CAYETANO ARCIERI WAS a man of his word.
They never made it to see Queen Esme that day. Instead, Cayetano took his wife back home, marinated in her, and the following day, set off on a long honeymoon that in no way made up for the first stretch of their marriage.
But he hoped it was a harbinger of the joys to come.
And as months became years, and hope became truth, he liked to think that they’d built the foundation for all that would come in those eight weeks.
Because with such a foundation, anything was possible.
Delaney and Queen Esme met, and while no one would describe them as fast friends, they found a way forward. Eventually, their way forward involved Catherine, too.
And years later, when time began to dull the edges of old memories, he found his way back to his own mother, too. Therese left Ile d’Montagne and married her long-lost lover, and Cayetano could see that truly, they loved each other.
Though even when his mother and he found ways to sit in peace together, speaking of soft and uncomplicated things, he made sure to make it clear that their love was better blooming off the island.
“I am far too old and tired to play games with your throne, Cayetano,” Therese would tell him.
“Good,” he would reply.
And the more time passed, the more they laughed.
But none of it would be possible if there hadn’t first been those two sweet months, just Cayetano and Delaney.
No causes, no people. Just the two of them and that farmhouse in Kansas. Walking the land. Tending to vegetables, listening to the wind in the corn, getting dirty beneath the sun and lying out at night to lose themselves in the stars.
Most future kings did not honeymoon on a remote Kansas farm, but then, Cayetano was not most kings. He intended to be the best King Ile d’Montagne had ever had. He meant to split his time between the sea and the mountains. He meant to make his people whole.
A prospect that was only possible because he had Delaney.
He never took her for granted again.
Like all the things he studied, once he’d decided to love her he threw himself into it, body and soul.
“I love you,” he liked to tell her when he woke her in the mornings, even years later, whether they were in their winter palace on the water or their summer castle in the hills. “I love you, little one. More today than yesterday.”
Every day it was true.
“I love you, too,” she would reply, always with that beautiful smile, wrapping herself around him while the morning sun danced in and the island breezes murmured all around them.
The way they’d woken up every morning of that honeymoon, tucked away beneath the eaves in that old farmhouse.
And he took care to love her there, when it was just the two of them. Deeply. Thoroughly. Before their children came bursting in. Before the concerns of the day took hold. Before they became King and Queen again.
First, they loved each other.
Fierce and ferocious, just Cayetano and Delaney.
Forever.
Just the way he’d promised.
Did you think Crowning His Lost Princess was magical? Then you’re sure to get caught in the drama of the final installment in The Lost Princess Scandal duet coming soon!
Why not also dive into some of these other Caitlin Crews stories?
The Secret That Can’t Be Hidden
Her Deal with the Greek Devil
The Sicilian’s Forgotten Wife
The Bride He Stole for Christmas
The Scandal That Made Her His Queen
Available now!
Keep reading for an excerpt from His Bride with Two Royal Secrets by Marcella Bell.