The Prince's Bride. Lisa Laurel Kaye

as his sense of duty.

      Erik belonged to someone else, but he wasn’t going to be the only man at the ball, she reminded herself as she put on the blue dress Annah had pressed for her. She wrinkled her nose at her reflection in the mirror and gave a little rueful grin at the fanciful imaginings that had dwelt deep within her for so long.

      This was the perfect dress to wear to dance on the grave of her silly dreams.

      Erik stood in the ballroom doorway, looking into the cavernous stone-walled room that would in less than an hour be the setting for a royal ball, a ball people were paying fabulous amounts of money to the king’s favorite charity in order to attend.

      He had expected austere dignity, but what he found was a close approximation of bedlam. People carrying flowers were running back and forth, dodging others toting tables and chairs. The decorative fountain had run amok, and a group of people armed with towels were mopping up the resultant river. The head of the wait staff was giving the food and drink servers their instructions, punctuated with wide sweeps of both hands. Security was restless, trying to school their expressions into placidity as they watched the hubbub in the room. From the kitchen came the unmistakable bellow of his father’s head chef, while the orchestra, ensconced on a makeshift stage in the front of the room, added to the chaos as it played snatches of songs for a sound check.

      In the center of the swirl of activity stood Julie Brit-ton. He hadn’t seen her in years, but he would have recognized her anywhere. It was obvious that she was in charge—people kept running up to her to tell or ask her something. But she was regal and poised, by far the calmest person in the room. One encouraging word from her, and even the most frantic person left her looking confident. Maybe it was her hundred-watt smile or her obvious delight in the proceedings. Whatever it was, it was working miracles. As he watched, bedlam gradually subsided as the room transformed, surrounding Julie in beauty.

      Certainly, Erik thought, she was even more beautiful than he remembered. Not that the adjective did her justice, or had much to do with the fact that she was already in formal dress. Much more than outward appearance, Julie’s allure radiated from within. She was so vibrantly alive, and even from across the ballroom, the force of her appeal hit him harder than he was prepared for. It had been the same way one long-ago night; there was something about her that beckoned to him. Now, as then, he was so drawn that he found himself walking across the ballroom toward her.

      Amid the frantic last-minute preparations, Julie sensed a movement that was out of place. A man was coming her way, and she didn’t need the discreet nod given him by the chief of security to know that the man was Prince Erik. The confusion around her continued, but as she focused on him, her awareness of all else ceased.

      Reality exceeded memory. He topped six feet by an inch or two, and it looked as if all of his weight came from lean, trim muscle. He carried himself with regal assurance; moreover, he exuded an aura of intelligent confidence that suited his tough, rangy build. Crown prince or no, he obviously spent a good deal of time outdoors, because his dark blond hair was sun streaked against his tanned skin. His dark brown eyes still had no bottom that she could discern.

      He stopped in front of her, as he had nine years before. Her eyes met his unfathomable gaze, completing a circuit like an electrical connection. Now, as then, an involuntary heightening of awareness nearly bowled her over, and the two moments linked across the span of years between them. Feeling it so strongly again, she knew why she had taken a risk back then—and knew with utter certainty that she had been right to do so.

      For Erik, standing so close to Julie brought back vivid memories of her naive sensuality and refreshing honesty, and of the night they had almost been too much to resist. One dance with her had had him shirking his responsibilities, rushing outside to try to regain his equilibrium. But looking for peace of mind in a. spot of seclusion, he had found Julie instead. He had purposely misled her in refusing to admit that there was something between them. There had been, and that was precisely why he had backed off. Surrendering control to an unknown emotion, especially one that strong, was untenable for Erik.

      Seeing her again, he was glad he’d found the strength to resist her. A woman who could make him feel like that was the wrong kind of woman for him. The years had proven him right.

      With that conviction, he dismissed the past and gave her a polite, but impersonal, nod. “Hello, Julie,” he said.

      His perfunctory greeting called her back to the present, back from the night she had danced with him under an endless sky and had wished on every star in the galaxy that he would feel what she had.

      But the stars had had better things to do. Now he was marrying someone else, and she was older and infinitely wiser. Still, she realized how much easier it had been to handle the news of his engagement over the phone. Up close it was harder to think of wishing him well in marrying another woman. Luckily she had made her congratulations on the phone, so she got right down to business.

      “Good evening, Your Highness,” she said formally. “What can I do for you?” It was helpful to remember that she was the employee. It was natural that he assign duties to her as he pleased, as he had occasionally done by mail and fax since the king’s illness.

      “After speaking with you, I made arrangements to have cameras set up in here to simulcast the ball, in-eluding the announcement, in my father’s hospital room.”

      “You don’t think the news will be too much of a shock for him?” Julie asked, concerned.

      “My finally getting engaged will doubtless be a shock,” Erik said dryly. “However, since it will be of a pleasant variety, his doctor has given full approval.” He paused. “The camera crew will arrive any minute, and I’ve given them incentive to set up quickly. I hope they won’t cause you any problems.”

      She gave him a confident smile. “None I can’t handle.”

      “Good,” he said briskly. “Has Roberta arrived?”

      “Not to my knowledge.”

      “Then she must not be here. I told her to seek you out if she arrived before I did.”

      “Now that you are here,” Julie said with a smile, “I am sure that you will be the first to know of her arrival.”

      “I doubt that,” he said, matter-of-factly. “I will be quite busy with a number of things I have to do before the ball. Please keep me posted on her arrival.”

      “Of course.” Apparently he was no romantic, who would spend the wait pacing the floor in anticipation of the arrival of his lady love.

      “I’d also like a room to be prepared for her. It will be expected that she, as my fiancée, will be a guest here in the castle.”

      Julie thought that was a funny way of putting it. Didn’t he want to be with her?

      “She can have the bedroom at the top of the stairs,” Erik went on. “I’ll take the tower room that adjoins it”

      Julie didn’t say anything.

      “Is something wrong?”

      “No, Your Highness,” Julie said. “I have been living in the tower room, but I’ll move my things out”.

      He shook his head. “I don’t want to put you out The two adjoining bedrooms in the north hall will serve my purpose just as well.”

      “I can move. It’s—”

      “I insist,” Erik said simply.

      Julie gave in. He had an air of quiet command that he wore well, she thought. He would make a good leader.

      “As you wish,” she said. “Is there anything else?

      Would you like to inspect the kitchen, take a quick tour of the grounds, see the list of—”

      “That won’t be necessary,” he said, cutting her off. “It’s obvious that you are doing a fine job pulling things together. If I can trust you with the secret of my engagement, I can certainly trust you with the details