If you like this online read you'll enjoy Carla Cassidy's books!

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Chapter One

"I gave you a year to find a bride." King Michael Stanbury of Edenbourg glared at his one and only son, Nicholas. "In three weeks time that year will be up and you are no closer to marrying."

"I haven?t found anyone appropriate yet," Nicholas replied.

"Nonsense. You have dated women from all over the world, any one of which would have made a fine wife."

Nicholas sighed. He couldn?t very well tell his father that although the women he dated were beautiful, sophisticated, and charming, he?d been looking for something more. "I thought it might be interesting if I married a woman I loved."

Michael snorted with displeasure. "Love is overrated. If you are to one day be king, you can?t wait around for sentimental foolishness. If I?d had my way, I would have chosen a woman for you a long time ago, but your mother indulges you and she insisted I give you time to find your own wife."

Nicholas bit back an angry retort. When his father had told him he had a year to marry, it hadn?t sounded like an indulgence, it had been a royal dictate ? as had most of his father?s words to him over the years.

And as usual, Nicholas?s first instinct was to rebel. He drew a deep breath. "Father, I have tried ?"

"Not enough," King Michael said. "A wife gives a man an aura of stability and if you are not married by your 30th birthday, then I will not allow you to succeed the throne."

Nicholas wanted to protest the three-week deadline, tell his father it was a ridiculous ultimatum, but he knew it was useless.

King Michael rose from his chair and looked at his watch. "You?d better get dressed ? the ball starts in an hour. Royalty from a dozen countries will be in attendance, surely you can find a woman that will make an appropriate princess."

Without another word, the king swept out of the room. As always, after a talk with his father, frustration gnawed at Nicholas.

He knew his father was right. It was time?past time that he chose a wife. He picked up his dress jacket and ran his thumb across the embroidered family crest on the lapel.

Besides, he?d spent the past year searching for love and had found it elusive. His father was right. Love was nothing more than sentimental foolishness. It was time to put aside such foolishness. It was time to do his duty. Time to choose a wife.

* * *

He knew the moment he saw her that she was the one. Prince Nicholas watched the dark-haired beauty from across the room. She stood by his cousin, Princess Serena of Wynborough, and Serena?s husband, Gabriel Morgan.

He moved across the polished dance floor toward her. As he approached, she threw back her head and laughed at something Gabriel said and in her smile, in her rich laughter, Nicholas made up his mind.

He stopped in front of the woman, bowed, and held out a hand. "May I have this dance?"

Her brown eyes widened slightly as she nodded and smiled.

"Are you enjoying your visit to Wynborough?" he asked, noting that she smelled as sweet as she looked.

"Very much, although I?m finding things quite different here from my home in Brookville, Iowa." Again she offered him a shy smile. "I know you?re the Prince of Edenbourg, but I?m afraid I?m not exactly sure where Edenbourg is."

Nicholas smiled, finding her confession charming." A long way from Wynborough. Edenbourg is in Eastern Europe."

"Have you visited here often? I understand you?re Serena?s first cousin."

"Actually, this is my first visit. Our families have not been close, although I enjoyed a long lunch with Serena yesterday." And throughout that lunch, Serena had spoken quite highly of her husband?s relative, Rebecca Baxter. Now Nicholas tried to remember what his cousin had said about the lovely woman he held in his arms.

They spoke no more through the course of the dance. Nicholas?s father?s words rang in his ears. Time to find a bride. And why not the woman in his arms? Rebecca appealed to him more than any of the women he?d dated over the past year. That she was an American, and a commoner to boot, would irritate his father, but that only made her more desirable as far as Nicholas was concerned. Lust at first sight might make the best reason for marriage after all.

When the dance ended, Nicholas escorted her over to where his father stood. The King raised an eyebrow and Nicholas nodded.

So there would be no mistaking his intentions, he acted on an ancient custom. Reaching out to a nearby floral arrangement, he plucked out a flower, kissed it, and then tucked it behind Rebecca?s left ear. "May I present Rebecca Baxter."

The king kissed Rebecca first on one cheek, then on the other. "May this union be blessed with many heirs," he replied in their native language, following the custom.

Rebecca smiled blankly, but as the king?s words were repeated and swept around the room, a cheer went up. "What?s going on?" she asked curiously.

He smiled. "My father has officially pronounced that he accepts our betrothal. You are to be my wife and the next Princess of Edenbourg."

To be continued?