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The stand-in fiancée

To secure his country’s future, reformed playboy Prince Rafael of Montaigne needs a wife. A convenient marriage seems the ideal solution... until his fiancée disappears and Rafe must ask her identical twin sister, Charlie Morisset, to become his stand-in bride-to-be!

Down-to-earth Charlie accepts Rafe’s convenient proposal—in exchange for the funds to save her baby sister’s life. Being swept into a crazy royal whirlwind seems a small price to pay, until she finds herself falling for Rafe—a prince she knows she will have to walk away from...

Charlie gave Rafe a rueful smile. ‘It wouldn’t work, though, would it? I’d give the game away as soon as I arrived in Montaigne and opened my mouth. ’

His smile deepened. ‘We would try to limit the amount of time you needed to speak in public. It’s all about appearances, really. And when it comes to how you look, you certainly had me and my detectives fooled. ’

‘But I haven’t agreed to this,’ Charlie said quickly. ‘It’s so risky. I mean, there’s so much room for things to go wrong.

What will happen, for example, if Olivia doesn’t turn up before your cut-off date? I couldn’t possibly marry you. ’

She went bright pink as she said this.

Rafe watched the rosy tide with fascination. This girl was such a beguiling mix of innocence and worldliness. But now wasn’t the time to be distracted…

The Prince’s Convenient Proposal

Barbara Hannay

BARBARA HANNAY has written over forty romance novels and has won a RITA® Award and an RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award, as well as Australia’s Romantic Book of the Year. A city-bred girl, with a yen for country life, Barbara lives with her husband on a misty hillside in beautiful far north Queensland, where they raise pigs and chickens and enjoy an untidy but productive garden.

For Sophie and Milla.

Contents

WEDNESDAY MORNINGS WERE always quiet in the gallery, so any newcomer was bound to catch Charlie’s eye as she sat patiently at the reception desk. This morning, her attention was certainly caught by the tall, dark-haired fellow who came striding through the arched doorway as if he owned the place. He was gobsmackingly handsome, but it was his commanding manner that made Charlie almost forget to offer him her customary, sunny and welcoming smile.