Read Online Revealed: A Prince and A Pregnancy by Kelly Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

winery,’ said Simone.
    ‘Done that.’
    ‘I haven’t seen you round these last couple of days,’ she said next. Easy to be fearless from a distance. ‘Inigo even asked if you were deliberately avoiding me—you know how people talk. He seemed to be under the impression that you might be afraid of me. Or something. And that would be a shame seeing as we’re about to become one big happy family.’
    Gabrielle snorted. Gabrielle grinned. Gabrielle silently shook her head.
    ‘I’m not afraid of you, Simone,’ Rafe said curtly. ‘I’m not avoiding you. And I thought we had a truce for today.’
    ‘Oh, we do ,’ she said earnestly. ‘Has it started already?’
    ‘It’s today, isn’t it?’
    ‘Does that mean our truce finishes at midnight?’
    Silence at that, followed by a curt one-word reply. ‘No.’
    ‘That’s what I thought. Why don’t we make this a twenty-four-hour truce starting from, say, now?’
    ‘Fine.’ If the phone could have bit her it would have.
    ‘Perfect. So what are we going to do about my brother?’
    ‘He’s driving me almost as insane as you do.’
    ‘Get him to help you make some wine,’ she offered.
    ‘I already have. Last night’s vintage has been tried, tested, barrelled, and for evermore shall be known as Bride’s Bane. It’s quite a drop.’
    ‘Luc better be sober, Rafael, or so help me you’ll both pay.’
    ‘Trust me, he’s sober,’ he said. ‘But tell me this. What the hell am I supposed to do with him for another six hours?’
    ‘You mean you don’t have a plan?’ Simone covered the phone with her hand and addressed Gabrielle in a loud whisper. ‘Luc’s fine. Completely relaxed. Not stressing at all.’ She uncovered the handpiece and addressed the angelic man on the other end of the phone. ‘Some best man you are.’
    ‘I do have a plan,’ he said. ‘Bring the wedding forward five and a half hours and we’ll meet you in the gazebo in twenty minutes. Luc likes it.’
    ‘It’ll never happen,’ said Simone blithely. ‘Take him to the barber’s instead. The barber can give him a nice close shave.’
    ‘No can do,’ said Rafael. ‘The days of the close shave are over. I’m the brother of the bride. This wedding’s on . What say we meet you and Gabrielle for brunch? How’s that for not avoiding you? You could come here. There’s bacon.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Lunch, then?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘I’ll throw in some fried onions and BBQ sauce?’
    ‘Feed that man fried onions today and I’ll trim your grapevines to the ground and feed them to nameless ducks.’
    ‘All right already,’ he said with a long-suffering sigh. ‘No need to labour the point. I’ll name the ducks. Now where can we meet for lunch?’
    ‘You are so sweet when you’re desperate,’ she said. She’d seen a golf course not far from the guest house. ‘Take him for a game of golf.’
    ‘Does he play golf?’
    ‘He can learn.’
    ‘Golf’s a psychologically demanding game. I don’t know that he should start learning it on his wedding day. It’s unlikely to soothe him.’
    ‘Then play poker. And put him on the phone.’
    ‘Later.’ Anyone would think Rafe actually wanted to talk to her. ‘How’s my sister this morning?’
    ‘She’s an oasis of radiance and calm.’
    ‘Of course she is. Now try the truth.’
    ‘Put it this way. Remind me to get married at dawn.’
    ‘Are you sure you don’t want to meet up for afternoon coffee at, say, three?’
    ‘Your sister and I will be at the gazebo at six this evening. She’ll be the one in the long white gown.’ Simone rolled her eyes at Gabrielle who was laughing outright now. ‘I’ll be the one trailing behind her in the caramel-coloured sheath and, I promise you, we’ll both be worth the wait.’
    ‘I hate waiting,’ he said.
    Simone grinned. There was something about weddings and truces that appealed to the sadist in her. ‘Don’t we all.’
    By five-thirty that afternoon, Gabrielle and Simone were gowned and