As they stepped out of the car Aksel slid his arm around her waist. For a moment she was glad of his moral support but she quickly realised that his actions were for the benefit of the press. When he looked deeply into her eyes she knew it was just an act, and as soon as they walked into the community hall she pulled away from him, silently calling herself a fool for wishing that his tender smile had been real.
They were greeted by the headmistress of the school where most of the children affected by the tragedy were pupils. ‘The children are pleased that you have come to spend time with them again,’ Ella Holmberg said to Aksel. ‘They look forward to your visits.’ Noticing Mina’s look of surprise, she explained, ‘Prince Aksel has come to Revika every week since the fishing fleet was destroyed in the storm. Many of the children whose fathers drowned are suffering from nightmares and struggling to cope with their grief. I haven’t mentioned that you are a therapist,’ she told Mina. ‘I’ve simply said that you are a friend of Prince Aksel.’
The first thing that struck Mina as she walked into the community hall was the silence. There were more than thirty children present, and many of the fishermen’s widows. Their sadness was tangible and would take months and years to heal, but Mina hoped that drama therapy might help the children to voice their feelings.
To her amazement, the minute Aksel stepped into the room and greeted the children he changed from the cold and remote prince she had seen at the palace and revealed a gentler side to his nature that reminded her of the man she had met in London. In order to assess the best way to help the children, Mina knew she must first win their trust, and she was pleasantly surprised when Aksel joined in the games she organised.
By the end of the afternoon the hall was no longer silent but filled with the sound of chattering voices, and even tentative laughter. Mina sat on the floor with the children grouped around her. ‘In the next game, we are going to pretend that we are actors on a stage,’ she told them. ‘Instead of speaking, we need to show the audience what emotions we are feeling. For instance, how would we show that we are happy?’
‘We would laugh, and dance,’ suggested a little girl.
‘Okay, let me see you being happy.’ Mina gave the children a few minutes of acting time. ‘How would we show that we are feeling angry?’
‘We would have a grumpy face,’ said a boy, ‘and stamp our feet.’
The mood in the hall changed subtly as the children expressed anger. Many of them stamped loudly on the wooden floor and the sound was deafening, but Mina encouraged them to continue. ‘It’s okay to be angry,’ she told them. ‘Sometimes we lock our feelings inside us instead of letting those feelings out.’
On the other side of the room, Aksel felt a peculiar tightness in his throat as he listened to Mina talking to the children. She seemed to understand the helpless fury that was part of grief, just as he understood what it felt like to lock emotions deep inside. He found her depth of compassion touching, but it was part of her job, he told himself.
At the end of the session the headmistress came over to speak to Mina. ‘The children are having fun for the first time since the tragedy. You’ve achieved so much with them after just one visit.’
‘I would love to spend more time with them,’ Mina said softly. ‘I believe that drama therapy sessions over a few months would be very beneficial in helping to unlock their emotions.’
She glanced across the room at Aksel and wondered what feelings he kept hidden behind his enigmatic façade. He was chatting to a widow of one of the fishermen. The woman was cradling a tiny baby and she held the infant out to Aksel. To Mina’s shock, he seemed for a split second to recoil from the baby. His face twisted in an expression of intense pain and although she had no idea why he had reacted so strangely she instinctively wanted to help him and hurried across the room to stand beside him.
‘What a beautiful baby,’ she said to the child’s mother. The baby was dressed in blue. ‘Would you mind if I held your son?’
The woman smiled and placed the baby in Mina’s arms. She was conscious that Aksel released his breath on a ragged sigh, and, shooting him a glance, she noticed beads of sweat on his brow. She supposed that the prospect of holding a tiny baby would be nerve-racking for a man who had no experience of children—but his extreme reaction puzzled her.
The moment passed, Aksel turned to talk to another parent and Mina handed the baby back to his mother and walked back to rejoin Ella Holmberg, but she was still curious about why Aksel had seemed almost afraid to hold the baby.
Ella followed Mina’s gaze to him. ‘The prince is gorgeous, isn’t he? Plenty of women would like to catch him, but until you came along he seemed to be a confirmed bachelor. It was rumoured that he was in love with a Russian woman years ago, but I assume that he was advised against marrying her. Prince Aksel’s mother was Russian, and she was as unpopular with the Storvhalian people as Aksel’s father.’
Mina’s stomach lurched at the idea that Aksel had loved a woman but had been unable to marry her. Had he come to the Globe Theatre in London to see three performances of Romeo and Juliet because the story about the young lovers whose families disapproved of their union had deep personal meaning for him? She wondered if he was still in love with the woman from his past. Was that why he had never married?
‘That seemed to go well,’ Aksel said to Mina later, when they were waiting in the lobby for the car to collect them. ‘You made a breakthrough with the children today.’ His expression tightened. ‘Watching you with them was really quite touching,’ he drawled. ‘You seemed to empathise with them, but I suppose that was part of your training to be a drama therapist.’
Aksel was struggling to contain the raw emotions that he had kept buried for the past eight years. Shockingly, he found himself wanting to tell Mina about Finn. But how could he trust her? He was still undecided about whether she had tipped off the press that she had slept with him at his hotel in London. Helvete, it was possible she had betrayed him just as his mother and Karena had done, he reminded himself angrily.
He looked into her deep green eyes and the ache in his chest intensified. ‘Who is the real Mina Hart?’ he asked her savagely. ‘You acted like you cared about the children, but maybe your kindness this afternoon was all an act? After all, why should you care about them? You have a talent for making people believe in you, and today you played the role of compassionate therapist brilliantly. The journalist who was reporting on your visit is convinced that you are a modern-day Mother Teresa.’
For a few seconds Mina was too stunned to speak. ‘Of course, I wasn’t acting. Why shouldn’t I care about the children? Anyone with a shred of humanity would want to help them deal with their terrible loss.’ Her temper simmered at Aksel’s unjust accusation. ‘How dare you suggest that I was playing to the press? You’re the one who thinks your damn image is so important.’
Tears stung her eyes and she dashed them away impatiently with the back of her hand. ‘The person you saw today is the real Mina Hart. But who are you, Aksel? I don’t mean the prince—I’m curious about the real flesh-and-blood man. Why do you hide your emotions from everyone? And what the hell happened when you were invited to hold the baby? There was a look on your face—’ She broke off when his jaw tensed. ‘That little baby was so sweet, but you looked horrified at the prospect of holding him. Don’t you want a child one day?’ She stared at his rigid face, wondering if she had pushed him too far, but she was desperate to unlock his secrets. ‘How do you feel about fatherhood?’
‘It is my duty to provide an heir to the throne,’ he said stiffly.
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake!’ She did not try to hide her exasperation. ‘You can’t bring a child into the world simply because you need an heir. I’m curious to know if you would like to have a child.’
He swung away from her as if he could not bear to look at her. ‘Damn your accursed curiosity!’ he said angrily.
Mina swallowed. She had glimpsed the tormented expression in his eyes th
at she had seen at the cabin when she had asked him about the drawing of the baby that had fallen out of his sketch book. ‘Aksel...what’s wrong?’ she said softly. She put her hand on his arm, but he shrugged her off.
Aksel closed his eyes and pictured Finn’s angelic face on that fateful morning. How could the loss of his son hurt so much after all this time? he wondered bleakly.
He lifted his lashes and met Mina’s startled gaze. ‘If you want the truth, I find the idea of having a child unbearable.’
Unbearable! It was a strange word for him to have used. Mina wanted to ask him what he meant, but he strode across the lobby and opened the door.
‘The car is here,’ he said harshly.
He said nothing more on the journey back to Jonja and his body language warned Mina not to ask him any further questions. It was a relief when they arrived at the palace and she could escape the prickling atmosphere inside the car.
As they walked into the palace Aksel was met by several of his government ministers all requesting his urgent attention. On his way into his office he glanced back over his shoulder at Mina.
‘I’m going to be busy for the rest of the afternoon. This evening we will attend a charity dinner, which has been organised by Storvhal’s top businesses to raise funds for the families in Revika affected by the tragedy.’
‘I don’t want to go.’ A note of panic crept into Mina’s voice. ‘I can’t spend an evening in the full glare of the public and the press pretending that we are a blissfully happy couple.’ She hated knowing that they would be fooling people with their so-called romance.
‘Tickets for the event sold out when it was announced that you will be attending with me,’ he told her. ‘You can’t disappoint the guests who have donated a lot of money to the disaster fund to meet you.’
Frustration surged through her. ‘That’s blatant emotional blackmail...’ Her voice trailed away helplessly as he disappeared into his office. Benedict Lindburg, Aksel’s personal assistant, noticed Mina’s stricken expression.
‘It’s easy to understand why he’s known by his staff as the Ice Prince, isn’t it?’ he murmured.
‘That’s the problem—I don’t think anyone does understand him.’
The PA looked at her curiously. ‘Do you?’
‘No.’ Mina bit her lip. ‘But I wish I did,’ she said huskily.
* * *
Half an hour before they were due to leave for the charity dinner, Mina was a mass of nerves at the prospect of facing the press who Aksel had warned her would be present. Earlier, she had decided to tell him that she would not continue with the pretence that she might be his future princess. But she had changed her mind after she had met his grandmother.
Despite being ninety and in poor health, Princess Eldrun was still a formidable lady. She had studied Mina with surprisingly shrewd eyes, before inviting her to sit down on one of the uncomfortable hard-backed chairs in the princess’s suite of rooms at the palace.
‘My grandson informs me that you are a therapist helping the bereaved children from the fishing community whose fathers drowned.’
‘I hope, through drama therapy, to be able to help the children express their emotions and deal with their grief.’
The princess pursed her lips. ‘I believe too much emphasis is put on emotions nowadays. I come from an era when it was frowned upon to speak about personal matters. Unfortunately my son Geir’s private life was anything but private and his indiscretions were public knowledge. I was determined that my grandson would not follow in his father’s footsteps. I taught Aksel that, for a prince, duty and responsibility are more important than personal feelings.’
‘What about love?’ Mina asked, picturing Aksel as a little boy growing up with his austere grandmother. ‘Isn’t that important too?’
Princess Eldrun gave her a haughty stare. ‘Falling in love is a luxury that is not usually afforded to the descendants of the Royal House of Thoresen.’ She looked over at Aksel, who was standing by the window. ‘However, my grandson has informed me that he loves you.’
Mina quickly quashed the little flutter inside her, reminding herself that Aksel was pretending to be in love with her so that his grandmother did not think he was turning into a playboy like his father.
‘And are you in love with Aksel?’ the elderly dowager asked imperiously.
Mina hesitated. She could not bring herself to lie to the princess, but she realised with a jolt of shock that she did not have to. Like Juliet, she had fallen in love at first sight. She glanced at Aksel and her heart lurched when she found him watching her. His hard features were expressionless, but for a second she glimpsed something in his eyes that she could not define. Telling herself that it must have just been a trick of the light, she smiled at his grandmother.
‘Yes, I love him,’ she replied, praying that the princess believed her and Aksel did not.
Now, as she prepared to spend the evening pretending that she and Aksel were involved in a royal romance, Mina’s heart felt heavy with the knowledge that, for her, it was not a charade. What if he guessed her true feelings and felt sorry for her? The thought was too much for her pride to bear. Tonight she was going to give the performance of a lifetime, she told her reflection. Somehow she must convince the press and the Storvhalian people that she was in love with the prince, and at the same time show Aksel that she understood they were playing a game, and that when she smiled at him it was for the cameras and he meant nothing to her.
A knock on the door made her jump, and her breath left her in a rush when she opened it and met Aksel’s ice-blue gaze. His superbly tailored black dinner suit was a perfect foil for his blond hair. He combined effortless elegance with a potent masculinity that evoked an ache of sexual longing in the pit of Mina’s stomach. That feeling intensified when he swept his eyes over her, from her hair tied in a chignon, down to the figure-hugging evening gown that a maid had delivered to her room.
‘I’m glad the dress fits you,’ he said brusquely.
Desperate to break her intense awareness of him, she said brightly, ‘It’s lucky that I’m the same dress size as your sister. I assume the dress belongs to her?’
Aksel did not enlighten her that he had ordered the jade-coloured silk evening gown from Storvhal’s top fashion-design house to match the colour of Mina’s eyes. ‘I’ve brought you something to wear with it,’ he said instead, taking a slim velvet box from his pocket.
Mina gasped when he opened the lid to reveal an exquisite diamond and emerald necklace.
‘People believe that our relationship is serious and will expect you to wear jewels from the royal collection,’ he told her when he saw her doubtful expression.
She caught her lower lip with her teeth as she turned around, and a little shiver ran through her when his hands brushed her bare shoulders as he fastened the necklace around her throat. Her eyes met his in the mirror and her panicky feeling returned.
‘I’m not sure I can do this—face the press and all the guests at the party.’ She fiddled with her hearing aids. ‘When I’m in a crowd and lots of people are talking I sometimes feel disorientated.’
‘I will be by your side for the whole evening,’ Aksel assured her. Mina’s vulnerability about her hearing impairment was at odds with the public image she projected of a confident, articulate young woman. Once again he found himself wondering—who was the real Mina Hart? She looked stunning in the low-cut evening gown and he wished they were back at the London hotel and he could forget that he was a prince and spend the evening making love to her.
As ever, duty took precedence over his personal desires, but he could not resist pressing his lips against hers in a hard, unsatisfactorily brief kiss that drew a startled gasp from her and did not go any way towards assuaging the fire in his belly.
‘Don’t bother,’ he told her as she went to reapply a coat of lip gloss to her lips. ‘You look convincingly love-struck for your audience.’
For a second her eyes darkened with hurt,
but she shrugged and picked up her purse. ‘Let’s get on with the performance,’ she said coolly, and swept regally out of the door.
The fund-raising dinner was being held at the most exclusive hotel in Jonja. The limousine drew up outside the front entrance and Mina was almost blinded by the glare of flashbulbs as dozens of press photographers surged forwards, all trying to capture pictures of the woman who had captured the heart of the prince.
A large crowd of people had gathered in the street, curious to catch a glimpse of their possible future princess. ‘Are you ready?’ Aksel frowned as he glanced at her tense face. She took a deep breath, and he noticed that her hand shook slightly as she checked that her hearing aids were in place. Her nervousness surprised him. After all, she was a professional actor and was used to being the focus of attention.
A cheer went up from the crowd when the chauffeur opened the car door and Aksel emerged and turned to offer his hand to Mina as she stepped onto the pavement. For a second she seemed to hesitate, as if she was steeling herself, but then she flashed him a bright smile that somehow failed to reach her eyes.
‘Wave,’ he murmured as they walked up the steps of the hotel.
Feeling a fraud, Mina lifted her hand and waved, and the crowd gave another loud cheer. ‘I can’t believe so many people have come out on a freezing night,’ she muttered. ‘Clearly your subjects are keen for their prince to marry, but it feels wrong to be tricking people into thinking I might be your future bride when we both know that I’ll be leaving Storvhal soon and we will never see each other again.’
There was no chance for Aksel to reply as they entered the hotel and were greeted by the head of the fund-raising committee, but during the five-course dinner he could not dismiss Mina’s comment. He glanced at her sitting beside him. She was playing the part of his possible future fiancée so well that everyone in the room was convinced she would be Storvhal’s new princess. Helvete, every time she leaned close to him and gave him a sensual smile that heated his blood he had to remind himself that she was pretending to be in love with him. Her performance was faultless, yet he was becoming increasingly certain that it was a performance and the woman on show tonight was not the real Mina Hart.
A Night in the Prince's Bed Page 13