The Princess and the Outlaw

His gaze narrowed. “That’s going to be a tough wish to fulfill given the fact that my father isn’t allowed to set foot on Chantaine.”

Cold realization rushed through her. “I forgot all about that. I can’t believe that would be enforced after all these years.”

He gave a rough chuckle. “After all these years, your family still hates me. I can’t take the chance that your family would lock him up in prison.”

“It wouldn’t be my family. It’s a silly law,” she said.

“Same result. It sucks, but Amelie can’t have every wish on her bucket list. I’ll do my damn best to make sure she gets as many as I can,” he said and stood as his mother arrived at the table.

Amelie met his gaze and sighed. “We should leave, shouldn’t we?”

He nodded and placed the boxes in a bag.

“Let me look around just one more moment,” she said, surveying the room as if she wanted to savor each detail, the same way she’d savored each bite of the crepes. “I’ve already spoken to Bebe. She’s lovely as is her granddaughter. Ciao,” she whispered and picked up the bag, then led the way to the door.

A terrible helplessness tore at Pippa as she followed Amelie out the door. She felt Nic’s presence behind her and tried to tamp down the painful knot in her chest. Seeing him again had been like ripping off a bandage before the wound was healed. She’d thought the longing she’d felt for him before was awful, but now it was even worse. Knowing that he was facing some of his darkest days and that she shouldn’t, couldn’t, help him, was untenable. Meeting his magical mother face-to-face and seeing her courage and joy made her feel like a wimp. Her biggest challenge to date was writing her dissertation.

Amelie stopped beside Nic’s Mercedes and turned to Pippa. “I hope we meet again, Your Highness. You’re the nicest princess I’ve ever met. I’m sorry I frightened you with my annoying fainting spell. But then you gave me water and helped me remember Bebe’s. I certainly came out the winner in this situation.”

“I beg to differ,” Pippa said. “It was my great pleasure to meet you.”

“Ciao, darling princess,” she said and Nic opened the door for her.

Pippa should have turned away, but she couldn’t resist one more look at his face. It was the worst kind of craving imaginable.

He turned and met her gaze for a heart-stopping moment that took her breath away. “Ciao, Princess.”

Still distracted by her encounter with Nic and his mother after she’d returned to the palace, Pippa started down the hallway to her living quarters. She would need to set the Lafittes’ situation aside if she was going to make any progress on her research today, and heaven knows, progress had been very slow coming since she’d made the insane mistake of getting involved with Nic. The problem was that even after she’d broken off with him, he still haunted her so much that she struggled to get her work done.

Just as she turned the corner toward her quarters, she heard a shrill scream from the other wing. Tyler, she thought, easily identifying one her sister’s toddler stepsons. He was going through a screaming stage.

“Tyler, darling, you’re not dressed,” her sister Bridget called, her voice echoing down the marble hallways. “Don’t—”

Pippa heard Tyler cackle with glee. She also heard the sound of her sister’s heels as she ran after him. Chuckling to herself, she wondered when Bridget would learn that toddlers and high heels didn’t go together. She rushed down the hall and turned another corner, spotting Tyler running toward her in all his naked glory. Bridget followed with Travis in her arms.

“Oh, Pippa, you saved my life. Can you grab him? The little beast thinks it’s funny to run all over the palace bloody naked.”

Tyler shrieked when he saw Pippa and skidded to a stop. Glancing over his shoulder at Bridget bearing down on him, he knew he was caught. Pippa scooped him up in her arms before he had a chance to get away.

“What are you doing? Did you just get a bath?” Pippa asked and buried her nose in his shoulder, making him laugh. “You smell like a deliciously clean little boy.”

“Thank you so much,” Bridget said breathlessly. “At least I got a diaper on Travis.”

As soon as she stepped within touching distance, Tyler flung himself at her. “Mumma,” he said and pressed an open mouth kiss against Bridget’s cheek.

Bridget squeezed him against her and shifted Travis on her hip. “Now, you get all lovey-dovey,” she said and gave him a kiss in return.

“Where are the nannies?” Pippa asked and held out her hands to Travis. He fell into her arms, then stuck his thumb in his mouth.

“I gave Claire the morning off and Maria had to take care of an emergency with her mother,” she said. “I had planned to check on the ranch Ryder and I are having built.” Bridget rolled her eyes and laughed. “I never dreamed Stefan would permit a ranch to be built on Chantaine.”

“I never would have dreamed you would live on a ranch with twin stepchildren.”

“They’re not steppies to me,” Bridget said. “Ryder and I are in the process of making it all legal. The little perfect, gorgeous beasties will be mine just as much as they are his.”

“Would you like me to watch the boys while you go check on the new house?” Pippa offered. Because Chantaine was an island, new construction was a long process and she knew both Bridget and Ryder were eager for their own place.

“I feel like I take advantage of you far too often. I know I’m not helping you get caught up on your studies….”

Pippa felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Bridget and the boys weren’t the real reason she’d had a difficult time focusing on her studies. “It’s not as if you’ll be gone all day,” she said.

“True,” Bridget said. “Only an hour or two. You’re the perfect sister,” Bridget said, leaning forward to give Pippa a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s go back to my quarters so I can at least get my little nudist dressed before I leave.”

Pippa smiled as she followed Bridget down the hall and into her family’s suite of rooms. “I think it’s your outlook that has changed. Since you got married to Ryder, everything’s close to perfection.”

“That just goes to show the power of having a good man in your life,” Bridget said. “As soon as I have more than half a moment, I must get to work on finding one for you.”

Alarm shot through Pippa. “Oh, so not necessary. I still have to finish my work for my PhD.”

“That won’t be forever,” Bridget said as she dressed wiggly Tyler.

“I can only hope,” Pippa muttered.

“It won’t be,” Bridget said emphatically. “Besides, you can’t wait forever to move on, romantically speaking. I can help with that.”

“You seem to forget that our family is dreadful when it comes to matchmaking,” Pippa said. “How much did you enjoy Stefan’s attempts at matchmaking?”

Bridget waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “That’s different. I won’t be trying to match you up with someone who can contribute to Chantaine. I’ll find someone hot and entertaining.”

“Lovely intentions,” Pippa said. “Don’t strain yourself. The boys and I will have some fun in the playroom.”

“Perfect. If I’m late they can have lunch in an hour.”

“Will do,” Pippa said. “Are you truly going to have cattle at this ranch?”

“If Ryder has his way,” Bridget said with a sigh. “If we have to take the man out of Texas, we’ll just bring Texas to him. Ciao. I’ll be back soon,” she said and kissed both of the boys.

As soon as Bridget left, the twin toddlers looked at her with pouty faces. Travis’s lower lip protruded and he began to whimper. Tyler joined in.

“Absolutely none of that. She’ll be back before you know it.” Bridget set both of them on their feet and took them by the hand. “To the playroom,” she said and marched them into the small backroom. If there was one thing she’d learned about caring for toddlers, it was that it helped to be willing to make a bloody fool of herself. She immediately turned on the animal sounds CD and followed the instructions to make honking sounds. The boys dried up and joined her.

Just over an hour later, Bridget returned and Pippa could no longer escape her studies. She retreated to her room with a half sandwich for lunch. She thought of the crepes and her stomach clenched. Her mind kept wandering to the time she’d spent with Nic and his mother.

She told herself not to think about it. It wasn’t her responsibility. These genealogy charts required her complete and immediate attention. She’d used every possible device to procrastinate doing her work entirely too long. Inputting her second cousin’s name to the chart, she forced herself to focus. Whenever she conducted her research on people whom she knew, she often thought about their personal stories. Her second cousin Harold had moved to Tibet and his sister, Georgina, had married a man from England and was raising her children in the countryside. Pippa had always liked Georgina because she’d been such a down-to-earth sort of woman. It was a shame she didn’t see her more often.

Harold and Georgina’s deceased parents had owned a lovely cottage on the other side of Chantaine that was now left vacant because neither Harold nor Georgina visited Chantaine very often. Why, in fact, Pippa was certain it had been nearly eight years since either of her second cousins had set foot on Chantaine.

Pippa stopped dead, staring at the cursor on her laptop. Vacant lovely cottage. Nic’s parents.