‘So can you get this sorted?’ she asked, but she didn’t sound interested.
‘Maybe. No thanks to you.’
‘On the contrary, it’s all thanks to me,’ she snapped. ‘If I hadn’t claimed Michales you’d still be ruled by my sister’s lie. So now you can be whatever sort of prince you want and you can get out of my life.’
‘There’s the small issue of my son…’
‘You need to earn the right to be a father. I’ve seen no evidence of it.’
‘I didn’t know he was my son!’
‘You’ve known for a week. So what did you do? You disappeared. You went away and did anything rather than come here and say this is my son and I want him.’
‘I didn’t know…’ he started, but then he paused, unsure where to go.
‘You didn’t know what?’
‘I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel,’ he snapped. ‘I needed time.’
‘Like I needed time when I saw the thin blue line,’ she retorted. ‘Parenthood isn’t something you can think about and then decide ooh, maybe I’d like a little bit.’
‘Isn’t that exactly what you did?’
‘I had no choice.’ She moved still closer to the cot, putting her body between him and her baby. It was a gesture of defence as old as time itself.
‘So why did you give him up?’ he demanded, trying to keep his focus on indignation. Trying not to think how beautiful she was when she was angry. How vulnerable. How…frightened? ‘How much did they pay you?’
‘Millions!’ The word was a venomous hiss.
Okay, not millions, he conceded.
What, then? Had she simply offered her son to her sister instead of having him adopted?
Had she really been ill?
His eyes flew to her baseball cap. She’d covered her curls at the coronation, too.
Cancer? But Lily didn’t have that look. Soft curls were escaping from under the cap—short, yes, much shorter than last year, but not regrowth short.
‘Just how ill were you?’
‘It’s none of your business.’
‘Your hair…’
‘I had an operation,’ she snapped. ‘I’m fine now.’
He got the message. Ask no more questions. Move on.
Okay, he would. But maybe here there was an explanation.
The consequences of illness, even if relatively mild, might well have been catastrophic. If she didn’t have insurance, medical expenses could be huge.
If Mia and Giorgos had paid her expenses and in return taken a child she could ill afford to keep…A child she didn’t really want, until Mia’s abandonment had given her second thoughts…
It didn’t absolve her from blame, but it might explain it.
Maybe something of what he was thinking was apparent.
‘Don’t even think about pushing into what’s my business,’ she told him coldly. ‘Let’s get this sorted. If you want to deny Michales is your son, that’s fine by me. I don’t need or want financial aid. If you want access I won’t block it—as long as he stays with me. But that’s my bottom line. He stays with me.’
‘I can’t let him stay here.’
‘He will stay here.’ She sounded blunt and cold and definite. But, underneath, he heard the beginnings of fear.
There was no way he could allay that fear.
‘I have to take him back to Sappheiros.’
‘You’re taking him nowhere.’
‘Michales has to be my son.’
‘So he is,’ she snapped. ‘Move on.’
‘He has to be my legitimate son.’
That confused her. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Can you imagine the furore there will be if he disappears? The islanders are upset enough now that you’ve taken him. For you to keep him…’
‘He’s mine!’
‘The islanders think he’s theirs.’
‘He’s not.’
‘He is,’ he said. ‘You and Mia and Giorgos gave him to the island. The islanders have taken him to their hearts. I won’t take him away from them.’
‘It’s not you who’s taking him away.’ She was whispering but she might as well be yelling, it was said with such vehemence. ‘It’s me. He’s mine, and he stays with me.’
As if on cue, Michales stirred again, uttering a small protesting whimper. She scooped him from his cot and held him against her. He snuggled into her and her fingers stroked his hair.
The sight…watching her stroke the little boy’s hair did something to him he didn’t begin to recognise.
This was getting harder. He’d come here fuelled with anger against this woman. He’d come here to try and sort a solution.
What he hadn’t counted on was how she made him feel. He’d slept with Lily over twelve months ago and his body still knew why. He was reacting to her as he had then—with a desire that was inexplicable but inarguable.
And Michales…
He’d never thought of himself as a father. This child had nothing to do with him.
Except…He had the look of him. His son.
His world was shifting into unchartered territory.
Just say it, he told himself again, feeling cornered. Lay it on the line.
‘Lily, this is hard,’ he said. ‘But you need to listen. The islanders have lived with such uncertainty that when the truth comes out about Michales’s parentage their likely reaction will be disbelief. And why wouldn’t it be? They’ve been lied to by Mia and Giorgos. They have no reason to trust me—or you.’
‘I don’t…It can’t matter.’
‘But it does matter,’ he said forcefully. ‘We need to give them reason to believe, and the way to do that is by acting truthfully and acting with honour.’
‘Honour…’ She filled the word with scorn. ‘Honour!’
‘I know it’s been in short supply, but this is my honour,’ he said, ruefully now. ‘I need to be seen to do the right thing.’
‘Finally.’
‘Okay, finally,’ he admitted and spread his hands in apology. ‘I concede my behaviour until now has been less than perfect. I shouldn’t have slept with you. I shouldn’t have blocked your phone call with such a response. But we…both of us…need to move on. The islanders need to be told that Giorgos and Mia lied, but they need to accept that the lies are finished. They need to know I’m to be trusted—and that I’m truly Michales’s father. Right now the island is on the brink of rebellion, but my advisors believe that it would be reluctant. We can head it off by giving the island stability, good government and hope for the future. The island needs an honourable royal family and it needs an heir.’
Lily stared at him over Michales’s small head. ‘S-so?’
But maybe she was already seeing where he was going, he thought. She looked suddenly terrified. She was a lot smarter than Giorgos, he thought. Or her sister.
‘I’m assuming you know the state of the Diamond Isles.’
‘Yes, but…’
‘But ruin,’ he said forcefully. He couldn’t let the shock on her face deflect him from what needed to be said. ‘The islanders are poverty-stricken. The islands’ land titles are mortgaged to the hilt and there’s threatened takeover by outside interests. We’re facing destruction of our lifestyle—everything we stand for. That’s inevitable, unless these people put their faith in me and in what I can do. The islanders have to accept their new royal family—they can’t think I’m inventing this story merely to claim the throne for my own ends. Lily, I’ve thought about this all week. I’ve listened to the wisest lawyers and political advisors I can find. And they’ve come up, over and over, with the one sure answer.’
‘Which…which is…’
‘Which is that you marry me.’
CHAPTER FIVE
FOR a moment he thought she’d faint. The colour bleached from her face. She stared at him in incredulity. Instinctively his hands caught Michales and held.
She was so stunned she let her baby go. He stood, holding his son. Not sure
how to hold him. Not sure where to go from here.
‘Maybe I didn’t do that too well,’ he said at last. Then he said dryly, ‘Maybe I should go down on bended knee.’
‘Or maybe you shouldn’t.’ Colour washed back, a flush of anger. Better, he thought. Angry was good.
He could deal with anger.
‘I think you need to leave,’ she said. ‘I’m talking about getting on with the rest of my life. You’re talking fairy tales.’
‘I’m not.’
Michales wriggled in his arms. He looked up at Alex and he smiled, a wide, toothless grin that made Alex feel as if the rug was being pulled from under his feet.
He had to keep hold of his anger. He couldn’t think while holding…his son.
He laid him on the square of carpet under the window. The little boy pushed himself into a sitting position and crowed with delight.
Alex gazed down at him in astonishment. ‘He can almost sit up. He wasn’t doing that in Sappheiros.’
‘As if you’d have noticed.’
‘I did notice,’ he told her. ‘Even before Mia left I was worrying about him. The nursery staff were worrying about him. His mother seemed to be ignoring him.’
‘Yeah,’ she said, sounding dazed. ‘Alex, go away.’
‘I can’t,’ he said soberly, and instinctively he caught her hands. They were cold. Too cold. She didn’t pull away, though—she didn’t move.
Okay. Get this right, he told himself. Stay logical and unemotional.
‘It’s politics,’ he told her. ‘If we leave things as they are, if he stays here with you, the islands will be in a mess. They’ll see me as a usurper, and rebellion is a real possibility. But if we marry…’
She tugged her hands back in instinctive protest, but he didn’t let her go. He had to impart the urgency of the situation, and at the same time he was trying to figure how to take the blank look from her face.
She looked…battered. It might be a front, but he needed to back off.
He needed to talk a language they both understood.
‘You obviously don’t understand,’ he said. ‘But I’m talking money.’
And here it was. He’d come prepared.
‘There’s a cheque in my pocket for more money than you can dream of,’ he told her. ‘Call it paternity payment if you like, but it’s yours the moment you marry me.’ Then, as she stared at him in stupefaction, he ploughed on. ‘This is not personal. Think of it as a business proposition. The proposal is that you marry me—a real wedding to reassure everyone that we stand together—you stay on Sappheiros for at least a year so our marriage can’t be annulled, and then we can be seen as gradually drifting apart. Once the island is stable we can divorce. You can do what you want. You’ll be rich and you’ll be free. I can put democratic reform in place so the Crown is titular head only, and you can do whatever you want for the rest of your life.’
And, before she could respond, he produced the cheque and handed it to her.
She took the cheque without saying a word. She stared at him. She stared down at the cheque—and she gasped.
It’d be okay. Money talked. He had this covered. As long as he married her.
He had no choice.
‘This…this is for real?’ she whispered.
‘Absolutely,’ he said. ‘We’ve thought of every option and this is the only one we believe can work.’
She was staring at him as if she’d never seen him before. She was staring at him as if he was a lunatic.
‘There’s more,’ he said into the silence. ‘We’ve done a lot of digging in this last week. My researcher knows all about you and the people you work with and we’ve come up with a package deal. Apparently the only strong connection you seem to have is with Spiros and his team. We’ve learnt that Spiros’s boatyard is struggling. As an inducement—because it would be best for everyone if Michales does stay on the island, and thus you, too—I’m also offering Spiros something he can’t refuse. We’ll relocate this boatyard to Sappheiros, with every cost taken care of. We’ll give him transport of boats between the Diamond Isles and the rest of Europe. We’ll give him blanket international advertising. My researchers tell me Spiros has been fighting to make a living here, and he’s homesick. He and his wife want to live somewhere they can speak their native Greek. So all you need to do now is agree.’
She said nothing. She was staring at the cheque as if she couldn’t believe it.
She was so shocked. She was so…
Beautiful?
Don’t go there, he told himself sharply. This was a business proposition—nothing more, nothing less. His lawyers had worked it out as a done deal. ‘There’s no way she’ll knock back this offer,’ he’d been told, and for good measure, thinking of Mia’s greed, they’d added another zero to the cheque.
As Crown Prince, Alex would inherit all Giorgos’s wealth. The lawyers’ thinking was that he should use a fraction of this to ensure the island’s future. This marriage of convenience was necessary. Michales’s continued presence on the island was desirable. So pay her and get it sorted. But…
‘Get out,’ she said.
He didn’t move.
‘Get out.’ She was breathing too fast, her eyes flashing daggers. ‘How dare you…?’
‘Propose marriage to the mother of my son?’
‘He’s not your son.’
‘You said…’
‘By birth, yes. You want him back on the island for you? For you? Michales hasn’t come into this discussion once except as a tool to keep the monarchy safe. Neither have I. For you to manipulate me…to find out about Spiros and use him as a tool…Get out and stay out.’
‘Lily, look at the amount on that cheque,’ he said urgently. ‘You can’t possibly knock back what I’ve just offered.’
‘Watch me,’ she said and she ripped the cheque in half, in half again and then kept on going until it lay in shreds round her feet. She snatched Michales up and stalked to the door. ‘Out!’
‘You’re being ridiculous. If you want more…’
‘You’re being ridiculous,’ she snapped back at him. ‘Don’t you understand? I have everything I want, right here, right now. I have something you and Mia and people like you can’t understand. I have enough. I can stay working on the boats I love, and I can raise my son. I have my future and I’m free. Why would I possibly jeopardise that by diving into the royal goldfish bowl?’
Free? How did free come into it? She spoke as if she’d just come out of prison.
He had to make her see sense.
‘And Spiros?’
‘He’s happy here.’
‘He’s not. Any minute now this business is going to go belly up. Ask him.’
‘That’s nothing to do with you.’
‘It’s everything to do with you. You have to marry me.’
‘I don’t have to marry you.’ She opened the door. ‘Get out,’ she said again.
‘I can’t,’ he said, trying to figure where the hell to take it from here. ‘Lily, you have to do this. The islanders are facing ruin. If I don’t get this succession sorted, the titles belonging to the Crown will be forfeit to outside business interests. Sappheiros will become an exclusive resort for the rich, and my people will be exiles. The other two islands will face a similar fate.’
Her face stilled. For the first time, she hesitated.
He paused.
Was he going about this the wrong way? Was it possible that this woman had the heart that Mia lacked?
She’d given away her baby. The assumption had been she’d done it for profit, for greed. But now…
She looked pale and sick. And suddenly that was how he was feeling. Sick.
He was starting to feel…smirched. As if he was acting as Mia and Giorgos had acted. Buying her baby. Buying her.
‘Get out,’ she whispered again, and this time he nodded.
‘I’m going. But…’ He hesitated but it had to be said. ‘Lily, this is too fast. It’s urgent but it’s
not about us. I suspect I’ve misjudged you, and if I have then I’m sorry.’
‘That’s kind of you.’ She was trying to sound sardonic but her voice was shaking.
She swayed, just a little.
He moved, crossing the few steps to her in an instant, holding her shoulders. Steadying her.
‘Don’t…don’t touch me.’
But she didn’t pull away. She couldn’t. She was holding on to Michales with one arm, with the other the door handle. ‘Please leave.’
Hell, how ill had she been? ‘Lily, are you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ she managed and steadied. She tugged away and he released her with real regret. She seemed suddenly…frail?
It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense.
He’d walked into this room feeling nothing but anger at the mess this woman had got him into. Determined to act with honour, no matter what the cost. Now, stupidly, all he wanted was to protect her.
It didn’t make sense to her either. She was looking at him with a mixture of fear and something else. Something he couldn’t pinpoint.
Regret? The word slipped into his mind and stayed.
Regret for what he’d done to her? Regret that she couldn’t take up his offer?
Maybe she had used him. Maybe the pregnancy had been planned. But this was…deeper.
He thought of how she’d been little more than a year ago. She’d danced with him, she’d teased him, she’d mocked him and he’d been enchanted. What had happened to knock the spirit from her?
‘Lily, I’ll leave,’ he said and flinched inwardly as he saw relief flood her face. Was she so afraid of him? ‘I’ve come at you too fast, too hard.’
‘Yes,’ she said blankly.
The pieces of the cheque were still scattered on the floor. There were far too many for her to gather and reassemble after he left.
But she’d seen his glance—and she guessed what he was thinking.
‘I won’t,’ she said, her face flushing with anger again.
‘I know you won’t.’
‘You don’t know anything about me.’
He was starting to know more.
From Lily’s arms Michales was watching him with interest.
Claimed: Secret Royal Son Page 5