“That’s true,” Raoul muttered. “I can be the only Arillac who ever shrank from his responsibilities in five hundred years.”

“It isn’t fair that a man be born with that kind of a burden. Is it written in stone you must marry the Princess?” When there was no answer forthcoming, Philippe removed his hand. “Forget I said anything.”

Raoul’s eyes narrowed. “You think I haven’t asked myself that question at least once a day since my teens? I prayed that if I put things off long enough Sophie would experience a coup de foudre with someone else by now.”

Philippe grimaced. “Ever since I’ve known you, I’ve hoped you would fall for a woman you couldn’t live without. But it never happened. Probably because you knew what was expected of you and wouldn’t allow yourself to get too involved.”

Letting out the breath he’d been holding, Raoul said, “I don’t honestly know. The truth is, no woman has ever attracted me so much that I could feel my duty being tested.”

“Why couldn’t you have had an ambitious brother?”

They eyed each other soulfully. “It didn’t happen, Philippe.”

His friend shook his head. “How many times have you been with her in the last year, aside from your formal engagement?”

“That was it.”

“Unbelievable!” Philippe smacked his forehead. “And how many times before that?”

“You already know. Half a dozen maybe, since our teens.”

“And you were never alone with her! That’s no foundation for any kind of marriage.”

“By the sound of that, I assume you’ve decided to take my advice and go after Kellie.”

Philippe nodded. “I don’t see I have a choice. She’s become my whole world.”

Philippe had confessed to Raoul that last month he’d fallen hard for a woman staying at his parents’ estate near Paris. Raoul knew his best friend had been enamoured of several women in the past, but evidently this one, Kellie, was different.