There was great bitterness in the way he spoke and Alana could think only of the beautiful women who had thrown themselves at his feet, women like Lady Odele, who in her own way had given him her heart even if it was a shallow one.
“Yes, there were women and plenty of them,” the Prince said, “but I was always determined that my wife should be English and as conventional and unimaginative as my mother had been. It was what my father had wanted and I wanted the same thing.”
He looked at Alana for a long moment and then he said,
“Because my wife died only a short time ago, I had to wait longer than I intended. But as soon as I was free, I told myself that I would now plan my life in the way that I had always intended. I would have a family who would only be one-quarter Russian and that par
