“I know.”
“You can’t let him. You have to help him.”
Flicka gathered Rae’s fingers into both her hands and held them. “You listen to me, Rae. You married my brother, and that makes you my sister now. I will doanythingfor my sister, foryou.I’ll move in here and make sure youstaylying down. I’ll bring you your meals and stay in here to keep you company. I will spoon-feed you, and I used to have my nannies feed my dolls.”
“You don’t have to—”
“In the von Hannover family, the most important thing is sisters and brothers. Wulfram rescued me when I was a kid, and I won’t let him go off the deep end after you. If anything happens, I will do anything for you and to make sure he’s okay. I’ll move here and live with him for a year or longer if I need to. Or forever. I’ll make sure that he’s okay, but for right now,youstay down and protectyourself.That’s the best thing you can do for him.”
“But there’s so much—” Rae protested.
“I will take care of absolutely everything else: the wedding—whenever that is—and anything else you want me to. When it comes time to decorate the nursery, I’ll drag ten absolutely beautiful cribs in here, or twenty, or thirty, and you can pick one. I’ll just keep shoving them around in a huge merry-go-round of nursery furniture until you find one you like.”
Rae held Flicka’s fingers more tightly. “Promise?”
“I promise. I promise I will do everything in the world so that you can stay right there and be okay, and if anything goes wrong, I will make sure Wulfie survives it. Okay?”
“Okay,” Rae said, breathless and still sniffling.
“Besides,” Flicka tossed her blond hair behind her shoulders, “I’m a princess! Princessesliveto decorate things and buy baubles and throw parties, right? That’s our whole purpose in life, to make the world a little prettier and show everyone a good time.”
Actually, Flicka had always thought that her purpose in life was to explore music—performing and composing—and to burn the ruling class down. She loved music, and she hated all the crap that the people she knew imposed on the rest of the world for their amusement.
She’d always thought of herself as The Joker in a hoop-skirted princess dress and glass slippers.
But right now, Rae Stone-von Hannover needed Flicka to be a princess and to rule this household for her, so she would.
Because when she had said that Rae was her sister and she would do anything for her sister,she meant it.
Flicka told Rae, “I’m here for you and him,I promise you.”
Confrontation
Flicka von Hannover
For Rae and Wulfram’s sakes
I needed Dieter.
After Flicka lay on the bed with Rae, just talking about stuff for a while, she went in search of Dieter Schwarz.
Her heart vibrated as she walked, and her legs felt numb.
Dieter was standing in the kitchen, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
Other staff bustled around the kitchen, cooking supper for what had suddenly become a much fuller house.
Pans clanked and slammed on the commercial-sized stove in the back. Mixers screamed, and metal spoons banged on steel bowls. The clatter and chatter overwhelmed Flicka as she got her bearings, and the wafting scents of roasting meat, baking breads and sweets, and frying vegetables billowed through the air.
Most of the activity was near the back of the long room, as the working part of the kitchen with the tall refrigerators, freezers, pantries, dishwashers, stoves, ovens, and storage were all concentrated back there. The front of the kitchen, near the entry from the garage and the house, held a coffeemaker, snack supplies, and a kitchen table.
Basically, the staff could get their work done farther back without being interrupted by civilians looking for a cup of coffee or an apple to tide them over until supper.
Dieter hadn’t seen Flicka come in yet, and she looked hard at him. His wrinkled, white shirt clung to his broad shoulders and lean waist. From the side, his jaw looked sharper and squarer, like his whole body was harder. If anything, his chest was heavier and his legs, leaner, than when they’d lived together, ending almost exactly two years ago.
Two years ago.
Flicka forced her legs to move and strode over to where Dieter stood.
