HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS by Christine Rimmer Page A

loved you.”
    Rhia frowned. “I wasn’t at all sure about that at the time.”
    “Still, my situation is entirely different.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we’re so different, you and I. You’ve always been nothing short of exemplary. Well behaved and good. You needed to be told to get out there and go after the only man you’ve ever loved. I don’t require any such encouragement.”
    “On the contrary, it seems very clear to me that you do.”
    “One, Noah Cordell is not my lifelong love. I truly hardly know the man. And two, if anything, I need to be told not to be bold.”
    Her sister reached across the table and touched her cheek. “You like him. He likes you. You haven’t been this worked up over a man in forever.”
    “I am not worked up.”
    Rhia clucked her tongue and then began scraping the last of the soufflé out of her ramekin. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
    “Support me. Sympathize with me.”
    “As though that’s going to help you.” Rhia shook her head and licked her spoon.
    “Even if I took your advice instead of Dami’s, I’m afraid it’s too late.”
    “Too late for what?”
    “I’m afraid he’s not interested in me anymore. Today in the stables, he acted as though he didn’t even care what I thought of him.”
    “Was this before or after you treated him like a stranger?”
    “I didn’t treat him like a stranger.”
    “Yes, you did. You said that you did.”
    “I was perfectly civil.”
    “Civil. Precisely. Are you going to eat your soufflé?”
    Alice pushed it across the table.
    Rhia dug right in, sighing. “Oh, my, yes. So good. And you do see what’s happening here, don’t you?”
    “What?”
    “You are not being you.” Rhia paused to sigh over another big bite of chocolate. “And you’re making yourself miserable.”
    “Not being me? Of course I’m being me. Who else would I be?”
    “Allow me to explain....”
    “Please.”
    Rhia pointed with her spoon. “You went a little over the top in Glasgow.”
    “A little? ”
    “That is what I said. You went over the top, and since then, you’ve decided you need to be so well behaved and subdued. It’s just not like you at all. You are a brave, bold person, a person who jumps right into anything that interests her, who lives by her instincts. But you’re trying to be someone else, someone careful and controlled, someone who plans ahead, who reasons everything out with agonizing care. And as your favorite sister who loves you more than you’ll ever know, it’s my responsibility to inform you that being someone you’re not isn’t working for you.”
    * * *
    Alice thought a lot about the things Rhia had said to her. She could see the sense in Rhia’s advice, she truly could.
    But the thing was that she liked Noah too much. She hardly knew him, yet she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
    It scared her. It really did. She’d never been so powerfully attracted to any man before. What if she did fall in love with him?
    And then he dumped her for someone else?
    Even a brave, bold woman who lived by her instincts should have the sense not to volunteer for that kind of pain.
    She didn’t see him on Monday. But then Tuesday she went down to the Triangle d’Or, the area of exclusive shops near the casino, to pick up a Balenciaga handbag she’d ordered. She saw him sitting at a little outdoor café sipping an espresso. He was alone and she was so very tempted to stop and chat with him a little.
    But she didn’t. Uh-uh. She walked on by, quickly, before he could spot her and wave at her. Or worse, ignore her.
    He was leaving on Thursday, he’d said. She only had to get through the next day without doing anything stupid. He would go home to his estate in California, to his frail and artistic little sister. And in time she would forget him.
    All day Wednesday she kept thinking that tomorrow he would be gone. He never came to the stables that day—or if he did, she missed seeing him. She went