The Mills & Boon Ultimate Christmas Collection. Kate Hardy

      What was she going to do?

      The nausea swelled up again and she retched, but her stomach was now so empty all that came out was bile. She didn’t know if it was the terror causing it or the new hormones taking over her body.

      She brushed her teeth for the third time that morning but could still taste the acid on her tongue. She patted her face dry and stared at her reflection, trying desperately to force a smile to her pale face. In six hours she would sit down with her family for their Christmas feast. Aunts, uncles, cousins; those who worked at the palace and those that didn’t. They would all be there.

      She breathed deeply, the exhalation coming out in ragged movements from lungs that seemed to have closed in shock.

      A knock on her bedroom door brought her to her senses.

      That would be Marion, her cousin and chief companion. Marion had brought Catalina’s breakfast to her earlier—the tray still remained untouched—and now would be ready to draw her bath.

      She couldn’t confide in her. Marion had a sly side that Catalina had never warmed to. When she’d come of age and had been permitted to appoint her own ‘companions’, a House of Fernandez euphemism for personal staff, she’d been obligated to take Marion on. In a palace full of servants, personal staff always came from family, and Marion’s mother was sister to Catalina’s father.

      She counted to five in her head and composed herself. Not with a single whisper of body language would she show that anything was amiss.

      Stepping back into her room, she called out ‘Come in,’ and sat down at her dresser.

      Except it wasn’t Marion who opened the door. It was her brother, Dominic.

      There was nothing festive about the look on his face.

      ‘So...’ he said silkily, closing the door behind him. ‘It’s true. You’re pregnant.’

      Thank goodness she was already seated or her shaky legs would have given way.

      When the test had shown itself positive only half an hour ago she had known she wouldn’t be able to keep this a secret for long but she’d hoped for a few days’ grace.

      She clamped her lips together and nodded. There was no point in lying. And little point in wondering how he knew. Privacy was an alien concept when it came to the female members of the House of Fernandez. Not trusting Marion, Catalina had been forced to take Aliana, a second cousin and one of her newer companions, into her confidence and had sent her out to get a pregnancy test. Aliana, barely eighteen, had left the palace on the pretext of some last minute Christmas shopping, promising to keep it a secret.

      But nothing in the palace remained a secret for long. To keep one required a mental strength most people didn’t have, not when the King and his heir had a palace full of spies and the power to use the knowledge they gained to their advantage.

      Catalina had kept her one true and most precious secret by never telling a soul.

      Dominic took in her appearance with a critical sneer, then, without any warning, whipped his hand through the air and slapped her cheek. Hard. ‘Merry Christmas.’

      Catalina didn’t allow herself to react, nor did she place a hand to her stinging flesh. Any response would give him what he wanted.

      He loved nothing more than making her cry. He fed off it.

      She hadn’t cried in front of him since their mother’s funeral seven years ago.

      Suddenly she wished, with a desperation she hadn’t felt since the funeral that her mother were there. Just so she would be able to hold her and receive her words of comfort. How she missed her soft voice and gentle smile.

      She even wished Isabella were there but her younger sister had escaped the House of Fernandez’s Christmas festivities to spend the period with her husband’s family.

      ‘Who’s the father?’

      She pressed her lips together.

      ‘A virgin conception? How fitting.’ His mouth curved into another hateful sneer. ‘Nathaniel Giroud?’

      Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t stop the little tremor that raced through her at the mention of Nathaniel’s name.

      ‘It is him.’

      Such was the fury that spread across her brother’s face Catalina braced herself for another strike.

      Instead, Dominic stooped down, close enough for her to smell his rancid breath. ‘You disgusting slut.’

      She didn’t react. She wouldn’t react. It would only make matters worse. She didn’t even flinch when his spittle flew into her face.

      ‘Bad enough Helios dumped you, a pure-blood royal princess, for a commoner and that the whole world knows it, whatever the press release we issued might have said, but for you to then open your legs for that piece of scum...?’ Malice shone on his face. ‘You realise Johann was preparing to ask Father for your hand in marriage? That’s another prospect ruined.’

      Bile crept up her throat, threatening to choke her.

      ‘You’re ruined; you know that? Johann won’t want you now you’re second-hand goods.’

      She couldn’t breathe.

      ‘Giroud won’t want you either,’ Dominic jeered. ‘He screwed you to get one up on me. You were nothing but a game to him and an easy lay. I told you to stay away from him and now you must pay the price.’

      He stared down at her, his face twisted in an ugly contortion. ‘Father will wish to speak to you. He will decide what needs to be done and what the consequences are to be.’

      He made to leave then paused, turning back around to slap her other cheek. ‘That’s for disobeying me when I told you to stay away from Nathaniel Giroud.’

      Straightening his tie, he left the room.

      Alone, Catalina closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath.

      The screams in her head rang out.

      Placing a protective hand to her stomach, she forced herself to look in her dressing-table mirror. Bright red finger marks marred both her cheeks.

      There was no way to fix the damage before Marion came to her rooms. All the same, she applied foundation with shaking hands, hoping to tone down the worst of it.

      Breathe, Catalina, breathe.

      When Nathaniel had left her room that morning three weeks ago, she had felt an inexplicable wrench to see the door close behind him.

      She hadn’t heard from him since and she hadn’t expected to. They had both known it could only ever be for one night.

      But she’d been aware of him for years.

      Friends with the Kalliakis Princes, if not Catalina’s own brother, Nathaniel had often attended the same functions she’d been at; a tall magnetic figure her eyes had always been drawn to. She’d experienced a little pull in the pit of her stomach whenever she’d met his eye and experienced an even greater tug whenever they’d greeted each other with the kiss on both cheeks that everyone used. But she had never allowed herself to think anything about it. They were part of the same social network but they were not friends. Male friends were not permitted for a princess from the House of Fernandez.

      Until Helios’s wedding, when Nathaniel had taken it upon himself to act as her guardian angel on the day that should have been her wedding, she had never exchanged more than pleasantries with him.

      He was intensely private, so she knew little about him other than that his parents had died in an accident when he was very young—she didn’t know the details—and that he’d been raised by an uncle and had attended the same boarding school as Dominic and the Kalliakis Princes. He owned a string of hotels and business developments, along with the Club Giroud, a private members club for the most affluent, which