She blinked fiercely. She’d been awake for seconds and she was close to tears already.
‘H…hi.’
‘Hi, yourself, sleepyhead,’ Rafael said, carrying in a mug of steaming coffee. ‘Mathieu. Toast.’ Mathieu almost saluted, but his hands were occupied in balancing a plateful of toast.
The toast was spread liberally with marmalade and butter. Yum. But…
She glanced at the bedside clock and sat bolt upright as Matty reached the bed with the toast. It was almost a calamity, but not quite, for Rafael moved like a big cat, pouncing on the plate, lifting it away while spilling not a drop of coffee.
She was stunned, but she was still staring at the clock. ‘It’s after nine,’ she stammered. ‘How…’
‘We turned off your alarm clock,’ Matty said proudly and removed the plate of toast from Rafael’s grasp and put it carefully on her knee. ‘Uncle Rafael and me woke up really early because it doesn’t feel like morning. Uncle Rafael says it’s because we’re all the way round the other side of the world and the sun hasn’t caught us up. Uncle Rafael says if we keep flying we’ll catch up with it again but we don’t want to keep flying yet ’cos we have to give you toast. And the man outside in the uniform said you’ve been really, really sick and someone ought to look after you ’cos you sure as hell don’t look after yourself.’
He paused, looking up at Rafael with uncertainty. ‘Did I say that right? In Anglais?’
‘You certainly did,’ Rafael said. ‘I told you my mother’s American,’ he told Kelly. ‘Matty’s been brought up bilingual. Isn’t he terrific?’
‘Terrific,’ Kelly said and managed a smile. Terrific? He was more than terrific. He was…he was…
Her son.
But there was still the little matter of the time.
‘I’m supposed to be at work.’
‘You’re not. Rob’s back,’ Rafael said. ‘The two tour guides are back at work today. There’s no urgency. The powers that be say you’re to take the day off if you need.’
‘The powers that be…’
‘We’ve been busy,’ he told her. ‘We went back to the hotel to get our gear. Then we visited your administration. The lady there-Diane?-she was in at eight. We introduced ourselves.’
‘You never told her…’
‘We said we were relations,’ he said, placating her. ‘And we were worried about you. It seems Diane is worried about you too.’
‘She’s a mother hen,’ Kelly said fretfully, wondering what Diane would be thinking. Knowing what Diane would be thinking. ‘Look, thank you for the thought but I need to…’
‘Take us through the theme park,’ Rafael said. ‘Matty’s aching to go down a gold-mine. We thought we might do that first, if it’s okay with you.’ He smiled down at her with that heart-stopping smile that sent her brain straight into panic. ‘That is, unless you’d like to stay in bed and sleep while Matty and I explore?’
Matty explore without her? The idea had her reaching to toss off her covers but Rafael caught her hands and stopped her.
‘No,’ he said, gently but firmly. ‘You stay in bed until you’ve had your toast. Matty and I are going to eat more toast until you’re ready. You’re not to rush. We have all the time in the world.’
‘Really?’
The smile faded. ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘Not really. But for today I’m going to pretend that’s true, so I’d like you to play along if you will. Let’s get ourselves breakfasted and go find some gold.’
She wore her favourite dress. Matty’s words stayed with her-I thought my mother would wear a pretty dress. So she did.
Most of Kelly’s work in the theme park was done in the administration. She researched new displays, she assessed the veracity of potential tenants for the commercial sites-were their wares truly representative of the eighteen-fifties? She worked with the engineers as they combined authentic mining methods with new-age safety. She examined artefacts as they were found, donated or offered for sale.
In the short times she was off site she wore what the park staff loosely termed civvies, but while she was in the park, like every other employee, she dressed for the times.
She loved her clothes. Yes, she had the hard-wearing moleskins and flannels for when she needed to go underground, but mostly she was a woman wearing clothes that a woman would have worn in the eighteen-fifties-hooped skirts, shawls, bonnets. She loved the way her skirts swished against her, how they turned her into a citizen of a bygone age. She loved disappearing into the world of nearly two hundred years ago.
And this morning Matty was waiting for his mother. So she chose a pale blue muslin gown, beautifully hand-embroidered herself in the long winter nights before the fire. She teamed it with a soft woollen shawl of a deeper blue and cream. She tied her soft chestnut curls into a knot and placed a bonnet on top, a soft straw confection with ribbons of three colours combined. Then she pinched her cheeks to give them colour as girls used to do in times past. She smiled to herself. She was dressing for her son. Surely he wouldn’t notice colour in her cheeks.
She was also dressing for Rafael and he might.
Which was a nonsense, she told herself, suddenly angry. She wasn’t dressing for Rafael. She’d never dress for a de Boutaine again. She wanted nothing to do with the family.
But her son was a de Boutaine. How could she swear never to have anything to do with a royal family headed by her son?
It was too hard. It made her head spin. She picked up the little cane basket she carried instead of a purse and opened the door to the kitchen.
They were washing dishes. Rafael was washing, Matty was wiping. Rafael had his sleeves rolled up. He’d used too much soap and suds were oozing out of the porcelain bowl and on to the wooden bench. Matty was manfully trying to wipe suds off plates. He had suds on his nose.
There it was again. The combination of de Boutaine sexiness that made her want to gasp.
She swallowed it firmly, but both guys had turned to her and were looking at her in frank admiration.
‘Wow,’ said Matty.
‘Wow,’ Rafael repeated and she felt herself blushing.
‘I…it’s what we all have to wear.’
‘My mama’s pretty,’ Matty said, satisfied. ‘Isn’t she, Uncle Rafael?’
‘She certainly is,’ Rafael agreed. ‘Modern men don’t know what they’re missing.’
‘It certainly covers me,’ she said, struggling for lightness. ‘There could be absolutely anything under these hoops.’
‘Hoops,’ Matty said. He walked forward, fascinated, and gave one of her hoops a tentative poke.
Her skirt swayed out behind her.
‘It’s like a little tent,’ Matty said. ‘Mama could have really, really fat legs. Or she could be hiding something. A little dog.’
It was said with a certain amount of hope and for a dumb moment Kelly wished she had a dog.
A dog under her skirt. Right.
‘There’s nothing your mama needs to hide,’ Rafael said, turning his back to the suds, eyeing them with a degree of bewilderment and then sternly turning back to her. ‘Let’s go play on the goldfields.’
‘You haven’t finished washing up.’
‘My suds seem to be taking over the world,’ he said. ‘I just shook the little holder with the washing up liquid in and suds went everywhere. I think we should go out and shut the door and lock it after us. And hope like crazy the suds don’t follow us down the mineshafts.’
They loved it.
Kelly could do the guide thing on autopilot. She walked them through the little town, down to the creek where tourists were panning for gold. She showed the boys how to use the tin pans and then sat on a log and watched them.
The park was quiet. The flu epidemic had hit the whole state. It was autumn. Nearly all the staff had been laid low early and were now returning to work. With the worst of the sickness past, they’d be almost overmanned for the rest of the season. So she could afford to take this day. To simply wat
ch as Matty and Rafael explored.
They were so alike.
Rafael wasn’t even Matty’s uncle, she reminded herself. Rafael had been Kass’s cousin. That made him-what-second cousin to Matty?
But Matty loved him. He trusted him absolutely. Their two heads were bowed over the pan, searching for specks of gold, and she thought that Rafael could easily be his father.
What sort of man was he? The Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel.
It didn’t matter.
It did matter, for there was a burning question hanging over her head. Where did she go from here?
She’d been handed back her son, but Matty was his own little person. He had allegiances. There were people he loved, and those people didn’t include her.
Rafael had said it was her decision to make.
She’d keep him here. She watched as he found a tiny speck of gold in his pan and held it on his thumb, admiring. He could live with her here. She’d take care of him. He could have a wonderful life, living on the diggings. Lots of staff had their kids here-he’d be part of the kid-pack who wore period clothes and treated the park as their personal playground. He’d go to school here. She’d keep him…
Hidden?
It was on the tip of her tongue, the edge of her thoughts. That was what she’d been doing, she thought. For the last five years she’d been hiding. She was hiding still, behind her hoops and her bonnet and her period self.
The Kelly who’d looked up to see Prince Kass gazing down at her, the Kelly who’d ridden out with Kass at dawn, who’d launched herself into life six years back, had been locked firmly away.
Yes, she was hiding. She was still in there somewhere, the Kelly who craved excitement and adventure and…romance? But she was very firmly hidden and there was no way the sensible Kelly would ever let her emerge again.
Pete was walking down the hill towards them. Trouble. She knew the security guard well and the expression on his face had Kelly standing up, moving automatically between Pete and the two gold-panners.
Between the outside world and her son.
‘What’s wrong?’ she called before he reached her, and Rafael looked up from gold-panning, handed the pan over to Matty and came to join her.
‘There’s media at the gate,’ Pete said harshly. ‘They’re asking Diane where to find someone called the Prince Regent of some country or other. Diane told them she’s never heard of anyone like that but they described-’ he hesitated as Rafael reached them ‘-they described you, sir.’
‘Damn,’ Rafael said, but he said it wearily as if he’d expected it.
‘We’ll go back to the cottage,’ Kelly said, uncertain, but he shook his head.
‘They’d find us there. We’ll be forced to stay inside while they camp and wait for us to come out. It’ll just delay the inevitable.’
‘I can see them off,’ Pete said. ‘Begging your pardon, but…are you a prince?’
‘For my sins, yes,’ Rafael said ruefully. ‘And this is a public theme park. They can demand admission. I’ll have to head them off. Kelly, can you blend into the tourist scene with Matty?’
‘I…sure. Are they looking for me?’ She sounded scared. She knew it but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Five years ago she’d been hunted as the press had searched the world for her. She’d been turned into the wicked princess, reviled by all.
To have photographers here now…
‘Not yet,’ Rafael said. ‘At least I hope not. I hope it’s just that they’ve tracked me down. They’ll assume Matty’s at home in Alp de Ciel.’
‘What have you told them? Do they know you’re letting me have access to Matty?’
‘I’ve told them nothing,’ he said, looking grim. ‘But it’s not going to last.’
‘What’s going on?’ Pete demanded, bewildered.
‘It’s private,’ Kelly said urgently, but she knew Pete’s brain was forming questions more quickly than his mouth could ask them.
‘They’ll find us soon,’ she whispered.
‘Yes, but I’ll buy time.’ Rafael shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, Matty,’ he said. Matty had straightened from his panning and was looking bewildered. ‘It’s the press,’ he said, as if that explained all, and Kelly could see that the words were meaningful to her little son. He’d been hounded by the media in the past, then. ‘I need to go.’
‘Will I come with you?’ Matty drew himself up and Kelly had a flash of recognition. This was a prince in training. His shoulders came back and he met Rafael’s look directly. ‘Do they wish to talk to me?’
‘They might eventually,’ Rafael conceded. ‘But your job here is to protect your mother. If it’s okay,’ he said to Kelly, ‘I’ll leave-I’ll give them some sort of interview and try to deflect them-and come back when the park is closed. Matty, is that okay with you?’
‘Y-yes,’ Matty said but his bottom lip trembled again. He really was a very little boy.
‘We’ll have fun,’ Kelly said, stooping to look directly into his eyes. ‘Matty, we can go down a gold-mine. We can play tenpin bowling with old wooden skittles. Do you know how to bowl?’
‘Y-yes.’
‘We can learn how to make damper-it’s a lovely type of bread that’s really Australian. Then we can go back to my little house and sit by the fire and read books. Before you know it, your Uncle Rafael will be back.’
‘I want my Aunt Laura,’ Matty quavered, and Kelly couldn’t help herself. She gathered him to her and hugged. His little body was stiff and unyielding.
‘They’re coming this way,’ Pete said urgently and Rafael looked up the hill and swore.
‘Damn, I…’
‘Just go,’ Kelly said, holding Matty tight. ‘Please.’ She wasn’t ready to face the media yet and the thought of cameras aimed at Matty was unbearable. ‘But you will come back?’
‘Of course I’ll come back.’
‘Thank you,’ she said simply and, as Pete moved up the hill to deflect the dozen or so men and women walking purposefully towards them, she crossed the little bridge over the creek and carried Matty away. Hoping the media had been too far away to guess that she and Rafael had been together.
The Chinese camp was just behind them. Yan, the camp guide, was a personal friend.
‘Can I take Matty through the Joss house?’ she demanded and Yan stepped aside. The inside of the Joss house was a sacred place, out of bounds for anyone but worshippers.
‘Go,’ he said without asking questions, his eyes flicking to the group of men and women clustering about Rafael. Shouting questions. Lifting cameras high and taking photographs over people’s heads.
She went. But before Yan closed the gate behind her she turned with Matty in her arms to take a last glimpse of Rafael.
Royalty.
She wanted no part of it.
She had a part of it. He was in her arms right now, tense and frightened and to be protected at all costs.
Her Matty. Her son.
The only person standing between Matty and the media-between Matty and the world-was Rafael.
A de Boutaine.
Her world was upside down.
‘Let’s go underground for a while,’ she whispered to Matty as she fled out through the back entrance.
‘I don’t think I want to go underground,’ Matty said and Kelly thought, neither do I.
She’d had five years of being underground.
Maybe it was time to emerge.
Maybe she had no choice.
CHAPTER THREE
T HEY 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.
Wanted: Royal Wife and Mother Page 4