by Grady, D. R.
“I don’t know,” she said and squeezed her eyes shut, but the tears still fell onto her cheeks.
“You never told Dad?” Aleksi finally comprehended what she said. He couldn’t believe she wouldn’t have told him.
“I could not,” his mother wailed and she met his disbelieving gaze head on. “I loved him so much, and there is a possibility he could be your father, but it’s quite possible Graham is your father instead.”
“How did that happen?” he wondered aloud.
“Graham and I were friends, but one night we took things a little too far. We both had a little too much to drink and I’m not certain he even remembers that night. I awoke in the early hours of the morning and left. I was appalled, and swore to never speak of it.”
“And?” Emerson prompted.
“We have never spoken of it. Like I said, I am not even certain Graham remembers that night. He wanted Maria,” and she nearly spat Graham’s wife’s name. “And soon after that they were married and expecting Maks.”
“When did you discover you were pregnant?”
“I married Aleksandr shortly after that night. I hadn’t been aware of the marriage negotiations, but by then Graham and Maria were engaged, and I hadn’t wanted to talk about... what we did. So I married Aleksandr, whom I loved.”
“How much time passed between that night and your marriage?” Tia leaned back against him and Aleksi couldn’t be more grateful for her solid warmth or the hand that resumed soothing him. He needed her support right now. Heaven knew what this secret meant for Rurikstan.
“A month, barely.”
“You never told Graham?” Emerson couldn’t seem to let that tidbit go.
“No.” Her answer was empathic.
“Was Aleksi born prematurely?” Tia asked. “You couldn’t tell by when he was born?”
His mother shook her head. “He was actually a bit big, but so was Aleksandr when he was born. Most of the babies in his line tend to be large.”
“Whereas Graham’s children were all small.” Emerson tapped his chin with his index finger.
“How do you know that?” Aleksi asked, disbelief again coloring his voice. He not only didn’t know that information previously, he would have been happy never learning it.
“I am a father. I overheard Maria and Karis.” Emerson shrugged. Aleksi eyed him suspiciously. Emerson was taking this news far better than him. Of course, Emerson’s entire future didn’t hinge on this information.
“I’m confused,” Tia said, and bit her lip. She wiggled a bit on his lap, before looking at his mother. “Why do you suspect Aleksi was Graham’s? There was a whole month in there before you married.”
“That’s just it. I went to bed with Graham, an event I barely remember.” His mother’s cheeks turned a bright pink, “but I do remember clearly sleeping with my husband-to-be just days after that.”
“You slept with Dad before you were married?”
“Yes. Your father knew his father and mine were talking about marriage between us, and he wanted to see if he was even remotely attracted to me.”
“Obviously he was,” Tia said dryly.
“Oh yes, things got a little out of hand that night.” His mother sighed and he watched as a contented smile crossed her lips. Should he be this grossed out? His parent’s sex life wasn’t something he wanted to hear about.
“And?” he prompted her. Surely the story didn’t end here. He braced himself for the rest of the story.
“And I forgot all about Graham. Didn’t give him another thought.”
“Until you realized you were pregnant.” Tia’s voice held sympathy and understanding, a desired trait in his princess-to-be.
His mother heaved a huge sigh. “I couldn’t believe I was expecting that soon, but there was no doubt. Our fathers agreed to the wedding contract and Aleksandr and I were married within the month. I didn’t mention my news until after we were married.”
“Why do you believe Aleksi might be Graham’s? You’re not even certain about that night,” Emerson said and shoved a hand through his light brown hair. It stood up at odd angles around his head. Like he’d spent the last few minutes shoving a hand through the strands.
“Aleksandr and I tried to have more children after Aleksi, but I never conceived again,” his mother said sadly.
The room fell to a funeral silence and Aleksi resisted the urge to wiggle in his chair. Of course, the fact that Tia still resided on his lap helped to quell the urge. With her warm self on his legs like that, he was also comforted and better able to handle this awful situation.
“If you and your husband both showed signs of lead poisoning, that could have prevented you from conceiving,” Tia said.
His mother’s head shot up from where she’d been morosely staring at the carpet. “What?”
“Just because Graham and Maria had four children doesn’t mean you and your husband couldn’t have children. The lead in the pipes might have prevented conception,” Tia further explained. He felt her stiffen on his lap, like she feared his mother would say something hurtful.
But instead Gracia nodded. A mere hesitant movement of her head. “I suppose that’s true. None of the servants who also live in the same wing conceived children,” she murmured.
“There you go,” Tia said, sounding like a cheerleader.
“They were all past childbearing years,” Emerson pointed out, and his mother deflated again.
He shot his friend a knock-it-off look, which Emerson ignored.
“What about blood tests to verify Aleksi’s father?” Emerson asked instead.
Tia shook her head.
Emerson frowned. “What?”
“They already know Gracia is his mother, and that would be conclusive maternally, but with his father gone, how will you get blood? DNA testing might work but it’s expensive and sometimes inconclusive.”
“Graham is still alive,” Aleksi felt compelled to point out.
“Yes, but your mother’s husband isn’t. Your genes might not be close enough to tell with either Graham or your father.”
“I thought genes didn’t lie,” Emerson said.
“They don’t, but Aleksi’s genes might be closer to an ancestor’s than to his immediate parent’s. At least with his father’s DNA we could rule one or the other out, but with his father gone, it’s going to be harder to tell.”
“That’s what they told me at the hospital in London,” his mother said. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.
“So what does this mean?” he finally asked. If he wasn’t his father’s son, then he had no right to the throne...
“Simple,” Emerson said. “We don’t say a word of this to another soul.”
Aleksi stared intently at his friend. “How likely is that to happen?”
“If we don’t say a word, then...”
But his mother rose to her feet with a choked sob as she fled the room.
They all stared at each other after Gracia ignominiously left the room, but Tia still felt the tension in the air. She was worried about Aleksi. He seemed shocked and upset and she had no idea how to comfort him. Plus she had unwelcome news of her own.
She cleared her throat. Now wasn’t the time to say anything. But as if he could read her mind, Aleksi asked, “Did you have bad news for me, too?”
“I do, as a matter of fact.” Tia bit her lip. She’d rather walk out in front of a truck than tell him.
He sighed, like he expected this day to only grow worse. “What is it?”
She hated to add to his burdens.
Emerson stirred and looked her in the eyes. “You had better tell us now, while we’re still in shock. I don’t believe Aleksi can take much more.”
Tia swallowed. She didn’t want to be the one to bear this news. She honestly contemplated sending Jorge, Maria, or Helena down with their unexpected results, but that was the coward’s way out. Especially since she headed the project.
Taking a moment to suck in a necessary deep breath, Tia dec
ided to just get it over with. “Our recent data suggests the wells still aren’t clean.”
A chicken would squeeze her eyes shut, and Tia wasn’t about to be listed as one of those. It took every bit of energy she possessed not to block out the world with her eyelids.
She felt Aleksi expel a huge rush of air. As if he had deflated significantly. He was still as a statue under her and that’s when she realized she was still on his lap. Probably not the best place to reveal one’s grim news.
When she tried to stand, he wouldn’t release her. Okay, that was a good sign, right?
Maybe not. She watched as Emerson closed his eyes and muttered something about incompetent scientists.
She bristled. “Excuse me,” she started in a belligerent tone.
“If you two start fighting...” Aleksi threatened and something in his tone made her swing around to face him. He was pale and looked mighty unhappy. She swung back around to Emerson.
“Get out,” she ordered.
He obeyed, fortunately, and when she turned back to Aleksi, she hated the deadness of his eyes.
Like he’d lost and there was no rematch.
Tia did the only thing she could think of.
She kissed him.
And her spirits sank when she didn’t initiate so much as a pucker out of him. He didn’t appear to realize she had just locked lips with him. Aleksi didn’t even close his eyes. She knew this because when she unattached their lips and leaned back, she saw his dark yummy eyes were still open and staring uncomprehendingly at her.
Her heart fled to parts unknown as her stomach lurched and threatened to make lunch reappear. This wasn’t something she could handle at the moment. Aleksi’s unresponsiveness sent icy winds howling through her. How must he be feeling? Yet she didn’t know how to comfort him.
But when she tried to wriggle off his lap, his arms tightened around her again.
“Stay,” he commanded.
Tia didn’t have the heart to argue with him.
How was he supposed to rule a principality when he wasn’t even his father’s son? How would the people react? What would they do when they realized he might not be who he always thought?
What would happen to him?
Fear gripped his insides and threatened to turn them inside out when he realized he had nothing to offer Tia now. If he wasn’t who he had always been told, he couldn’t ask her to marry him. He couldn’t supply an heir, if his own parentage was in question.
He had to find a restroom, fast.
Tumbling Tia off his lap wasn’t the plan and he hoped she understood when he exited his office at a sprint and headed for the nearest toilet where he emptied the contents of his stomach.
He was feverish and nauseous, and restless, and once he was honest with himself, depressed. After he flushed the toilet, he trudged over to the sink and washed his hands and mouth. But even as he stared at his reflection in the mirror, he couldn’t see a glaring resemblance to either man who might have sired him.
Aleksi thought he looked like himself. Like Aleksi Kristian Henri Maksmillian of the House of de Leos. This is who he was. But was the House of de Leos part of his name a farce?
Even as he thought that, his knees went weak and his stomach threatened to revolt again. Sweat broke out along his lip and across his forehead. He felt dizzy and discombobulated. What was happening to him?
Thoughts of his bed rolled through his brain, a casual train of thought that he hopped on. He left the water closet and made his way to his bedchamber. The dim coolness of the interior enticed him as only Tia could. Until now.
He stripped off his suit and crawled between the crisp sheets, thankful for something that felt right. Maybe he wasn’t the prince of his own principality any longer. Maybe he couldn’t have Tia. He had no idea what he would do tomorrow. Would he have to move? One thing he did know was that this bed felt exactly like the place he needed to be, and he wasn’t budging from it.
At least not today.
Chapter 22
Dr. Mahon slid between the doors of the paneled drawing room and peered at those assembled. Tia wanted to leap from her chair and wrap her hands around his neck. Instead, she played at being the refined lady. It was a stretch for her.
“What’s wrong with Aleksi?” Her voice sounded calm, modulated, and totally alien to how she felt.
Aleksi’s mother grasped her hand in a death grip. Like she couldn’t handle much more in the way of distressing news. Tia’s heart went out to her, because the woman had fallen apart, and was as devastated by the bomb she dropped on Aleksi this afternoon as he was.
“He’s got a stomach virus, I believe.” The good doctor shuffled some papers before peering at them over his glasses. “It’s a good thing someone realized he was missing and checked his bedchamber.” Again, the little man glanced at her and Emerson over his glasses.
Aleksi’s disappearance had caused a palace-wide panic. But somehow she and Emerson had decided they should check every room in the palace before they caused an uproar. One of the maids had finally thought to check his bedchamber and discovered the feverish prince in his own bed. Their frantic haste to locate Aleksi had bonded Emerson and Tia like nothing else could have.
They called in Dr. Mahon immediately.
“So he has the flu?” Tia asked, impatience at the man’s drawn out processes making her want to run him over with a truck. Preferably of the dump variety.
He again peered at her over those ridiculous glasses. Like he couldn’t believe she’d have the insolence to question him. Ha. This was Aleksi they were talking about. She planned to fire him if he wasn’t clearer.
“Miss...” he checked his notes. “Morrison,” he started, and she cocked a brow at him.
“It’s Dr. Morrison, and I’m a microbiologist. I have an extensive knowledge of bacterium and viruses. I’m certain we’ll understand your diagnosis.” Her voice could have cut glass, and the little man straightened to his full height, which still wasn’t impressive. Not when she nearly topped six feet.
The room had gone deathly silent, and Tia realized even Emerson was staring at her like she’d invited bats into her belfry, whatever a belfry was. She didn’t care.
She pinned the inept doctor with her most professorial glare, the one she used on freshmen and cleared her throat. Loudly. He apparently caught on, which she had to credit him.
Short of tapping her fingers, on his head, she waited, impatiently. “I’m sorry, Dr. Morrison. I had no idea you cared so much about our prince.”
She bared her teeth and might have growled because even Emerson straightened in his seat across from her and Aleksi’s mother, who squeezed Tia’s hand in a show of solidarity. “Mahon, spit it out,” he ordered in a voice nearly as impatient as hers.
“I suggest we fire this dipwad,” she said to Emerson.
He nodded and turned to glare at the doctor.
Who hastily checked his notes again. “The prince has a viral infection, one that has been going around. It constitutes a high fever, nausea, aches and pains which are likely associated with the fever, in addition to weakness, dizzy spells, and fatigue.” The little man snapped his folder shut and peered at them expectantly.
“Thank you, Isaac,” Gracia said, and indicated to the butler to show him out.
“I thought you said Dr. Mahon was competent.” Tia all but accused Emerson. She remembered the Dr. Mahon she met as being so, in fact.
“The real Dr. Mahon is competent. That’s his brother, who believes he’s a gift to the world of medicine—”
“But is instead a, what do you Americans call it, a joke,” Aleksi’s mother finished for Emerson.
“Yes, I’d certainly call him a joke. Why did we allow him to treat Aleksi?”
“He knows viruses. Besides, at the moment, there is no one else,” Emerson replied and swiped a hand over his face.
“The real Dr. Mahon is where?”
“He’s taking a rest, the first he’s had since the well problem brok
e out,” Emerson answered.
She noticed Emerson could probably use a break, too.
He didn’t add, nor did he need to, that the well problem hadn’t been fixed, even though it should have been. She already knew that, of course. She just didn’t have a clue as to what to do about it. They had cleaned those wells – had them professionally cleaned, in fact. There was no reason why they shouldn’t have responded. Yet the data didn’t prove their new cleanliness.
“What do we do about Aleksi?” Gracia interrupted her musings, for which Tia was grateful.
“If he truly does have a virus, the only thing we can do for him is make him sleep and drink plenty of fluids.”
“That’s it?” Gracia sounded horrified. “What about an antibiotic?”
“Antibiotics only work for bacterial infections. Not for viruses. A virus simply has to run its course. So, we let him sleep and drink fluids, and if he wants aspirin or a pain killer, we give him that. If he wants some cold medicine, we can give him that, but I suggest we let him sleep.”
“How long do you think this will last?” Emerson all but chewed on his fingers.
“He’ll probably be really sick for the next couple of days. But in about three or four days, he should start to feel better, but he won’t feel normal. By seven to ten days, he’ll feel like himself.”
“Seven to ten days? This principality can’t run itself,” Emerson said, horror and panic in his voice.
“With Aleksi so sick, it’s going to have to,” Tia said grimly. “He needs sleep far more than he needs to be worrying about Rurikstan.”
“I can assist with his duties,” Gracia said. Her voice was so quiet, Tia nearly didn’t hear her.
“You, Aunt Gracia?” Emerson couldn’t have sounded more dubious.
“Of course. I assisted my husband often. I do know most of what goes on here.”
“You need to return to London for your treatments,” Tia reminded her.