Winning the Queen's Heart: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 2)

by Moncado, Carol

  “I believe they’re playing our song.” He held out a hand and tried to put a playful grin behind the words.

  With her hand nestled in his, he walked out onto the dance floor. She didn’t move as close as she had on the yacht, but she wasn’t as far away as on their wedding day.

  “Are you looking forward to tomorrow?” he asked, just to strike up a conversation.

  “I do wish we were spending it here instead of at your family’s place, but that is only because I would really like a day of rest. I am looking forward to seeing them.”

  They had been on the go for quite some time. Had she truly had a day off since the wedding? He thought back. No. And neither had he. Granted, most of what they did on Sundays was pretty low key. A service at the local church and a meal with local dignitaries, perhaps a visit with children in some form. But never a day off.

  He would have to check the calendar for the day after Christmas, and see if he could arrange it. Turn off all alarms, pull the curtains more tightly shut than normal and let her sleep until she naturally awakened. If it couldn’t be pulled off then, he’d have to find a day that would work. He’d put Justin and Diana on it.

  When the music came to an end, he bent down and brushed a kiss against her cheek. “Merry Christmas Eve, Your Majesty.”

  She bowed her head in acknowledgment as Prime Minister Caruso came forward to claim the next dance.

  As Alexander expected, his dance card was full. One dance after another with women of all ages. From the youngest in Annie to an octogenarian who told him what a wonderful thing he’d done to help the queen remember her parents. The great-grandmother three times over told him several stories about the queen’s grandparents, who died many years earlier. In between, there were dances with women of all ages - and all manners of decorum. Most were wonderful. A few he was certain managed to slip their number into the pocket of his tuxedo jacket. He’d need to make sure to remove those and give them to Justin. Justin would have them checked out to make sure none of the women were an actual threat to him or the queen.

  Alexander would also have Justin do his best to make sure they were never invited to another official function. No sense in being in the presence of those who would try to make him forget his wedding vows.

  The last dance was also reserved for the queen. Though it wouldn’t be only them on the dance floor this time, they would leave before the song ended, officially signaling the end of the ball.

  And so, he found himself walking through the corridors of the palace with his wife. Her shoes dangled from his fingers after she’d slipped them off as soon as they reached a section of the palace where there would be no outsiders.

  “Did you enjoy yourself?”

  She nodded, and he noticed how weary she seemed. “I did. Thank you.”

  That was when he knew. Alexander had gone back and forth all day about whether he planned to sleep in the same bed with his wife, finally deciding to follow her lead. Tonight, she needed sleep without worrying about him and his expectations, even if he didn’t have any.

  They entered the apartment they now shared. He walked her to the door of her bedroom and dropped a chaste kiss on her forehead. “Sleep well.” He glanced at the clock. After midnight. “Merry Christmas.”

  She looked up at him, studying his eyes for long seconds. “Thank you, Alexander. Sleep well.” Turning, she walked into the room and shut the door behind her.

  Alexander sighed and headed for one of the other bedrooms. He’d made his bed. Now it was time to lie in it.

  Chapter 14

  Yvette sat curled up in a big chair in one of the less formal sitting rooms in the Mevendian palace. Presents had been opened that morning. The orphanage had been visited, just like every year.

  Heavily pregnant, Jessabelle came to sit in the chair next to Yvette’s.

  “How are you feeling?” Her poor sister-in-law looked miserable.

  “I’m ready for this baby to arrive,” Jessabelle admitted. “I’m kind of over being pregnant.”

  “Are you ready to be a mom?” The mere thought petrified Yvette.

  Jessabelle rested a hand on her belly. “I don’t think anyone’s ever ready, not really. But I think we’re as ready as we can be.” She smiled down as the bump in her stomach shifted. “Malachi is definitely ready. He’s more excited than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

  Yvette nodded. Her older brother, the one she’d always looked to for protection and who cared about her more than anyone else, had shifted his allegiances. Rightly so, of course. His first priority should be his wife and now his child.

  He hadn’t been able to be there for her when Yvette needed him most the last year. Her world had been rocked with the news just like everyone else’s. Her father was also Jessabelle’s father. Her brother was really her half-brother and the result of a staff member - long in love with her father’s mistress - exacting his revenge on their mother and getting her pregnant.

  The whole situation had been used for good, Yvette supposed. Her mother had been considering leaving her father over the long-running affair. When the incident that led to Malachi’s birth came to light, her father ended the affair, never knowing his mistress was pregnant. The child, Jessabelle, with help from Nana Yvette, was adopted by an old friend of the king’s. Nana Yvette had also helped orchestrate the marriage between the two, bringing Jessabelle into the family fold despite her scandalous birth.

  But there was no one for Yvette to turn to except maybe William, but he’d been absorbed in his own drama of some kind. She’d never figured out what it was.

  Now, months later, they’d mostly settled into the new normal. Yvette rarely thought about it, except times like now.

  Jessabelle’s eyes closed as she rubbed her hand along her belly.

  “You all right?”

  Subtle strain lines appeared around her half-sister’s eyes. “I think so. I’m not sure if it’s indigestion or contractions or what, but it’s annoying.”

  Yvette’s attention was drawn elsewhere when the door opened and several other guests walked in, including Lizbeth and her boyfriend, Robert Padovano. With her history with Malachi, it kind of surprised Yvette she’d shown up, but given the looks exchanged between Lizbeth and Robert, they were closer than everyone realized. Lizbeth’s father? Yvette hadn’t seen him since her father kicked him out of the country house last April. She still didn’t understand what happened there.

  Yvette noticed Lizbeth staring at Jessabelle. Not for long. Just long enough for Yvette to notice a look of sadness and regret cross her face. The moment was broken when Robert slipped an arm around Lizbeth’s waist and pulled her into his side. He whispered something as her eyes closed. If Yvette had to guess, she’d say Lizbeth was struggling to hold back tears. That didn’t make any sense, though. Did it?

  Regardless, the gentleness with which Robert treated her made Yvette wish for something that couldn’t be.

  That, in just a few months, she’d walk down the aisle to find, miraculously, Prince Nicklaus waiting at the other end and that, when times got tough, she’d be able to find comfort in his arms.

  Tears now threatened her own eyes.

  She’d long ago learned not to wish for things she couldn’t have, like open affection from her father. He’d gotten better in the last six months, she could admit that, but it made her wish for more. It made wishes sneak up on her unexpectedly.

  Like the wish that the prince from her past would somehow wind up in her future.

  * * *

  Lizbeth stood in front of a window in the palace, staring out over the capital city of Erres below.

  “Feeling better?”

  She didn’t turn, seeing Robert walk toward her in the window instead. When she’d complained of not feeling well, the queen had insisted she go lay down in a guest room. Robert had stayed at the Christmas gathering.

  Until now.

  “I know it’s hard, love.” His arms slipped around her waist, holding her tightly to him.
>
  “I haven’t seen her in a while,” Lizbeth whispered. “I knew she was pregnant, but to see her so close to her due date...” She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I didn’t think it would be so hard.”

  His hands came to rest on her flat stomach. “You were expecting to be in the same place, love. Of course it’s hard.”

  She nodded, the night she’d told him ran through her mind. He had shown up while she was still in tears.

  “What is it, Lizbeth?”

  She barely knew him. Could she tell him what she’d so recently discovered? Finally, she couldn’t hold it in any longer. “I’m pregnant.”

  Robert’s eyes went wide and remained open for what seemed to be an eternity until he finally blinked the shock away. “Okay.” If his mind was running a million miles an hour, it would never catch up to hers.

  “I didn’t mean to sleep with him,” she whispered, tears falling. “I’d never slept with anyone before, but we both got drunk at my family’s house in Ravenzario, and...” She couldn’t continue for a minute. “I’d never gotten drunk before either.”

  She wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I’m sorry I’m not up for going out tonight after all, Robert. And I’m sorry I got involved with you when I knew I’d had this one night thing with this other guy.”

  “We still haven’t defined our relationship, Lizbeth. You shouldn’t feel guilty about that.”

  His arms wrapped around her, and she buried her head in his shoulder. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she whispered. “Abortion is out, but if I have this baby, whether I keep it or give it up for adoption, my father will disown me. I’ll lose everything I’ve ever known. I’ll be pregnant and out on the streets.”

  Robert tipped her chin up with one finger. “Marry me, Lizbeth.”

  Before she could answer, he kissed her. A long, sweet kiss meant to convey feelings, but not passion. The passion was kept under tight control.

  “I mean it,” he whispered when the kiss ended. “Marry me, and let me take care of you and the baby. No one has to know it’s not my baby unless you want them to.”

  The thought rolled round and round in her head. “I don’t know.”

  “You don’t know if you want to marry me, or you don’t know about the logistics and telling your father?”

  “The second.” She rested the side of her head on his chest again. “My father scares me.”

  “Then we won’t get married here. I have a trip to Denmark next week. We can get married there quickly and quietly. It’s legal and everything, but the officials here won’t know unless we file paperwork.”

  Lizbeth looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. “How do you know that?”

  “I have a friend who eloped last year.” He kissed her again, softly. “Think about it. And tonight, instead of going out, why don’t we watch a movie and order pizza?”

  She’d given him a weak smile and a week later, they’d eloped in Denmark, spending two nights there before returning home separately. Two months later, she’d learned the tragic truth. Her pregnancy had never advanced beyond the initial stages.

  There would be no baby.

  Here, now, she should be just days away from giving birth less than a week after Princess Jessabelle’s due date.

  “When the time’s right,” Robert reminded her, kissing her shoulder. “I know it’s hard.”

  He’d been looking forward to being a father. He’d bought pregnancy books and even a baby bedtime book or two. All online, of course. No sense inviting scandal by purchasing them publicly.

  “Yvette’s going to need you this spring. As much as I wish the baby would be arriving any day, I’m glad you won’t be splitting your attentions.”

  “I wouldn’t have agreed to work with Yvette if the baby was still coming.”

  “I know. I also know she’s going to need you.” He kissed the side of her head. “I wish I could stay with you, but I have a flight leaving in a couple of hours. I promised my parents I’d come after Christmas.” He hesitated, and she knew why. Robert wanted to tell his parents. She’d always said no, but maybe there was truth to what he was saying. Maybe it was time to have another shoulder to lean on.

  She met his eyes in the mirror of the window. “Is it too late to get me a ticket?”

  * * *

  Two weeks into the new year and life had yet to slow down for Christiana. She hoped, once they were back at the palace, things would settle into a routine, and they had. Of sorts. One where she rarely saw her husband. Where she tossed and turned. Where an upset stomach was the norm.

  Diana sank into the chair across the desk from Christiana. “The doctor will be here later this afternoon, ma’am.”

  Christiana looked up from the papers she was reading through. “The doctor? Why?”

  “You haven’t been eating well in a month. I know you’ve thrown up at least five or six times in the last couple of weeks. It’s time to make sure nothing is wrong.”

  Christiana did not think anything was wrong, per se, though she started to suspect something was not quite right either.

  “Very well.” She continued working, straight through lunch, until Diana ushered the family doctor in. This man had been her parents’ doctor until her uncle had found someone else for her. Though the other doctor had been cleared of any wrong doing, Christiana felt it time to repay this man’s kindness and discretion. Besides being at the top of his field, he was someone her parents had trusted.

  “Good afternoon, Your Majesty.” Doctor Chambers bowed his head her direction and took a seat in the same spot Diana had been. “I understand you’re feeling a bit under the weather?”

  Christiana nodded. “Yes, though I believe I know why.”

  Dr. Chambers raised a brow. “You do?”

  She twisted her pen between her fingers. Such a huge statement to make, and the doctor should not be the first one she said it to. Too late now. “I believe I am with child, Doctor.”

  The man blinked twice. Then a third time. “Congratulations, ma’am. I do believe that is the best news I’ve heard in some time.”

  Christiana raised a hand. “I am not certain, but I do suspect.” She tapped her pen on the desk. “Everything I tell you is in the strictest confidence, yes?”

  Dr. Chambers leaned forward until his forearms rested on her desk. “Your secrets go to the grave with me. I will share one, only because it will prove my point, and because it does no harm to be shared now. Not with you. Your mother miscarried several babies. One before you were born and three after, that we know of. Then Prince Nicklaus was born. There was at least one more after him. There are medical records for all of them. They were not turned over to the new doctor after your uncle had me removed as royal physician. Have you ever heard anything about them?”

  Christiana shook her head. “No. I believe you. And I trusted you before, but I needed to ask.”

  “Shall we go to the medical wing so I can do a couple of tests? How far along do you believe you are?”

  She stared at the pen. “I can tell you the date of conception, if I am, in fact, pregnant.”

  More blinking was the only sign of his surprise. “All right.”

  “I was not engaged to Alexander the whole time,” she confessed. “Another man had captured my heart, or so I thought. It turned out, he had been plotting to kill me and take over as a distant relation and as my husband. In cahoots with my uncle, we suspect, though last I heard it had not yet been proven. Two weeks before the wedding, his duplicity was discovered. Alexander asked me to marry him. Ravenzario could not take another scandal of those proportions and a canceled wedding, plus the doubt it would instill about my judgment.”

  Dr. Chambers thought for a minute. “I disagree what it says about your judgment, but I can see how it would be a concern.”

  “Alexander is a good man. His family and mine have been acquaintances for many years, but he was instrumental in bringing down my uncle. I trust him implicitly.” Just not with her heart. �
��Ours is not a typical marriage, though I believe we both hold out hope that someday it will be.” A lone tear streaked down her cheek. “I know of the ancient law that says we must begin trying to conceive an heir as soon as possible. I also know the Prime Minister knows all of this and was not going to do anything about his part of the law with the confirmation of such activity.” She sighed. “The anniversary of my parents death, the dinner reception, the memories of my parents, all arranged by Alexander. It was overwhelming, and later that night...” She let him draw his own conclusions.

  “So conception would have been about a month ago?”

  Christiana nodded.

  “If that is the case, you are about six weeks along. We could do a urine test to confirm and then an ultrasound to make sure everything looks good. With your mother’s history, I’d like to keep an even closer eye on you than usual. It may mean we decide to bring in a specialist, but I don’t think it’s necessary at this point.”

  Christiana pushed back from her desk. “Shall we get this over with?”

  Chapter 15

  Something was going on with his wife, and Alexander had no clue what it could be.

  She had visits from a doctor, though the man was always smiling when he left, so it couldn’t be too serious. The queen didn’t eat much but rather picked at their shared meals. He didn’t know if it was his presence or something else that induced her lack of appetite, but it was enough to concern him. It had been almost two months since that night. And it was Valentine’s Day. They’d been invited to a luncheon put on by the Romance Readers and ‘Riters of Ravenzario. He didn’t know who’d decided they would attend, but raising money for babies and children with heart problems was a worthy cause.

  Alexander hadn’t seen his wife in a couple of days, except in passing. It ate at him. The distance and separation from his wife. He didn’t know how to fix it. In fact, they would arrive separately at the event. She had something going on that morning. If he could, he’d meet her after whatever it was, and they could go together.