He was not willing to let her go. Marriage to her was absurd, of course, just as she realized it was. A princeling father indeed. Such an outrageous lie. Yet he still wanted her. There had to be another way to have her. He just needed to figure out how, and needed to keep her here and talking to do that.

Which was why he said, “Tell me more about this ‘seeing’ thing you do.”

She did not mince words with him. “Why, when you doubt me?”

He gave her an earnest smile that he hoped would put her at ease again. “So convince me.”

She bit her lip for a moment in indecision. It was a luscious-looking lip. She stirred the kettle again. She stirred things in him as well, with each of her sensuous movements. She appeared deep in thought. Then she sat back and looked into his eyes, just stared, for the longest time, and so intently. He got the strangest, fanciful notion that she really was seeing into the darkest reaches of his soul. The suspense almost had him ready to shout.

At last she said in a mild tone, “Very well. You are not a happy man. It is not that anything has made you unhappy. Actually, there is much in your life that could make you happy, it just doesn’t.”

His ennui was apparently easy to discern. His friends had remarked on it as well, so he was not surprised that she would pretend to “see” this as his problem.

Annoyed that she called “seeing” what was so obvious that anyone could “see” it, he put her on the spot. “Perhaps you know why?”

“Perhaps I do,” she replied, and for a moment, compassion filled her eyes, making him distinctly uncomfortable. “It is because you have lost interest in what you used to be interested in, and have found nothing new to take its place. Because of this you have become—disillusioned? Bored? I’m not quite sure, just that something is seriously lacking in your life. Only recently has it begun to bother you. Perhaps it is merely that you have been alone too long, without family. Everyone benefits from the caring involved in family, yet you have been deprived of this. Perhaps it is merely that you have not found a purpose to your life yet.”

He knew it was no more than guessing on her part, and yet her guessing was so bloody accurate, it was frightening. He wanted to hear more, and yet he didn’t. Actually, what he really wanted to hear was something that would leave no doubt in his mind that she was a charlatan.

“What else do you see?”

She shrugged carelessly. “Minor things that have nothing to do with your well-being and state of mind.”

“Such as?”

“Such as, you could be rich, but you don’t really care to pursue great wealth.”

He raised a brow. “Excuse me? What makes you think I’m not rich?”

“By my standards, you are. By your standards, you are merely comfortably secure. Even your estate manager earns more than you do from what he manages for you.”