To Charm a Prince(105)
Samantha looked at him in confusion. “Walk?”
“Yes, Princess, we will walk around the chamber.” Rudolf put his arm around her and began to circle the room. “You will get into bed when the pain becomes intense.”
“Intense?” His wife had the look of a trapped animal.
“I think she should lie down,” Roxie said.
“The prince knows how to care for his wife,” Angelica said. “He knows what’s best. Let’s wait outside until we’re needed.”
Rudolf sent his sister-in-law a look of gratitude. The duchess was so excitable, she would only make the situation worse. When his wife needed to lie down, he would call for them.
With his arm around her, Rudolf passed the next two hours walking his wife around the chamber. When the pains came, he held her steady as she leaned into him.
“Rudolf?”
“Yes, love?”
“I need ribbons.”
Rudolf looked at her in confusion. “Ribbons?”
“I need two of the ribbons you bought me.”
Rudolf helped her to sit on the bed. “What colors do you want?”
“Pink and blue.”
Rudolf ran for the dressing room. He found the box on the floor and rummaged through it until he found one pink and one blue ribbon.
When he returned to the bed, Rudolf found her in the midst of another contraction, worse than the others. “You need to lie down now.”
“First, pull my hair back and tie the ribbons in my hair.”
“Samantha.”
“Please.”
Rudolf tied her hair with the ribbons and gently pushed her back on the bed. Then he hurried across the chamber, opened the door, and nodded at her aunt, her sister, and the physician.
“You need to leave now,” Aunt Roxie told him.
“I am not leaving her.”
Rudolf sat on the edge of the bed and held his wife’s hand while she writhed in pain. “I am sorry,” he said. “I am sorry to put you through this.”
“Oh, God,” Samantha cried as the worst contraction yet caught her. The contractions were rolling into her like great tidal waves of pain.
And then Samantha shocked not only her husband but her aunt and her sister, as well. She looked at her worried husband and screamed, “You son-of-a-no-good bitch. Look what you’ve done to me. You don’t love me. You just wanted to stick yourself in me . . . Aunt Roxie, he tricked me, the lying arse.”
Hiding a smile, Angelica put her arm around the stunned prince and guided him toward the door. “Samantha will feel differently in the morning.” She shut the door in his face.
Rudolf stared at the door. He hadn’t realized his wife knew those curse words. God, he needed vodka.
Rudolf walked downstairs and into the drawing room. Duke Magnus put a glass of vodka in his hand.
“Has Samantha started cursing you yet?” Robert asked.
Rudolf snapped his gaze to his brother-in-law. “Do all women do that?”
Robert nodded.
“Every time?”
Robert nodded again.
“The only cure for it is in your hands,” Duke Magnus told him. “Drink up, son.”
Long hours passed. Rudolf frequently walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked up as if he could see what was happening in his bedchamber.
The physician appeared in the drawing room where the men were drinking. Drying his hands on a towel, he announced, “Your Highness, you have a son . . .”
The men cheered and raised their glasses, but the physician wasn’t finished yet. “. . . and a daughter.”
The glass of vodka slipped from the prince’s hand. Prince Rudolf Kazanov fainted.
The next afternoon after the family had inspected the babies and gone downstairs for tea, the proud parents sat in their bedchamber and watched their babies sleeping. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Rudolf held his daughter in his arms while Samantha cuddled their son. A knock on the door drew their attention.
“Come in,” Rudolf called.
Another knock sounded on the door. Again, Rudolf called a little louder, “Enter.”
When the door remained closed, Rudolf looked at his wife. Samantha shrugged and returned her attention to her baby.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Louder and more insistent, knocking sounded on their door. Cursing in Russian, Rudolf cradled his daughter in his arms and walked across the chamber to yank open the door.
No one was there.
And then he heard his wife’s laughter.
“If you look on the other side of the door,” Samantha called, “I think you will find a potato.”
It was then Rudolf heard the sound of children giggling. “If I find the culprit,” Rudolf called to his wife, “I will give him or her a spanking to remember.”
Rudolf heard the muffled scuffling of feet as the culprits sought the safety downstairs. He closed the door and returned inside to place his daughter in her cradle.