Wanted: Royal Wife and Mother

CHAPTER THREE

THEY explored the goldfields until Matty’s legs gave out. He was cheerful, interested and polite. They ate their dinner early-a damper they’d made together and a thick Irish stew. Kelly settled him into her big bed and his eyelids drooped.

Fatigue was sapping his courage. He was half a world away from his people.

‘I want Uncle Rafael,’ he murmured.

‘He’ll come,’ Kelly said. ‘But he said he might not be able to return until late. I’ll have him come in here and say goodnight the minute he arrives.’

‘Do you promise?’

‘I promise.’

‘I miss Aunt Laura,’ he said fretfully. ‘I miss Ellen and Marguerite. I want to go home.’

Her heart twisted. Home. Home was where the heart was.

Her home was right here. Her home was with this small boy, who was so alone.

The Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel.

‘Let me read you a story,’ she said, and she found an ancient book she’d loved when she had been his age, a book she’d held on to just in case, just in case…

The Poky Little Puppy.

The book was battered and dog-eared. It had been given to her by her grandmother when she had been just Matty’s age. She’d loved it.

So did Matty. He relaxed, snuggling into his pillows. She so wanted to lift him into her arms, to cuddle him to sleep, but she knew he wasn’t ready for that. She was a stranger even if she was his mother.

She had to get to know him slowly.

Could he stay on the diggings with her?

‘My Aunt Laura will like this story,’ Matty murmured sleepily. ‘Can you read it to Uncle Rafael when he comes?’

‘I…yes.’

He had his own people. His own family.

Where did she fit in?

She didn’t know.

He came at nine p.m., after she’d almost given up on him. She’d expected a call from security at the gate, but instead there was a soft knock on the door.

She opened it and there he was.

But it wasn’t the Rafael she’d seen before. This was…This was…

His Royal Highness, Prince Rafael, Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel. He was wearing full dress regalia. A deep blue-black suit, immaculately cut. A slash of gold across his chest. Rows of medals and insignia at his breast and a dress sword at his side.

She took an instinctive step back. Kass…

‘Gorgeous, aren’t I?’ he said and any resemblance to Kass flew out of the window. Kass, laughing at himself? No way.

‘I…yes. Very pretty,’ she managed and he grinned.

‘Can I come in?’

‘Where’s the rest of the royal entourage?’

‘I gave them the slip,’ Rafael said. ‘You have no idea how much trouble I had getting back here.’

‘Maybe jeans and a windcheater might be more appropriate for creeping round after dark.’

‘Yes, but I wouldn’t have had my sword for coping with bogeymen.’ He grimaced down at his gorgeous self. ‘Don’t worry, Kelly. I hate this as much as you do. Politics demanded that I bring it, however, and politics demand that I talk to you now. Can I come in?’

She stood wordlessly aside as he walked in, hauled his jacket off, unbuttoned the top three buttons of his stiffly starched shirt and set his sword by the door.

Royalty off duty.

‘So you thought you might change into dress uniform…why?’ she asked faintly as he opened the fire box on the stove and held his hands out for warmth.

‘Press conference and hastily organised civil reception,’ he said briefly. ‘With your mayor. You can’t imagine how excited everyone is.’

‘Um…why?’

‘Alp de Ciel is known for its gold-mining,’ he said blandly. ‘We’ve heard that this is the best theme park in the world for showcasing historical events. What could be more natural than the Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel-needing a little breathing-space from the demands of his royal duties-doing a little exploring?’

‘They never believed it.’

‘They did,’ he said. ‘The press believe what they want to believe. This makes a fabulous story. Prince found incognito in local theme park. Prince agrees to have dinner with local bigwigs for photographic opportunity. Prince excuses himself towards the end of dinner pleading jet lag but everyone’s got their photographs by now. So I slipped away.’

‘You had your dress uniform with you just on the off chance of a photographic opportunity?’

His smile faded. ‘I did suspect,’ he said, ‘that this journey might be discovered. Like it or not, I’m now head of state of Alp de Ciel. For me to come to Australia and not give a press conference at least would be an insult. The palace officials told me that in no uncertain terms. So yes, I brought my royal toggery. No, I didn’t want to unpack it but here it is, in all its glory.’

She was staring at the medals, fascinated.

‘So tonight,’ she said. ‘You just…slipped away from your royal reception. You called a cab-wearing that?’

‘Yes, it was hard giving everyone the slip but the limousine driver’s currently miffed because I took a cab and a cab driver’s happily pocketed a fare and a half for dropping me in the middle of nowhere and saying nothing. It was only a mile or so down the road and I kept to the shadows.’

‘Wearing your dress sword.’ She couldn’t keep her eyes off his chest. It was some…chest.

‘A prince has to be prepared,’ he said patiently. ‘In case of bogeymen.’ His smile deepened. ‘Stop looking like that. Pete let me in and he’s under instructions to say no one’s come. He’ll admit no one else.’

She shook her head in disbelief. ‘You think you’re clever,’ she said wonderingly.

‘I do,’ he said smugly.

‘Matty wants you to wake him and say goodnight.’

His face stilled. ‘He was okay with you?’

‘Yes.’

‘But he was asking for me?’

‘He loves you. You and your mother.’

‘I guess that hurts,’ he said cautiously.

‘I can’t expect anything else.’

‘He’ll learn…’

‘I don’t think he can stay here,’ she whispered and something in her face had him crossing the room to her in two swift strides and taking her hands in his.

‘Kelly, don’t look like that.’

‘Like…like what?’

‘As if you’re tearing yourself in two.’

‘I’m not. I’m not. Go and say goodnight to Matty.’ She pulled away from him roughly. For a moment he stood, looking down at her face, obviously troubled, but she wouldn’t look at him.

Finally he wheeled away. He disappeared into the bedroom. She stood, feeling lost, bewildered, distressed, listening to the sound of the two faint voices. Matty must have only been snoozing. He’d been waiting. Waiting for his Uncle Rafael.

He’s a good man, she thought. This was no Kass. She could trust him with her son.

Matty’s home was in Alp de Ciel. Matty was royal.

But how could she let Matty go again?

And then Rafael was back, returning to warm his hands by the fire. Were they really cold, she wondered, or was it just to give him something to do?

‘They’ll find Matty here,’ she said miserably, going straight to the heart of the matter. ‘The press might think Matty’s safely at home in Alp de Ciel now, but as soon as they figure he’s missing they’ll put two and two together. You come out here on a whim. Prince Mathieu disappears at the same time. It’ll take them no time at all to figure where Matty might be.’

‘And?’

‘And I can’t protect him here,’ she whispered. ‘Not from the goldfish bowl that’s the royal way of life.’

‘So what do you want to do?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Come back to Alp de Ciel?’ he said, and then, at the look on her face, he came to her again. Once again he took her hands in his, his rough, callused hands completely enclosing her smaller ones. ‘It’s what my mother and I hope for. It’s what should happen. That you should come home to the castle.’

‘It’s not my home.’

‘It’s your son’s home.’

‘I hate it.’

‘So do I,’ he said surprisingly. ‘I can’t tell you how much I loathe being part of the whole royalty bit. But there’s no choice.’

‘There must be a choice.’

‘If I don’t take the Regency on,’ he said, ‘there are others who would. Others like Kass. You know Kass and his father were lousy rulers. They stripped the country of all they could get their hands on.’

‘Of course I know that,’ she said angrily. ‘But it’s nothing to do with me.’

‘It is,’ he said harshly. ‘In as much as it’s your son who’ll eventually make the decisions about the country’s future. If I refuse to take on the Regency, then someone else will take charge until Matty is twenty-five. The next in line is my cousin, Olivier. Olivier is a compulsive gambler. He’d see the Regency as a way to get his hands on the country’s coffers. And worse,’ he added softly, ‘he’d also have absolute say in how Matty is raised. Neither you nor I nor my mother, who until now has been his one constant, would have any influence at all.’

Kelly gasped. ‘But…’

‘It is unfair,’ Rafael said. He was still holding her, using his strength to augment the urgency of what he was saying. ‘I know that. But there’s not a thing I can do about it. My mother says I don’t have a choice and she’s right.’

‘Your mother…’

‘Don’t get me wrong. My mother hates the royal bit as much as I do. We’re not doing this for personal gain, Kelly.’ He hesitated. ‘Look, it’s too much. I hoped I’d given the press the slip, which would have given you a few days to sort things out. But tomorrow morning the press will be camped outside my accommodation…’

‘You’re not staying here?’

‘How can I?’

‘You’ve gone back to the Prince Edward?’

‘I’m being put up in the mayoral residence,’ he said ruefully. ‘They think I’m home in bed now, getting over jet lag, instead of here, trying to convince you to come with me back to Alp de Ciel.’

‘I don’t want to.’ She sounded like a child-petulant-and she winced but he looked at her with understanding.

‘Of course you don’t. But this way you’ll have your son.’

‘There must be another way.’

‘There is,’ he said reluctantly. ‘We could set you up somewhere else, some gated community where you’d be safe. You have all the royal allowance you’ve never touched, and if it’s used to care for Matty even you might swallow your principles and use it. But you’d be even more isolated than you are here.’

‘I’m not isolated.’

‘I think you are,’ he said softly. ‘You’ve been so badly hurt that you’ve run, not just back to Australia but back in time. Kelly, you’re the mother of the Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel. You knew that when you bore Matty. The crown is his birthright, and it’s your duty to be his mother.’

‘But your mother loves him. His Aunt Laura…’

‘Are you saying you don’t want to be his mother?’

‘No, I…’

‘He doesn’t know you yet,’ Rafael said. ‘He will. He’s already proud of what you do-fascinated. He already thinks you’re beautiful. Trust takes time, and so does love. Kelly, can you give that to him?’

‘But to go back…’

To where she’d been stripped of everything that was important to her-her heart, her pride, her son. How could she go back?

‘You won’t be alone. My mother will be there.’ The grip on her hands grew stronger. ‘You didn’t meet her last time. She comes across to Manhattan in the worst of Alp de Ciel’s winter and spends time with me. You were at the castle for only six weeks after the old prince died, in the last stages of your pregnancy and after Mathieu’s birth. The fuss was such that my mother stayed longer with me and when she returned your son was there but you were gone. You’ll love her.’

‘I don’t do love,’ she snapped and he stilled.

‘Are you saying you don’t love Matty?’

‘Of…of course…’

‘Of course you do,’ he agreed softly. ‘Love isn’t something you can turn on and off again at will.’

‘And you know this how?’

He winced. A shadow of pain crossed his face and she thought, I know nothing about him. Nothing. A toy-maker from Manhattan. The Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel.

Rafael.

‘You need to come,’ he said softly but she was replaying the conversation over in her head, trying to sort it out. There was something not right.

You won’t be alone. My mother will be there.

‘Will you be there?’ she asked. She’d hit a nerve. A muscle moved at the side of his mouth. Infinitesimal-but there was something.

‘I’ll be there when I need to be.’

‘You’ll be there when you need to be.’ She almost gasped. ‘Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel…a country that’s desperate for reorganization…There when you need to be?’

‘Yes.’

‘So…once a week? A week a year?’

‘I’m not sure.’

‘Then I’m not going,’ she said flatly, suddenly sure that she was right. ‘The minute I step into the goldfish bowl there’ll be no going back. I know how hard it was to shake the press off last time. I had to change my name, change my country, change my whole way of life. I can’t do it twice. And you…You’ll be there when you can. What sort of commitment is that?’

‘Do you want me to be there?’

‘No. No!’ She should pull away from his hands but she didn’t. What she was trying to say was too important. She almost needed personal contact to get it through.

‘You’re asking me to trust,’ she said softly, thinking it as she spoke. ‘You’re asking me to take my place in a role I hate. Yet you want to be a part-time prince. There’s no such thing.’

‘Kelly…’

‘Your toy workshops could be relocated to Alp de Ciel, couldn’t they?’

‘Yes, but…’

‘And that way the pressure’s off Matty,’ she said, suddenly more certain of her ground. ‘You’re Prince Regent. You’ll be swanning round the country doing Prince Regent things. Going to movie premières with gorgeous women in tow.’

‘Hey!’

‘You’re not married already, are you?’ she demanded and looked down at his ring finger. ‘Tell me you’re not married.’

‘I’m not married.’

‘Engaged?’

‘No.’

‘There you are, then,’ she said. ‘No celebrity magazine in its right mind will focus on Matty when one of the world’s most eligible bachelors is doing his thing in the country.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ he said faintly. ‘You want me to stay permanently in the country and provide fodder for the gossipmongers for the next twenty years to keep the limelight off you and Matty.’

‘Yes.’

He blinked. ‘I don’t…’

But she wasn’t to be interrupted. ‘If neither of us return,’ she said, thinking it through, ‘if I don’t take Matty back and you return to Manhattan, there’ll be no royal permanently in the palace. Which is, I gather, unthinkable. That’s why contracts stipulating Matty belonged to the palace were meant to be watertight. Even in my short time with Kass I learned the alternative was chaos. Kass said his father was stuck with him. If he didn’t go home the government converted to rule through Council. The Council’s been corrupt for generations. Only a prince residing permanently in the country keeps the Principality from turmoil.’

‘Which is why we need Matty to stay at the castle.’ Rafael tugged his hands back from hers and raked his fingers though his thick black curls. ‘Hell, Kelly, I don’t want to stay there permanently.’

‘Neither do I.’

‘It’s your…’

‘Duty?’ Her green eyes flashed anger. ‘Don’t dare give me that. I wasn’t born into royalty like you were. I was lied to, I was married in an attempt to infuriate the old prince and I was kicked out of the country. You said you came here to give me my son. More lies. How dare you say I have a duty now?’

‘You have a duty to your son.’

‘As you have a duty to the child who will be Crown Prince. Snap.’

‘But…’

‘There’s no but, Rafael,’ she said grimly. ‘I have no idea what I’m getting into. More than anything in the world, I want to be with Matty, to watch him grow up, to be his mother. I’m willing to sacrifice a lot for that. But not everything. He will not be the total royal focus.’

‘You can’t ask that of me.’

‘I’m not asking. As you’re not asking me to be Matty’s mother. I’m simply stating facts. You came here to offer me my child back. That’s what you said. But you’re making no such offer. Not really. You’re simply blackmailing me into returning to the castle.’

‘I am giving you Matty back.’

‘With no strings?’

‘He’s the Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel. Of course there are strings. Hell, Kelly…I didn’t come here to be pressured.’

‘No, you came here to pressure me. If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave. I’ll do what I think best with Matty.’

‘Which is?’

‘It’s none of your business.’

‘It is my business,’ he snapped, exploding. ‘Hell, woman, I have total control. According to the contracts you signed, I can take him back tomorrow. I thought I’d give you the choice.’

‘No, you didn’t. You thought you’d persuade me to come.’

‘You’re supposed to be meek!’

There was a loaded pause. It went on. And on. And on.

‘Funny, that,’ she said at last, almost cordially. ‘I’m not.’

‘I can see you’re not,’ he snapped, goaded.

‘You want me to be meek?’

‘I want you to be sensible.’

‘What’s sensible about living as royalty?’

‘It’s every girl’s dream.’

‘Hey, I’ve lived the dream, remember?’ she said. ‘It’s not a dream. It’s a nightmare.’

‘Which is why I don’t want…’

‘To be part of it. Neither do I.’

‘You have to be.’

‘So do you,’ she snapped. ‘I’ve been thinking and thinking, all day while I’ve been waiting for you. I know I can’t bring Matty up as I’d want him brought up here. There’ll be too much media attention when people realise who he is. I know I can’t give him a normal childhood. To haul him away from everything he knows…’

‘So you will come?’ he demanded, starting to sound relieved.

‘Only if you agree to stay permanently in the castle.’

‘That’s not fair.’

‘It is fair,’ she snapped. ‘It’s entirely fair. It’s your inheritance-Prince Regent. It’s your responsibility to take the pressure off Matty until he’s twenty-five. If he stays here, even if we buy into a gated community, he’ll be cloistered and not able to have a normal boyhood. And he’ll miss you and your mother desperately. But if he goes back to the castle and you head off back to your very important life in the States it’ll be much, much worse. So fair doesn’t come into it. We’re both having to do what we do to survive. I won’t have Matty in the limelight any more than he has to be.’

‘You mean you don’t want to be in the limelight.’

‘Of course I don’t. Neither do you, but from where I’m standing you’re the one who can take it best.’

‘You know nothing about what I can take.’

‘Ditto,’ she snapped. ‘I’m making judgements. But, the way I see it, there are two of us I’m protecting. Me and Matty. You think I’ll let you stand aside and leave Matty exposed?’

‘No, I…’

‘You came here saying I was welcome to keep Matty with me,’ she said. ‘If I did that you’d be stuck.’

‘I never imagined…’

‘That I wouldn’t jump at the chance to be princess again? I can see that.’

‘Kelly…’ He reached for her hands again and held them urgently.

‘Rafael.’

This was ludicrous. It was like some weird tug of war. But she wasn’t giving in. The thought of staying in the castle as the Princess Royal, of having all that media directed at her and her small son…She’d been through that. She never wanted to go there again.

She didn’t care about this man’s story. She couldn’t care that there might be valid reasons for him to wish to avoid the limelight. She had to make a decision now and she could only do that on the information she had.

He was gripping her hands with a strength that almost frightened her. How had that happened? With the linking of their hands he seemed almost an extension of herself-she was arguing with herself instead of him.

But…it was different. The feel of his hands on hers was doing strange things to her. It was feeding her strength, she thought obliquely. If he withdrew his hands she might falter. She might not have the strength to stand up to him.

She held on and his grip tightened still more, as if it were the same for him.

‘Kelly, you can do it,’ he said urgently and she shook her head.

‘Rafael, you can do it.’

‘I don’t…’

‘Neither do I. And my reasons are better than yours,’ she said. ‘As far as I know. Is there anything you’re not telling me?’ ‘No!’

‘There you are, then.’

‘It’s blackmail,’ he snapped and she shook her head.

‘It’s no such thing. It’s sense. You bring your toys and you come home.’

Home. The word drifted between them, strangely poignant.

Rafael stared down into her eyes, seemingly baffled. She met his gaze firmly, unflinching. Did he know he was feeding her strength with his hold? she thought. Why didn’t he pull away?

She didn’t want him to pull away. She had a feeling that if she did…Well, the world was a huge and scary place. To think about going back…to relive the terror…

She couldn’t do it alone. She had to have an ally.

And this man could be an ally. She’d grown up enormously over the last five years. Men like Kass…Well, he’d taught her a hard life lesson but she’d learned it well. Never again would she throw her heart in the ring but, as well as that, she’d also learned to judge. In these last few years she’d learned who her true friends were. And this man…

This man was trustworthy. There were things in his background she didn’t understand. There were shadows-real shadows-and they must be linked to his revulsion at taking on the Prince Regent role, but the sensation that he was solid, that he was a man of his word, was growing rather than receding.

His disinclination to take on the Prince Regency did him no disservice in her eyes. How could anyone want such a job?

How could she return to that lifestyle?

‘It’s an awful thing you’re asking me to do,’ she whispered. ‘To go back and be part of royalty again. But you’ve brought the only enticement that could ever get me there-my son. I have to be deeply, profoundly grateful, and I am. But not enough to do this on my own, Rafael. I need you there.’

‘You don’t need me.’

‘Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I don’t need anyone,’ she conceded. ‘I’ve made sure of that over these last five years. But this is different. It’s not you personally. I need your presence. I need there to be a sovereign to take the limelight from Matty. Maybe you made a mistake bringing him here, offering what you’ve offered. But you have offered it. And…and I made a call this afternoon. I phoned immigration.’

‘You what?’

‘I can keep him right here, whether you say so or not, and under my terms,’ she said, jutting her chin forward in a dumb gesture of defiance. ‘A contract signed in Alp de Ciel holds no weight here when it comes to child custody rights. I’m Matty’s mother and he has no father. Matty is in Australia. You brought him to me-his Australian mother-for which I’m profoundly thankful but now…you can’t change your mind and take him back. The laws of this country will support me.’

He stared down at her, baffled. Whatever route he’d planned this conversation to take, it clearly wasn’t this one.

‘I only wanted you to have your son back,’ he said and he sounded so bewildered that she smiled.

‘You did. It was lovely of you.’

‘I assumed you’d want to come back.’

‘That was sweet of you too, but silly.’

‘I don’t believe,’ he said cautiously, ‘that silly comes into it. Or sweet either, for that matter.’

‘Regardless…sweet or silly…you will stay permanently in Alp de Ciel?’

‘Hell, Kelly…’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘That’s royalty. I hate it and I want no part in it but maybe I’m prepared to take it on for Matty’s sake. He does stand to inherit one day and I realize it’d be very much better if he was brought up in the environment he’ll have to face. But for you…Like Matty, you don’t have a choice. You’re Prince Regent, like it or not. We do this together, Rafael, or not at all.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Then neither can I,’ she said implacably, and waited.

He stared down into her eyes. She met his gaze, unflinching. He didn’t really look like his cousin, she thought. The resemblance was only superficial. Kass’s eyes had been piercing, brutal, cold. Rafael’s…They were troubled now. Shadowed.

She knew she was forcing him to go where he had no wish to tread, but she had no choice. All afternoon the alternatives had been slamming at her, one after another.

There wasn’t an alternative. She knew it.

Rafael knew it.

‘You will take some of the limelight,’ he said, sounding desperate, and she smiled.

‘They can photograph me if they want, but I’ll bet you have women on your arm more glamorous than I’ll ever be.’

‘I don’t do glamour.’

‘Says the man who just walked into my cottage wearing a dress sword.’

‘Kelly…’

‘Rafael.’

‘You really are serious.’

‘I really am serious.’

‘So I get to stay in Alp de Ciel until Matty turns twenty-five?’

‘There you go, then,’ she said, trying to sound cheerful. ‘It’s only a twenty-year sentence. Whereas I…’

‘You can leave any time.’

‘Sure,’ she said. ‘You let Matty sleep in my bed and then you tell me I can leave any time. My sentence is as long as yours, Rafael, maybe even longer.’

There was a loaded pause. They were still holding hands. It was as if the urgency of their conversation required physical contact as well as verbal.

‘Fine,’ he said at last. ‘Okay, then. But it is blackmail.’

‘On both our sides,’ she said gently. ‘We’re forced into this.’

‘The palace doesn’t need us both.’

‘No,’ she said wearily. ‘But as it’s both or neither then we might as well get on with it. And Matty…Matty needs someone. I’m hoping it might be me, but for now he needs you. I’ll fight for that too, Rafael. I’ll fight for what my son needs.’

It caught him. Something in her voice made him pause. He tugged sharply at her hands, forcing her to look up at him.

‘Kelly, it’s not really a life sentence,’ he said.

‘You know it is.’

‘It might even be fun.’

‘Says the man who wants to flee to Manhattan.’

‘We could make it fun.’

‘Like how?’

His mouth twisted. ‘Don’t ask me.’ He glanced at his wristwatch and grimaced. ‘I need to go. Any minute now the dinner will end and there’ll be questions as to why I’m not in the royal bed.’

‘Matty will miss you when he wakes.’

‘Remind him you’re his mother,’ he said softly. Then, at the look on her face, he said more urgently, ‘It’s the truth. You are his mother. You love him already and his love will come.’

‘I don’t think…’

‘No, don’t think,’ he said urgently. ‘That’s the way of madness. One day at a time. Starting now. We can do this.’ And then, before she knew what he was about, he’d caught her chin with his fingers and forced her face up to meet his. His mouth lowered on hers in a swift, demanding kiss.

It shocked them both. She could feel it, like a stab of white-hot heat coming from nowhere. It lasted seconds, hardly even that, and then it was over but, as he released her, her hands flew to her lips and she gazed up at him in bewilderment.

Where had that come from? Why on earth…?

He was looking as bewildered as she was. As if some force other than his had propelled the kiss. As if he, too, didn’t understand what had just happened.

‘I guess it’s a pact,’ he said at last as he stepped back and she gazed at him in stupefaction. ‘A kiss to seal a bargain.’

‘A handshake would have done,’ she whispered.

‘Nah,’ he said and suddenly he grinned and it was like the sun had come out. He was suddenly like a kid in mischief. ‘Where’s the fun in a handshake? A kiss is much more satisfactory. Don’t look like that, Your Highness. I meant no disrespect.’

‘I didn’t think…’

‘It’s just as well you don’t think,’ he said. ‘As the mother of the Crown Prince, you could probably have my head skewered and served on a platter for breakfast for doing what I just did. So let’s just forget the kiss. Good though it was.’ He lifted his dress sword and slid it into its scabbard. His smile faded.

‘So, like it or not, we have a deal. We’re in this together, Kellyn Marie. I won’t see you now until we leave. Can you be ready to return with me on Tuesday? Yes? Unless you want to be overrun with media before then, I shouldn’t return here, and now I’m outed I’ll have to do the full diplomatic round. Tell Matty I love him, and tell him he has a mother in a million.’

‘Even if she’s a blackmailing cow.’

‘She’s not so bad for a blackmailing cow,’ he said and grinned. ‘I’ve seen worse things come out of cheese.’

What the hell had he done?

Rafael walked out through the darkened historical village and thought he must have gone completely mad.

He’d just agreed to stay in Alp de Ciel until Matty was twenty-five.

He didn’t have to. He could promise and then leave anyway once Matty was safely back in the country.

He couldn’t. He thought back to Kelly’s face by the firelight. She trusted him.

He was trustworthy. Hell!

He’d kissed her.

Why had he done that?

It was just that she was so damned kissable. She was such a juxtaposition of sweet, meek and…dragon, he thought ruefully. Life had slapped her around and that was what she looked like, that was how she sounded, but underneath there was a fierce and determined sprite.

What had Kass been thinking to treat her so appallingly?

She’d just blackmailed him into moving his life to Alp de Ciel.

His mother would be delighted.

But Anna…

Whoops.

He needed to talk to Anna before she learned of things via the media, he thought. Kelly might come across as a bit of a dragon but that was nothing to how Anna came across when she was angry.

Would Anna relocate to Alp de Ciel?

Ha.

Too hard. It was all just too hard.

Pete was on the gate, obviously waiting for him to leave. Rafael tugged a note from his wallet to leave him something for his pains, but Pete shook his head at the offering as if he was personally offended.

‘I don’t want your money.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rafael said, surprised.

‘I just don’t want you mucking our Kelly about,’ Pete said strongly. ‘She’s had a rough trot, our Kell.’

‘You could help by not telling anyone I was here tonight. And not telling anyone Kelly has a strange little boy staying with her.’

‘You think I’d do that?’

‘No,’ Rafael said with a faint smile.

‘You really are a prince?’ the old man demanded, and Rafael nodded.

‘Yes.’

‘And the wee one…’

‘He’s Kelly’s son,’ Rafael said, for there was no use dissembling here. ‘The Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel.’

Pete gave a long, low whistle. ‘Well, I’ll be damned. Our Kelly, royalty. We always knew there was something…’ But then he returned to what had obviously been gnawing at him. ‘She’s upset. Anyone can see she’s upset.’

‘It’s been a harrowing day for her.’

‘You’ll be taking her back to…where…Alp de Wotsit?’

‘She’s agreed to go, yes.’

‘Then I’ll say something to you now, boy,’ the old man growled and, dress sword or not, Rafael found himself backed against the wall with the old man’s gnarled finger poking him in the midriff. ‘You take care of her. She’s gone through the mill, that one. Oh, we’re not supposed to know, but there’s not many of the staff here don’t know that she lost her kiddy. We thought maybe he’d died. She’s wanted to be anonymous, she hasn’t wanted to talk about it, and we’ve respected that. We’d keep her secret for as long as she wants. But this place is almost family. She might not have a mum and dad but she has all of us and if she’s mistreated we’ll…we’ll…’

‘Send the dragoons?’ Rafael asked faintly, and the old man relented a little and gave a crooked smile.

‘Yeah, well, the troops we have here may only be make-believe but we can surely make a fuss. So watch it. Watch her.’

‘She’ll be okay.’

‘You guarantee it, sir?’

Now there was an ask. What was he letting himself into? As Prince Regent he was responsible for the well-being of the Crown Prince. Now he was being asked to make guarantees about Kelly.

But Pete was waiting, and behind the belligerence was anxiety. He was genuinely fond of her, Rafael thought. He was genuinely anxious.

So once again he promised. ‘I guarantee she’ll be okay.’

‘You’ll watch over her.’

And stay permanently in Alp de Ciel? With or without Anna? With or without his business?

Anna would kill him. To make such a decision without talking it through with her…But the decision was made.

‘I’ll watch over her,’ he said weakly, and thought, Anna without Fifth Avenue? Without pastrami on rye? His business without Anna?

‘I’ll watch over her,’ he promised again and he was allowed to leave.

But the pressure of Pete’s finger in his chest stayed with him. Pressure…Hell!

He’d kissed her.

How had that happened? Why? Kelly watched Rafael disappear down the main street towards the exit, then started to get ready for bed. She undressed by the fire, thinking that she didn’t want to get undressed in her bedroom yet. Matty was too much a stranger. Her little boy…

It was set. She was going back to Alp de Ciel to take her place as mother of the Crown Prince.

Rafael had kissed her.

She raised a finger to her lips. They still felt bruised, which was crazy. He hadn’t kissed her hard enough to bruise.

But she could still feel where he’d kissed her.

She tugged her nightgown on, then sank into the rocker by the stove, flipped open the fire door and watched the flames. To leave here…

The thought was terrifying.

She had to leave on Tuesday.

There was no choice. She’d known that the moment she’d set eyes on Matty. No matter what she had to do, now she’d seen her son again she would move heaven and earth rather than endure further separation.

Rafael had kissed her.

‘And that was stupid,’ she told herself fiercely. ‘That’s enough of that. You’ve let no man touch you since Kass and you’d be crazy to break that rule now. And with a de Boutaine? No and no and no.’

On impulse she crossed to her desk and booted her computer. Her nineteenth-century cottage boasted wireless Internet-hooray. She typed in Rafael’s name and waited.

There was too much to take in. It was mostly about his work, his toys, awards he’d won, speeches he’d given. He ran some youth apprentice training scheme-very worthy.

She was becoming cynical in her old age, she thought ruefully, and then decided she’d had enough of reading about him.

She clicked on Google Images.

The first one that appeared was at a gala charity event in New York. There was Rafael, looking impossibly handsome in a magnificently cut, deep black dinner suit and a classy white silk scarf.

And on his arm was a stunner-a woman whose legs almost seemed to reach her armpits. She was a magnificent, classy blonde and she was clinging to Rafael’s arm and smiling possessively at him as he smiled at the camera.

The caption read ‘Rafael de Boutaine and his partner, Anna Louise St Clair.’

‘Well, there you go, then,’ she muttered to herself. ‘He has a partner.’

He’d said he wasn’t married or engaged.

He had a partner.

For someone completely disinterested, there was no way of explaining the sudden lurch of loss she felt in the pit of her stomach.

‘It’s only that he’d suit my purpose better if he’s a real bachelor,’ she told herself. ‘He’d get more media attention.’

And then she looked again at Anna and thought, Nope, gaining media attention was never going to be a problem for these two. The pair would be the ruling couple of Alp de Ciel.

‘Which is what you want,’ she said fiercely, slamming down the lid of her computer. ‘How dumb are you to ask if he’s married or engaged?’ she demanded of herself as she headed for bed. ‘How quaint. It’s just as well I’m a historian because that’s what I feel like.’ She stopped herself from tossing a pillow at the wall just in time. For Matty was sleeping. Her Matty. Who this was all about.

‘So it’ll suit our purpose,’ she told her sleeping son, lowering her voice to a whisper. ‘It’s just that he kissed me, Matty. How crazy’s that? And I let him. I must be going out of my mind.’