The Rancher's Christmas Princess Read online

  Preston, right behind her where she was all too aware of him, said, “It doesn’t look all that hard.”

  “Great. You can do the next one.”

  “How soon until he learns to use the toilet?”

  “Every child is different. I brought along a good book on potty training. It’s over there in the bookcase.” She snapped the last snap on the blue pajamas. “There. All ready for bed. Would you like a story, Benjamin?”

  “Yes!”

  “Dada will read to you.”

  Ben considered that idea, while Preston stood a few feet away trying to look relaxed and willing but not too eager. Finally, Ben commanded, “Dada. Yes.”

  Belle was tempted to hand Preston the Winnie-the-Pooh picture book just to watch his reaction. But she kept her wickedness in check and chose a story about trucks.

  “Dada loves trucks,” she told Ben. “And horses and cars. And trains as well.”

  “Rub it in,” Preston said darkly.

  Ben stuck his finger in his mouth, sighed and drooled. He was fading fast and would probably go right to sleep if she just put him in his crib, kissed him and said goodnight.

  Still, they were doing amazingly well at nudging him toward thinking of Preston as a caregiver. Plus, they had promised him a story. She handed Preston the book. “Take the rocker.”

  Preston settled into the chair he’d brought down from the attic the evening before. She handed Ben over to him.

  They made the cutest picture, the big cowboy and the small child in the Cookie Monster pajamas, rocking slowly in the old rocking chair. Preston started reading. Belle edged her way toward the door, thinking she would just go stand in the hall, let it be a moment between Preston and his newfound son—but be ready in case they needed her again.

  But Ben stiffened. “Belle. No.” He reached out a little hand. Preston looked at her pleadingly.

  So she went and sat beside them on the rug. Preston continued with the story of what trucks do at night when no one is watching.

  Ben was asleep by page ten. Still, Preston turned the pages and read on to the end. After that, he just sat there, holding the sleeping child, rocking gently, for several minutes more. Belle waited, cross-legged on the floor, not wanting to move and ruin the mood of quiet contentment that seemed to have settled over the room like a cozy, soft blanket.

  Finally, Preston whispered, “Look at these hands....” He had one of Ben’s hands. The plump little fingers were curled loosely around his index finger. “Amazing.”

  Quietly, with care, Belle unfolded her legs and rose. “Yes, they are. Amazing.”

  “I never knew....” With his thumb, he caressed the small hand wrapped around his finger. “I kind of thought all this had somehow passed me by.”

  “Surprise,” she said very softly.

  He tipped his head up. In those blue eyes, she saw real wonder. “I had so much to do, goals for the ranch, for my horses. I never had time for meeting a woman, getting to know her, going on dates, all that. Then, a few years back, I decided I was going to have to...get busy or I would never have a family. Lucy...did I mention Lucy?”

  “You mentioned a fiancée.” And the woman at the feed store had said her name was Lucy.

  “Lucy Saunders. That was her maiden name.”

  Belle gave him a slow nod, standing there above him, thinking she could stand there forever, watching him gently rocking Ben, listening to his low, murmured words.

  He said, “Lucy worked at the diner back then. She...flirted with me. One day I just asked her if she wanted to go out to dinner. She said yes. I decided right then that she would be the one. It was a practical decision to me. I’d decided I needed a wife and I wanted to get on with it. I didn’t want to waste any time about it.”

  Belle almost laughed. She put her hand over her mouth. “Oh, Preston. That’s terrible.”

  He put a finger to his lips to warn her not to wake the child. And then he confessed, still whispering, “I know. I mean, I can see that now. And as I already mentioned, it didn’t work out. Really got me down when she dumped me. More because it hurt my pride and messed up my plans for a family than anything else—and I can see in those big eyes of yours that you think it was all my fault.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “But you were thinking it—and maybe you’re right. But anyway, I decided then that I was no good with women and probably I shouldn’t even try.”

  “Trust me, Preston. You’re good with women.”

  He gazed up at her for a long time. She had a delicious and dangerous sensation of heat and weakness low in her belly. “It’s different,” he said at last. “With you. You’re not like other women.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  He shook his head. “You’re not like any woman I’ve ever known. You’re special. You’re even a princess. We don’t get a lot of princesses here in Elk Creek.”

  “I’m a woman, like any woman.” She was watching his mouth, thinking how very simple it would be to bend down, to fit her mouth to his, to share his breath, to taste the slick, hot flesh beyond his lips.

  “You ought not to look at me like that, Belle. It’s dangerous. For both of us.”

  She knew he was right. And hadn’t they already been through this that very afternoon up in the attic?

  So what? I don’t care. There’s a little slice of heaven here, and I want it. No matter the price...

  He had his face tipped up to her, and the look in his eyes said he knew exactly what she had in mind, that he wasn’t going to refuse her if she just couldn’t help herself....

  Oh, she was hopeless. Hopeless and she knew it. She was acting like some lovesick youngster with a first crush. Swearing off kisses in the afternoon, and then ready to fall into his arms just a few hours later. But so what? Her heart and her mind were at odds. Right now, her mind was not winning.

  One kiss—one more kiss. How much could that hurt?

  Breathless, yearning, not even caring how silly and contrary she was being, she started to bend down to him.

  Ben came to her rescue by stirring, whining a little, shaking his head.

  Belle jerked upright again and smoothed her hair, although she hadn’t done anything to muss it. Yet. “We should put him to bed....”

  “I guess we should.” There was humor beneath the words. And a certain roughness that told her he’d wanted to kiss her, too.

  Carefully, gathering Ben close, he rose. He carried the sleeping child over to the crib and laid him down in it. Ben didn’t stir again. Preston pulled up the blankets and smoothed them over him. And then they tiptoed from the room, turning off the light, but leaving the door open.

  Preston took her arm gently and said in that low, quiet voice meant for her ears alone. “Okay. Now I suppose you can kiss me if you really, really want to.”

  She stifled a laugh. “You are incorrigible.”

  “I told you. I’m no good with women.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Then suppose you tell me what you did mean?”

  Oh, she was tempted. But no. “Suppose we just...let it be? Suppose we forget how foolishly I’ve been behaving, and just go downstairs and help Charlotte and Silas with the tree I insisted you had to have?”

  He regarded her, suddenly solemn. And then he asked in a neutral tone, “Is that what you really want?”

  No, it’s not. Not what I really want at all. “Yes, please.”

  He gestured her ahead of him. “All right, then. Let’s go.”

  * * *

  The five of them worked on the tree until ten. Then Marcus said good-night. Belle, Charlotte, Preston and Silas kept at it until after midnight. There were still more Christmas treasures to hang. Preston’s mother had collected some beautiful ornaments. And there were acres of fancy red bead garland to put on the tree once all the ornaments were hung. And old-fashioned icicles, too.

  Belle hadn’t really appreciated what a big job it was, to decorate a home for the holidays. After
all, in Montedoro, at the Prince’s Palace and at her villa, there were professional decorators and servants who did most of the work. Belle and her family would help out a little, hanging a favorite ornament here and there, but mostly supervising, making certain the end result pleased them.

  At the McCade ranch house, they all had to pitch in or the Christmas decorating wouldn’t get done. Belle thought that was a good thing. There was satisfaction in the accomplishment, a feeling of ownership, that one had worked hard creating something festive and beautiful for everyone to enjoy.

  They agreed they would finish the following night—or at least try to. Charlotte said she would make what progress she could on the tree while looking after Ben the next morning. And tomorrow in the afternoon, if it wasn’t too cold out, she and Silas would go to work on the outside lights.

  There were still groups of figurines to adorn mantels and tabletops. There were boxes full of garland to string along the staircase banister.

  “Little by little,” Charlotte said. “It’s weeks yet until Christmas.”

  “Two to be precise,” Belle reminded her.

  Charlotte laughed in that light, happy way that was so new to her. “We’ll do what we can. What we feel like doing. There’s no law that says we have to use every beautiful ornament in every one of these boxes.”

  Belle said good-night and climbed the stairs. In her room, she shut the door and sat on her bed and wished she had kissed Preston more than once in the attic, that she had kissed him in Ben’s room that night and in the upstairs hall the night before....

  She wished she had kissed him every chance she got, and she knew it was wiser that she hadn’t.

  Honestly, she needed to get a firm grip on her own emotions. Tomorrow, she would be with him all morning and probably into the afternoon as they shopped for bedding and curtains to brighten up Ben’s room. And then they would return to the ranch, where she would see him constantly, where it was her job to take every opportunity to make him and Ben more comfortable with each other.

  She had to face it. She was going to be around Preston a whole lot in the coming weeks. She had better decide how to behave and then show a little consistency about it.

  Outside in the upper hall, she heard footsteps. Preston. Already, she knew his steady, measured tread. She heard him go into his room and shut the door.

  And she longed to get up and go to him. To ask him to please, please kiss her again. To beg him to hold her close in his big arms and tell her all the ways she was different from other women. Tell her that she was special.

  And when he’d finished telling her how wonderful she was, he could kiss her some more. He could do a lot more than kiss her....

  Belle groaned and buried her face in her hands.

  She needed a friend. A confidante. Right now, this very moment. Maybe Charlotte had come upstairs without her hearing. She went to the door and quietly opened it.

  Across the hall, Charlotte’s door stood wide. Her bed was neatly made. One of her favorite scarves, of lavender-colored wool, lay thrown across the foot of it. No sign of Charlotte. The bathroom door next to her room stood open, too.

  From downstairs, faintly, she heard a woman laugh—Charlotte. And then a man’s deep chuckle in response—Silas.

  So then, Charlotte was still down there with Preston’s father, laughing in that new, light, carefree way of hers, no doubt sharing warm, teasing looks with a man she’d met only two mornings before.

  And it wasn’t that Belle begrudged her dear friend a little romance. She didn’t. Not at all. She only wished Charlotte would come upstairs so that Belle could confess to her what a complete idiot she was thinking about being with Preston.

  Belle ducked back into her room and shut the door.

  Between Montana and Montedoro, there was an eight-hour time difference. That meant it would be almost nine in the morning there.

  Would her sister-in-law Lili be up yet? Were Lili and Alex even in Montedoro now?

  Belle had always felt she could tell Lili anything. When they were growing up, Lili visited Montedoro often. Lili’s mother and Belle’s mother had been close friends. Lili was as much a sister to her as her own four sisters, as Anne had been.

  She got out her cell phone, but then hesitated to call. Most likely Lili and Alex were in Lili’s country, Alagonia, by now. Lili was due to have her twins within the month and she would want her heir to be born in Alagonia.

  And the more Belle considered calling Lili, the more certain she became that wherever Lili was right now, she would be with Alex, perhaps having breakfast, or even lingering in bed. Alex had always been the gruff and brooding one in the family. He was much easier to be around now that he had Lili. But still, Belle felt uncomfortable at the idea of discussing her forbidden desire for the rancher down the hall with one of her brothers listening in.

  So she called Rhiannon. Rhia, who lived on her own not from the palace, was sixth born of Belle’s siblings. Their four brothers were born first. Then Belle, Rhia, Alice, Genny and Rory.

  Rhia was an expert on art and antiquities. She worked at the National Museum of Montedoro, advising on acquisitions, overseeing the restoration of the art treasures of centuries.

  And she answered the phone on the first ring. “Belle, I’m glad you called. I’ve been wondering how things are going with Ben, with...everything.”

  Her sister’s voice warmed her, made her feel a little misty-eyed, too. “Oh, Rhia. It’s been such a difficult time.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  “I take it you made it home safe and sound.” Most of the family had come to Raleigh for Anne’s funeral. They’d all known Anne and been fond of her. In the summers during the years they were at Duke together, Anne would often come and stay in Montedoro.

  “A smooth, easy trip,” Rhia told her. “But a sad one. I still can’t believe we lost Anne. It just doesn’t seem right, doesn’t even seem possible.” In her voice was the tightness of held-back tears.

  Belle felt her own tears welling in response. “No,” she answered a little raggedly. “It doesn’t seem possible that she’s gone....”

  There was a silence, a heavy one. Then Rhia asked, “So how’s Ben doing?”

  “Remarkably well. We’ve had a few rough patches. Little tantrums. And when he gets upset, sometimes he calls for her. Slowly, though, I know he’ll get over that. Children are so good at living in the present. And that’s as it should be....”

  “But still.” Rhia spoke in a near-whisper. “It’s another way we’re losing her.”

  “Exactly. So I try to focus on the good things. Overall, Ben is bearing up beautifully.”

  “I’m glad.” Another silence. Then Rhia said, “I understand you went ahead to Montana to contact the father?”

  “Mother told you?”

  “Yes. How is that working out?”

  Belle brought her sister up to speed on her trip to Montana, on Preston and Silas and all of it so far. She did get a bit sidetracked as she explained in detail what a fine man Preston was. But eventually she caught herself and concluded with, “So right now, I am calling you from the McCade Ranch near the charming small town of Elk Creek.”

  “You like the father, this Preston McCade. I can hear it in your voice when you speak of him.”

  “I was that obvious?”

  Rhia made a low sound of understanding. “You’re attracted to him.”

  “He’s a good man, Rhia. Trustworthy. Strong. Determined. And intelligent, with a sense of humor.”

  “Does he have a brother?”

  Belle laughed. “I’m afraid not.”

  “Oh, well,” Rhia teased. “If I can’t have him, I’m happy for you.”

  “I wish. But you know how it is for us.” By us, Belle meant herself and Rhia and their sisters, too.

  Rhia knew exactly what she was talking about. “I do, yes.” Her voice was weary. “The grasping, selfish types can’t wait to marry a princess. The good men always think they aren’t goo
d enough.” Belle’s sister spoke from intimate experience. Rhia rarely talked about the man she’d always loved, not even to her sisters—and she never said his name. Belle had no idea who the man was, but she knew the story. He was a commoner and he’d ended their love affair because he felt he was beneath her. Since then, Rhia had been engaged twice, but broken off those relationships before the wedding. “There have to be other men in the world like Father, haven’t there?” Rhia tried for lightheartedness, and only fell a little short. “There have to be a few men who are both good and willing to give a princess a chance.”

  “Well, I certainly hope so.”

  Rhia made a thoughtful sound. “You’re saying Preston McCade isn’t willing?”

  “I don’t think he’s ready to drop everything and move to Montedoro. And I don’t think he would accept the idea of my moving here. “

  “Did he say that?”

  “Not in so many words, but my feeling is he sees me as...out of his reach.”

  “You could show him otherwise.”

  It was just what she’d been longing to hear. “Oh, Rhia. Do you think so?”

  “I do. Just because it didn’t work out for me doesn’t mean it’s hopeless for all of us—and besides, why worry now about what will happen in the future? You only just met the man, right?”

  “Right. But somehow, it feels as though I’ve known him forever.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing—that you feel an affinity with him?”

  “Yes, of course it is. I can see already that he’s going be a good father to Ben. I’m so pleased about that.”

  “I can imagine that must be a great relief—but also sad that you won’t be bringing Ben home where we can all shower him with love and attention.”

  Belle felt a bit choked-up again. She managed a low sound of agreement.

  And Rhia asked, “How long do you plan to stay there in Montana?”

  “Through the holidays at least.”

  “We’ll miss you here....”

  “Miss you, too.”

  “But, Belle, maybe the best thing is to give it a chance with this rancher of yours.”

  “He’s not mine.”

  Rhia chuckled. “I knew you would say that.”