Pleasuring the Prince by Patricia Grasso Page B

baron’s hesitant tone did not inspire confidence in Fancy. She looked at the prince again. He looked uninspired, too.
    “I should have escorted you inside,” the baron was saying.
    “My sisters were on an outing,” Belle reminded him. “Our being alone would have been too much of a temptation. I want nothing to prevent me from coming to you a virgin on our wedding night.”
    Silence again. A prolonged silence.
    Alarm shot through Fancy. The baron could not be so cruel as to discard her sister only one day after the attack.
    “Do you think the baron is kissing her?” The prince sounded hopeful.
    “ No.” All the hatred for aristocrats she’d harbored for fifteen years shone in her eyes.
    “Well, dearest, the fact is—” Baron Wingate hesitated. “My mother believes we are unsuited for each other.”
    “The baroness was so kind and gracious yesterday.”
    “She would never behave otherwise,” Wingate said. “My mother’s true nobility shines, no matter her opinion.”
    “True nobility?” Belle said. “Wasn’t her father a vicar and her first husband a squire?”
    Fancy heard the sarcastic edge in her sister’s voice. The assailant could not steal her spirit and pride.
    “That is neither here nor there.”
    “My mother was a countess,” Belle said, “and my father is a duke, which makes me more noble than your mother.”
    “Your parents never married,” the baron said, a hostile note entering his voice. “Your bastardy makes you unacceptable.”
    “That sniveling swine.” Stepan reached for the door, but Fancy blocked his path. “Step aside so I can kill him.”
    “Revenge should never be served hot, Your Highness.”
    “You should leave now.”
    Her sister’s voice ached with emotion.
    “What I meant to say—I need time to persuade my mother that a union between us would be beneficial.”
    “Take all the time you need, Charles. I will, of course, examine my own feelings about you.”
    By unspoken agreement, Fancy and Stepan hurried to the foyer. Standing near the door, they tried to appear as if they hadn’t been eavesdropping.
    Baron Wingate walked into the foyer, his complexion flushed. “I would like to leave now.”
    Stepan opened the door and gestured to the baron. Wingate stepped outside, but the prince hadn’t moved.
    “Your Highness, I am rather upset and want to go home,” Wingate said.
    “I do not chauffeur social inferiors.” Stepan slammed the door in the baron’s face.
    Fancy wrapped her arms around him. “You were wonderful.”
    “Merci, mademoiselle.”
    And then the heartwrenching sounds of her sister’s weeping reached them.
    Fancy whirled away, intending to go to her sister’s aid. Stepan moved faster, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling her against his body.
    Fancy struggled against him. “Release me.”
    “Let her grieve in peace,” Stepan said. “Nothing will make her feel better. When her tears are spent, she will listen to your counsel.”
    Fancy opened her mouth to argue.
    “How about practicing your slingshot?”
    She shook her head. “I have no heart for that today.”
    “I will let you shoot the apple off my head.”
    “You will?” Well, that certainly perked her interest.
    “No.” Stepan smiled at her disappointed expression. “My brothers are expecting me.” He gave her a quick kiss and walked out the door.
    Fancy appreciated the prince’s support during a troubled time, but wished he would refrain from kissing her. At least, without invitation.
    She heard her sister in the parlor but decided the prince was right. Belle deserved the privacy to grieve in peace.
    A short time later, Stepan climbed the stairs to the Duke of Inverary’s second-floor office. He knocked on the door and entered without waiting for permission. When the four men sitting inside dropped their mouths open in surprise, he grinned at each in turn…the Duke of Inverary and his three older brothers.
    “What are you doing here?” Prince Rudolf asked, the