by Raye Morgan
“Isn’t good enough,” she echoed weakly, shaking her head. It was no use. He might as well know the truth. “Someone should call out the paramedics,” she whispered to him wryly, leaning close so as not to be overheard. “Half the women in here are about to swoon right off their chairs after watching you walk across the room.”
He eyed her skeptically, a cloudy, slightly bewildered expression in his eyes. Then he spoke with such honesty, she was taken aback. “Kayla, come on. Don’t mess with my self-confidence like that. I’m feeling shaky enough about this whole royal thing. I don’t need you, of all people, to be mocking me.”
She recoiled in surprise. She hadn’t meant to do that. She hadn’t thought anything could ruffle his famously appealing feathers. Evidently, he wasn’t quite as cocky as he seemed. To think that he had never noticed the effect he had on women was a revelation.
“I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I’m just as new at this as you are. I was trying to stick to a light tone and I guess I went a little too far.” Reaching across the table, she took his hand in hers and leaned forward, looking into his eyes earnestly. “Max, you’ve got a great walk. Manly and noble and full of confidence. At least, that’s the way it comes across and that is what counts. You were born to be a prince, no matter how you want to fight it. It’s in your blood.”
He squeezed her hand and didn’t answer, but his eyes were smiling.
“But we aren’t finished,” she added quickly. “There are a lot of superficial things you need to learn. We still have a long way to go.”
He nodded, agreeing with her. “‘And miles to go before we sleep,’” he said softly.
She gasped and smiled. “A literary quote. Very good. Knowing good poetry is a real plus in a prince.”
“Eddie taught me that one.” His eyes clouded. “Too bad it wasn’t Eddie who got the chance to be a prince. He would have done a bang-up job of it, wouldn’t he?”
As she watched him, something caught in her heart. “Max, Eddie was great. I miss him constantly. It just kills me that he had to die. But …” And here was the hard part. It was true, but hard to say. “Max, he was no better a person than you are.”
Max winced as though she’d slapped him. “Don’t say that. Of course he was.”
“No.” She shook her head. “He wasn’t perfect. He was a man, just like you are. He had his good days and his bad ones.” She tried to smile. “He could be darn grumpy when the weather didn’t suit him. You remember.”
A slow grin erased Max’s frown. “I remember.”
Their gazes met and held. Max began to lean closer, his eyes filling with smoky memories.
“Kayla,” he began huskily.
But he never got any further. A shriek filled the room, a sound like a fire engine coming through, and they both jumped back, startled.
“Oh, no,” Kayla said as she leaped to her feet and whirled. And just in time. A child who could barely toddle was racing toward her as fast as his chubby little legs could take him.
“Teddy!”
He threw himself at her, practically flying through the air, and she caught him and pulled him up into her arms, half laughing, half scolding. “Teddy, what are you doing here?”
“I am so sorry,” Caroline said, rushing in behind him with her own little boy in her arms. “We saw you through the glass. And once he knew his mom was in here, there was no stopping him. He climbed right out of the stroller!”
Holding Teddy in her arms was like being close to heaven and Kayla always reveled in it. But there was another emotion lurking. Guilt. Leaving her baby with someone else was something she had to do, but the guilt never completely left her, no matter how busy and involved she was at work. She held him tightly and whispered soothing words against his adorable head, and he whimpered and pressed in close. And the guilt welled up inside her.
She looked up, realizing there were other issues that had to be dealt with. Her sister was smiling at Max, but she hadn’t told her anything about him and she obviously had no idea who he was.
“Caroline, this is an old friend from back in my Trialta days. Max Arragen. He … he and Eddie were really close. They flew together …?.”
“Nice to meet you.” Caroline frowned as she held out her hand for his. “Wait. Max Arragen? Aren’t you …?”
He gave her one of his devastating self-deprecating smiles. “The new prince. Yes.”
Caroline’s eyes lit up. “Congratulations,” she said, glancing at Kayla. “I had no idea. Wow. You must be really excited with all this hoopla.”
“Oh, yeah. Something like that anyway.”
“I feel like I should do a little curtsy or something.”
“No. Please.” He seemed genuinely embarrassed and she laughed.
Kayla watched them and she had to smile. Her sister resembled her quite a bit, but her blond hair was cut short and perky. Caroline was the friendly, outgoing sort, while Kayla had always felt she was the shy one, the quietly competent one whose work no one really noticed. And yet, here she was, having lunch with a prince, working for the queen … Maybe it was time to reassess her self-image.
“Ma-ma,” Teddy said, tugging on her collar and adding something indecipherable that probably meant, Let’s get out of here and have some ‘mommy and me’ time together.
The words weren’t there but Kayla heard the message loud and clear. She looked up at Max, waiting for him to finish chatting with her sister and notice the baby.
“We were on our way to the playground,” Caroline was saying. “If you two have any lunch hour left, why don’t you come along?”
Kayla looked at Max. He was staring at Teddy. Her heart began to race. What was he seeing? What did those sharp eyes catch? What were the vibes that were getting through to his instinctive reactions?
It was hard to tell. He was smiling, but something in that smile was beginning to stiffen up. Had he noticed? Had he taken a quick assessment of whom Teddy might look like? It was an exercise that was completely familiar to her. She’d done it periodically ever since her baby was born. She was blond with dark eyes. Eddie had been the same. But Max had dark bronzed hair and shockingly blue eyes. And so did Teddy.
It didn’t mean anything. Of course it didn’t. There were all sorts of combinations possible with the logic of genetics. She knew that. He knew that. But still …
“This is Teddy,” she told him, wishing her voice wasn’t shaking. “Teddy, this is Max. Say ‘hi.’” She made him wave, but his little baby face was rebellious.
Max hesitated. He didn’t seem to have much experience socializing with babies and in the end, he smiled awkwardly and said, “Hi, Teddy.”
Teddy turned and hid his face against her neck. Kayla searched Max’s eyes, trying to guess what he might be thinking. She didn’t see any clues. But she also didn’t see the sort of appreciation for her beautiful child that she might have expected.
“I think he’s tired,” she said, knowing it sounded like an excuse.
“Oh, sure,” Caroline chimed in helpfully. “He didn’t have a nap this morning and he usually goes down for a half hour or so.”
Teddy still had morning naps? Had she really been out of his daily routine for so long that she didn’t know it any longer? She felt a sudden sense of remorse. She should be with her baby today. He needed her. She needed him. He was clinging to her and she was getting the message.
As she pulled him closer, he turned to look at Max. Teddy’s expression didn’t change, but his lower lip thrust out and his little hands dug deeper into the fabric of her blouse. This is my mom, his face said. She belongs to me.
“Cute kid,” Max said shortly, but there was no warmth in his eyes as he turned away.
Kayla made her decision. “I think we’re going to have to put off doing more work on our prince project,” she told him. “I really feel I need to go to the playground with them. I’ve been neglecting Teddy so much lately. Do you … do you want to come along?”
She waited as he mulled it over, hoping
he would say no.
“I’ve got a few things I’ve got to take care of,” he said at last, his gaze touching hers, then veering off again. “I’ll catch you later.”
“Okay.” Relief flooded her. This was just too nerve-wracking to keep up much longer.
She didn’t look at Max again. Her attention was all for her baby. Caroline gave her a questioning look and she knew that her sister wanted to get filled in on a few details and get a fix on her feelings, but she wasn’t up to discussing Max and all that he meant to her. Too much had happened too soon and she needed to reevaluate.
But right now it was Teddy’s time. She turned her face away and began a baby-talk discussion with her son. Her sister would have to wait.
Max wandered down into the main castle courtyard and out along the man-made miniwilderness where he could lose himself among the trees. A small babbling brook ran cheerfully past a large flat rock, and that was where he settled, out of sight of the walkways.
Normally, he wasn’t much for introspection. He thought of himself as a man of action. He didn’t tend to second-guess himself, to try to analyze why he did the things he went through or why the results had been good or bad. Navel gazing was just not his style.
But today he felt like a little self-analysis was in order. He’d just spent an hour in a meeting with two of his brothers—Prince Mykal, who had been identified as one of the royals only a few weeks before Max had, and Prince David, who had caught sight of him in the hallway and invited him to join them in a discussion of renovations to a still-destroyed area of the castle.
Much of the original and ancient castle had been burned on the night thirty years before when the Granvilli family had mounted a successful rebellion and taken over Ambria, killing the king and queen and establishing their vicious dictatorial regime. That night, each of the royal children had been spirited away by various servants or friends or members of the administration and hidden from the Granvillis. It had taken twenty-five years for the princes and princess to begin to find each other again. Their fight to win back their country had been successful and now there was only a remnant of the Granvilli faction that held a remote part of the island to deal with.
David was the second oldest prince and considered second only to King Monte in importance. Tall and dark, he had a serious air about him.
“Max, I’m glad to see you,” he said when he met his brother in the hall. “I’ve been neglecting you, I know. There are so many issues coming up right now. I really want to get you more involved in management matters. We all have to share the burden of managing the castle, and eventually, the nation at large.” He gave him a firm pat on the back. “I’m meeting Mykal in the blue meeting room right now. Why don’t you join us?”
Max was glad to do just that. He was still new enough at the castle to be a little starstruck by his brothers and he wasn’t sure he would ever get over being impressed by them. He’d been told a little of David’s background. He’d been raised by a family in the Netherlands, and since he was six when he was taken, he remembered where he’d come from. But he also knew it had to be kept secret, and it wasn’t until he was in his twenties that he and Monte found each other and began to plot their return to power. As the two oldest, they were regularly considered the head and heart of the family.
Mykal was almost as new to this as Max was, and it showed. Still recovering from a terrible motorcycle accident, he had trouble sitting for long, and by the time an hour had passed it was obvious the meeting had to be adjourned for the day.
But Max sat with them at the long, shiny table and made small talk about how he was settling in. Then the real work of the meeting had begun, and he was very quickly over his head. The talk was all architectural plans and cost estimates and zoning regulations, things he had never dealt with before. He listened carefully and filed information away to learn more about later. But he was definitely out of his element, and what’s more, though he liked and admired them, he didn’t feel any special connection. They were brothers, but it didn’t feel the way he had expected that sort of relationship to feel. When they all rose, shook hands and parted ways, his head was swimming.
That feeling was still with him now. He was glad to have carved out an hour to be on his own. There was a lot to think about. He was feeling a bit shaky about what he ought to be doing and generally undecided about his own future. Bottom line—what the hell was he doing here living in a castle?
The whole prince thing just didn’t feel right. He’d never asked for it. He’d been happily flying reconnaissance missions over the Granvilli territory when he’d been called in to the commander’s office and asked to take a battery of tests. He still didn’t know who had nominated him for testing or why.
If only he’d refused and walked away right at that point, none of this would be happening. He’d be off flying in someone else’s war.
Still, what was stopping him from doing exactly what he pleased right now? He could go. He could find someone else to fly for. He would keep his promise to the queen, but once that was over, he wasn’t so sure he was going to stick around. After all, what was really keeping him here?
Right now, he would have to say it was mostly Kayla. He hadn’t expected to find her here, but now that they had reconnected, he knew he didn’t want to lose her again.
Kayla was important to him. She always would be. He remembered those days in Trialta as the best days of his life. He and Eddie had hit it off like brothers, born to be together, and Kayla had been a huge part of that bond.
Funny. When he’d heard she had a child, he’d assumed her baby would be an extension of that. That he would love the kid as a small form of Eddie. But the reality hadn’t fit in with the vision. There was something about that baby …
He was definitely a beautiful baby boy. But looking at him, something hadn’t felt right. Something about the kid bothered him, made him want to look away quickly, and he didn’t want to feel that way about Kayla’s baby. Very strange. Maybe he ought to stay away from the kid until he was a little older.
A twig snapped and he turned his head, sure someone was coming into his little clearing. He didn’t want company. He stared into the brush, ready to scowl a nonwelcome. But no one appeared. He stared harder, his gaze darting from one gap in the greenery to another, looking for movement. Nothing. Funny … he was sure he’d heard someone.
And it had happened before. He remembered getting the same feeling when he was wandering through the halls, earlier. A feeling that he wasn’t alone.
Suddenly he had a prickly feeling on the back of his neck, and he stood, turning slowly, hands balled into fists. Yes, damn it, someone was watching him. Maybe he couldn’t see it, but he sure as hell could feel it.
CHAPTER SEVEN
KAYLA looked up, startled, as Max came into the office. There was a thunderstorm brewing in that handsome face.
“Max,” she said, but he walked right past her desk and confronted Pellea.
“I want to know why you’ve got somebody following me,” he said curtly. “Don’t you trust me? Has it really come to this?”
Pellea looked up and gaped at him, bewildered and showing it. “What are you talking about?”
“Look, I’ve made you a promise. I may be unreliable in superficial ways, but when I make a promise, I keep it. There was no call for you to send spies to watch over me. I don’t like it.”
She was shaking her head, looking at him as though he’d lost his mind. “I don’t have anyone following you,” she protested earnestly. “Really, Max. I swear.”
His anger seemed to pulse in the small room. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He knew he was over-the-top and taking it out on Pellea wasn’t going to fix anything. This wasn’t really her fault. He’d been angry when he thought it was, but her outrage told him differently, and he began to cool down. If he were honest with himself, he knew his own doubts and insecurities were more to blame for this outburst than anything the queen could have done. He needed to
get a grip.
“I was just down in the courtyard, in among the trees, and someone was there watching me. I know it.”
She shrugged. “There may have been someone watching you, but I didn’t tell them to. Believe me, Max. I wouldn’t do that.” She made a face. “Not yet, anyway.”
He looked at the ground and shook his head. For someone trying to learn to act like a prince, he was doing a lousy job of it. He looked up with a rueful smile and made a slight bow toward her.
“Your Majesty, please forgive me. This was rude and uncalled for. I had no right to attack you like this and I’m sorry.”
Pellea’s smile lit up the room. It seemed she knew earnest regret when she saw it. “Of course I forgive you. This is not supposed to be a fight. We’re both on the same side.” She rose from her desk chair and came out to throw her arms around him and then kiss him on both cheeks.
“Listen to me,” he told her. “I will make you a pledge right now. I won’t do anything behind your back. If anything happens, I’ll tell you. If I decide I have to leave, I’ll tell you. No secrets.”
She nodded. “Good.” One last pat on his cheek and she turned. “And in the spirit of openness, sit down. I’ll give you the rundown on our latest outreach to Mercuria.”
He sank into a chair across from her, but glanced back at Kayla. She gave him a wink and a tiny approving smile. Ridiculously, he suddenly felt much better.
“All right, here’s the news. We’ve sent our ambassador to Mercuria.”
Max nodded. “And what message does he take with him?”
Pellea shuffled papers on her desk and brought up the pertinent ones. “In answer to their charges, we respond thusly—it is our understanding that the airplane was given to Prince Maximillian, formerly known as Max Arragen, in payment for his help in establishing the Mercurian Air Force and therefore not an item that can be reclaimed.”
She looked up for his approval, and he nodded.
“As for the horse, we made it clear that we feel there was a misunderstanding and a wrong done to the horse’s owner, who now has regained possession of the horse. If they like, we are prepared to pay damages for the loss of it to the Mercurian government.” She nodded toward Kayla. “I’ve had that whole episode explained to me. Kayla repeated what you told her this morning.”