How to Pursue a Princess Read Online Free PDF Page B

who will live where and how he wishes.”
    Tata Natasha scowled. “This is all your father’s fault. You are the youngest and he could never tell you nyet .”
    “Oh, he’s said it quite often.”
    “Pah! You are spoiled and don’t even know it.”
    He arched a brow. “Do you or do you not wish to see my new home?”
    She scowled at the cottage. “Just look at this place! The roof—”
    “Can be fixed. As can the shutters and the door and the chimney.”
    “What’s wrong with the chimney?”
    “It needs to be cleaned, but the craftsmanship is superb. It just needs some care.”
    She eyed her grandson sourly. The prince was larger than all of his brothers, and they were not small men. At almost six feet five, he towered over her and all nine of their guards.
    But large as Wulf was, he was her youngest grandson and the most difficult to understand, given to fits and starts that were incomprehensible to all and left his parents in agonies.
    Take the simple matter of marriage. His brothers seemed to understand their responsibilities and were scouring the courts of Europe for suitable brides. But not Wulf. He’d refused every princess that came his way, be they short or tall, thin or fat, fair or not—it didn’t matter. With only the most cursory of glances, he’d refused them one by one.
    Tata Natasha shook her head. “Wulf, your cousin Nikki, he was right; you have gone mad. You purchased a beautiful house—” At Wulf’s lifted brows, she sighed. “Fine, a manor, then. One with twenty-six bedrooms, thirty-five fireplaces, a salon, a dining room, a great hall, and a ballroom. It is beautiful and fitting for a prince of your stature. This”—she waved a hand—“is a hovel.”
    “It will be my home. At least until I’ve found a bride who will love me for this, and not because I can afford a manor with more chimneys than there are days in a month.” He tucked his grandmother’s hand in the crook of his arm and pulled her to the cottage door. “Come and see my new home.”
    “But—”
    He stopped. “Tata, it was your idea for me to meet the world without the trappings of wealth.”
    “No, it was your idea, not mine.” When his gaze narrowed, her wrinkled cheeks heated. “I might havesuggested that it would do you good to discover what it was like to be a normal man and not one wrapped in privilege, but I never suggested this .” She waved at the cottage.
    “But you were right; I must find out for myself. Now come. See my new home.” He pushed the crooked door to one side.
    “Such a waste of time.” She tugged her arm free so that she could hold her skirts out of the dirt. “Why not marry a princess?”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t see one that I liked.”
    Tata Natasha turned to face him, her chin pushed forward. “What do you like, Wulf? What sort of a woman do you wish to meet?”
    He raked a hand through his black hair, his gaze distant. “I want one who will treat me as a man and not as a bag of gold. One with passion and fire. One who will marry me because of me—not my title or wealth.”
    “You cannot deny your birthright. Your father would have an apoplexy if he found out, and his health is not good.”
    “I know.” Wulf’s jaw tightened. “For that reason, I will not hide that I am a prince. But I will not admit to my wealth.”
    Tata sighed. “I wish your father had never passed that ill-thought law allowing his children to marry as they wished.”
    “He married for love and he wished us all to have the same luxury.”
    “He married my daughter, a crown princess!”
    “Of the Romani.”
    Tata’s black eyes flashed. “The Romani blood is purer and older than any other royal bloodline!”
    “I know,” the prince said simply. “But it was against the laws of Oxenburg, which only recognized traditional kingdoms—”
    “Foolishness!”
    “—so he changed those laws. Thus he was able to marry his bride and make her the queen he always thought her.”
    “Humph. He