Betrothed: To the People’s Prince

CHAPTER THREE

SO TWO weeks later…Maybe she was out of her mind, but she was going back to a place she’d thought she’d never set foot on again. Argyros. The Silver Island of the Diamond Isles.

If Giorgos had had a son this never would have happened.

Generations of islanders had ached for the islands to revert to the three principalities they had once been. Now with Giorgos’s death, they had.

‘But why did it have to happen on my watch?’ Athena muttered as she stood on the deck of the Athens-Argyros ferry and watched her island home grow bigger.

Beside her was Nicky. He was practically bursting with excitement. He should be in school, she thought. How could he get into the college of his choice if she kept interrupting his education?

That was only one of the arguments she’d thrown at Nikos during the tense phone calls that followed his visit. But always it had returned to the bottom line.

If she backed away from her role as Crown Princess then Demos would open all six diamond mines.

Whereas Nikos had a very different proposal-to open one mine, avoiding mess and with minimal effect on the island’s environment. Profits to go into the island’s infrastructure and the island could prosper.

Nikos had told her all of this by phone, talking of nothing but the island, making no mention of how these children had happened, how Nicky and Christa affected their future-nothing, nothing, nothing.

Apart from that one outburst in the park, he’d contained his rage.

As she’d contained hers. We’ve been civilised, she thought, and tried to feel proud of herself.

Instead she felt small. Belittled by the latent anger she heard behind Nikos’s civility. Frightened of what lay ahead.

‘How long will we stay?’ By her side at the rails, Nicky suddenly sounded as scared as she was. ‘For ever?’

‘I’ve taken a month’s leave. I’m hoping by the end of the month Nikos should be able to take over the running of the place.’

‘Running?’

‘Like…the government. If I can organise things then Nikos will be the government when I leave.’

‘Are you the government now?’

‘Technically, yes. Though my cousin has been filling in.’

‘We don’t like your cousin Demos?’

‘I’m not sure we do,’ she said. ‘Nikos says he’s greedy. But let’s just see for ourselves, shall we?’

‘Okay,’ he said and tucked his hand into hers, with the infinite trust of childhood.

She needed someone to trust too, she thought. What was she letting herself in for?

‘We’ll just slip in quietly, do what we have to do and leave,’ she said. ‘I’m hoping we’ll hardly be noticed. I’ll show you the places where I swam and played when I was a little girl. I’ll figure how to stop Demos digging his great big diamond mines. Then we can go home, with as little contact with the locals as possible.’

‘So we won’t see Nikos and Christa?’ He sounded astounded. More. Sad.

‘I guess we will,’ she said and he lit up again.

‘Good. I like them. Christa likes Oscar.’

‘Oscar.’ She glanced down at the dog on the deck beside her. Crazy. Coming all this way and bringing a dog.

But she needed to. She needed as much family as she could get. Nicky and Oscar were it.

We slip in quietly, do what we need to do and leave, she said to herself again, as she’d told herself countless times before. I’ll give Nikos the authority he needs and leave.

But what about…Nicky? The small matter of Nikos’s son.

It can’t matter, she thought. Yes, Nikos was angry-maybe he even had a right to that anger, but there was still the matter of Christa, conceived three months before Nicky. When he and she…

It didn’t bear thinking about.

‘We’ll get in, do what we have to and get out again,’ she said again to Nicky. ‘No fuss. Nothing.’

And then the boat passed the headland and turned towards the harbour. And she discovered that no fuss wasn’t in the island’s equation.

She’d come. Right up until now he’d thought she’d back out. But he knew she’d boarded the ferry in Athens. Short of jumping off, she had to be here.

So he’d let it be known. Demos had been acting Crown Prince. If Athena arrived on the quiet, as if she didn’t want the Crown, it would give everyone the wrong idea. The islanders were terrified by Demos’s plans. They needed Athena.

And…they knew her.

The only child of a lone and timid mother, home schooled because the King didn’t want her to mix with the island children, Athena had every reason to be isolated and aloof. But Athena had been irrepressible. Born a tomboy, she’d declared, aged eight, that Nikos was her very best friend and whatever he did was cool with her.

As children they’d roamed the island, looking for mischief, looking for adventure, looking for fun. Tumbling in and out of trouble. Giving their respective mothers cause for palpitations.

He’d loved her. The islanders had loved her. They had been kids, who together just might make a difference to this island’s future.

And now that time had come. He watched the ferry dock and knew that how Athena reacted in the next few moments affected the future of every islander.

Including him.

‘Mama, why are all these people here?’

‘Uh-oh,’ she said.

‘What does uh-oh mean?’

‘It means Nikos is making a statement.’

‘What sort of statement?’

‘That I’m a princess coming home,’ she said.

‘So the streamers and balloons and the great big signs…’

‘Saying Welcome Home To Our Princess? That would be for us.’

‘What do we do?’

‘I’m not sure. Stay on board until they get tired of waiting and go home?’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea,’ Nicky said dubiously.

So it wasn’t a good idea, she conceded. It was an excellent idea. But she knew Nikos was down there. She knew how much he loved this island and she knew for certain that if she didn’t walk back onto her island home he’d come aboard and carry her.

Balloons had drifted into the water. A couple of excited kids had jumped in to retrieve them, and the ferry captain was forced to reverse and wait for his men to verify it was safe to dock.

Nikos watched and waited, feeling as if he shouldn’t be here. Feeling as if he had no choice.

The islanders were going crazy. Their pleasure in Athena’s arrival was a measure of how terrified they’d been that Demos would destroy them. It was also a measure of confidence that Athena wouldn’t betray them.

Did he believe it?

Up until she was nineteen he’d believed it. He and Athena had plotted what they’d do if Giorgos was to die without an heir.

He grinned now as he thought of their plans. They’d build a cinema. They’d set up a surf school-Thena thought she’d make a great surf instructor-and what the heck, they’d invite a few rock groups over. But in their serious moments they’d had a few more solemn ideas. They’d slow-start the diamond mines. They’d ensure every child had the funds to get a decent education. They’d set up a democracy.

All of these things had been discussed over and over, as they’d wandered the island, as she’d come with him in his family’s fishing boat and helped him haul pots, as she’d sat at his mother’s kitchen table and helped shell peas or stir cakes.

When had he first figured he loved her? It had crept up on him so slowly he hardly knew. But suddenly their laughter had turned to passion, and their intensity for politics had turned to intensity of another kind.

The night her mother had died…She’d been seventeen. He’d cradled her against his heart and thought his own heart would break.

And then…suddenly it had been over. It seemed she had a chance of a journalist apprenticeship in New York.

Leaving had never been in his vocabulary, and he’d never believed it could be in hers.

And now she’d returned-she was standing at the ferry’s rail looking lost, and he was standing on the jetty wondering where he could take it from here.

She had Nicky by the hand. Mother and son. And dog. The sight made him feel…Hell, he didn’t know how he felt.

‘Go on, Nikos.’ His mother, Annia, was beside him, holding Christa. ‘Go and speak for all the islanders. You know it’s your place.’

‘It’s not my place.’

‘It is,’ Annia said fiercely. ‘No one else will do it.’

And hadn’t that always been the case?

As the King’s sister, Nikos’s mother had always stood up to the old King. She’d fought for the islanders’ rights and, as he’d matured, Nikos had taken her fights onto his own shoulders.

He’d built up a fishing fleet that was second to none, but the islanders knew he worked for the whole island. They looked to him now as leader. He was in an uncomfortable position but he had no choice-there was no one else willing or able to take it on.

And now…If the only way Athena would rule was for him to stand beside her and guide her every step of the way, then he’d do it. He’d been raised to love this island, and he would not see it destroyed.

So now…He shoved aside anger, loss, confusion, a host of mixed emotions he wasn’t near to understanding, and he strode up the gangplank with the determination of a man who knew where his duty lay. And, as he reached Athena, he took her in his arms and he hugged her. Whether she willed it or not. Whether he willed it or not.

‘Welcome home,’ he said and lifted her and swung her round in his arms, a precarious thing to do on a gangplank, but jubilation was called for. ‘Princess Athena, welcome,’ he said in a voice to be heard by all. ‘We all welcome you, don’t we?’ he demanded of the crowd, and the islanders roared their assent.

‘It’s our royal family,’ someone yelled. ‘Princess Athena and Prince Nikos.’

‘Nikos is only a prince if he marries Athena,’ someone else yelled and there was a huge cheer of enthusiasm.

‘Hey, Demos is already a prince. Maybe she should marry him,’ someone yelled as the applause died, and the crowd laughed. The laughter was derisive.

And Nikos glanced to the back of the crowd and saw Demos. Even from this distance his body language was unmistakable. He was rigid with mortification and with fury.

Athena had a real enemy there, he thought. In the mood he was in, Demos could do harm.

Not if he stayed close.

He had no choice. In order to protect this island then he needed to protect this woman. He intended to stay very close indeed.

Athena’s smile looked pinned in place. She was terrified, he thought.

‘It’s okay,’ he murmured.

‘No,’ she murmured back. ‘It’s not okay at all. I’m doing this because I have no choice. If you think I like being hugged by you…’

The crowd’s cheers were building. Athena waved and so did Nicky.

And Nikos had no choice either. He waved.

They stood together.

‘There’s a reception tonight at the palace,’ he told her.

‘There’s a what?’

They were all in the royal limousine, heading for the palace. Nikos hadn’t wanted to come with her, but once again there’d been no choice. Someone had to introduce her to the palace staff.

He’d brought Christa along, to lighten the atmosphere a bit. To stop things getting too personal. Oscar lay on the floor looking exhausted. It had been a very long waddle down the gangplank.

Giorgos would have had a fit if he could have seen this dog in his limo, Nikos thought and suppressed a grin.

The limousine, the palace, these trappings of royalty, had been kept so Giorgos could come in state whenever he wished. They could get rid of it all now, Nikos thought, but then he considered the crowd who’d turned up to see Athena arrive. They’d cheered her with joy. She was giving the island its identity back. Did she even realise it?

‘A reception,’ he repeated, trying to get his head round practicalities. ‘Everyone who’s anyone on the island and a few more. Three hundred people.’

‘How many?’

‘You need to make a statement.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Of course you do,’ he said flatly. ‘That’s what you’ve come for.’

‘But I’m not staying,’ she said, sounding desperate. ‘Nikos, I can’t do this. A reception. People cheering. It’s not who I am.’

‘It’s what you were born to.’

‘I was born to be nothing.’

‘That’s a dumb statement.’

‘Do you need to sound angry?’

‘I’m not…’

‘What have I done to make you angry, Nikos?’ she demanded, suddenly as angry as he was.

‘I could tell you.’ He glanced across at Nicky. ‘But not here.’

‘Why not?’

‘It’s hardly…appropriate.’

‘How about if I decide that?’ she snapped.

They were being chauffeured along the magnificent coastal road that wound round headland after headland, stretching on until it reached the Royal Palace of Argyros. But Athena wasn’t looking at scenery. She was focused on him.

‘I don’t think…’

‘How about we stop thinking?’ she snapped. She closed her eyes for a long moment. Then she opened them and she reached for her son’s hand.

Nicky had been alternately looking out of the window and looking at his mother. He was a smart kid, Nikos thought. He could hear the undercurrents of her anger. There were things going on that he didn’t understand and he obviously didn’t like it.

‘Nicky, I want you to listen for a bit,’ Athena said. ‘Full attention.’

He gave it.

Athena glanced at Nikos. Glanced away. Took a deep breath.

‘Nicky, when I saw the people at the boat,’ she said, faltering for a start and then making her voice firmer. ‘I realised there was something that Nikos and I need to tell you. That maybe we should have told you before this. Do you remember asking about who your father is? I told you your father was someone I met when I was very young. I told you that he was my best friend, but then he married someone else. That man is Nikos, Nicky. Nikos is your papa.’

What the…? What had she just said?

She’d taken all the wind out of his sails and then some.

It had clearly astounded Nicholas as well. ‘Nikos is…Nikos is…’ Nicky said and faltered to a stop, staring at him as if he had two heads.

‘Do you see his hair?’ All at once Athena sounded weary-strained to breaking point. ‘It’s the same colour as yours. It curls the same. You see how that little bit sticks up right at the top of Nikos’s head? Yours does, too.’

Nicky stuck his hand on top of his head and felt the offending tuft. His eyes grew enormous.

It was all Nikos could do not to do the same.

‘I told you that your papa was a fisherman,’ Athena said. ‘That’s what Nikos is. Isn’t that right, Nikos?’

She’d given him a son. Just like that. Like it or not.

Where to go from here?

She should have done this nine years ago, he thought, dazed, fighting anger, but knowing instinctively that his anger was no reason to mess with things now. To say no, let’s talk about this at a more sensible time. Maybe we need DNA tests. Maybe we need…counselling. Or something?

Nicky was looking at him with eyes that were blank with shock. What happened in the next few moments would affect him for ever. He didn’t need a counsellor to tell him that.

He had the power to mess this for life.

So where to go? What to say when you’ve just been given the gift of a son?

‘I should have been there for your mother,’ he said softly. ‘I should have been around for you. I’m very, very sorry that I wasn’t.’

‘Why weren’t you?’ Nicky said.

And there was only one answer. Only the truth would serve.

‘I didn’t know,’ he said heavily. ‘Your mother left the island a long time ago, when she was expecting you. And she didn’t tell me you were born. Maybe because we were both very young she thought it was the right thing to do. Maybe she thought it would be easier to bring you up on her own when I lived so far away. I wish I’d known, Nicky, but that’s in the past. What’s important now is that you’re my son. I’m so proud that your mother’s finally told me about you. I’m so proud to finally have the chance to know you.’

He glanced at Athena and her eyes were brimful of tears. She wrenched her head around so she was looking out of the window, but not before he’d seen those tears.

‘I’d like to teach you to fish,’ he told Nicky, fighting for something-anything-to say. Hell, there should be a book on what he was doing now. It was too important to mess with, and all he could do was flounder. ‘I’d love to take you in my boat.’

‘You really own a fishing boat?’

‘Really.’

‘I don’t get seasick,’ Nicky said, as if that was important.

‘Neither do I,’ Nikos said and felt something grow in his chest. The heart swells to fit all comers. Maybe the corny saying was right.

His son. The thought was overwhelming.

Nicky and Christa. His son and his daughter.

His family.

‘You have a grandma,’ he said.

‘A grandma.’ Nicky was clearly overwhelmed.

‘Her name is Annia. She’s a princess like your mother.’

‘My grandmother’s a princess?’

‘She’s not as pretty a princess as your mother,’ Nikos told him. ‘And, like your mother, she doesn’t wear a tiara. But I hope you’ll like…I hope you’ll love her. She’s a better fisherman than I am.’

‘Does she get seasick?’

‘No one in my family gets seasick,’ he said and he saw Athena flinch.

Nicky fell silent. No one spoke. Athena was looking out of the window as if her life depended on it.

‘Why didn’t you tell me, Mama?’ Nicky asked and the question hung. For a moment he thought she wasn’t going to answer. For a moment he thought, how could she?

‘I was very young,’ she said at last, and her voice sounded as if it came from a long way away. ‘I was in America and I was by myself. And I knew…I knew Nikos…your papa…and his wife were having a baby here. That baby is Christa. So I thought your papa needed to stay here to take care of Christa. I knew I could take care of you, and I did.’

And behind those words? Raw, unresolved pain. Bleak. Stark. Dreadful.

How to take that pain away?

Nikos knew that he couldn’t. Ten years of pain, and the only way he could alleviate it was a truth that wasn’t his to tell.

And he hadn’t caused that pain. It was Athena who’d left.

‘Why didn’t you come back here?’ Nicky asked her, obviously fighting to find some sense in all this.

‘I have a great job, Nicky,’ Athena said. ‘I needed to work to support you.’

‘But…’ Nicky paused and looked from Athena to Nikos and back again. His mother and his father, and a history he didn’t understand.

This was too heavy, Nikos thought. It was way, way too hard. Maybe they should have left this for the future, for some more appropriate time to tell him, but what was done was done. And somewhere in this mess they had to find joy.

He had a son. Yes, there was heartache and regret but he had a son, and his son needed to lose that look of confusion and…and yes, even the echo of his own sense of betrayal.

‘See that rock out there in the bay?’ he said, fighting for the right note. ‘The big one with the flat top about two hundred yards from shore?’

‘Mmm,’ Nicky said, still dazed.

‘I taught your mother to dive off that rock. Or I tried to. She kept doing bellywhackers.’

‘I did not,’ Athena retorted, struggling not to falter, and he knew that where he went she’d follow. How could she help it now?

‘You did, too,’ he said, and managed a strained sort of grin. ‘You get your mama to take you out and show you her diving skills,’ he told Nicky. ‘She’ll do bellywhackers every single time.’

‘Christa, can you swim?’ Athena asked, still sounding desperate, and Nikos thought maybe he’d got it right. He’d deflected the father bit, giving Nicky time to come to terms with it as he wanted.

He knew there was a lot more discussion to come. Some of that would have to be personal, between Athena and Nicky.

Some of that needed to be between himself and Athena.

‘I like…swimming,’ Christa said. She’d pushed her shoes off-she hated shoes-and her feet were resting on Oscar. ‘I like…dog.’

‘I think Oscar likes you,’ Athena said.

‘Does this mean Christa is my sister?’ Nicky asked and Nikos’s thoughts went flying again. The issues were too big. Huge.

‘I guess she is,’ Athena said softly. ‘Your half-sister.’ Then she said gently, ‘Christa has something called Down’s syndrome. That means she was born with something a little different from most children. All the bits that start a baby growing…they’re called chromosomes. Christa got an extra one. It makes the tips of her ears a bit small. It makes her tongue a little bit big and her eyes really dark and pretty. And it affects her in other ways too, including her speech.’

‘But she likes Oscar.’

‘She does,’ Athena said gravely, smiling at Christa. ‘I think Christa is our friend already. I think having her as your sister might be really cool.’

So much for leading the conversation, Nikos thought. It was now about the three of them. He was right out of the equation.

Somewhere, once, he’d read some scathing comment on fatherhood. Mothers knew all about their children’s dramas, their love lives, the spots on the back of their necks. Fathers were vaguely aware there were short people in the house.

Not him, he thought. With Christa, he’d been so much more hands on. But he felt sidelined here.

‘I wanted a sister,’ Nicky was saying, cautious. ‘A little sister. But Christa’s nine.’

‘I’m nine,’ Christa said, nodding grave agreement.

‘But she’s much shorter than you,’ Thena said. ‘I think she always will be, so that means she’ll always be your little sister.’

‘So I get to look after her?’

‘If you want.’

‘Do I hafta share?’

‘I guess you and Christa can work those things out for yourselves,’ Athena said, and Christa looked at Nicky and beamed.

‘Nicky,’ she said.

‘Brother,’ Nicky said importantly and thumped his chest.

‘Brother,’ Christa repeated and thumped her chest.

They giggled.

Just like that, Nikos thought, stunned. It was over, just like that. Yeah, there’d be complications. Yeah, there’d be difficulties. But, for now…it was sorted.

‘Now,’ Athena said in a voice that boded ill.

‘Now?’

‘What about this reception?’

What were they thinking? Talking of social events when she’d casually given him his son? He felt as if all the wind had been sucked from his lungs and he wasn’t the least sure how to get it back.

Nicky and Christa were looking at each other, sizing each other up, still grinning. Occasionally giggling. Having a sister was obviously a big deal for Nicky. Bigger than having a father?

He’d missed out on nine years of having a son. He looked back to Athena and she was looking as dazed as he was.

‘I wanted to tell you,’ she whispered. ‘I didn’t know how.’

‘Like…the phone?’ He couldn’t keep anger from his voice and he got anger in return.

‘You think? So I should have phoned you-and your wife-and thought about the consequences later?’

A host of angry rejoinders crowded his head. None of them could be said in front of the children.

Maybe none could be said at all.

‘The reception,’ she said again flatly, moving on.

‘Seven tonight.’ That, at least, was easy. ‘The Crown Prince and Princess of Sappheiros will be welcoming home the Crown Princess of Argyros. Officially handing over control.’

‘And then what?’ He saw panic flare. ‘Nikos, I can’t do this alone. I can’t do this at all. Run this country? I have no experience. I have nothing to qualify me for such a role. I’ve taken four weeks’ leave. That’s it.’

‘If that’s it, then you’re handing the Crown to Demos.’

‘This isn’t fair.’

‘Life’s not,’ he said shortly. He had evidence of this right in front of him. He’d had a son for nine years and he hadn’t known.

She stared at him, speechless. He stared out of the window. Tried not to think that yes, it was unfair. As kids they’d planned to do this side by side. They still could if she…if he…

It had to be thought of. The lawyers had demanded he think of it.

How could he think about it?

‘You will be there tonight,’ she said urgently, and a blunt voice inside him said no, let her sink. Not telling him he had a son…

But then he looked at her, he caught the terror, and he caught something else.

The Athena he’d once loved. She was still in there.

And this island…It was his home and he loved it. He had to support her, come what may.

And he had to convince her to stay.

Enough. One step at a time.

‘I’ll be there,’ he told her.

‘With me,’ she said urgently. ‘I won’t remember names. People will know me and I won’t remember them. I’ll say the wrong thing. Nikos, you have to help me.’

‘I’ll help you.’

He hadn’t said it right. He sounded petty, angry, resentful. And she got it. Terror turned to anger again, just like that.

‘Don’t you dare.’

‘Dare what?’

‘Dump this on me. You talked me into this. You made me come home. I’m your responsibility, Nikos. I came home because of you.’

‘You came home because of the island.’

‘I came home because we talked ourselves into loving this island together. If you’re even thinking you need me to stay, then you need to support me every step of the way.’

‘I’ll support you tonight,’ he said.

Beyond tonight was a place he was too fearful to think about.