo had spoken the truth. Nico and King Carlo were father and son all right. Same height. Maybe not mirror images, but incredibly close in coloring and bone structure.

  Nico cleared his throat. “Do you have a photo of my mother?”

  “I do. This is yours too.”

  In the next instant Nico found himself gazing at a young, beautiful dark blonde woman in a skirt and sweater. Right away Nico saw certain resemblances to himself. He could well understand his father’s attraction to her.

  “You have some of her facial features. It’s hard to tell in that picture, but her eyes were a light brown. However, yours are a piercing dark blue like your father’s.”

  Incredibile! “Did my mother have royal blood?”

  “No. She was a commoner.”

  Like me.

  Nico still felt like one as he held the photos side by side. For twenty-eight years he’d longed for the sight of the two people who’d brought him into this world. His father had been a married man and a king who’d had an affair with a nonroyal. Nico had been the result. He was still trying to take it all in.

  “Sadly, his Majesty died ten days ago. He has left his childless wife, Queen Liliane, on the throne. With her consent, I flew straight here to talk to you once the funeral was over.”

  So much news staggered Nico. He could only stand there staring at him. Enzo’s firm hand gripped his shoulder. “Come inside, Nicolo. You’ve had the shock of your life.”

  The three of them walked to the side entrance of the castello and went inside to the main floor soggiorno. Nico had no remembrance of how they got there. Pippa had joined them.

  She wheeled herself over to the couch where he’d sat down. “We always knew there was something exceptional about you. Angelo told us the same thing after observing you at the orphanage. When I spoke with the Mother Superior, she predicted you’d been placed there by God for a unique reason. She claimed that one day all would be revealed.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “That day has finally come, and we couldn’t be happier for you. You’re the son of a great king. It all fits.”

  “Pippa—” He struggled to say her name, but he was too overwhelmed to think, let alone talk. After studying the photos once more, he put them in his shirt pocket.

  “There’s much to tell you,” Signor Bruno broke in. “I understand you’ve never traveled to La Valazzura. The name of our beautiful country comes from its many blue lakes hidden in the mountains that are covered in pine trees. In the fifteenth century it was a free imperial enclave of self-ruling and autonomy, represented in the imperial diet, subordinate only to the Holy Roman emperor.�
��

  Unable to stay seated, Nico walked around for a minute while he attempted to process what he was hearing.

  “Our country speaks Italian and some Slovenian. It has undergone a civil war started by your father’s cousin almost thirty years ago. Giuseppe Umberto, now sixty-three, has tried many times to bring about a coup that would take your father down. He never succeeded, but there was an interminable amount of suffering that cost thousands of lives. There were many attempts on the life of your father.

  “For a short time at the beginning of the rebellion, your father had a mistress, who conceived his child at a time when his marriage to the queen went through a bad period. They couldn’t have children. Though she wanted to adopt, he wanted a child of his own body. Like you, he wanted his own blood. No one else’s.”

  Nico’s eyes closed tightly for a minute.

  “The two of them became estranged because of it. For a short time he sought comfort elsewhere. When Carlo learned Nedda was pregnant, he had her installed in her own apartment in Mesecino on the other side of the country and provided for her needs.

  “He didn’t want to embarrass the queen, whom he loved despite their problems. Naturally he wanted to protect Nedda and you, the only son he would ever have.

  “But when full war broke out, Carlo begged me to take both of you out of the country where you and your mother would be far from danger. Unfortunately, she was severely injured and died in the hospital before she could be rescued. I had her buried there, then I brought you to the orphanage here in Italy.”

  “Did my father know I was still alive?”

  “No. I didn’t dare tell him, or he would have insisted on my bringing you back to the palace. It wasn’t safe at that time. The queen could never have handled it, and both of you, maybe all three, could have been assassinated by followers of Giuseppe.”

  The story was stranger than fiction, but it was Nico’s story. By now he was riveted.

  “There were many refugees. I decided to take five other orphaned children who’d lost their parents to safety with you. Since then, all five have been adopted. But apparently you didn’t want to belong to anyone except your own parents.”