‘Never say never.’
‘No, I can say never. Believe me, I’m not interested in anything other than looking after my patient, seeing some sights and then heading home to my...’ Libby stopped, pulling herself up again from mentioning Billy. She decided to leave that conversation for later. She was already too emotional and she didn’t want to talk about Billy and risk crying.
‘Your...?’
‘My...um...family. It’s the first time I’ve been away in for ever.’
‘Sometimes being thrown into new situations out of your comfort zone is the best way.’
‘I’m not sure about that but I guess I’m going to find out.’
* * *
Daniel was waiting to meet the nurse who he had been told had boarded and was settling into her cabin. While there were still thirty minutes until the scheduled briefing with the captain, the rest of the ship’s staff had already made their way to the deck. He wasn’t sure why he was feeling anxious, but he couldn’t ignore the stirring in the pit of his stomach. It was almost a feeling of déjà vu and it made him feel less than his usual relaxed self. There was more than enough time to prepare for the dozen or so passengers and their host and the Coral Countess would not be setting sail for another two hours, so there was nothing he could put his finger on at that moment, yet he was still uneasy.
The cabin that had been converted into a makeshift hospital room was next to Sir Walter’s suite. With only five weeks since the long heart surgery, Daniel had requested it be set up to resemble as closely as possible a hospital room with everything he and the cardiac nurse would require should Sir Walter have any post-operative complications. It was uncommon but not impossible to suffer issues a few weeks post-op and he wished that Sir Walter had delayed the trip a little longer.
Daniel’s sense of unease wasn’t abating and he put it down to the fact that this would be his last voyage. He ran his fingers through his dark hair, took another deep breath and began pacing the pristine deck overlooking the helipad again, his mind slowly filling with remorse, regret and more than a little melancholy as he thought back over his life at sea and how it was coming to an end. At forty-one years of age, he had spent ten years of his medical career consulting in different hospitals all over the world and almost four tending to the needs of passengers on both private yachts and larger cruise liners. And twice he had tended to the needs of their families when one of the passengers had died at sea.
Daniel sighed as he thought back over the good, the bad and then the sad moments in both his personal and professional life. It had certainly been a mixed bag but he did not regret his decision to leave Chezlovinka and taste freedom for the last decade. He was also very grateful to his mother for encouraging and supporting his desire to pursue a medical career and now he would repay her by returning to rule so his father could abdicate.
Daniel lifted his chin defiantly at the thought of the life that lay ahead for him. There was so much he didn’t know about his future. All that was certain and all that he could control was the next seven days on the Coral Contessa.
* * *
Georgie looked down at her watch. ‘We’d best be off, then. We don’t want to be late.’
‘Late for what?’ Libby asked, her blue eyes widening suddenly.
‘Our briefing with the rest of the ship’s crew, including our hunky mysterious medic. I mentioned it a moment ago.’
Libby shook her head and climbed to her feet. ‘Of course, I’m sorry, you did mention it. I’m just a bit distracted.’ Meeting the ship’s doctor was not her focus. She was still worried about Billy and how he would cope without her. And how she would cope without him.
The last thing she wanted was to appear unprofessional in front of the rest of the crew so she was grateful that it was only Georgie in the cabin. She nervously brushed her jeans with her hands. There was no dust but it helped her to regain her composure.
‘Hey, you’ll be fine. Once we set sail you’ll realise this is a piece of cake.’
‘I hope so,’ Libby replied, and quickly pulled a comb from her purse and hastily redid her ponytail, catching all the unkempt red wisps.
‘If Dr Dimosa is easygoing underneath his moody Mediterranean demeanour, the trip will be a joy for you.’
Libby froze on the spot. Her stomach fell. ‘Dr Dimosa is the ship’s doctor?’ she said, forcing the words past the lump that was forming in her throat. It was made of tears and anger and complete disbelief.
‘Yes, Daniel Dimosa. He’s the one I was talking about. Do you know him?’
Libby’s pulse began to race and her stomach sank further. Dr Daniel Dimosa? Her Daniel? The man who had broken her heart and left without a word.
Billy’s father.
Libby felt the colour drain from her face. Suddenly the cabin began to spin and she grabbed the edge of the desk to steady herself. An onslaught of emotions rushed at her as the blood drained from her head to feed her pounding heart. Libby felt herself falling and she was powerless to stop herself from crashing to the floor.
CHAPTER THREE
‘WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED before she fainted?’ Daniel called down the corridor as he walked quickly with his medical bag in his hand. Concern was colouring his voice as he neared the cabin where Georgie was waiting outside. ‘Was there a critical incident, or any sign she wasn’t well?’
‘No, nothing. I just told her that we needed to head to the deck for the captain’s briefing with you.’
‘How is she now?’
‘She’s conscious but on the floor still.’ She motioned with her hand as she opened the cabin door but paused outside. ‘I placed a pillow under her head and called for you. I asked her to remain where she was until you arrived. The fall was very sudden and it doesn’t make sense...unless she has an underlying health issue that she never mentioned during our conversation.’
Daniel moved past Georgie, stepped inside and looked over to the young woman lying on the floor. He was forced to steady himself on the frame of the doorway. His whole world changed in an instant. Nurse Elizabeth McDonald was Libby McDonald. The woman he had loved and left. The same woman who had never completely left his thoughts.
And the woman he had never thought he would see again.
* * *
Daniel stared in silence, so many conflicting thoughts running through his mind. Over the years since they had parted he would sometimes be reminded of her by the sight of a woman with long red hair in the crowd or hearing a laugh like hers. And he would wonder what would have happened between them if only his life had been different.
But it wasn’t different and now more than ever he knew that.
He stilled his nerves, crossed the small cabin like a man possessed, and knelt down beside her. While her breathing was laboured, she was conscious and staring at the ceiling. He fought an unexpected but strangely natural desire to pull her into his arms.
‘Will she be okay?’ Georgie asked, breaking into his thoughts.
He had to remind himself that he was the ship’s doctor, nothing more, although being this close to Libby again was suddenly making him wonder how easy that would be.
Placing his fingers on her neck, he took her pulse. It was racing but strong. Her eyes were open and looking towards the ceiling. And they were the most brilliant green, just as he had remembered. She was alert but saying nothing. Her pupils, he could see, were equal in size and not dilated.
‘Libby, it’s me. Daniel.’
Libby closed her eyes and turned her face away from his as he spoke. She said nothing to even acknowledge his presence in the cabin.
He knew he deserved her reaction. ‘I had no idea you were the nurse on this trip. I guess I never thought of you as Elizabeth.’
Still nothing.
‘I’ve always thought of you as Libby.’
She slowly turned back to face him. He saw her eyes were as
cold as ice, her lips a hard line on her beautiful face. ‘I don’t care how you thought of me,’ she said coldly, before she rolled her face away from his again, and he watched as she wiped at a tear with the back of her hand. ‘Just leave, Daniel. I don’t need you here.’
‘I’m not going anywhere,’ Daniel said before he turned to Georgie. ‘Please leave us alone. I can take it from here.’
From Georgie’s expression he could see she was clearly perplexed but she did as he asked and walked from the cabin, pulling the cabin door closed behind her.
Using her elbows as support, Libby tried to ease herself into an upright position.
‘Please don’t move,’ he told her, and placed his warm hand gently on her wrist.
‘Don’t...don’t touch me,’ she said, pulling her arm free. ‘I need to leave, now.’
‘I’m checking your vitals before you’re going anywhere.’
‘Take them if you must,’ she said curtly. ‘Give me a clean bill of health then I’m leaving the ship. There’s no way on God’s earth I’m spending the next seven days working with you.’
‘Let’s deal with that in a minute. First you have to remain still while I check your BP.’ Swiftly and efficiently, Daniel removed the blood pressure cuff from his medical bag and wrapped it around the arm she had reluctantly given him. The result took only a few moments. ‘Ninety-eight over fifty.’
‘I have low blood pressure,’ she spat back as she quickly unwrapped the pressure cuff and shoved it in Daniel’s direction. ‘It’s nothing out of the normal range for me. I’m fine.’
Daniel looked at the cuff lying in his hands and then back at Libby. There was so much he wanted to say but couldn’t. And things he was feeling that scared his cold heart.
He had to stay focused and ignore his reaction to the woman who was so close to him he could smell the perfume resting delicately on her skin. What they had shared was in the past and had to remain there, he reminded himself. He had left her bed in the early hours of that morning for good reason.
Nothing had changed. In seven days he would leave the yacht and begin to transition to ruling the principality; he wasn’t about to risk the distance he had purposefully put between Libby and himself when he had walked away.
It was not just about two people any more. He had to think of his father and the people of Chezlovinka.
‘I understand why you’re reacting the way you are,’ he began, his voice low and controlled. ‘It’s justified and I deserve it but it was a long time ago.’
‘You think you understand? Really? I don’t think you could possibly understand,’ she said in an almost breathless voice as she glared at him again.
‘I understand more than you’ll ever believe.’ He was fighting his mind’s desire to remember back to the wonderful weeks they shared and their last night together.
‘I doubt it because if you truly did, then you wouldn’t have left San Francisco without the decency of an explanation. It’s been four years, Daniel. That’s more than enough time to reach out.’
‘I couldn’t, Libby. It’s complicated.’ He moved back, creating distance between them. Distance she clearly wanted and he definitely needed.
‘Complicated? That’s the best you can come up with after all this time?’ she responded, shaking her head. ‘That’s beyond pathetic but I don’t care any more.’
‘I don’t know what else to say,’ he began, knowing that she wanted and deserved more but he was not ever going to be in a position to let her know the truth.
‘Don’t bother trying, Daniel. There’s nothing you could say that would make a scrap of difference now. It could have once, but that was a very long time ago.’
Daniel took a deep breath. ‘As I said, I had my reasons...’
Libby looked away, staring at nothing. ‘We all have choices in life. You’re just not telling me the reason why you made yours.’
Daniel chose to say nothing because there was nothing he could say. He couldn’t admit that he had never meant to take their relationship as far as making love to her that night because he had not been free to become involved. He could not tell her about his family, his destiny to rule the principality, or the secret they were all forced to hide from the world to maintain the stability of the small principality. His hands were tied.
‘Honestly, Daniel, I don’t give a damn.’ Libby’s voice was cold and matter-of-fact. ‘But you can do the right thing now by getting out of my way and letting me off this ship. Find yourself a new nurse and give my sincere apologies to Sir Walter.’
Daniel shook his head. ‘I wish it was that simple but it’s not. Unfortunately, you can’t leave the yacht, Libby.’
‘Just watch me.’
‘No matter how angry you are with me, you can’t just leave,’ he replied as he ran his fingers through the black waves of his hair. ‘I need to have a qualified cardiac nurse to assist with his care.’
‘Are you serious? I’m expected to care what you need?’
‘No, but you need to consider what Walter needs, and that’s an experienced nurse. He’s five weeks post-operative. I can’t have just anyone on board.’
‘Then get an experienced temp from an agency,’ she cut in angrily. ‘I’m not that special.’
Daniel disagreed silently. Libby was very special in many ways but he would never be able to tell her that. ‘It can’t happen, Libby. I’m sorry. It’s just not possible.’
No matter how many nights he had ached to have her lying in his arms, to feel the warmth of her body next to his and taste the sweetness of her kiss again, Daniel knew now more than ever he had to keep her at arm’s length. He had to keep their relationship the way it had begun all those years ago before he’d overstepped the mark.
‘I need to have a competent nurse with your experience and qualifications,’ he told her, quickly re-establishing the professionalism that was required.
Libby stared at him for a moment, her eyes roaming every inch of his face before turning her gaze back to the ceiling. Daniel felt even more confused. While she had every right to be angry and distant, it was as if there was something more behind her words. He wasn’t sure if it was just more anger but there was something. Something she was holding back from saying.
‘I’m sure there’s a nurse who can fit the bill,’ she said in a voice devoid of emotion.
‘We need clearances and we’re leaving in less than two hours. The process can’t happen that quickly.’
‘Call someone. Expedite it. I’m sure Sir Walter is well connected.’
Daniel shook his head. ‘No one is that well connected, not even Walter. There’s a process that can’t be fast-tracked when you’re sailing in international waters and that’s removing the most obvious and pressing fact that we have a patient with specific needs. Walter’s condition is precarious. He needs a highly skilled nurse and you agreed to travel with him. You have a duty of care and you signed a contract.’
‘The board at the Northern Bay General Hospital signed that agreement...’
‘On your behalf and, again, for good reason, they have put their reputations on the line. Walter is one of America’s wealthiest men and I imagine he’s also a very generous benefactor to the hospital. He’s also in need of high-quality, specialised care. For all of these reasons, you have to stay on board. I’m sorry, Libby, there’s really no option. The ship can’t set sail without you and I don’t think you want to have Walter and the board suing you for breach of contract.’
Libby slowly got to her feet as Daniel rose to his with his hand extended to her. She ignored his offer of assistance and used the bunk to steady herself.
‘Then write me a sickness certificate and clear me to leave so they can’t sue me. Tell them I have an unexpected medical condition.’
‘But you don’t have any condition, Libby. I can’t lie.’
He watched as sh
e took a deep breath and considered his words. Again, her demeanour was so different from that of the woman he had met all those years before; the hurt clearly still ran deep but there was something else. There was something less carefree about her. Something behind those beautiful eyes that he couldn’t quite work out.
‘You lied to me...’
‘I didn’t lie, Libby. I left without an explanation. I never lied.’
‘Well, if you find that acceptable, how about I do the same now? I’ll just leave without an explanation, if you believe that’s acceptable behaviour,’ she said in a controlled but clearly hostile voice. ‘I deserve the right to walk away just like you did. The only difference is that you’ll know why...and it’s your choice whether to tell them or not.’
Daniel nodded, accepting the truth in her words. ‘I deserve that.’
‘Yes, you do and I deserve your help to get me off this yacht now.’ She closed her eyes and shook her head.
Daniel wished he could help her but he couldn’t. ‘If I could I would but—’
‘Write the certificate and I’ll be gone. It won’t matter if Walter delays setting sail for one day. They can all stay aboard here in the port and party into the early hours.’
‘Unfortunately, even a delay of two hours let alone a day to secure a new nurse would cause Walter to miss his niece Sophia’s engagement party.’
‘Engagement party? What engagement party?’ she demanded as she slumped back down on the lower bunk shaking her head. ‘I thought this was just a week’s cruise.’
‘It is, with a small engagement party in San Lucia. He’s brought his favourite chef from London to oversee the catering. Guests are coming in from all over the world to meet him there.’
‘So, that’s it, then. It’s a fait accompli. I’m forced to stay.’
‘I’m sorry, Libby.’ Daniel’s long fingers rested on his clenched jaw as he looked at the woman over whom he had lost countless nights of sleep—from both guilt and the realisation that he would never find a woman like her again.
Reunited with Her Secret Prince Page 4