by Annie West
She lifted him in her arms and rose, ignoring Lambis when he made to take Seb.
Did he think she wasn’t capable of caring for her nephew? Who did he think had been there through the long nights and lonely days since Michel and Irini died?
Anger threaded the aching grief inside her. Grief for her darling nephew, orphaned so young, and grief for herself.
She saw Lambis move deliberately to block the front door. The obstinate set of his jaw told her it would take a bulldozer to move him.
He didn’t want them here. Now he’d decided they couldn’t go. She wished he’d make up his mind!
Amelie would walk on hot coals if it would bring back the little boy she adored from the well of shock that had swallowed him. But she was fast running out of strength. Her head was reeling and there was a throb behind her eyes as she fought to stand tall.
Then she felt a touch on her elbow. It was the housekeeper, Anna, her expression concerned. Gently she raised her hand and stroked Seb’s golden hair as he pressed his face into Amelie’s collarbone.
‘Ela. Parakalo, ela.’ Come, please come. That much Greek Amelie understood.
She wavered for barely a second. Pride held no place here. She looked at the work-hardened fingers caressing Seb so tenderly and felt the fight drain out of her.
Amelie nodded. ‘Efharisto.’ Thank you.
For good or ill they were staying, at least for tonight.
Whether they’d found the safe haven, and the help they needed, only time would tell.
CHAPTER THREE
AMELIE STARED AT the darkness of the swirling night.
She’d got through the last couple of hours like an automaton. At last Seb was tucked up in bed, asleep.
It seemed disloyal to think it—for who could want to see a child in pain?—but surely the way he’d turned to her when they’d arrived, and again when he’d clung to her as she read to him, signified a change? Some lessening of the dreadful nothingness that gripped him?
Rubbing her forehead with weary fingers, Amelie tried to order her fogged thoughts.
She should sleep. She’d eaten the delicious soup and fresh bread Anna had provided, and taken a hot shower in the luxurious bathroom, feeling chilled bones warm.
But she was wired. There was too much to sort out.
Which meant facing Lambis Evangelos.
Sighing, she turned to her suitcase. She wanted to tug on a comfy sleep shirt and pretend she didn’t have to face the big, bad wolf tonight. But sleep would elude her till she did.
Ten minutes later, in trousers and a silky shirt of deep green that matched her eyes and boosted her flagging confidence, she checked that her subtle makeup hid the shadows of fatigue. With a few deft movements she twisted her long hair into a knot. Her earrings were simple pearl studs and she added a fine gold pendant of antique pearls, the only piece of jewellery her mother had given her.
Amelie closed her hand around the pendant, remembering her mother hugging her close, against all royal decorum, and whispering that now Amelie was twelve she was old enough to wear jewellery.
It was a talisman she wore when times got tough. Like when her mother died just months after that twelfth birthday.
Her mother had had the sweetest smile. A smile Michel and his son Seb had inherited. For a moment the ancient image wavered, replaced by Michel’s face, the glint in his eyes as he showed off his new speedboat, the charming smile as he invited Irini aboard for a quick spin.
Amelie slammed a steel door on the memory. She snapped open her eyes and deliberately set about cataloguing the beautiful room she’d been given. There was a chance, a slim one, that the place might give a clue to what made Lambis tick, for this was his retreat from the world.
Turning, she saw plain white walls, for the most part bare. Except for a tiny jewel of an icon that glowed richly on the far wall. Amelie wasn’t an expert but she recognised it was an original and very, very beautiful. Despite the stiff style of the traditional painting, the serenity and love on Mary’s face as she looked down at her baby stole Amelie’s breath. Here was love and a joy that made something swell hard in Amelie’s chest.
Swiftly she turned away, feeling raw, for she responded to the painting at a visceral level. It tugged at her own secret yearning.
But the important issue was why Lambis secreted this gorgeous piece in a guest room. Why not have it in his room where he’d see it often?
Amelie prowled the space, surveying the high timber ceiling with its ancient beams, the cosiness of intricately woven local rugs on the polished floor and a particularly exquisite one on another wall.
The bed was massive with crisp cotton sheets and a luxurious silk spread. In addition to a huge decorative cupboard was a vast modern walk-in wardrobe. An ancient timber chest carved with mermaids and some mythical beasts she didn’t recognise sat under one window, but in a discreet niche was a large screen that swung out to allow guests to watch television from the bed.
The room was an eclectic mix of charming old pieces and sleek functionality. The common thread was money. No expense had been spared to make a guest comfortable.
Which told her what? Lambis valued tradition but demanded modern convenience? He wanted guests to feel at home?
His reception told her he was more likely to bar the door to guests.
Or perhaps it was just she who was unwelcome.
The idea lodged hard and sharp in her chest. Surely he wasn’t so brutal with everyone?
Did he really believe she’d swallowed her pride and come here uninvited because she was needy for him?
Nausea snaked through her insides. Of course he had.
And when she’d told him Seb needed him?
He’d still wanted them to leave.
Despite what she’d once thought, the man had no heart. It was as simple as that.
* * *
Amelie found him in a sitting room, high-ceilinged and huge. Yet instead of being cold, that signature mix of old beauty and luxurious modern functionality made it feel comfortable.
Until Lambis turned and she read his aloof expression.
There’d been no thawing. Had she really expected it?
Because Anna had fussed over Amelie and little Seb like a hen with a couple of chicks didn’t mean the master of the house had changed his mind. Anna’s kindness contrasted starkly with Lambis’s brooding stare.
He said not a word as Amelie walked the length of the room, to the huge stone-lintelled fireplace with its bright flames and the dark man beside it.
His bold, handsome face was half-shadowed yet unreasonably, appallingly attractive. If you liked remote, harsh beauty. Amelie didn’t. Not any more.
Yet her heart skipped as some part that was all instinct and longing, not logic, stirred to life again.
How could he do that to her even now? Anxiety rippled through her. Amelie couldn’t let that happen again.
She stopped within the circle of warmth, feeling cold to the bone. The faint scent of fine brandy reached her nostrils and she spied a rounded glass on the mantelpiece. But Lambis didn’t think to offer her a drink. Presumably that was too much to expect.
The thought drove thoughts of a conciliatory approach from Amelie’s head. If she read him right, she and Seb would be on their way as soon as the snow eased. That would be soon. It was far too early for winter.
Amelie chose a chair by the fire and sank down onto it. She’d fight every step of the way but she was so worn out she’d do it from a position of comfort.
The silence lengthened from seconds to minutes but for once Amelie didn’t move to fill it. All her life she’d been the one to charm and please, to smooth ruffled feathers, to be diplomatic and gracious.
She was here to fight for her nephew’s future. She wouldn’t make small talk, pretending everything was okay.
‘Are you going to explain?’ he asked finally.
Amelie refused to flinch at that adamantine tone. ‘Have you checked the messages I left?’
>
‘I have, but they didn’t help. All I know is that this is to do with your nephew.’
Sébastien, she wanted to scream at him. Or Seb. You’ve called him both in your time. Since when had Lambis thought of him only as someone else’s nephew?
What had happened to the man who, however reluctantly, had been kind to a little boy who’d shadowed his every move when he stayed at the St Gallan palace? A little boy whose own father was often too busy with affairs of state for a little one to tag along.
‘I didn’t want to say more until I saw you.’ She lifted her chin and met his eyes. In the shadow beyond the fireplace it was hard to read them but they looked shuttered. As if he was determined not to let anyone in. ‘It’s confidential.’
He lifted one arm in a gesture that encompassed the building. ‘There’s no one else here but us.’
It was the invitation Amelie needed and yet the words jammed in her throat. She’d hoped for some speck of interest or concern. Was that too much to ask? Instead it was like talking to a stranger.
Surely even a stranger would be more receptive?
Amelie crossed her ankles and folded her hands in her lap, refusing to show hurt. Surely they’d parted friends?
‘Seb is adjusting to the loss of his parents.’ Not by so much as a tremor did she betray how she too struggled with that tragedy.
Lambis said nothing.
‘You saw how he was at the memorial service.’ She’d known something was wrong then but it was only since that the enormity of Seb’s condition had unfolded.
‘He seemed very controlled.’
She shook her head. ‘It looked like that. The press loved the photos of the brave little Prince saluting his parents’ coffins.’ Amelie dragged in a hasty breath as pain jabbed her breastbone. The rampant voyeurism of the press had been expected but still it rankled. ‘That wasn’t control; it was grief.’
Amelie had strenuously opposed taking a four-year-old to the funeral, but though she was now the most senior member of the family she’d been overruled. She wasn’t Regent yet, and might never be, if the Prime Minister had his way. St Gallan law still favoured male over female and until Seb was officially proclaimed heir to the throne, and she his Regent, she had no right to make decisions for him.
In fact, she’d broken a slew of laws taking him out of the country. Right now, that was immaterial. The important thing was Seb.
‘It hasn’t been long since they died.’
Amelie looked into that stern face and saw not a flicker of emotion. Even for Queen Irini, the woman who’d been like a sister to Lambis.
But then, wasn’t Amelie too suppressing a riot of pain? It was comforting to think that maybe, somewhere deep behind that inhumanly blank face, Lambis mourned too.
‘I know, but...it’s more than that.’ She paused as a chill of remembrance feathered her spine. No one had expected the King and Queen of St Galla, both in their mid-twenties and full of life, to die in a freak accident. Everyone had been numbed by it. Even now Amelie still woke every morning to that awful reality slamming into her seconds, sometimes whole minutes after she woke.
Amelie held Lambis’s gaze. ‘Seb saw it happen. He was going to get in the boat too.’ She paused and swallowed, the movement scratching a throat suddenly lined with sandpaper. ‘But Irini didn’t want him too excited before his nap. She handed him to me.’ One more deep breath and she went on. ‘Michel promised he’d take him for a ride the next day.’
Except there’d been no next day for Michel and his wife.
‘I know.’ Lambis’s deep voice resonated around her, tugging at something sharp and raw inside.
Of course he knew. She’d told him when he’d flown across for the funeral. Why was she going over it again?
Amelie blinked and looked at the fire. It was easier staring at the golden flames than holding his sombre gaze.
‘The point is, Seb’s reaction to their deaths is...worrying.’ She slanted a look at that chiselled face. Still no hint of understanding. ‘He hasn’t cried. He hasn’t spoken. Not since the accident.’
That had Lambis’s attention. He stiffened, his brows furrowing down in a V of concentration, or could it be concern?
‘Hasn’t spoken at all?’
‘Not a word. Not to anyone.’
It had been uncanny, the way little Seb had stayed silent through those first days. It had worried her then but there’d been so much to attend to, so many legal matters and royal duties, meetings and consultations, she’d let herself hope she was wrong and it would resolve itself.
‘He doesn’t talk or smile or cry. He doesn’t react.’ Just saying it sent a quiver through her. She’d never felt so helpless.
‘You’ve sought advice?’
‘Of course. The consensus is that he needs time, though no one knows how much. Time and to feel safe and loved.’ Her voice caught on the last word but she refused to look away. She wasn’t ashamed of her feelings for Seb.
It was only what she’d once felt for Lambis that embarrassed her.
‘Then give him time. Give him love. Be patient.’
It was what the experts had said, each of them studiously ignoring the flaw in that simple approach.
‘I can’t.’
* * *
‘What do you mean, you can’t?’ Lambis had never thought to hear such words from Amelie. They shocked him more than if she’d begun unbuttoning that slinky shirt and invited him to make free with that delectable body.
He scowled furiously.
He didn’t want her here.
He didn’t want to get involved.
The fact his mind couldn’t stop conjuring images of a sexy, pouting princess, eager for his touch, was flame to the last shreds of his patience.
‘Of course you can. It’s what you do!’
Despite her regal posture and renowned diplomatic skills, the woman was a walking advertisement for all those soft, feminine emotions. She’d raised her younger sibling after her mother’s death, since their father, more concerned with power and his own pleasure, had no interest in family life. She’d been the stable, loving centre of their family.
She’d warmly welcomed Irini, married at twenty and feeling out of her depth in royal red tape and a new country.
Lambis still had the letters full of Irini’s eager confidences. About how caring Amelie was. How easy to talk to. When others counselled against a royal marriage simply for the sake of an unborn child, Amelie had taken the young lovers’ cause and won the day.
For that alone he owed Amelie a debt.
He watched her stiffen, her spine so straight you could use it as a ruler. ‘It may be what I do, as you so dismissively put it, but I can’t this time.’
Lambis opened his mouth to explain he wasn’t being dismissive, then caught himself. Never explain. Never discuss emotions. From a safe distance he might admire Amelie’s loving nature and the way she shared herself with her family as well as her nation, but it wasn’t his way.
Not any more.
Now her hackles were up. He watched, fascinated and, yes, relieved, as colour tinted her too-pale face. Princess Amelie of St Galla was a stunning woman. The warmth of her personality had a way of insidiously wrapping itself around your insides till you could almost believe...
‘You can’t? Why not?’ His voice sounded as if it scraped over ground glass. Not surprising when his throat felt coated with shards.
‘It means, much as I want to, I won’t have a chance. Time’s running out for Sébastien and we can’t afford to wait for time to heal him. Besides—’ she averted her eyes to stare into the fire ‘—the palace is no place for him to recuperate. Everywhere he turns there are memories of his parents. He only has to look from his window to see the bay where they died.’
He heard it now, the faintest tremor in her voice. Behind the faultless display of calm, Amelie was hurting.
Once Lambis would have gone to her and—
What? Put his hand on her shoulder? Cuddled
her close? Assured her everything would be okay?
He couldn’t do it. Not least because he knew touching this woman would be the biggest mistake of the decade. There was no knowing where he’d stop once he started.
More importantly, Lambis no longer believed in happy endings.
He couldn’t lie to her. He’d never been able to do that, though for a while he’d been tempted. When, years before, she’d looked at him with those beautiful, luminous eyes and suggested he might spend more time in St Galla, not for Irini’s sake, but for hers. He’d been tempted to let her believe he could be the man she wanted, just to bask in her adoration.
‘Then take him somewhere quiet. Somewhere he can rest.’
Her eyes met his and fire flashed in his blood. ‘Easier said than done. Everywhere we go are reporters.’
‘Yet I didn’t see the paparazzi outside my gates.’ The more he thought about it, the more remarkable it was. He, with his experience as a bodyguard and later, running the best of the best in close personal protection, knew how difficult it was for non-professionals to evade a determined press. Yet Amelie had brought her nephew from St Galla, an island near the coast of France and Italy, all the way to Greece without being followed.
How had she managed it? He wouldn’t have thought it possible for a woman who’d led a sheltered life behind palace walls.
‘For now.’ Her tone, like her face, was stony. ‘You know I can’t evade them long-term. We need somewhere safe and secure.’
Somewhere like this.
‘This is my home, not a safe haven.’ Not for anyone but himself.
‘You promised to protect Seb. I heard you tell Irini when she asked you to be his godfather.’
The mention of Irini was a lead weight dragging at his guilty conscience. Another life he’d failed to protect.
‘I’ll find you both a place you can hide away from the press till you return to St Galla. Somewhere suitable.’
Somewhere not here.
Amelie regarded him coolly. She didn’t raise an eyebrow or twitch a muscle, yet she made it clear his answer wasn’t enough. For the first time in their personal interactions she turned into Princess Amelie. A woman who held her own with heads of state and tough negotiators. A woman with generations of blue blood in her veins. A woman prepared to take him on in his own territory.