The Cowboy and the Princess Read online

“Try the beginning.”

  Rosalind blew out the long-held breath, did not meet Annie’s gaze. “When I was sixteen I met a man and fell madly in love.”

  “What is so unusual about that?”

  “This man was special.”

  “In what way?”

  “He was a cowboy. We do not see many of those in Monesta.”

  “No,” Annie agreed. “We do not.”

  “He was from America. On vacation with his family. He was twenty. We met when he took a tour of the palace.”

  “You were working here then?”

  “Yes, I had just started working as Queen Evangeline’s chambermaid.”

  “You have been working hard your whole life.”

  “Most of it,” Rosalind agreed. “Anyway, Tate and I fell in love at first sight. One look and we were smitten. It was like in a movie or a romantic novel. We knew we were fated to be together.”

  Annie had a feeling she knew where this was going. Rosalind was going to give her a lecture on how it was important to let go of the things that weren’t right for her. She didn’t need the lecture. She’d been lecturing herself nonstop since her return from Texas, but she would not say anything. Rosalind had been her closest confidante for her entire life. The least she could do was hear her out.

  “We made love. I was too young. I shouldn’t have made love to him. We both knew I was too young, but we wanted each other so badly that we could not help ourselves.”

  That was how it had been with Brady. The compelling, magnetic pull that rendered her helpless to resist him. She understood.

  “Tate vowed to find a way for us to be together. He would be graduating from college soon and he would return to Monesta once he had a job and he would ask for my hand in marriage. He promised he would be back.”

  “I’m guessing he never returned.”

  “He did not.” Rosalind sighed. “The plane he and his family were flying in went down over the Atlantic Ocean just an hour after it left the airport.”

  Annabella touched her shoulder. “Oh, Rosalind. I am so sorry. I never knew.”

  “It was over twenty-five years ago. How could you know?”

  “Is that why you never married? You never found anyone you loved as much as you loved Tate?”

  Rosalind picked at invisible lint on her sleeve. “Partially.”

  “There was another reason?”

  “I was pregnant.”

  “Oh, Rosalind.” Annabella did not know what to say. She was a bit shocked. She’d never thought of her nanny as a mother. “But you don’t have children.”

  “But I do,” Rosalind said. “I have a daughter.”

  “You gave her up for adoption?”

  She nodded.

  “Have you kept up with her? Do you know where she is?”

  “Yes.”

  “Who is she?”

  Rosalind looked Annabella squarely in the eyes. “She is you.”

  Her old nursemaid’s words did not register. Annabella blinked. “I beg your pardon.”

  “You,” Rosalind said. “You are my biological daughter.”

  Annie’s head spun. She furrowed her brow trying to make sense of this new knowledge. “But I can’t be your daughter. I’m Princess Annabella of Monesta. How could I possibly be your daughter? You’re not saying that my father, King Phillip . . .”

  “No, oh no.” Rosalind held up both palms. “Nothing like that. Tate was your father.”

  “I don’t understand. How can I be a princess and your daughter at the same time?”

  Rosalind’s eyes met hers, full of unexpressed emotion. “Do you recall the story of Moses from the Bible?”

  “Yes, Moses’s mother . . .” Annie trailed off and everything was suddenly crystal clear. “You gave me to Queen Evangeline and King Phillip and became my nursemaid like Moses’s mother.”

  Rosalind nodded.

  Annie was struck mute. Emotions flooded her, a torrent of feelings she could not decipher or separate. Tears sprang to her eyes. “Y-you’re my biological mother?”

  Rosalind nodded.

  “But . . . how?”

  Rosalind got up and paced in front of the window, clasped and unclasped her hands. “Queen Evangeline and King Phillip desperately wanted a child. Secretly, they tried everything. Evangeline drank special teas. The king took vitamins and herbs. They underwent several rounds of in vitro fertilization, but back in those days, it was not as successful as it is today. Ultimately nothing worked. They managed to keep their infertility problems deeply hidden, but the queen was desperate for a baby. When she realized I was pregnant and alone, she hit upon the idea of taking my baby.”

  “Why didn’t they just adopt me?”

  “Don’t be naive, Annie, it’s just not done with royalty. You have been raised around these people. You understand the importance of bloodline and proper heirs.”

  These people.

  As if she was not part of them. She was not part of them. What a novel concept. She tested it out like a tongue testing out a missing tooth. It was sore and raw, but not awful. In fact, she liked it. She was not really royalty.

  “So,” Rosalind continued with her story. “The big charade began. The queen and I flew to London to live there together during my pregnancy. Supposedly to be near cutting-edge medicine while she was waiting for the birth of the baby. In reality, of course, it was to hide what we were up to. We stayed together in an apartment, just she and I. Whenever she went out, she would wear what is called an empathy belly so she would look pregnant A foreign doctor came in once a week to check me. He was bribed handsomely for his silence. No one else knew. When you were born, it was announced the queen had given birth and we flew home a month later.”

  “I can’t begin to imagine what that was like for you.” She still could not wrap her head around the notion. Rosalind was her real mother.

  Rosalind met her eyes and all Annabella saw was love. “I had to do it. I had no husband to help me. My parents were elderly and infirm. By giving you to the king and queen, I was giving you a royal life and I would get to be your nursemaid, by your side every day.”

  “Yes, but to be my mother and not be able to tell me . . .” Annabella’s voice cracked.

  “It was a pain I had to learn to deal with. A mother’s love can survive anything, Annabella.”

  Annie tried to make sense of what she just heard. Part of her was shattered, but another part of her felt blissfully free. This explained so much. Why she often felt as if she did not belong. How the queen had been both caring and distant by turns. How King Phillip had never really been demonstrative with her. Why he seemed to have lost interest in her altogether when Henry was born, why he insisted on marrying her off to Teddy. Once he had his real heir, he wanted her out of the way. It stung, but it made sense. It also explained why she’d always felt like a fish out of water. That’s exactly what she was.

  “My real father was a cowboy?”

  “That he was.”

  “Why are you telling me this now? Why didn’t you tell me before?” Annabella asked.

  “There were restrictions placed on me. Legal, contractual restrictions. If I ever breathed a word of this to anyone, not only would I lose my pension, but you would be cast out. You would lose your place and your name. I could not do that to you.”

  “And yet you’re risking it all by telling me now. If this goes public, you’ll lose everything. Your pension, everything you got in return for giving me up.”

  Rosalind nodded. “I will also be ostracized from Monesta. My citizenship will be revoked.”

  Annie gasped, raised a hand to her mouth. “Mama, no.”

  Tears spilled from Rosalind’s eyes. “You called me Mama.”

  “But you are my mother. What else should I call you?”

  “You can’t call me Mama. If anyone were to ever hear it, we would both be banished forever.”

  “Mama,” she whispered.

  Rosalind opened her arms wide and Annabella ran to her
embrace.

  Mama. All these years her real and true mother had been right in front of her. Loving her unconditionally. Rosalind had given her up to give her a better life. Love for the woman who’d been her nursemaid welled up in Annabella’s heart and she squeezed her tight. They stood a long moment embracing. Then finally, Annabella pulled back and looked into her mother’s face. “Thank you so much for telling me.”

  “I had to let you know on the eve of your wedding day.”

  It hit her then. She was not royalty. She was not a Farrington. She was not the Princess of Monesta. It felt as if a magnificent burden had been lifted from her shoulders. There was no protocol she had to follow. No rules to hold her back. She was free to walk away from her union to Teddy. She had no obligation to go through with this. In fact, if Teddy discovered who she really was, that would stop everything immediately. He would not marry a commoner.

  A commoner. She was a commoner.

  Giddiness skipped through her.

  The barrier between her and Brady, the big, insurmountable obstacle was gone. All she had to do was pick up the telephone and call him.

  Except it was not that easy.

  If Rosalind’s secret came out, so many people would be affected. The king, for one thing. Her stepmother. Her half brother. Teddy. But most of all, it would affect Rosalind. She would lose the guaranteed pension and be banished from her homeland.

  Annie could not take this lightly. If she went public nothing would ever be the same again. Yes, she could go back to Texas, try to repair her relationship with Brady, become Orchid’s mother.

  Her heart melted at the thought of Orchid. Once upon a time she’d been a tiny baby just like that, belonging to two mothers.

  What was she to do? If she kept silent and protected Rosalind, she would have to marry Teddy and move to Dubinstein.

  On the other hand, if she came clean, told the truth, held a press conference, revealed everything, she could have Brady and Texas, but that would mean exposing her mother and rocking the House of Farrington to its core.

  Annie had a big decision ahead of her and she had no idea which path she was going to choose.

  When Brady saw that the caller ID said Monesta, his heart stopped.

  Annie.

  Or rather Princess Annabella.

  He told himself to be calm. To be cool. To show no emotion, but he practically vaulted over the couch to snatch the cordless receiver off the dock. Orchid, who was in her playpen gnawing on a stuffed animal, looked up at him wide-eyed. Once Mary Jameson learned Annie was out of the picture and that Mariah and Prissy and Ila and Lissette had all offered babysitting services and freely agreed to a background check, she’d given him custody of his daughter.

  “Hello,” he said breathlessly.

  “Hello,” said a crisp feminine voice on the other end of the line. “Is this Mr. Brady Talmadge?”

  It was probably Annabella’s appointment secretary or executive assistant or whatever royalty called the people who made their phone calls for them. Disappointment winnowed down into his gut. “Yes.”

  “You don’t know me,” the caller said. “But my name is Rosalind Coste.”

  “Annie’s old nursemaid?”

  “She told you about me?” Rosalind sounded surprised, but proud.

  “She did. She said you were the one who really raised her.”

  “I’m more than that, Mr. Talmadge.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “I am Annabella’s biological mother.”

  It took a minute for that to sink in as Rosalind began telling him a tale of how she was Annie’s birth mother and had given her away to Queen Evangeline and King Phillip.

  “That’s some story, Ms. Coste,” he said, when she’d fallen silent. “But why did you call to tell me all this?”

  “I broke the news to Annabella. I know she’s having trouble processing it—”

  “And you thought I could talk to her?”

  “No, that’s not it at all.” Rosalind sounded irritated at his interruption. “I told her who she really was so that she would be free to step down, step away, and not marry Prince Theodore. I told her so she would end her engagement. So she could go back to you.”

  “But she’s not doing that, is she?”

  “It’s not because she doesn’t want to be with you. She has cried herself to sleep every night since she returned from Texas.”

  “It’s her choice.”

  “That’s just it, Mr. Talmadge. I don’t think it is her choice. I think she feels she has to protect me. If she goes public with the information I just gave you, I will lose everything. My pension, my home, my country. She’s sacrificing herself for me.”

  “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Do you love her, Mr. Talmadge?”

  Brady did not hesitate. “More than life itself.”

  Rosalind let out her breath. “We cannot allow her to marry Prince Theodore. The wedding is tomorrow evening. Time is of the essence.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  Rosalind cleared her throat and told him her plan.

  A thousand guests jammed the cathedral pews. Twenty thousand more gathered in the pavilion outside the church and spread out through the town. Reporters were everywhere. Security was at the utmost. Organ music played a wedding march written by a Dubinstein composer. The cloying smell of too many flowers filled the air. Multitudinous candles adorned the altar.

  This was it. Annabella’s wedding day.

  It should have been a fairy tale. A dream come true.

  It was not.

  She looked over at the man that for twenty-five years she had believed to be her father. He smiled at her in a grandfatherly fashion. She knew he cared about her. Of that she had no doubt. He might not love her as thoroughly as her real father would have loved her, or as much as he loved his real child, but he did love her in his way. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt him. Nor did she want to hurt Rosalind or bring shame on the House of Farrington. So she would do what had to be done. She would walk down that aisle and seal herself to the Prince of Dubinstein. She would do her duty. Honor her family. Save Rosalind. Keep the secret.

  Brady might not approve, but it’s what she had to do.

  Brady.

  Her throat tightened and she fought back the tears that threatened to mist her eyes. It was as it should be. He had his life, she had hers. They had had a wonderful time together. He had taught her a lot, but he was just a memory now. It was time to let go.

  “Are you ready?” her father asked.

  She nodded.

  King Phillip held out his hand. She gave him her arm. He tucked her close to his body.

  As the music swelled, the doors swung open and they stepped into the chapel.

  The massive church was packed, standing room only as more people tried to cram inside. Cameras flashed. Silence fell over the congregation. Everything felt extremely solemn.

  At the end of the long aisle, Prince Theodore stood waiting. Silver sprinkled his dark hair, or what he had left of it. His round face smiled. He wasn’t a bad man. She would make the best of this.

  The heavy perfume of her rose and orchid bouquet overwhelmed her. Orchids. She took a deep breath, thought of a baby far away. She glanced around for Rosalind, but did not see her. She wished she had Lady Astor with her, but the royal pooch was in her bedroom, lazy with pregnancy.

  The walk up the aisle seemed an eternity. Heads turned. Murmured voices followed them.

  “Such a beautiful bride.”

  “Too bad her mother didn’t live to see this day.”

  “I hate that she’s moving to Dubinstein.”

  “Prince Theodore is a lucky man.”

  Annabella forced a smile for her subjects, even though inside she felt so out of place. She knew now why she’d never belonged. She had never been royalty. It was not in her blood. But she’d decided to go along with the pretense, because after all, what choice did she have? She could not sacri
fice Rosalind’s future for her own happiness.

  Rosalind.

  Her real mother.

  Again, she glanced around the chapel. Where was Rosalind? The last time Annabella had seen her was over an hour ago when she’d helped Annabella get dressed. She had to be here somewhere.

  Annabella and the king reached the front. He passed her hand to Prince Theodore’s.

  Teddy caught her gaze. His eyes were reassuring. She could do this. She would do this.

  The minister raised a hand and started the blessing.

  Annabella’s hand trembled. She could stop this. Stop it right now. All she had to do was tell the truth. She could have Brady and Orchid and Texas, but that meant hurting so many people in pursuit of her own happiness. She and Brady had already broken up, already passed through the eye of the hurricane. No point going back. Not at the expense of so many others.

  “We are gathered here today,” the minister said, “to join Princess Annabella and Prince Theodore in holy matrimony.”

  “Stop!” A loud masculine voice shouted from the back of the room. “Stop the ceremony right now!”

  Annabella spun around, heart thumping. She could not believe what she was seeing. A man in a gray Stetson, Wrangler jeans, and cowboy boots. Swaggering like John Wayne at a shootout. A complete standout among all the pomp and circumstance.

  It was Brady! Stalking determinedly toward the altar. He had come for her!

  But why? And how? She told him there was no chance they could be together. No hope at all.

  She had no idea how he’d gotten past security, but here he was.

  The minister glared at him. “And who are you, sir?”

  “I’m the cowboy who loves her,” Brady said. He shifted his gaze, caught Annie’s eyes. “I can’t allow you to make the biggest mistake of our lives.”

  “You cannot.” She stared at him beseechingly, willing him to understand. “Rosalind—”

  “Who do you think called me? She’s outside right now. On the steps of the cathedral. Giving an interview to the press.”

  “No,” Annie whispered.

  “She’s telling her secret. She wants the truth to come out.”

  Annie swung her gaze to King Phillip who was sitting in the front row pew with Birgit and Prince Henry. His real family, his real heir. His face was pale, but when his eyes met hers, he nodded. Was he giving her his permission?