Leanne Banks: The Princess and the Outlaw

Pippa heard Tyler cackle with glee. She also heard the sound of her sister’s heels as she ran after him. Chuckling to herself, she wondered when Bridget would learn that toddlers and high heels didn’t go together. She rushed down the hall and turned another corner, spotting Tyler running toward her in all his naked glory. Bridget followed with Travis in her arms.

“Oh, Pippa, you saved my life. Can you grab him? The little beast thinks it’s funny to run all over the palace bloody naked.”

Tyler shrieked when he saw Pippa and skidded to a stop. Glancing over his shoulder at Bridget bearing down on him, he knew he was caught. Pippa scooped him up in her arms before he had a chance to get away.

“What are you doing? Did you just get a bath?” Pippa asked and buried her nose in his shoulder, making him laugh. “You smell like a deliciously clean little boy.”

“Thank you so much,” Bridget said breathlessly. “At least I got a diaper on Travis.”

As soon as she stepped within touching distance, Tyler flung himself at her. “Mumma,” he said and pressed an open mouth kiss against Bridget’s cheek.

Bridget squeezed him against her and shifted Travis on her hip. “Now, you get all lovey-dovey,” she said and gave him a kiss in return.

“Where are the nannies?” Pippa asked and held out her hands to Travis. He fell into her arms, then stuck his thumb in his mouth.

“I gave Claire the morning off and Maria had to take care of an emergency with her mother,” she said. “I had planned to check on the ranch Ryder and I are having built.” Bridget rolled her eyes and laughed. “I never dreamed Stefan would permit a ranch to be built on Chantaine.”

“I never would have dreamed you would live on a ranch with twin stepchildren.”

“They’re not steppies to me,” Bridget said. “Ryder and I are in the process of making it all legal. The little perfect, gorgeous beasties will be mine just as much as they are his.”

“Would you like me to watch the boys while you go check on the new house?” Pippa offered. Because Chantaine was an island, new construction was a long process and she knew both Bridget and Ryder were eager for their own place.

“I feel like I take advantage of you far too often. I know I’m not helping you get caught up on your studies….”

Pippa felt a sinking sensation in her stomach. Bridget and the boys weren’t the real reason she’d had a difficult time focusing on her studies. “It’s not as if you’ll be gone all day,” she said.

“True,” Bridget said. “Only an hour or two. You’re the perfect sister,” Bridget said, leaning forward to give Pippa a kiss on the cheek. “Let’s go back to my quarters so I can at least get my little nudist dressed before I leave.”

Pippa smiled as she followed Bridget down the hall and into her family’s suite of rooms. “I think it’s your outlook that has changed. Since you got married to Ryder, everything’s close to perfection.”

“That just goes to show the power of having a good man in your life,” Bridget said. “As soon as I have more than half a moment, I must get to work on finding one for you.”

Alarm shot through Pippa. “Oh, so not necessary. I still have to finish my work for my PhD.”

“That won’t be forever,” Bridget said as she dressed wiggly Tyler.

“I can only hope,” Pippa muttered.

“It won’t be,” Bridget said emphatically. “Besides, you can’t wait forever to move on, romantically speaking. I can help with that.”

“You seem to forget that our family is dreadful when it comes to matchmaking,” Pippa said. “How much did you enjoy Stefan’s attempts at matchmaking?”

Bridget waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “That’s different. I won’t be trying to match you up with someone who can contribute to Chantaine. I’ll find someone hot and entertaining.”

“Lovely intentions,” Pippa said. “Don’t strain yourself. The boys and I will have some fun in the playroom.”

“Perfect. If I’m late they can have lunch in an hour.”

“Will do,” Pippa said. “Are you truly going to have cattle at this ranch?”

“If Ryder has his way,” Bridget said with a sigh. “If we have to take the man out of Texas, we’ll just bring Texas to him. Ciao . I’ll be back soon,” she said and kissed both of the boys.

As soon as Bridget left, the twin toddlers looked at her with pouty faces. Travis’s lower lip protruded and he began to whimper. Tyler joined in.

“Absolutely none of that. She’ll be back before you know it.” Bridget set both of them on their feet and took them by the hand. “To the playroom,” she said and marched them into the small backroom. If there was one thing she’d learned about caring for toddlers, it was that it helped to be willing to make a bloody fool of herself. She immediately turned on the animal sounds CD and followed the instructions to make honking sounds. The boys dried up and joined her.

Just over an hour later, Bridget returned and Pippa could no longer escape her studies. She retreated to her room with a half sandwich for lunch. She thought of the crepes and her stomach clenched. Her mind kept wandering to the time she’d spent with Nic and his mother.

She told herself not to think about it. It wasn’t her responsibility. These genealogy charts required her complete and immediate attention. She’d used every possible device to procrastinate doing her work entirely too long. Inputting her second cousin’s name to the chart, she forced herself to focus. Whenever she conducted her research on people whom she knew, she often thought about their personal stories. Her second cousin Harold had moved to Tibet and his sister, Georgina, had married a man from England and was raising her children in the countryside. Pippa had always liked Georgina because she’d been such a down-to-earth sort of woman. It was a shame she didn’t see her more often.

Harold and Georgina’s deceased parents had owned a lovely cottage on the other side of Chantaine that was now left vacant because neither Harold nor Georgina visited Chantaine very often. Why, in fact, Pippa was certain it had been nearly eight years since either of her second cousins had set foot on Chantaine.

Pippa stopped dead, staring at the cursor on her laptop. Vacant lovely cottage. Nic’s parents .

“Stop it,” she hissed to herself. It would be incredibly disloyal. If her brother Stefan ever found out, he would never forgive her. And there was no way he wouldn’t find out. Not with her security haunting her. She was lucky she’d escaped discovery today.

Back to work , she told herself sternly and worked past midnight. She finally crawled into bed, hopeful she would fall into deep sleep. Thank goodness, she did. Sometime during the night, she sank into a dream where a black limo crawled through a beautiful cemetery. Cars and people dressed in black but carrying flowers followed the limo. Everything inside her clinched with pain. A white butterfly fluttered over the black limo, capturing her attention. It could have been the spirit of…

Pippa suddenly awakened, disoriented, the images of the limo and the butterfly mingling in her mind. She sat up in bed, her heart slamming into her chest. Images of her brother Stefan, Nic, his mother, Amelie.

This wasn’t her business, she told herself. Her heart ached for Nic and his mother, but she couldn’t go against her family to make his mother’s dream come true. She just couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. It would be a terrible betrayal.

She tried to catch her breath and closed her eyes. She tried to make her brain stop spinning. How could she possibly deceive her family for Nic? For Amelie?

But how could she not?