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anyway! This way I can go to the mainland perhaps, start over again where no one knows me.” She’d really thought about it. In the painful week leading to the ball it was almost all she thought about. She’d see Bella through her operation, then, with Marietta as her sister not her daughter, she would study hard and start again….
    â€œYou do what you have to.” Maria shook her head sadly. “Anyway, it is probably too late to say no to him now.”

Chapter Seven
    Back in the villa, Alisa lifted her silver gown from her wooden single bed, sliding it over head and wrestling with the zipper. She stared at the scratchy gray blankets that wouldn’t house her tonight—instead she’d lie on silk. Lie with Prince Benito and give to him not just what she had promised, but what she wanted to give.
    No matter how she fought it, how she tried to think otherwise, despite the circumstances, the clinical exchange that underpinned tonight, despite herself, she wanted him still.
    Wanted him to be the one.
    Closing her eyes she relived the feel of his hands on her body, saw those arrogant eyes softened with desire, heard the endearment that would spill from his lips for the very last time.
    â€œAlisa?” Two knocks on her door, and it was Benito who was pausing for modesty. Only, she was positive his hands weren’t shaking as hers had been that first morning. Tonight she was just another woman to him, another conquest, another toy to play with for a little while…. Her throat tightened with tears that she swallowed down, wanting so badly to tell him how she really felt, but as the door opened and he stood there—exquisite in formal wear, his dark hair brushed back to reveal perfectly chiseled features—she closed her mind on telling him her truth. What did it matter to a man like Benito that she might very possibly love him?
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    He’d always known she was beautiful. From the second he had awoken to her voice, he had known that. But seeing her tonight, black silken ringlets piled high on her head, jade eyes flashing beneath the makeup, that mouth expertly made up this time, she was more than beautiful…
    She was royal.
    Befitting any Prince or King and, Benito thought pensively as they rode the short distance to the palace in silence, more deserving of any title than he was.
    Even if her world was smaller than his, even if she had offered her services tonight, her intent was noble—Alisa, a woman who would sacrifice herself for her family, used the power vested in her wisely to forge a better life.
    How, Benito thought as the car turned toward the palace, he wished he could say the same for himself.
    The streets were lined with onlookers, young and old, all jostling for a glimpse of their beloved royals, waving the Niroli flag as each car swept up to the palace entrance, cheering and applauding when the elegant couples stepped out.
    Cheering her.
    The gossip had spread like wildfire through Niroli; Maria’s family, personal dressers, booking clerks gleeful whispers, all fanning the flames as the rumor spread from village to village.
    A housekeeper was sleeping with a prince.
    A poor housekeeper with a bastard child had stolen Prince Benito’s heart.
    The shock, the scorn, the scandal were pushed aside as he led her like a lamb to the slaughter up the impressive palace steps, his hand guiding her softly, his low voice telling her to turn around and wave.
    â€œDid I tell you that you look beautiful?”
    â€œNever.” He watched as curled eyelashes blinked back emotion, her skillfully painted lips forcing a brave smile as she waved to the cheering masses. Never had he hated himself more.
    Tonight, Benito realized as he stared out into the ecstatic crowd, she was a princess in waiting, yet the moment he left, the same people would be jeering her.
    Tomorrow she would be a whore.
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    She was a dreamer.
    And even if it got her into trouble at times,