She shrugged. ‘I knew it was a long shot, but I’d have tried for Toby’s sake.’
‘And what did you think would happen if you’d found me?’
‘I stopped thinking about that. All the potential consequences were too scary.’
‘But you were still going to try?’
Her smile was wan. ‘It was the right thing to do. If I hadn’t have found you I still could have shown Toby your culture. Or what I thought was your culture.’
She cast her eyes a few metres into the distance, to where Toby was splashing at the shoreline.
‘No further!’ she called to him, before adding to Theseus, ‘He can’t swim.’
As she joined their son Theseus hung back, watching them.
They were the tightest of units. Seeing them together, he could appreciate how hard it must have been for her to leave Toby behind and come to Agon.
It seemed she’d accepted the job because of the large bonus she’d been offered, which would have meant she’d have been able to take Toby to Greece to find him.
If he hadn’t believed her before, he did now. With all his heart.
She really had searched for him.
She really had wanted him to be a part of Toby’s life.
If fate hadn’t brought her to the palace she would never have found him. He would have spent the rest of his life unaware of the miracle that had occurred and he would have had no one to blame but himself.
* * *
Jo followed the squeals of delight echoing from the swimming pool with a smile playing on her face.
The sun was bright, the sky was blue—in all it was a glorious day. She’d caught a snippet of the English weather forecast and had given a sly snigger to see her country was expecting torrential downpours and heavy gales.
There could certainly be worse places to be a forced wife than on Agon, she thought wryly.
Toby spotted her first, and waved cheerfully from Theseus’s arms.
For his part, Theseus’s eyes gleamed to see her, and a knowing look spread over his face when she removed her sarong to reveal the modest bikini she’d bought the day before on a shopping trip with Elektra.
‘Sexy,’ he growled, for her ears only, when she slipped tentatively down the steps and into the cool water.
She stopped with the water at mid-thigh. ‘Inappropriate,’ she whispered.
‘He’s not listening.’
That was true enough. Toby had paddled off in his armbands to the shallow end, to play with the array of water guns, lilos and balls Theseus had bought for him.
‘I’ve never seen you in a bikini before.’ Theseus grinned, sitting on the step beside her.
‘I was so fat I never dared wear one,’ she admitted wistfully. ‘Everyone else on Illya had such fabulous figures.’
She still wasn’t fully confident displaying her body, but after spending her nights sharing a bed with Theseus and having him revel in her curves, her confidence was increasing by the day.
He tilted his head and stared at her, then reached out a hand to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear. ‘Never feel you aren’t good enough, agapi mou. Those women on Illya couldn’t hold a light to you, whatever size you were. You’re beautiful.’
Everything in her contracted—from her toes to her pelvis to the hairs on her head. She couldn’t think of a reply; was too stunned that this glorious, gorgeous man could call her beautiful. If she could float she would be sky-high by now...
Theseus didn’t care how thin she was. No matter what, he would still desire her.
She giggled.
‘What?’ he asked, his eyes puzzled.
She clamped a hand over her mouth.
‘What?’ he demanded to know, playfully pulling her hand away. ‘Why are you laughing? Share the joke. I command it!’
But she couldn’t. How could she say that his compliment was the most wonderful she’d ever heard?
‘Tell me or I’ll get you wet,’ he threatened, clearly remembering her aversion to water from their time on Illya.
But she could no more stop the laughter that erupted than she could have grown wings.
Theseus was as good as his word.
He got to his feet, scooped her up in his arms, then threw her into the middle of the pool.
She was still laughing when she came up for air.
* * *
Preparations for the Gala meant Theseus was caught up at the palace more than he would have liked over the next few days. He made sure always to eat breakfast with his new family, and spent snatches of time with them, but he knew it wasn’t enough. Not for him. He wanted them...close.
He brushed away the strange word.
Things would change after the Gala, when he would be able to announce their existence to his grandfather and the rest of the world. Jo and Toby would move into the palace then.
Living in his villa was like a holiday for them. The sun shone whilst they played in the pool and built sandcastles on the beach. The magic of it all had caught him too. The memory of last night lay fresh in his mind; taking a moonlit walk with Jo down to the cove, making love to her on the sand and then, when they were replete and naked in each other’s arms, gazing up at the stars in peaceable silence.
For the first time he’d stared up at the night sky and not felt the pull to be up there in space. The only pull he’d felt was to the woman in his arms, and he’d rolled her onto her back and made love to her again.
More and more it played on his mind... How was she going to cope with palace life? She’d lived there briefly, but that had been there for a specific purpose, not as a member of the household. She would need time to settle in and then, once they were married in a few weeks, her royal duties would begin.
His good memories from the beach evaporated as he recalled her startled face that morning, when they’d lingered over breakfast. Toby had disappeared into the kitchen to badger the chef into making more flapjacks for him and he’d given her the résumés of the staff he was recommending she interview after the Gala.
She’d looked at him blankly.
‘Your private staff,’ he’d explained. ‘You’ll need staff to manage your diary, to do research for you for when we meet with ambassadors and business people. You’ll need someone to help with your wardrobe—my grandmother and my mother both had a personal seamstress to make their clothes—and you’ll need a private secretary to manage all of them...’
By the time he’d stopped talking she’d looked quite faint. The reality of palace life was clearly not something she was prepared for.
He threw his pen at the wall and swore.
How much guilt could one man carry?
* * *
It was late when he returned to the villa. A few members of staff were still up, but Jo and Toby had both gone to bed.
He found Toby fast asleep, lying spread out like a starfish. Theseus padded quietly to him and pulled the covers which had been thrown off back over him, before placing a kiss on his forehead.
With his guts playing havoc inside him, he went into Jo’s room, closing the door behind him.
She was sitting up in bed, reading.
‘I thought you’d be asleep,’ he said.
‘So did I.’
He sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to bury a hand in her hair. She shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around him.
‘How are things going with the Gala?’ she asked softly.
‘Like a well-oiled machine. Apart from the soloist Talos found to play our grandmother’s final composition...’
‘What’s wrong with her?’
‘Turns out she suffers from severe stage fright.’
‘Ah—is that why they’ve been spending so much time together?’
The suggestive tone in her voice made him laugh. He raised one eyebrow. ‘Talos says he’s helping her...’
With that, they both rolled back onto the bed, smothering their sniggers so as not to wake Toby across the hall. Their laughter quickly turned into passion as Jo’s hungry lips found his and her robe fell open to showcase her unashamed nakedness...
* * *
Time sped away in whirl of sunshine until suddenly it was the eve of the Gala.
Where had the time gone? Jo wondered in amazement.
Theseus had spent the day at the palace and arrived back so late she was dozing off when he slipped into the dark bedroom.
‘All done?’ she asked, raising her head.
He turned the light on at a low setting. ‘All done. The books are en route as we speak.’
A problem with the printers had kept him at the palace long into the night. All week he’d had to work late. The pace had been relentless. She’d found herself missing him, constantly checking her watch and waiting for the time when he would come back to the villa.
‘Have you slept?’ he asked, unbuttoning his shirt.
‘A little.’ She sat up, hugging the sheets to her. ‘I think there’s too much going on in my brain for me to switch off properly.’
‘Nervous?’
‘Terrified.’
Tomorrow she would meet the King. When the Gala was all over he would be informed about Toby. Their lives would change irrevocably.
‘Don’t be.’
She sighed. That was easy for him to say.
‘I spoke to Giles earlier.’
‘How was he?’
‘Busy.’ He slid his trousers off. ‘He said to pass on his congratulations for your part in the book.’
She smiled wistfully.
‘You never told me you got the job with him by working for free.’
She shrugged. ‘I was desperate. I’d had to give up the job I’d originally had lined up in London...’
‘Why?’
‘I suffered from a condition commonly known as acute morning sickness. I was sick pretty much all the time. I could hardly get out of bed, never mind move to London and start a new job. I ended up being hospitalised for a month. By the time I’d recovered, when I was just over four months pregnant, the job had been given to someone else.’
Stark, stunned silence greeted her news.
‘It wasn’t all bad,’ she said, trying to reassure him. ‘I lost a load of weight, and Toby didn’t suffer for it.’
‘It must have been hell,’ he refuted flatly.
‘At the time, yes—but Toby was worth it. And I turned into slimline Jo, so that was a bonus.’
‘With the way you always refuse cake I assumed you’d dieted.’
‘Not initially. Once I got better the temptation was still there, but I stopped myself. I knew things had to change—for my health and my emotional wellbeing.’ She shook her head and sighed. ‘I fell in love with Toby long before he was born, and that was what made me see that I could eat as many of my mother’s cakes as possible and she’d still never love me. Not as a mother should.’
At his shocked stare, she went on.
‘When I was little I was allowed to eat as much cake as I liked. I thought that was how mums showed their love. Looking back, I can see that it was just her way of keeping me quiet. Carrying Toby, feeling him grow inside me...it changed me. I knew I couldn’t let her have that kind of power over me any more.’
‘And what’s your relationship with her like now?’
‘Challenging... I pop in every month or so, to make sure Dad’s okay. If he’s not comatose he’s happy to see me.’
‘How does Toby get on with them?’
‘I never take him. Maybe when he’s older...’ Her voice trailed off.
‘So what were you going to do in London?’ he asked quietly.
Theseus hadn’t intended to open a Pandora’s box with his innocuous comment about Giles, but now it was open he needed to know it all.
‘I was going to work at a children’s book publishing company.’ She pushed a lock of hair from her face. ‘I loved reading as a child. Anything was possible in the books I read. Good overcame evil. The ugly ducklings became beautiful swans. Anyone could find love. I wanted to work with those books and be a part of the magic.’
And instead she’d ended up working on historical tomes and museum pieces. He could just see her, sitting in her bedroom, forgetting her mother’s cruel indifference and her father’s love affair with the bottle by burying her head in dreams.
‘When I recovered from the morning sickness I went to every publisher I could find in Oxford and offered my services for free until the baby was born—the deal being that if I proved myself they had to consider me when a suitable job came up. Giles took me up on it.’
Theseus shook his head to imagine that he’d once dismissed this woman as ‘wallpaper’. She had more tenacity than anyone he’d ever met.
‘They say fortune favours the brave,’ she continued, ‘and it really does. A week after I’d decided I couldn’t raise Toby in the toxic atmosphere of Brookes Manor and we’d moved into our own flat, Giles called with the offer of a job as copywriter. It came at just the right time too—I was hours away from starting my first shift as a waitress.’
He smiled, although he felt anything but amused. ‘And you were happy there?’
‘Gosh, yes. Very happy. The staff are wonderful. I grew to love it.’
Of course she had. She could have wallowed in self-pity at the destruction of her dreams, but instead she had embraced the cards she’d been dealt, just as she would put on a brave smile when she married into his family and became royalty.
He thought of his grandmother, who’d curtailed her performing career when she’d married his grandfather. The difference was his grandmother had been born a princess and been promised to his grandfather from birth. She’d always known that marriage would mean a limit to what she could do with her career.
He thought of his mother. Had she ever dreamed of being anything other than Lelantos Kalliakis’s wife?
Yes, he thought, remembering the wistful look that had used to come into her eyes when he’d spoken of his naïve childhood plan to become an astronaut. She’d had dreams of something different too. It was the greatest tragedy of his life that he would never know what they had been.
CHAPTER TWELVE
‘DO I LOOK all right?’ Jo asked, the second Theseus stepped into the room.
The appreciative gleam that came into his eyes gave her the answer.
When he pulled her into his arms and made to kiss her, she turned her cheek. ‘You’ll smudge my lipstick!’ she chided.
‘I don’t care.’
‘Well, I do. I’ve spent over two hours getting ready.’
‘And you look spectacular.’
She felt her cheeks flame at his heartfelt compliment and couldn’t resist one more glance in the mirror.
Another shopping trip with Elektra had resulted in Jo picking an ivory crêpe dress that dipped in a V at the front and fell to mid-calf. She’d finished the outfit with a wide tan leather belt across her middle and pair of high, braided white leather sandals.
A fortnight ago she wouldn’t have dreamed of wearing something that put so much emphasis on her buxom figure—although the height of the sandals elongated her nicely—but Theseus’s genuine delight in her curves had given her real confidence. She’d never shown so much cleavage in her life!
Elektra had twisted her hair into an elegant knot and gone to work on her face. The result was a dream. Her eyes had never looked so blue, her lips so...kissable. Yes, the lips she’d always hated for being as plump as her bottom looked kissable. She even had defined cheekbones!
Today she was g
oing to meet the King and dozens of other dignitaries as Theseus’s guest at a select pre-Gala lunch.
Boxes of the biography had arrived in the early hours, and a dozen members of the palace staff were already organising them for distribution amongst the five thousand Gala attendees.
But first Theseus wanted to present his grandfather with his own copy.
He hadn’t said anything but she knew he was apprehensive about his grandfather’s reaction, so she was trying hard to smother her terror at the thought of all the important people she would be forced to converse with as an equal and to be bright and cheerful for Theseus, in the hope that it might settle his own silent nerves.
Once the lunch was over they would go to the amphitheatre. Theseus would sit with his family in the royal box and Jo would sit with Toby and Elektra, who was caring for him in the meantime.
After kissing Toby goodbye—and his, ‘Wow, Mummy, you look like a princess!’ had made her feel ten feet tall—she and Theseus got into the car and were driven to the palace.
It felt strange, coming back to it.
Barely a fortnight had passed since she’d moved into Theseus’s villa but it felt like so much longer. It felt as if she was looking at the palace with fresh eyes.
The sun shone high above, its rays beaming down and soaking the palace in glorious sunlight, making the different coloured roofs brighter and all the ornate gothic and mythological statues and frescoes come to life.
When they arrived, entering through Theseus’s private entrance, they passed the door of her old apartment. She looked at it with a touch of wistfulness, wondering who the next person to inhabit it would be.
Climbing the stairs, she watched as the carefree man who had slowly re-emerged during her time in his villa put his princely skin back on. She wished with all her heart that she could pull it off him.
Theseus felt no joy as a prince, spending his days at official functions with stuffy dignitaries and being sent abroad to protect and advance his island’s interests. There was no time to climb the peaks or stare at the stars.
Theseus Discovers His Heir Page 14