The Prince's Texas Bride Read Online Free

though.”
    â€œThank you,” Eve said in a long-suffering voice.
    Bridget sighed. “Well, if you won’t go shopping with me, then you must join us for dinner tonight. It’s family night. Stefan requires us to have dinner together every week since Jacques is on break from college. He’ll be there as well as Phillipa.”
    Eve immediately began to shake her head. “I’m not family. I wouldn’t want to intrude,” she said, also confident that she would feel totally out of place at a table full of royals.
    â€œNo intrusion,” Bridget said. “Besides, you’re like family because of your association with Tina.”
    â€œOh, no, thank you, but—”
    â€œI won’t take no for an answer. You must eat. You may as well eat with us. The food will be better than that sandwich,” she said, waving her hand in disgust at Eve’s lunch. “If you don’t come, then I’ll have to tell Tina, and she’ll fuss at Stefan and me. Trust me, it will get messy.”
    Eve sighed, realizing it would be easier to give in to Bridget’s invitation and beg off early. She could pretend to be a fly on the wall and resolved to keep her mouth shut. “If you insist,” she said.
    â€œI do,” Bridget said, smiling broadly. “We’ll dine at seven on the third floor. It’s a bit smaller and more intimate. I’m delighted you’ll join us. Ta-ta,” she said and turned to leave.
    â€œBridget,” Eve said before the woman vanished. Geez, that woman could move like the wind despitethe fact that she was wearing high heels. “What should I wear?”
    Bridget glanced over her shoulder. “Oh, it’s not formal. Just a dress will do.”
    Â 
    Eve had brought only a few dresses with her since she figured she would be spending most of her time with the horses. Her choices were black, brown and black. She decided on black and pulled her hair out of her braid. For her corporate job back in the States, she’d always dressed in a conservative, businesslike manner, with careful attention to grooming.
    Looking in the mirror made her wince. She’d been so focused on getting the horses ready for the parade that she’d done the bare minimum in the grooming department. Her fingernails were all broken down to the quick, her hair was out of control, her lips were chapped and smudges of violet rimmed her brown eyes.
    â€œThank goodness for concealer,” she muttered under her breath, then got to work. Nerves danced in her belly and she chastised herself. She shouldn’t be nervous. Although she’d never shared a meal with a roomful of royals, she knew which fork to use and when. Her aunt Hildie had made sure she knew her manners. Eve felt a jab of homesickness take her by surprise, then pushed it down. It wasn’t as if she were being sent away from her parents when she’d become a teenager. She’d made this choice of her own volition. She was here for her dream job.
    The prospect of interacting with Stefan on a semisocial level still made her uncomfortable. She was at ease dealing with him over matters concerning the horses, but beyond that, she found the man unsettling. After hearing his sister Tina talk about how overbearing he was, she’dbeen certain she’d find him a selfish chauvinist. But she was beginning to see that he was far more complex than she’d first thought. He had a lot on his shoulders and he didn’t shift one bit under his responsibilities. To her, it appeared that he was trying to bring the siblings together for the sake of Chantaine, and the independent-minded Devereaux weren’t making it easy.
    Eve finished getting dressed and walked from the staff quarters to the palace. A guard allowed her entrance, and she climbed the marble steps to the third floor and wandered down the long hallway to an open doorway from where she heard voices—Bridget’s in