A Night in the Prince's Bed

by Chantelle Shaw - A Night in the Prince's Bed

  Dear God! He lifted his gaze to a ceremonial sword belonging to one of his ancestors, which was hanging on the wall. The ornate handle was decorated with precious jewels including a stunning green emerald that glittered more brightly than the other gems. Aksel thought of Mina’s dark green eyes and a sense of calm came over him. She’d been right when she had said he could not look to the future until he had dealt with his past. Until he’d met her, he had not cared what the future held, but now he no longer wanted to be trapped in the darkness.

  He took a deep breath and looked around at the journalists. ‘Eight years ago, I had a son, but he died when he was six weeks and four days old. His name was Finn...and I loved him.’

  * * *

  Yellow taxis were bumper to bumper all the way along Forty-Second Street, and car horns blared as Mina darted through the traffic. She stumbled onto the pavement and collided with a mountain of a man who put his arms out to catch her.

  ‘After watching you cross the road with complete disregard for your safety, I think I’d better warn your understudy that there is a very good chance she will be playing the role of Juliet when the play opens tomorrow night.’

  Mina looked up at her father. ‘I’ve got things on my mind, and I wasn’t concentrating,’ she admitted.

  ‘I’ve noticed,’ Joshua said drily. ‘You’ve seemed distracted during rehearsals. But I suppose it’s to be expected that you’re nervous about making your debut on Broadway.’

  Of course her father would assume that the only thing she could be thinking about was the play, Mina thought as she followed Joshua into the theatre. He strode into his office without giving her another glance and she sensed that he had already forgotten about her. His criticism hurt, especially as she had tried hard during rehearsals to hide her misery. It seemed that she could never please her father, she thought bitterly. He hadn’t commented when she had told him she was giving up acting to pursue a career as a drama therapist, but she sensed he was disappointed with her.

  Joshua looked surprised when she followed him into his office. ‘As a matter of fact, I’m not worried about the first night,’ she told him. Her frustration bubbled over. ‘Can’t you see I’m upset?’ Heartbroken was nearer to the truth, she acknowledged bleakly. ‘You must have seen the media reports that my relationship with Prince Aksel is over.’ She bit her lip. ‘I understand how important the theatre is to you, but sometimes, Dad, I wonder if you care about me at all.’

  Joshua’s bushy eyebrows knitted together. ‘Of course I care about you,’ he said gruffly.

  ‘Do you?’ Mina hugged her arms around her body. She could tell her father was shocked by her outburst, but this conversation was long overdue. ‘Ever since I lost my hearing I’ve felt that you pushed me away,’ she said huskily. ‘It seems like nothing I do is good enough for you.’ She swallowed. ‘When I became deaf, I was scared that you didn’t love me as much as Darcey and Vicky and Tom. You are proud of your other children, but you’ve never once told me that you are proud of me.’

  Joshua did not respond. Mina was sure he would insist that he had not treated her differently from her brother and sisters, but to her shock he sank down onto a chair and sighed heavily. ‘I didn’t mean to make you feel that I loved you less than the others, but I...well, the truth is...’ For a moment Joshua Hart, the great Shakespearean actor, struggled to speak. ‘I have always felt guilty that you lost your hearing, and I thought you must blame me.’

  ‘Why would I blame you?’ she asked, stunned by her father’s confession. ‘It wasn’t your fault that I had meningitis.’

  ‘Don’t you remember I was looking after you the night you became ill because your mother was performing in a play?’ Joshua said. ‘You were running a slight temperature, and I gave you some medication and intended to check on you later, but I became immersed in learning my lines. By the time your mother came home and checked on you, she realised that you were seriously ill and called an ambulance.

  ‘If it wasn’t for your mother’s quick actions, you could have died,’ he said thickly. ‘If I had called a doctor sooner, you might not have lost your hearing. I watched you struggle to cope with your deafness and I felt eaten up with guilt and sadness that I had let you down. The specialist said that we should treat you the same as we had when you could hear and not make an issue out of your hearing impairment, but when you cried because you had been teased by the other children at school it broke my heart. I think I distanced myself from you so that you did not have to cope with my emotions on top of everything else, but I didn’t realise that you thought I loved you less than your siblings.’

  Mina brushed a tear from her cheek. She was astounded by her father’s revelation. ‘I never blamed you, Dad. I was just unlucky to fall ill, and I don’t suppose the outcome would have been any different if you had called a doctor earlier. Meningitis is a horrible illness that can develop very quickly. I had no idea that you felt guilty. I thought you didn’t love me because I am deaf.’

  ‘I’m sorry I didn’t show how incredibly proud I am of you,’ Joshua said deeply. ‘You are a brilliant actress, and I know you will be a wonderful drama therapist.’ He stood up and opened his arms, and Mina flew across the room and hugged him.

  ‘Oh, Dad, I wish I had told you how I felt years ago.’ She had been afraid that her father would admit he did not love her, Mina realised. Her fear of rejection and her father’s feeling of guilt had created a tension between them, but she hoped that from now on they would be more open with each other.

  ‘What happened between you and your prince?’ Joshua asked. ‘He has been in the news again today. Haven’t you seen the headlines?’ He picked up the newspaper from his desk and handed it to Mina.

  Her heart missed a beat as she stared at the picture of Aksel on the front page. He looked as handsome and remote as he had done the last time she had seen him, when she had turned down his marriage proposal and he had walked out of the royal suite without saying another word.

  Benedict had accompanied her to the airport. The usually chatty PA had been strangely subdued and had called to her as she was about to walk through to the departure lounge. ‘I was hoping that you might be able to understand him,’ he said accusingly.

  Mina had struggled to speak through her tears. ‘Look after him, Ben,’ she’d choked, and hurried off before she changed her mind and asked him to drive her back to the palace.

  The newspaper headline proclaimed: ‘Prince Faces Further Heartbreak!’

  Mina quickly read the paragraphs beneath Aksel’s photo.

  Prince Aksel of Storvhal has made the shocking revelation that he fathered a child eight years ago. Tragically his son died when he was six weeks old. The announcement has caused a storm of public interest in Storvhal and comes a few days after the announcement that his relationship with English actress Mina Hart has ended.

  The Prince issued a statement saying he was deeply saddened by the break-up and took full responsibility for Miss Hart’s decision not to marry him. He went on to say he would always regret that he could not be the man Miss Hart deserved.

  ‘Why did you decide not to marry him?’ Joshua Hart said gently. ‘Don’t you love him?’

  ‘I love Aksel with all my heart, and that’s why I turned him down.’ Her voice shook. ‘He doesn’t love me, you see.’

  Her father studied the newspaper article. ‘Are you sure he doesn’t? It seems to me that he has laid his heart on the line. Why would Aksel think that he can’t be the man you deserve?’

  ‘I didn’t know he felt like that,’ Mina whispered. She looked at the photograph of Aksel being mobbed by journalists who were no doubt demanding to know more about the child he had fathered. His hard-boned face showed no emotion, but there was a bleak expression in his eyes that tore on Mina’s heart. He must find talking about his son desperately painful, especially as he was facing the press alone.

  He had been alone all his life, she thought sadly. Brought up by his grandmother who had taught h
im to put duty before personal happiness, he had been rejected by both his parents and Karena, the woman he had fallen in love with soon after he had been thrust into the role of Prince of Storvhal and a life of responsibility.

  It was little wonder that Aksel found it hard to open up and talk about his feelings. Perhaps he did not love her, but she hadn’t stayed in Storvhal and asked him outright how he felt about her because she had been afraid that he might reject her, just as she had been afraid to confront her father and risk Joshua’s rejection.

  Swallowing the tears that threatened to choke her, she turned to her father. ‘I’ve been such a coward. I have to go to Storvhal right away.’ She looked at Joshua uncertainly. ‘But what about the opening night of the play?’

  He squeezed her arm. ‘I’d better go and tell your understudy to prepare for the biggest role of her life,’ he murmured.

  * * *

  The tall white turrets of the royal palace were barely visible through the snow storm. Winter was tightening its grip on Storvhal and by early afternoon the daylight was already fading, yet Mina found the dramatic landscape of snow and ice strangely beautiful. The car drove past a park, and the sight of children building a snowman was a poignant reminder that even as a young prince Aksel had not been free to enjoy simple childhood pleasures and he had never played in the snow or built a snowman.

  Benedict Lindburg met her in the palace entrance hall. ‘The prince is in his office. I didn’t tell him you were coming,’ he told Mina.

  Taking a deep breath, she opened the office door. Aksel was sitting behind his desk and had a pile of paperwork in front of him. The light from the lamp highlighted his sharp cheekbones and the hard planes of his face. He looked thinner, she noted, and her heart ached for him.

  He frowned as he glanced across the room to see who had walked in without knocking. When he saw Mina his shoulders tensed and his expression became shuttered.

  ‘Mina! I assumed you were in New York preparing for the opening performance of Romeo and Juliet this evening.’ Although his tone was coolly detached his ice-blue eyes watched her guardedly. He picked up a pencil from the desk and unconsciously twirled it between his finger and thumb. ‘Why are you here?’

  As she walked towards his desk she hoped he could not tell that her heart was banging against her ribs. But then she reminded herself that she was through with being a coward and hiding how she felt.

  ‘My father has released me from my contract with his theatre company and I’ve handed the role of Juliet over to another actress.’

  Aksel looked shocked. ‘Why would you turn down the chance to star on Broadway? Surely it’s the opportunity of a lifetime that every actor aspires to?’

  ‘I have different aspirations,’ she said steadily. ‘I hope to make a career as a drama therapist, but more importantly, I’ve changed my mind about marrying you—and if your offer is still open I would like to be your wife.’

  The pencil between his fingers snapped in half and the lead tip flew across the desk.

  ‘Why the change of heart?’ he demanded. ‘I thought you needed to hear a declaration of my feelings before you would accept my proposal.’ Aksel’s jaw tensed. ‘I have to warn you that my feelings haven’t changed.’

  For a second her courage nearly deserted her, but for some reason she remembered the snowman in the park and her resolve strengthened.

  ‘Nor have mine,’ she said huskily. ‘I fell in love with you the moment we met.’

  ‘Mina, don’t!’ He jerked to his feet and strode around the desk. ‘I don’t want you to say things like that.’ He raked his hair back from his brow and she noticed that his hand shook. The tiny indication that he felt vulnerable moved Mina unbearably.

  ‘That’s too bad, because I refuse to keep quiet about my feelings for you any longer.’ She lifted her hand to his jaw and felt the familiar abrasion of blond stubble against her palm. ‘I love you, Aksel. I know you can’t say the words, and maybe you never will, but I don’t believe you are empty inside. You were hurt, and you’re still hurting now, especially since you have spoken publicly about your son.

  ‘I can’t imagine how painful it must have been for you to lose Finn,’ she said gently. ‘I hope that being able to talk about him will help to heal the pain in your heart, and I want to be beside you, to support you and to love you with all my heart.’

  For a moment he gave no reaction. His skin was drawn so tightly across his cheekbones that his face looked like a mask, but as she stared at the rigid line of his jaw Mina suddenly realised that he was far from calm and in control of his emotions. His eyes glittered fiercely, and she froze as she watched a tear cling to his lashes and slide down his cheek. ‘Aksel—don’t,’ she whispered, shaken by the raw pain she saw in his eyes.

  ‘Oh, God!—Mina.’ His arms closed around her and held her so tightly that the air was forced from her lungs. ‘I love you so much it terrifies me.’

  His voice was ragged and she could hardly hear him, but she watched his lips move and her heart felt as though it were about to explode.

  ‘I couldn’t bear to lose you. It would be like losing Finn all over again,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I convinced myself that I would be better off not to love you. I thought that if I denied how I felt about you the feelings would go away.’ He rubbed his cheek against hers, and Mina felt a trickle of moisture on his skin.

  ‘I didn’t want to love you,’ he whispered. ‘But when you left I felt like someone had cut my heart out, and I had to face the truth—that I will love you until I die, and without you my life is empty and meaningless.’

  He drew back a fraction and looked down at her. ‘I planned to wait until Romeo and Juliet had finished its run on Broadway, and then come and find you and try to persuade you to give me another chance.’ He brushed away the tears on her cheeks with his thumb pads. ‘Does the thought of me loving you make you cry, angel?’

  ‘Yes, because I know how hard it is for you to speak about your feelings,’ she said softly. ‘You were taught to put your duties as a prince before your personal happiness.’

  ‘The night in London and the time we spent together when you came to Storvhal were the happiest times of my life. I have never met anyone as caring and compassionate as you, but I told myself I could not trust you because it made it easier to deny my feelings for you.’ Aksel’s throat moved convulsively. ‘You were right when you guessed that I had buried my grief about Finn, but you gave me the guts to face up to the past and tell the Storvhalian people about my son as I should have done years ago.’

  He dropped his arms from her and walked around his desk to take something out of a drawer. Mina caught her breath when he came back and opened the small box in his hand. The solitaire diamond ring glistened like a tear drop, like the bright stars that watched over the mountain where his baby son rested.

  ‘Will you marry me, my love, and be my princess? Will you walk with me all the days of our lives and lie with me all the nights, so that I can love you and cherish you with all my heart for ever?’

  She gave an inarticulate cry and flung her arms around his neck. ‘Yes—oh, yes—on one condition.’

  Aksel searched her face and felt that he could drown in her deep green eyes. ‘What condition, angel?’

  ‘That, as soon as our children are old enough, we will teach them to build a snowman.’

  He understood, and he smiled as he slid the diamond onto her finger. ‘We’ll also tell them how much we love them every day. Out of curiosity, how many children were you thinking we should have?’

  ‘Four or five—I’d like a big family.’

  ‘In that case—’ he swept her into his arms and carried her out of his office, heading purposefully towards the stairs that led to the royal bedchamber ‘—we’d better start practising making all those babies.’

  Aksel glanced over the bannister at his PA, who was hovering in the hall. ‘Ben, I’d like you to draft an announcement of the imminent marriage of the Prince of Storvhal to Mis
s Mina Hart, who is the love of his life.’

  Benedict Lindburg bowed and surreptitiously punched the air. ‘I’ll do it immediately, sir.’

  * * *

  On Christmas Eve the bells of Jonja’s cathedral rang out in joyful celebration of the marriage of the Prince of Storvhal and his beautiful bride. Despite the freezing temperature, a vast crowd lined the streets to watch the candle-lit procession of the prince and princess as they travelled by horse-drawn carriage to the palace where they hosted a feast for five hundred guests, before they left by helicopter for a secret honeymoon destination.

  Mina wore her white velvet wedding dress for the short flight to the cabin in the mountains. She carried a bouquet of white roses and dark green ivy, and wore a wreath of white rosebuds in her hair.

  ‘Have I told you how beautiful you look, my princess?’ Aksel murmured as he lifted her into his arms and carried her into the cabin. ‘You took my breath away when you stood beside me at the altar and we made our vows.’

  ‘To love and to cherish, till death do us part,’ Mina said softly. ‘I meant the words with all my heart, and I will love you for ever.’

  Aksel kissed her tenderly, but as always their passion quickly built and he strode into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. ‘You could have chosen to spend our honeymoon at a luxury hotel anywhere in the world,’ he said as he stripped out of his suit and began to unlace the front of Mina’s dress. ‘Why did you want to come here to this remote place?’

  ‘It’s the one place where we can be completely alone.’ Mina caught her breath as he tugged the bodice of her wedding gown down and knelt over her to anoint her dusky pink nipples with his lips.

  He smiled. ‘Just the two of us—what could be more perfect?’

  ‘Well...’ She took his hand and placed it on her stomach. ‘Actually—there’s three of us.’