Vanessa had to smile. Royalty or not, the Princess Gabriella was easy to be with. “Honored and annoyed, then. I hope tonight’s benefit is a tremendous success.”
“It will be.” She refused to accept less. “Eve— You know my sister-in-law?”
“Yes, I’ve met Her Highness several times.”
“She’s American—and therefore pushy. She’s been a tremendous help to me.”
“Your husband, he is also American?”
Gabriella’s topaz eyes lit. “Yes. Reeve is also pushy. This year we involved our children quite a bit, so it’s been even more of a circus than usual. My brother, Alexander, was away for a few weeks, but he returned in time to be put to use.”
“You are ruthless with your family, Gabriella.”
“It’s best to be ruthless with those you love.” She saw something, some cloud, come and go in Vanessa’s eyes. She would get to that. “Hannah apologizes for not coming backstage before your performance. Bennett is fussing over her.”
“Your younger brother is entitled to fuss when his wife is on the verge of delivering their child.”
“Hannah was interested in you, Vanessa.” Gabriella couldn’t resist a smile. “As your name was linked with Bennett’s before his marriage.”
Along with half the female population of the free world, Vanessa thought, but she kept her smile bland. “His Highness was the most charming of escorts.”
“He was a scoundrel.”
“Tamed by the lovely Lady Hannah.”
“Not tamed, but perhaps restrained.” The princess set her glass aside. “I was sorry when your manager informed us that you wouldn’t spend more than another day in Cordina. It’s been so long since you visited us.”
“There is no place I’ve felt more welcome.” She toyed with the petals of a pure white rose. “I remember the last time I was here, the lovely day I spent at your farm, with your family.”
“We would love to have you to ourselves again, whenever your schedule permits.” Compassionate by nature, she reached out a hand. “You are well?”
“Yes, thank you. I’m quite well.”
“You look lovely, Vanessa, perhaps more so because there’s such sadness in your eyes. I understand the look. It faced me in the mirror once, not so many years ago. Men put it there. It’s one of their finest skills.” Her fingers linked with Vanessa’s. “Can I help you?”
“I don’t know.” She looked down at their joined hands, then up into Gabriella’s soft, patient eyes. “Gabriella, may I ask you, what’s the most important thing in your life?”
“My family.”
“Yes.” She smiled. “You had such a romantic story. How you met and fell in love with your husband.”
“It becomes more romantic as time passes, and less traumatic.”
“He’s an American, a former policeman?”
“Of sorts.”
“If you had had to give up your position, your, well, birthright, to have married him, would you have done so?”
“Yes. But with great pain. Does this man ask you to give up something that’s so much a part of you?”
“No, he doesn’t ask me to give up anything. And yet he asks for everything.”
Gabriella smiled again. “It is another skill they have.”
“I’ve learned things about myself, about my background, my family, that are very difficult to accept. I’m not sure if I give this man what he wants, for now, that I won’t be cheating him and myself in the bargain.”
Gabriella was silent a moment. “You know my story, it has been well documented. After I had been kidnapped, and my memory was gone, I looked into my father’s face and didn’t know him. Into my brothers’ eyes and saw the eyes of strangers. However much this hurt me, it hurt them only more. But I had to find myself, discover myself in the most basic of ways. It’s very frightening, very frustrating. I’m not a patient or a temperate person.”
Vanessa managed another smile. “I’ve heard rumors.”
With a laugh, Gabriella picked up her wine and sipped again. “At last I recognized myself. At last I looked at my family and knew them. But differently,” she said, gesturing. “It’s not easy to explain. But when I knew them again, when I loved them again, it was with a different heart. Whatever flaws they had, whatever mistakes they had made, however they had wounded me in the past, or I them, didn’t matter any longer.”#p#分页标题#e#
“You’re saying you forgot the past.”