Cinderellas forbidden pr.., p.5
Cinderella's Forbidden Prince, page 5
He was a client and a prince. A prince and a client. Not a friend.
‘It’s another masterpiece,’ she said, turning to the mural after he still hadn’t said anything.
‘Incredible. Can you imagine having this much talent. I couldn’t stop thinking about the craftsmanship after I first saw them when I was still young. I knew they were special even though I haven’t studied art.’
‘Well neither have I,’ Priya replied, with a slight laugh.
‘Oh, yes. I remember. You did a science bachelor’s.’
‘That’s right. Natural sciences.’
‘Your boarding school has a reputation for being a science school. Was that why you studied science rather than art or art history?’
She giggled. ‘No. I didn’t study art because I can’t draw. It’s part of the reason I went into the conservation and preservation side, not restoration.’
‘No family expectation you’d be a doctor then?’ he asked. She recognised the stereotype immediately.
‘No. No doctors in my family. How about you? No pressure to be a doctor for you?’
His lips quirked and she didn’t understand why he was looking at her like she’d just said the funniest thing he’d ever heard.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘No. No doctor for me.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Actually the family expectation is I will be...um...king.’
Priya didn’t know how it was possible for her body to run hot with embarrassment and at the same time freeze with mortification.
She held her hands to her mouth. ‘Of course. Of course you’re going to be king. You’re the prince.’ She covered her mouth with her fingertips then fluttered them against her lips as she said, ‘But of course you know that.’ She closed her eyes as if not being able to see meant she was the one who would disappear. Could she say anything more ridiculous?
‘Priya.’ Rohan’s voice was gentle. ‘Priya, it’s all right. There’s nothing wrong with forgetting I’m a prince. I try to do it all the time.’
She opened her eyes quickly. ‘What? Why?’
‘My parents wanted us, my sister and me, to live as normal a life as we could for as long as we could. My mother wasn’t brought up as royalty, despite being descended from one of the royal families in India, and she didn’t want our position to shape us negatively. Whenever I’m outside this country, I live as Rohan Varma. Ordinary citizen. It’s an adjustment to be back on the island, back in the palace where I’m Rohan Varma, Yuvaraja, and I have a bodyguard and people to make my food and tidy my clothes away.’
‘But you don’t mind it.’ She could hear in his voice he wasn’t complaining.
‘Not at all. It’s my duty. It’s what I was born to do. The first time I returned after living on my own and fending for myself, I thought I didn’t need all the staff and asked to make a reduction. But the palace is a large employer for the island. If I didn’t have those people carry out tasks they’ve been doing for years, even though I can do them myself, then they become unemployed and I wasn’t going to be responsible for that. So if I have someone hang my clothes then it’s a privilege. Although I did draw the line at someone spreading toothpaste on my brush.’
Priya’s celebrity crush just got a whole lot bigger. What a considerate person he was.
‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘I’m grateful my parents gave me the opportunity. I appreciate I got the chance to get to make friends as me, as the person I am.’
It would be hard not to want to be friends with Rohan—but he was her client not her friend. She had to drill it into her brain somehow and get her body to pay attention.
‘I can see how it would be special,’ she said, trying to adopt a measured tone. ‘Will your friends be coming to your gala?’
‘I’m expecting some close friends. Friends I was close enough to reveal my royal status to. I hope some friends I had at boarding school will be able to come too. We’ve kept in touch over the years although we haven’t had the chance to meet up as much as we wanted to.’
Priya gave a tight smile and then turned back to the mural. She hadn’t made any close friends when she was at boarding school. She didn’t blame her fellow classmates. She didn’t accept the few invitations she did receive, knowing she could never return the hospitality. After a while people stopped asking her. She’d been utterly miserable and probably didn’t give anyone the impression she wanted friends.
It was strange how she and Rohan had similar backgrounds, but from what she could gather, he’d been extremely happy growing up—even loving his boarding school experience.
For her, boarding school had been a constant reminder of how her dad didn’t want her with him. He’d definitely kept her out of sight and out of mind.
She tried to imagine how her father would react if he knew she was working in the palace, on first name terms with a crown prince. She sighed. The truth was she didn’t know her father at all and had no idea whether he would be proud of her. She never received a response to her message telling him she’d completed her master’s with distinction or when she told him she’d got the job with the world-renowned Courtham Conservation Services. And her attempts to keep in contact since then had been brief to say the least.
There was no point thinking about her father or her family. Her priority was to get the murals in the palace completed, and hopefully do a good enough job she would be considered for the preservation work on these murals.
‘Have you seen this?’ Rohan said, beckoning her over to something painted on the ground.
‘I’ve never been able to work out what this is,’ he said. She grinned as he ran through all the ideas he’d had—his excitement clear. She made a feeble joke suggestion for what the damaged area showed, but his laugh was hearty, the sound sending tingles along her spine.
Rohan was probably taught how to be charming and entertaining at the same time he had learned his alphabet but Priya recognised these few hours in his company were some of the happiest she’d felt in a long time.
She had to keep her attraction under control.
It was a good job she knew she wasn’t good at being in a relationship—her previous boyfriends always found her lacking. She had promised to save herself the hurt of rejection and the disappointment of failing at something again by never having a romantic relationship again.
Not that a relationship was on offer from Rohan. Just because Rohan was standing next to her physically didn’t mean he wasn’t miles away from her. Developing a crush on Rohan was as pointless as fancying Michelangelo or his David.
It would be easier to deal with her unwanted crush if she wasn’t in Rohan’s company so much. But she couldn’t exactly tell him to stay away. He was the crown prince; he didn’t take orders from her.
CHAPTER FIVE
ROHAN SPENT THE morning attending government reporting sessions with his father. He then met his mother and sister for lunch. They hadn’t been able to spend as much time together as he would have wanted. His mother was notionally overseeing the gala preparations which made her busier than usual.
She tried to get Rohan involved by insisting he have a say in the arrangements. Usually he tried to give his mother his full attention when she told him what had been organised because the gala was as important for him as it was to the rest of the family, but a large party was the furthest thing from his mind.
He was thinking about the regeneration project. And Priya. He thought about Priya a lot more than he should. According to her proposed scoping timetable, she would be visiting another mural today, the third. He missed having a chance to witness her reaction when she saw a mural for the first time. It was exactly the kind of reaction he hoped thousands of tourists would have one day.
‘Is something wrong, Rohan,’ his mother asked, clearly noticing his lack of concentration.
‘I’m sorry, Ma. I was thinking about the summer palace. I hope there’ll be time for me to take some of the guests round the sites.’
His mother didn’t say anything. She pressed her lips together, but he wasn’t sure whether it was because he’d annoyed her or whether she had something else on her mind.
‘Do you know when you’ll be able to present your proposal?’ his sister asked.
‘Not yet, there’s still a lot of work to do before I get to that stage.’ He frowned. His true desire was to convince his family to fund this regeneration project through investments and family finances, or at least the conservation work. At the moment, his father’s opinion was if it went ahead, it would be a government-funded scheme. Which meant once Priya submitted her condition report, he would be assigned policy clerks who would then work with him to develop and cost the proposal fully. Only once that was complete would he be able to get an item on the annual agenda for further discussion. It could be years before the regeneration could start. Of course if his family financed the restoration work he wouldn’t be able to use government clerks so he would have to work closely with Priya to develop the proposal.
It wouldn’t be any hardship for him. She was intelligent, interesting and was as enthusiastic about the murals she’d seen so far as he was. He enjoyed the time he spent with her.
And she was easy on the eye.
He sat bolt upright. That was an inappropriate thought. She was here to perform a job. What she looked like was irrelevant and had no bearing on her ability to complete the work. How many times did he have to remind himself?
‘Are you sure everything is okay, Rohan,’ his mother asked again. ‘You are acting quite strange.’
‘Stranger than usual,’ his sister added.
‘I’m fine. Tell me about the Melwanis,’ he said, naming a family of wealthy industrialists. He was interested in their work pioneering alternative fuel sources which could be valuable for Adysara’s future sustainability. For his parents, the attraction was the Melwanis had two single daughters. Rohan knew what was expected from him at this gala and afterwards. His duty was to make a good marriage—getting his regeneration tourism proposal didn’t alter the fact.
But since there was nothing he could do about his marriage prospects until the guests started arriving for the festivities, he could focus his attention on attracting investment into the island. And having cultural attractions for visitors would make the investment more likely.
After his meeting with his mother finished, Rohan returned to his rooms where he immediately asked a member of staff to bring him a light jacket and for his car to be brought round. He knew exactly which site Priya was supposed to be scoping.
Within half an hour, Rohan was standing behind Priya, watching as she was engrossed in conducting her condition survey. He stood as silently as he could, admiring how efficiently she carried out her examination.
She was so absorbed it was a good ten minutes before she noticed his presence. He liked how her instinctive reaction was to greet him as a good friend, before she remembered he was technically her client and royalty.
‘How’s it going?’ he asked her, gesturing towards the mural.
‘Good. This one probably won’t take too long. I should be done in an hour.’
‘Great. Will that be too much for you today or are you up to seeing the next one.’
She glanced at her watch, then put her hands on her hips. He was sure she hadn’t intentionally drawn his attention to their shapely contour and the narrowness of her waist, but he had to force himself to drag his gaze away.
‘If we can fit a small mural in today it would really help. I want to complete this part as soon as I can.’
‘Bored of it already?’ he teased her.
‘Never,’ she said with a grin which transformed her somewhat stern resting face to a vision of soft loveliness.
Suddenly he became aware she was looking at him. Was she waiting for a response? He’d missed what she said because he was admiring her features. He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t noticed she was beautiful. He’d worked with attractive people before and never let it distract him from the task at hand.
‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have expected you to know the exact size of the mural we’d go to next,’ she said. ‘The papers you gave me didn’t have complete information so why should you know? And you’re the prince so if you did have the data there’s no reason for you to have it at instant recall.’
His lips quirked. He liked it when she began wittering, almost talking to herself, each time she remembered he was royalty.
He reached out to put his hand on her arm, his intention was to reassure her his silence wasn’t due to anything she said. But the moment he touched her skin, heat seared through him, like an electric jolt.
He took a step back. Her breath was shallow, she gave him a quick look of alarm then turned to her tools. Had she felt something too?
She was quiet, polite and reserved as she finished her work. But by the time they arrived at the next mural, she’d turned back to her natural self, excited to see what was in store.
He turned to look directly at her so he could take in her initial reaction. Instead of the open-mouthed awe he anticipated, she was looking...puzzled.
‘Is everything all right, Priya?’
‘Hmm.’ She glanced at him briefly before returning her full attention on the mural so he repeated his question.
‘Yes,’ she replied, ‘it’s just this mural seems so familiar.’
Rohan looked at the wall painting. The central feature was a peacock displaying its train. In its glory days the colours would have been vibrant blues, greens and golds. But it was probably the simplest arrangement out of all of them.
‘Peacocks are common in Indian art,’ he offered.
She shook her head. ‘It’s the filigree plates on the corners, with the initials in them.’ She pointed at them as she spoke. Slowly she began to smile. ‘I think my didima told me about these. She must have visited them when she was a girl.’
‘Your didima?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows. She’d mentioned her grandmother on their first site visit. Perhaps the love of art had passed from grandmother to mother to daughter. ‘Did she come to Adysara on holiday?’
Priya stared him, the wonder and delight of her realisation still shining from her expression. ‘No, she was born on Adysara. Didn’t I tell you that? I guess it makes me a quarter Adysarian. Fancy.’
He rarely met people who’d heard of Adysara; it seemed strangely fitting Priya would have a tie to his home country. Perhaps it explained why he felt so connected to her.
‘Do you still have family on the island?’ he asked.
‘No, unfortunately. My didima’s father emigrated to India for work and the family didn’t come back.’
‘You said you lost contact with your grandparents. That’s a shame.’
‘I know. But it’s partly my fault because I didn’t realise when their visits ended at first. My father remarried three years after mum passed away. I was hoping I could travel with my father and stepmother, the way I had while mum was alive. Or I was expecting to visit them during school holidays. That’s why I thought my dadu and didima weren’t visiting.’ She grimaced. ‘But I didn’t see my father in the holidays and by the time I asked about my grandparents I couldn’t contact them.’
‘Your grandparents visits stopped around the same time as your father remarried?’ he asked. At her nod, he furrowed his brow. It sounded like there was more going on behind the scenes than Priya knew. He made a note to ask his assistant to look into her didima—as an Adysarian. If her grandparents had no interest in meeting Priya then she wouldn’t have to know. And it would be their loss.
‘We’ve had a real problem with emigration over the years,’ he said, as if they hadn’t just had a personal conversation. ‘Part of the reason I want this regeneration is to improve job prospects and make Adysara a great place to live and raise families, perhaps try to encourage immigration.’
‘Oh, I think it would be wonderful,’ she said before starting her examination of the mural.
As she worked, he heard her quietly humming a song from an animated film about lions.
He couldn’t help chuckling. ‘On the contrary, I’m in no rush to be king.’
Joy bubbled when, instead of being embarrassed she grinned back. ‘Well of course not. Not when it means your father... Well you know.’
‘My father’s thinking of abdicating within five years. I could be king a lot sooner than I expected.’ Now why had he told her when no one outside his family knew. He wasn’t worried she would gossip about it to anyone in the palace. He trusted her implicitly.
* * *
Later that evening in his study he looked through some reports which had come through about the hotel companies he wanted as investors. Inevitably his thoughts turned to Priya again.
It was odd how he shared so much of his hopes and dreams with her. At first he thought it was because she was a stranger who understood his desire to show the world what his island had to offer while, at the same time, wanting to protect it and hide it so its glories would never diminish.
Was it his imagination or was there was another moment at the peacock mural when she’d asked him to pass her some equipment and their fingers had touched, their eyes locked, neither wanting to break the connection? The atmosphere was charged. Had she noticed? Could it be why she’d started avoiding looking at him directly when they talked? What would he do if she was attracted to him?
Nothing. She was technically an employee, despite not directly working for him. He had to ignore how stunning she was.
The problem was, this was something a little more than looks. He liked her. He enjoyed spending time in her company. She was beautiful. It wasn’t surprising he was attracted to her. He had no intention of acting on it.
