MELISSA JAMES is a mother of three, living in a beach suburb in New South Wales, Australia. A former nurse, waitress, shop assistant, perfume and chocolate demonstrator â among other things â she believes in taking on new jobs for the fun experience. Sheâll try anything at least once, to see what it feels like â a fact that scares her family on regular occasions. She fell into writing by accident, when her husband brought home an article stating how much a famous romance author earned, and she thought, I can do that! She can be found most mornings walking and swimming at her local beach with her husband or every afternoon running around to her kidsâ sporting hobbies, while dreaming of flying, scuba diving, belaying down a cave or over a cliff â anywhere her characters are at the time!
Look for an exciting new novel fromMelissa James, One Small Miracle, available inMills & Boon>® Romance in April 2010.
Summer Palace, Orakidis City, Hellenia
The Wedding of Her Royal Highness Princess Giulia to His Grace Tobias, Grand Duke of Malascos
THIS dayâthis past year, in factâwas enough to make a girl believe in fairy tales. Was she, Mari Mitsialos, a bridesmaid at a royal wedding? Was she really cousin to a king and a princess royal?
Life took weird turns sometimes ⦠but what a good weird this was! Both her cousins, living in the backblocks of Sydney a year ago, were ecstatically married to the people of their dreamsâbut Charlie was a king, and Lia was a princess royal!
What did that make her? Kind of a halfway to royalty, halfway past nowhere personâand she couldnât decide which was better.
Mari smiled when Toby, or the new Grand Duke as he was known in the family, dipped Lia in the Viennese Waltz theyâd chosen for their wedding dance. The devoted love sheâd always suspected Toby felt for Lia fairly blazed from those summer-blue eyes. And as for Lia, she could barely leave her husbandâs side long enough to âdo the pretty-politeâ, as Charlie called it, with all the nobles and royalty of Europe who attended her wedding.
It was still so strange to even be here, let alone be the cousin and bridesmaid of a princess royalâbut even her dreamerâs heart couldnât fool her. Mari had been born on the ordinary side of the familyâthe Greek side. Aunty Katina had been a girl from the mountains outside Athens who had boarded a boat for Australia forty years ago, and met Uncle Arthur at a Greek party in Marrickville, Sydney.
She and Uncle Arthur had died in a car crash, never knowing their titles, never knowing Uncle Arthur had, through the destruction of the royal Marandis line of Hellenia, become the heir to a kingdom. Charlie and Lia hadnât known their true identities until a year ago. Great-Uncle Kyri and Great-Aunt Giulia had never told a soul about their big secret: Uncle Kyri had been a Grand Duke, whoâd disappeared from royal life to marry the royal nanny.
But oh, how Great-Uncle Kyri had organised his grandchildrenâs livesâeven from beyond the grave! Heâd taught them the language, customs and culture of Helleniaâeven the royal dancesâand instilled in them a deep sense of duty, so that when theyâd found out their true identities and Helleniaâs need, theyâd barely hesitated before making the hard decision to stay for ever and rebuild the shattered nation.
In his will, Great-Uncle Kyri had left Toby, Charlieâs best friend and Great-Uncle Kyriâs adopted son, a duchy and two hundred and fifty million eurosâand, more importantly, he had given Lia the man she loved, and Toby the bride of his heart.
Mari sighed in her brother Stavrosâs arms as they danced beside the bride and groom. If sheâd been born on the other side of the family, on Uncle Arthurâs side, what would she be? To be so close to a life most people could only dream of entering, yet locked behind the permanent barrier of her birth, feltâweird.
Weird described it to a T ⦠but even she, the family dreamer, had no idea if sheâd want to be royal. Sheâd seen both sides of life here, through the eyes of the media and adoring fans who couldnât buy enough magazines about the new royals, and she honestly didnât know if she could take a life filled with intrusionsâ
âIâd like to dance with your sister, if I may.â
A beautifully cultured yet imperious voice broke into Mariâs reverie, and she realised the bridal waltz was done; people were changing partners.
She didnât need to look around to know who was speaking. She knew the voice of His Royal Highness Prince Mikhail of the small Euro-Asian border kingdom of Chalnikan too well. Sheâd met him five months before, when he had been Charlieâs groomsman, and sheâd been hearing his voice regularly since sheâd returned to Hellenia to become Liaâs bridesmaid. Sheâd had his gifts, his notes, heard his callsâand all the messages were variations on the same theme.