Sebastian’s brows came together. ‘What about a man?’ he asked.
Stefanos shook his head. ‘There is no man. However, there is a small child, a boy of about five or so.’
Sebastian straightened in his chair, a cold hand of unease disturbing the hairs on the back of his neck. ‘A boy?’ he asked, frowning harder. ‘Who does he belong to?’
‘I made some further enquiries and found out that Angelica Mantoudakis gave birth five years ago to a boy called Nickolas,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t able to find out much else. The neighbours pretty much keep to themselves in that area, but one of them did say she sees Cassandra Kyriakis taking the little boy with her to the orphanage each day to the nursery school there, one assumes because the Mantoudakis woman’s hours at the hotel prevent her doing so herself.’
Sebastian hadn’t even realised he had been holding his breath until he let it out in a jagged stream of relief and something else he couldn’t quite identify. ‘Thank you, Stefanos,’ he said. ‘You did well.’
‘The council have still not come up with any clues to the whereabouts of the Stefani diamond,’ Stefanos went on. ‘There is a private investigating team working on it, as well as Prince Alex, but so far nothing has come to light.’
Sebastian felt his jaw tighten all over again. He had lain awake half the night, wondering if the diamond would ever be found in time. No matter how discreet the private investigators would be he was under no illusions as to how long it would be before someone suspected something was amiss and rumours began to circulate. They had perhaps already begun to do so. Sebastian wanted the start of his rulership of Aristo to be as smooth as possible. He wanted to build the confidence of his people, to show them he was nothing like his autocratic father, but would listen to the various concerns brought to him from the community and act on them promptly and appropriately. He had a vision for Aristo, a vision he had nurtured from when he had first started to realise his destiny. He had been born to rule this island and he would do so with strong but considerate leadership, but unless the Stefani diamond was found, his coronation could not go ahead.
‘Keep them on to it,’ he instructed his aide. ‘And make sure they keep their heads down while they are at it.’
‘Certainly, Your Highness,’ Stefanos said, and after a pause added, ‘I have just been talking to Demetrius about the orphanage party. The director of the orphanage was delighted with the invitation as you are the first patron to have made such a magnanimous gesture.’
Sebastian waved away the compliment. ‘They are children, Stefanos,’ he said. ‘Little defenceless children with no one to look out for them. It is the very least I can do.’
‘Yes, indeed, Your Highness,’ Stefanos agreed. ‘So is the dinner with Cassandra Kyriakis going ahead for Thursday night? I will have to let the chef know.’
‘It is going ahead,’ Sebastian said, leaning back in his chair. ‘I want to take her to Kionia for a picnic.’
Stefanos lifted his brows for a nanosecond. ‘I will see to it immediately,’ he said, and left.
Cassie was hovering near the window when the long, black, sleek car pulled up in front of the flat on Thursday evening. She scooped up her purse and light wrap and made her way outside even before the driver could get to the front door to ring the doorbell.
The uniformed driver opened the passenger door for her with a blank expression, and she slipped inside, coming face to face with Sebastian, who was sitting on the plush leather seat opposite hers.
‘I can see you are in a hurry for our date, agape mou,’ he observed with a benign smile. ‘How flattering.’
Cassie rolled her eyes in disdain and shifted her knees so they weren’t brushing against his. ‘That’s not the case at all,’ she said with chilly hauteur. ‘I didn’t want to draw attention to myself or to you. Can you imagine what the neighbours would make of me going off in a limousine?’
‘I take your point,’ he said, still smiling. ‘Would you like a drink? I would offer you champagne but you would not drink it, ne? But there is fresh orange juice or mineral water.’
‘Orange juice would be lovely…Thank you.’
Once he had poured her a chilled glass of juice and handed it to her, Cassie settled back in her seat and tried to relax her shoulders. She took a covert look at him over the rim of her frosted glass as she took a small sip of her drink. He was wearing taupe-coloured trousers and a white open-neck shirt, the sleeves rolled up to almost his elbows giving him a handsome-without-really-trying look that was nothing short of heart-stopping. She felt her breath come to a skidding halt in her chest just looking at him. He was cleanly shaven, his curly black hair springy and damp from his recent shower. The citrus-based fragrance of his aftershave drifted towards her and she couldn’t stop the flare of her nostrils to take more of the alluring scent in. How could a man so casually dressed be so overwhelmingly masculine? she wondered. The breadth of his shoulders, the taut flatness of his abdomen and the long muscular length of his thighs were an overwhelming reminder of his potency as a full-blooded man in the prime of his life.
‘How was your day?’ he asked.
Cassie lowered her glass with an unsteady hand. ‘M-my day?’
His mouth tilted in a disarming manner that reminded her so much of Sam she felt her stomach muscles involuntarily tighten.
‘Yes, Cassie, your day,’ he said. ‘Did you work at the orphanage?’
‘Yes…’
‘How was Nickolas?’
Cassie looked at him blankly. ‘Nickolas?’
He set his glass down on the flip-top rest at his elbow. ‘Your flatmate’s son,’ he said. ‘The one you take with you to the orphanage nursery-school each day.’
Cassie licked her suddenly arid-dry lips.
‘Um…he’s…he’s…how…how did you find out…about him?’
‘I had my aide Stefanos make some discreet enquiries about who you were living with.’
Cassie felt her heart pumping so erratically she was sure he would hear it, but she forced herself to hold his penetrating coal-black gaze in any case, even though every instinct inside was screaming for her to avoid it. ‘So,’ she said with an attempt at nonchalance she was sure had fallen well short of the mark, ‘what else did you find out about me?’
He picked up his glass once more and twirled it in his hand in an indolent manner. ‘Your flatmate is an ex-prisoner. A drug addict, apparently. Hardly the company you should be keeping if you are serious about turning your life around, now, is it?’
Her chin came up at that. ‘I hope you’re not going to hold her past against her,’ she said. ‘Angelica is one of the most genuine and loving people I have ever met. She deserves a second chance.’
‘Is she clean?’
She set her mouth. ‘Yes, she is.’
‘She would want to be, given she’s the mother of a small child,’ he commented imperiously.
Cassie listened to her deafening heartbeats reverberating through her eardrums: kaboom, kaboom, kaboom…
So he assumed Sam was her flatmate’s child, she thought with somewhat cautious relief. That was a good thing…for now. As long as she could maintain the charade with Angelica’s cooperation for the next few weeks until she left the island for good things would be fine…or so Cassie hoped.
‘Did you meet her in prison?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘So the child was with her in prison?’
‘Um…’ Cassie mentally crossed her fingers at yet another one of her little white lies. ‘Yes…’
He gave her a studied look for a lengthy moment. ‘The little boy whose drawing you gave me the other day,’ he said. ‘Did he come from a criminal or violent background?’
Cassie’s hand trembled slightly as she reached for her glass of juice. ‘Not directly…’
One of Sebastian’s brows hooked upwards. ‘Meaning what exactly?’
‘His mother would never dream of being violent towards him.’
A frown appea
red on his brow. ‘But I thought you said he was an orphan?’
Cassie stared at him for a heart-stopping moment. ‘Um…I…I…’ she gave a tight little swallow ‘…did I?’
He gave a single nod. ‘You did.’
‘Oh…well, I must have got him confused with another child…or something…’
‘What is his name?’ he asked.
Cassie’s heart gave another pounding thump. ‘N-name?’
‘The little boy who gave me the drawing,’ he said. ‘What is his name?’
She ran her tongue across her lips. ‘It’s…er…Sam.’
‘I am looking forward to meeting him tomorrow at the party,’ Sebastian said. ‘I have organised a magician to entertain them as well as a gift for every child and the mandatory balloons, sweets, cakes and ices.’
‘That’s very generous of you,’ Cassie said, her heart still pounding sickeningly. She could even feel a fine trail of perspiration making its way between her shoulder blades. ‘I’m sure they will have a wonderful time and remember it for the rest of their lives.’
‘I would like to make it an annual event,’ he said. ‘And I would like to visit the orphanage as soon as it can be arranged.’
‘I am sure the director will be delighted to have you do so,’ Cassie said, even as her heart gave another gut-wrenching lurch of dread. The party at the palace was risky enough, but if Sebastian wandered around the orphanage on an official visit someone was surely going to inadvertently let the cat out of the bag over who Sam’s mother was. Cassie had already told so many fibs. It was getting harder and harder to keep each brick of untruth in place. Any minute she felt as if the wall of lies she had built would tumble down and crush her. Even the way Sebastian looked at her in that unwavering way of his made her wonder if he suspected something was amiss. At times she felt as if it were written in block letters on her forehead: I am the mother of your little son. All Sebastian had to do was keep looking at her in that piercing way of his and he would surely see it.
Just the way he was looking at her now…
‘Have you guessed where I am taking you?’ he asked after a few moments of silence.
Cassie leaned forward to look out of the window. They had moved well beyond the town and were heading to the Bay of Kounimai where she knew the Karedes family had a private holiday retreat at a place called Kionia. Sebastian had never taken her there before but in the past he had told her of the secluded beauty of the villa with its fabulous views over the rough water of the passage separating Aristo from the neighbouring island of Calista. ‘Are we going to Kionia?’ she asked as she sat back in her seat.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I thought we could both do with some privacy. I had Stefanos organise a picnic for us. It is a pleasant evening with not too much sea breeze so we can enjoy the sunset.’
‘It sounds lovely,’ Cassie said. ‘I can’t remember the last time I went on a picnic. Sam’s always asking me to—’ She suddenly stopped, her heart thudding like an out-of-sync timepiece.
Sebastian cocked his head at her. ‘Sam? You mean the little boy who drew me the picture?’
Cassie blinked at him, her brain whirling and spinning out of control. ‘Um…he’s…Angelica’s little boy,’ she finally managed to croak out.
He gave her a quizzical look. ‘I thought his name was Nickolas,’ he said. ‘Or at least that’s what Stefanos said it was, but then he could have got it wrong.’
‘N-no, that is right…’ Cassie hastily mortared another lie into her wall of deceit. ‘Angelica’s son is called Nickolas but…but he prefers his second name…’
‘Like my sister prefers Lissa or Liss instead of Elissa,’ he said.
Cassie felt her tension gradually start to dissipate, but even so her stomach felt as if a hive of bees had taken up residence inside. She felt as if each wing were buzzing against the lining of her stomach, the threat of a thousand stings making the trail of perspiration along her backbone feel more like a river. ‘Yes…exactly like that…’
‘I told her I ran into you,’ Sebastian said. ‘She’s been in Paris studying. She came home for our father’s funeral and Kitty’s wedding, but now she’s in Australia working for a friend of Alex’s, a businessman by the name of James Black.’
‘How is she?’ Cassie asked, thinking with more than a pang or two of shame of the wild-child antics Lissa and she had got up to. It was hard to remember now who had encouraged whom, but Cassie suspected she was the one who had been held most responsible.
‘You know Lissa,’ he said with a rueful twist to his mouth. ‘If there’s a party she not only wants to be there but she wants to be the centre of it. She wasn’t too keen about being packed off to Sydney but we all thought it best if she had some time in the real world. I just hope it irons out some of her wilfulness. She has always been a little too independent for her own good.’
Cassie looked down at her hands for a moment. ‘I am sure the experience of travelling and working abroad will be wonderful for her. When you are next speaking to her…I mean, if you think it’s appropriate to mention you have seen me, please tell her I send my regards.’
The car growled its way into the wrought iron fortress of the Karedeses’ private hideaway, making the silence inside all the more intense. Cassie felt the press of Sebastian’s watchful gaze and forced herself to bring her eyes back to his.
‘No doubt she will contact you in due course,’ he said, still with his dark, penetrating gaze trained on her face. ‘When my father found out about the postcards she sent he strictly forbade any further contact while he was alive, which I think Lissa feels guilty about now. That is probably why she hasn’t as yet contacted you.’
‘I understand,’ she said. ‘We were probably not a good mix when I think about it. We brought out the worst in each other at times.’
‘She was always very fond of you.’
Cassie felt her heart contract. ‘I was…I am still very fond of her,’ she said, and then unguardedly added, ‘We had more in common than she probably realised.’
He gave her one of his narrow-eyed looks. ‘What do you mean?’
Her gaze skittered away from his. ‘The children of high-profile parents often have a lot in common. We are constantly followed by the press and anything we do or say is used against us. I think Lissa and I were alike in that we got fed up with it all and tried to get out there and live like other normal teenagers. But of course we could never be normal, Lissa more so than me. She, like you, has royal blood running through her veins.’
‘You are right, of course,’ he said. ‘I too had to pull in my horns, so to speak. The weight of responsibility does that to you after a while. Even if my father had not died so unexpectedly I was already feeling the urge to settle down.’
Cassie felt a pain like a rusty switchblade go through her. Sebastian had already mentioned a suitable wife had been selected for him. She could see him married to a beautiful woman who was everything she was not nor ever could be: gracious, well-bred, with an immaculate reputation, well educated and comfortable in every social situation. No doubt his wonderfully suitable wife would bear him an heir and a spare, maybe even another couple of gorgeous children who looked just like Sam…
Even if she was thousands of kilometres away as she had planned, how on earth would Cassie bear it?
Sebastian instructed the driver to set up the picnic in a secluded spot near some tamarisk trees that provided a shelter of sorts a short distance from the stately royal holiday residence.
Within minutes a table with crisp white linen was set up, sparkling crystal glasses and crested silverware set out in preparation for a meal fit for…well, royalty of course, Cassie thought wryly as she watched a solid silver vase complete with red rose being placed in the very centre of the table. It was certainly nothing like the picnics Cassie had been on in the past, with floppy paper plates, plastic forks and knives that wouldn’t cut through melted butter let alone anything else.
The food provided by the ro
yal kitchen was nothing short of delightful, every morsel was a work of art in itself, and artfully arranged to entice even the most jaded of appetites.
Sebastian led Cassie to the silky fabric-covered chair opposite his, and, once he was sure she was comfortable, took his own seat, instructing the driver-cum-waiter to serve their meal.
Cassie had not felt in the least bit hungry, but as soon as the tiny dishes appeared in front of her she found herself partaking of a feast that was beyond belief. Char-grilled octopus, garlic mussels, plump prawns skewered on tiny sticks with a lime and coriander marinade, ripe olives and semi sun-dried tomatoes, followed by pesto-encrusted succulent grilled chicken with a variety of lightly steamed vegetables, and to top it off a vanilla bean crème caramel custard with plump summer berries.
Cassie had declined all alcohol, but the absence of fine wine had not for a moment taken away from the delectable feast she had partaken of. With her stomach replete and her taste buds still zinging with the fresh and fantastic flavours she had consumed, she felt as if she had been transported into another realm. After years of stolid prison food served haphazardly by other inmates, with the nagging suspicion of someone tampering with the meal as a payback for supposed misdemeanours, Cassie had not realised how much she had missed out on until now.
Did Sebastian have any idea of what he took for granted every single day? Meals were put in front of him morning, noon and night, nutritious, gourmet and delectable meals prepared by world-renowned chefs. He had never had to bargain or bribe to get a mouthful of food for himself, nor had he ever had to beg, borrow or steal to provide a tiny treat for his little son.
Sebastian poured himself a small measure of red wine, watching the fleeting emotions passing over Cassie’s face. She had been very quiet during the meal. He had watched as she had taken tiny bites of each morsel with her small white teeth, her eyes lighting up as she savoured each mouthful, chewing slowly, as if wanting the flavours to last as long as possible. She used her cutlery with the grace and elegance of someone brought up with a refined sense of dining. He had met and dated women who had spent a year in a finishing school who had less class and poise than Cassie, which was a credit to her father, he supposed, given Cassie’s mother had not been around.
The Future King's Love-Child (The Royal House 0f Karedes Book 6) Page 7