Invitation to the Prince's Palace by Jennie Adams Read Free Book Online

refocus her thoughts. ‘She’s a very interesting-looking truffle hog. She looks very…’
    Porcine?
    ‘Very intelligent,’ Mel concluded.
    ‘I am sure that is the first thought that comes to all minds.’ For the second time since they’d met, Rikardo’s lips twitched. Though his words laughed at Mel just a little, they laughed at Rufusina, too, for there was a twinkle in his eye as he watched the hog strain at her leash to get to him, and succeed.
    Rikardo then told the hog to ‘sit’ just as you would say to a dog. The pig planted her haunches and cast an adoring if rather beady gaze up at him. She got a scratch behind each ear for her trouble. Rikardo took the lead.
    They were at the groves before Mel had come to terms with her prince having a pet pig, because, whether he’d said so or not, this animal had been raised to his hand.
    Mel would guarantee it. She could tell . They arrived also before Mel could recover from the beauty of Rikardo’s twinkling eyes and that hint of a smile.
    And what did Mel mean by ‘ her prince’ anyway? He certainly wasn’t! She might have him for a few more hours, if that, and all of which only by default anyway because she’d been silly enough to think he was a cab driver.
    Later, after she’d been returned to Australia, she could write her story and send it in to one of those truth magazines and say she’d spent a few hours with a royal.
    She wouldn’t, of course. She wouldn’t violate Rikardo’s privacy in that manner.
    Today, in the broad light of Rikardo’s…kingdom, Mel couldn’t imagine how she’d mistaken him for anything other than what he was, whether she’d been overtired and overwrought and under the influence of an allergy medication or not.
    It wasn’t until they reached the actual truffle groves that Mel started to register that Rikardo seemed to have somehow withdrawn into himself as they drew closer to his destination. She wasn’t sure how to explain the difference. He still had her arm. The pig still trotted obediently at his side on its lead. Rikardo spoke with each person they passed and his words were pleasant, if brief.
    But Rikardo’s gaze had shifted to those rows of oak trees again and again, and somehow Mel felt the tension rising within him as they drew nearer.
    ‘Winnow.’ Rik greeted a spindly man in his fifties and shook his hand. ‘Allow me to introduce my guest, Miss Watson.’
    So that was how Rik planned to get around that one. But would that be enough? Because for all the people that mistook Mel for her cousin, plenty more…didn’t.
    ‘Do you have the results of the soil test, Winnow? Are we infected again with the blight?’
    This time Mel didn’t have to try to hear the concern in Rikardo’s tone.
    ‘The test shows nothing, Prince Rik.’ The man stopped and glanced at Melanie and then back to the prince. ‘I beg your pardon. I mean, Prince Rikardo.’
    ‘It’s fine, Winnow. We are all friends here.’ Rik dipped his head. ‘Please go on.’
    Winnow pulled the cap from his head and twisted it in his hands. ‘The test shows nothing, but last year and the year before…’
    ‘By the time the tests showed positive, it was too late and we ended up losing the crop.’
    ‘Yes. Exactly.’ Winnow’s face drew into a grimace. ‘I cannot prove anything. Maybe I am worrying unduly but the soil samples that I pulled this morning do not look right to me.’
    ‘Then we will treat again now.’ Rikardo didn’t hesitate. ‘Yes, it is expensive and a further treatment we hadn’t planned for will add to that expense, but our research and tests show that enough of the treatment will keep the blight at bay. If you have any concern whatever, then I want the treatment repeated.’
    The older man blew out a breath. ‘I am sorry for the added expense but my bones tell me—’
    ‘And we will listen.’ Rikardo clapped the man on the back. ‘Order the treatment. I will draw funds for it.’
    From there Rikardo examined the