What Happens At Christmas Read Free Page A

adventure of it: the adventure of being swept away to a foreign land by a handsome prince and to live there happily the rest of her days; adventure that she scarcely knew existed; adventure that appealed to something deep inside her. Beryl was entirely too levelheaded to understand, but then she had always been the more sensible of the twins. It was the stuff fairy stories were made of, and what woman wouldn’t want that? And want it, Camille did.
    â€œIt isn’t as if I set out to catch a prince. I didn’t even know he was a prince when we first met. He is traveling incognito, which he much prefers to do when he is in a foreign country. He says it’s much easier to get to know the people of a country when he is not beleaguered by all the trappings of his royal position, when he is not treated as royalty but rather as an ordinary person.”
    â€œWhat an . . . enlightened philosophy for a prince.”
    â€œHe is most enlightened and very modern. He takes his responsibilities quite seriously and says he wishes to be a prince for the people. It’s quite admirable, even if I don’t understand it entirely, but then he is foreign and therefore his minor eccentricities can be forgiven. Why, he even prefers that I don’t address him by title, ‘Your Highness,’ and that sort of thing. He says, until he ascends to the throne, he prefers, when traveling abroad, simply to be known by one of his lesser titles, Count Pruzinsky. In most respects, though, he is extremely proper. Why, he hasn’t even kissed me. Although he has requested, begged really, that I call him by his given name. Not proper, of course, but so wonderfully intimate.”
    â€œNot what one would expect in a prince.”
    â€œI find it most charming. There is nothing at all like being in the confidence of royalty, you know.”
    â€œI don’t, but I shall take your word for it.” Beryl considered her curiously. “And how did you meet this unusual prince?”
    â€œWe crossed paths quite by accident. I was leaving a ball and he was just arriving. I stumbled on a pebble and he caught me.” She smiled at the memory. “It was quite romantic and, well, fate.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œI like him a great deal.”
    Beryl nodded. “You wouldn’t marry him otherwise.”
    â€œHe might well be my last opportunity to marry and fall in love.”
    â€œYou might consider falling in love first and then marrying the man in question.”
    â€œOdd advice coming from you. And how long shall I wait for that to happen, dear sister?” Camille wrinkled her nose. “We have, after all, passed our thirtieth year, and who knows how many more opportunities for . . .”
    â€œHappiness?” Beryl offered.
    â€œExactly.” Camille nodded. “This may be my last chance. I have no doubt he will make me very happy, and I intend to be an excellent wife.”
    â€œAnd princess.”
    â€œI shall make a very good princess.” Camille grinned. “We shall have little princes and princesses and grow old together. And we shall be very, very happy.”
    Beryl smiled. “Then you should let nothing stand in your way.”
    â€œI don’t intend to.” She drew a deep breath. “But I will need your assistance.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œI intend to go to Mother’s house the day after tomorrow, and it certainly wouldn’t be Christmas without my sister, my twin sister. . . .”
    Beryl’s eyes narrowed.
    â€œSo”—Camille’s words came out in a rush—“I do hope you and Lionel will join us for Christmas in the country.”
    â€œUs?”
    Camille nodded.
    â€œAs in you, the prince and a troupe of actors pretending to be family?”
    Camille sighed. “It sounds rather absurd when you say it that way.”
    â€œThere’s no way to say it that it doesn’t sound absurd.”
    â€œYou must