HOW TO MARRY A PRINCESS Read Online Free Page B

regrets.
    When he glanced toward the dais again, Alice was gone.
    * * *
    Alice slipped out of the tent through the servants’ entrance behind the dais.
    She’d recovered from her initial shock at the sight of Noah sitting between those two beautiful women, looking as though he belonged there. At least by the end of dinner, she’d become reasonably certain she wasn’t hallucinating. He was not a bizarre figment of her overactive imagination. The man who looked exactly like Noah the stable hand really did exist.
    That meant she wasn’t losing her mind after all—a fact she found wonderfully reassuring.
    But was he actually the same man she’d first met sweeping the stable floor before dawn on Wednesday morning? Was this some kind of bizarre practical joke he was playing on her? And if so, did that make him a palace groom posing as a guest at the palace? Or a jet-setter friend of her brother’s who enjoyed masquerading as the help?
    She considered tracking down Dami and quizzing him about that friend of his who looked exactly like the poverty-stricken groom she’d met Wednesday.
    But no. Not tonight. Damien might be able to enlighten her, but then he would have questions of his own. She just wasn’t up for answering Dami’s questions. And it didn’t matter anyway. She knew what to do: forget it. Forget him.
    It was all too weird. It made no sense and she wasn’t going to think about it.
    She would enjoy the rest of the evening and move on.
    A familiar voice behind her said, “Allie, I haven’t seen you in ages.”
    She turned to smile at a longtime friend. “Robert. How have you been?”
    “I can’t complain.” Robert Bentafaille was compact and muscular, with an open face and kind green eyes. The Bentafailles owned orange groves. Lots of them. He and Alice were the same age and had gone through primary and secondary school together. “You look beautiful, as always.”
    “And you always say that.”
    “I hear the orchestra.” He cast a glance back at the palace, at the lights blazing in the upstairs ballroom. Music drifted down to them. He offered his hand.
    She took it and they turned together to go inside.
    * * *
    Alice danced two dances with Robert.
    Then another longtime friend, Clark deRoncleff, tapped Robert on the shoulder. She turned into Clark’s open arms and danced some more.
    After that she left the floor, accepted a glass of sparkling water from a passing servant and visited with Rhia and Marcus for a bit. Rhia was sharing her plans for the nursery when Alice spotted Dami across the dance floor. He was talking to the man who almost certainly was Noah. She stared for a moment too long.
    The man who had to be Noah seemed to sense her gaze on him. He turned. Their eyes met. His were every bit as blue as she remembered.
    She had no doubt now. It had to be him. Quickly, she turned away and gave her full attention to Rhia and her groom.
    Noah didn’t matter to her. She hardly knew him. She refused to care what he was doing there at her sister’s wedding party or what he might be up to.
    Marcus asked Rhia to dance. They went off together, holding hands, looking so happy it made Alice feel downright misty-eyed and more than a little bit envious.
    Her eldest brother, Maximilian, came toward her. The heir to their mother’s throne, Max was handsome and magnetic—like all of her brothers. He used to be a happy man. But three years ago his wife, Sophia, had died in a waterskiing accident. Max had loved Sophia since they were children. Now he was like a ghost of himself. He went through all the motions of living. But some essential element was missing. Sophia had given him two children, providing him with the customary heir and a spare to the throne. He didn’t have to marry again—and he probably never would.
    “We hardly see you lately,” Max chided. “You haven’t been to Sunday breakfast in weeks.” It was a family tradition: Sunday breakfast in the sovereign’s private apartments at the