Her Highness, My Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

not forget, when you left him he did not come after you.”
    “I have forgotten nothing.” It did bother her that Matthew had not moved heaven and earth to find her, although she could hardly blame him, given the abrupt nature of her departure. Still, today he had known her true identity. He had obviously cared enough to discover at least that.
    “You could lose much.”
    “But I could gain the world, and that, dear Katerina, is what makes it worthwhile.” Matthew’s words rang in her head. “And exciting. The risk. The gamble. Knowing your very heart is at stake. I have never known such excitement. Or such passion. Or such—”
    “Love,” Katerina said simply.
    “Love.” Tatiana nodded.
    From the moment she had met the adventurous Englishman with the flirtatious manner and amused look in his eye, she had been unequivocally and irrevocably in love. Their days together were as sharp in her memory as if they had happened yesterday.
    In the first moment of rebellion of her entire life, she had escaped the confines of companions and escorts and rank, slipping away from theParishotel that housed the Avalonian contingent. It was highly improper, more than a little dangerous, and she had loved every reckless minute. It was as if, having left the encumbrances of her title behind, she had left the position behind as well. She was not the Princess Tatiana, heir to the throne of Avalonia, but simply the woman: Tatiana Pruzinsky. And she reveled in it. She would have thought that alone was responsible for her immediate attraction to the bold, brash stranger selling balloon ascensions in a Paris park, especially as she was feeling rather bold and brash herself, a completely different person from the quiet, dutiful creature she had always been. But even the giddy sensation of floating above the treetops, of sheer unadulterated freedom, paled in comparison to the intoxication of being in his arms and later in his bed. And in his life.
    She and Matthew had explored parts of the ancient city she would never have been privy to without his
    company on the ground and, even better, in the air. And more, they explored each other. Their hopes, their dreams, their very souls. She had never known absolute happiness before, had never suspected mere mortals could laugh so much, could share such joy.
    Later, she would wonder how she had managed to reveal so much of herself without revealing her identity, and realized who she was to the rest of the world was not as important as who she was to him and to herself. She had never tasted freedom like this of both spirit and body, and she would never be the same.
    When she had first left her companions, she had not planned to be gone more than a few hours, but an afternoon had turned to an evening, a night to a morn, nearly a week in all. A passage of time she had barely noted. It was not until she had vowed to love him forever that the unyielding sword of reality had struck with a relentless blow and she knew she could not stay with him unless she first settled the rest of her life. She could not abandon the responsibilities of her position to her country or her family as easily as she had slipped out of her hotel rooms.
    Their days together were a glorious dream built on passion and desire and unexpected, unremitting love, but built as well on deceit. She could not bear to tell him the truth and she accepted now, as she did then, the cowardice of her actions. She had left his bed and his life with no more than a note about duty she knew full well was insufficient. A note that released him from further obligation to her. She had wanted to pour her heart out on that paper. Reveal the truth about herself and confess how much he had changed her life and how very much she loved him and vow she would return. But she did not want to make another promise she might not be able to keep.
    Yet in the fifteen months, three weeks and four days since she had vanished from his life, the power of the love they had