All of them looked up to see Queen Christiana standing there.
“How lovely. I cannot remember the last time I went on a picnic.”
Every one of the children jumped down from their barstools, each of them bobbing a curtsy or bowing. “Good morning, Your Majesty.” They weren’t quite in unison, but close. They must have practiced.
“Well, good morning.” She stopped at Alexander’s side, slipping her hand through his arm. “A picnic sounds lovely. I believe even I can make sandwiches.” She leaned toward the children and whispered, “I have never been much good at cooking.”
More likely she’d never had much of an opportunity. He loved to cook, but even he’d only had the chance a few times since the wedding and never yet for his wife. He’d have to fix that soon.
Alexander handed her an apron. “Okay. Let’s get started.” They spent the next twenty minutes making sandwiches. Helping children spread mayo or mustard, then using cookie cutters to make them into designs. Each child had a lunch box and thermos. The thermoses were filled with hot chocolate, made by Alexander and one of the seven-year-old boys. It was cool enough outside for it to be welcome.
All of them took off their aprons and put on their coats. Justin chose that moment to walk in. “I’m afraid there’s going to be a change of plans. It has started to drizzle.”
His mind raced a mile a minute. Where else could they have a picnic? Then it hit him. “How about in the Reception Room? It’s cool enough that a fire would be nice. We could make s’mores.” He grinned like a little kid at the thought.
“What are s’mores?” His wife looked at him, curiosity winning over amusement.
“You’ll see.”
Laughing, the small group followed him through the halls until they reached the Reception Room. Someone was there lighting a fire in the massive stone fireplace. Christiana thanked the aide as Justin showed up with some blankets and together they spread them out in front of the fire. Christiana sat with her legs tucked to one side. Alexander took a seat across the blanket from her, where he could see her but the kids could be spread out and closer to one of them than if they sat next to each other. He understood how important that was to a five-year-old. In fact, a certain little girl had plopped down right next to the queen.
The next twenty minutes flew by as they both talked with the kids. They cleaned up their messes, and Alexander hopped up to get the tray of supplies Justin had brought while they ate.
He set it down in front of the fire. “Okay, has anyone ever heard of s’mores?”
All of them shook their heads.
“All right then. Who likes chocolate?” Eleven hands, including Christiana’s went up. “Marshmallows?” Eleven again. “What about graham crackers?” Another eleven. “You know I grew up in the United States, right?”
The five-year-old, whose name he discovered was Elana, piped up. “Yes! You’re an American!”
“Well, I am, but I’m also a Ravenzarian now. Growing up, my twin brother and I would have these whenever our parents would let us. When we had a fire, or went camping, or for our birthday.” He picked up a metal skewer. “First, you have to roast the marshmallows. Elana, how about you help me first?”
Before he finished, the little girl was at his side. He showed her, and the other kids, how to hold the marshmallow over the fire until it was toasty brown.
“Now, some people like them burnt, but I like them just like this.” Alexander picked up half a cracker with part of a Hershey’s bar on it and another cracker half. “Set it right here.” He nodded to the chocolate and, when she did, used the other cracker to help slide the marshmallow off the skewer.
He helped Elana hold it as she took a bite. Her eyes went wide as she chewed. “Yum,” she mumbled around the mouthful. “It’s good.”
Laughing, he turned to help the other kids get started. Elana was the youngest by about two years. Each of these kids had won a drawing to be here. The actual age for the drawing was seven, but somehow the form Elana’s mother filled out was misprinted so they allowed her to win, though she wasn’t technically eligible. The other kids were old enough to need less supervision, so once he got them started, Alexander motioned Christiana over.
“Let me help you make one.” He showed her how to put the marshmallow on and how to hold it.
“Mr. Alexander?”
As Christiana tentatively reached for the fire, Alexander turned his attention to one of the boys whose marshmallow was done.
He spent fifteen minutes helping the kids make their s’mores. Christiana had put her skewer down and helped hold the crackers and chocolate for others.
She did things like that often, he’d noticed. Put others ahead of herself. Always giving. The last few weeks where she’d had to take it easy and let others put her first went against the grain for his wife.
Two hours after meeting in the kitchen, the kids were all picked up by their parents. Laughing and full of stories, they each introduced their parents to him and Christiana. He was able to tell each parent what a good kid they’d raised. It took another half hour to send the kids off right, after three extra hugs from little Elana.
“I am going back to get some work done.” Christiana started for the door, but Alexander stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“Nope. You haven’t had a s’more yet. Come on. Have a seat.”
She sat in front of the fire, legs tucked to one side again. Alexander sat right behind her, so the fabric from his shirt brushed against her back. Reaching both arms around her, he put another marshmallow on the skewer. “Like this.”
Christiana shifted back until she leaned against him, letting Alexander roast the marshmallow for her.
He glanced down and swallowed hard. The line of her neck beckoned him. He couldn’t help it and pressed his lips to the curve where her neck and shoulder met.
“I’m so glad you said ‘yes’, love,” he murmured, pressing another kiss closer to her ear. “I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”
* * *
Christiana shuddered a bit as his words literally reverberated through her. “I am glad I said ‘yes’, too, Xander.”
He kissed his way up her neck. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her head leaned back against him, giving him better access. Deep inside, things began to stir. She found herself wishing for things that could not be until the doctors released her from restrictions.
“Xander,” she whispered. “I need you to stop.”
Christiana felt him pull away, both physically and, though she could not see him, emotionally. Before she could correct his misimpression, her phone buzzed. Her eyes closed again, for a different reason this time. She looked at the screen. “This cannot wait, Alexander. I am sorry.”
“Of course.” His tone was distant.
“Xander...”
Before she could at least attempt to straighten things out, Justin walked in. Alexander moved away from her and stood up. While talking to Justin, Alexander helped her stand. He gave her an absent-minded kiss on the cheek before walking off, looking at the tablet his assistant handed him.
With a sigh, she headed for her office. Today was the first day she would work out of it for at least a short time. A video conference meant she needed to be somewhere besides the apartment. She settled into her office chair and turned her attention to the paperwork resting on her desk.
After two hours of work, she was more than ready to go back to her room and rest. Would Alexander be waiting for her? When had he started worming his way into her heart? Why had she let him, so quickly?
Did making love with him have anything to do with it? If that never happened, or if she had never gotten pregnant, would she still feel these same things for him? Was it just the hormone shifts that came with pregnancy?
No matter. Entering the bedroom he had shared with her since the concern for the baby grew, and she was confined to bed for a time, she shed her clothes and went straight for the shower. The hot water washed over her as tea
rs slid down her cheeks.
A sob caught in her throat.
On the heels of her uncle’s betrayal, she swore to herself she would never rely on another man. Her first fiancé was safe. She felt comfortable. Felt attraction. But she never felt anything like what she did for Alexander.
She had checked his schedule before leaving the office. He would not be back to the apartment until after her usual bedtime.
Perfect.
After a light dinner she forced herself to eat, Christiana watched one episode of 2 Cool 4 School - her favorite one - and read until she was ready for sleep. As she drifted, she wished she could let herself truly believe in love. In her love for Alexander and in the love she believed he had for her.
* * *
Alexander knelt next to Christiana’s side of the bed. He wanted to kiss her awake, but after she pulled away from him earlier, he didn’t dare. Especially not when he was telling her he had to leave.
Instead, he ran a hand over her arm. “Christiana?” He shook her arm lightly.
Her eyes blinked open. “Xander?”
“I’m so sorry to wake you, but I have to fly to the States. My grandma had another heart attack, and this one’s worse than the last one. We won’t know for a few days, but I have to go, just in case.”
She pushed up on her elbow, the sheet sliding down to reveal a nightgown he’d never seen. Pale lavender. Spaghetti straps. Dipping lower than anything he’d ever seen her wear. He forced his eyes to her face.
“You’re leaving?” she croaked with morning voice.
“I have to see my grandmother.”
She nodded. “Okay.” One hand pulled the sheet back over her shoulder as she settled into her pillow. “Be safe. Give your family my love.”
“I will.” He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Sleep well.” It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he’d rather make his first real declaration of love when she was awake.
Half an hour later, he settled on board One Royal Air. His family’s plane was ferrying family members from around the States.
Hours later, he deplaned, the chill of the Canadian air mass settling into southwest Missouri dropping the temperatures considerably. The wind cut through his wool overcoat and made him wish he’d brought his warmest gloves.
Alexander trotted down the steps of the plane to the waiting car. A glance up showed a couple of photographers in the distance with lenses as long as his arm. Though he didn’t have near the following of his wife, even when in his home country, the spouse of royalty was always a photograph waiting to happen. Word must have gotten out the Ravenzarian plane would be landing. He opened his own door and slid into the warmth of the back seat.
Christopher waited for him.
“How is she?” The car pulled away from the plane.
His brother finished a text and slid his phone into the inside pocket of his suit coat. “Better. Mom’s with her. The media did get wind that you’re headed this way so we could expect some of them to show up. There’s not a big paparazzi contingent here right now, but the local stations may run stories. Depending on how busy the news day is, it might get picked up by the national networks.”
Alexander shrugged. “I don’t care. The hospital won’t let them in and security should already be over there.” A friend of the family owned a security company. Before leaving Ravenzario, he’d called in a favor to get someone up there ASAP. He’d met Jonathan Langley-Cranston a few times, and the man knew how to get security.
“About an hour after you called, Jonathan had someone over there.”
Even without an escort the drive took about twenty minutes. Alexander directed the driver to one of the buildings across the street when he saw a television truck in front of the hospital. There were at least four entrances besides the main one. They couldn’t all be covered.
The walk was a little further, but it was worth it. Alexander had looked up the floor plans on his tablet and directed his brother up one elevator, across the bridge above National Avenue, and onto the first floor of the main hospital building. One of the lesser used staircases took them down one story to the ground floor and the CardioVascular ICU.
The stark hallways, with their white linoleum tile and occasional landscape or happy medical photograph, were broken by doors to go through to the next section of the hospital. The beeps and intercom pages broke his concentration on counting the tiles to pass the time. They reached the CVICU and waited for the staffer to finish a phone call before inquiring about their grandmother.
The staffer clicked buttons on the computer. “It looks like the doctor is with her right now and her family and friends are in the waiting room.” She pointed to door behind her. “Right through there.” She eyed them. “Do I know you?”
He smiled politely. “I don’t believe so, but thank you for your help.” The last thing he wanted at the moment was for some hospital employee to accidentally let it slip where in the building he was hanging out.
With a deep breath, he followed his brother into the waiting room to find his family.
Chapter 25
Christiana rolled over and groaned. Her entire body ached as she tried to resist the urge to throw up again.
Diana laid the cool washcloth on Christiana’s forehead. “Dr. McCall is on her way, ma’am.”
“Why not Dr. Chambers?”
“He’s out of town today. He’ll be back tomorrow, but I didn’t want to wait.”
As much as she wanted to protest, Christiana simply nodded. Had she ever been so sick?
“Elana’s mother called the office. Apparently, she took sick about two hours after she left here. I didn’t tell her you were ill. She felt badly enough without knowing that.”
Christiana’s eyes closed, and she willed herself to sleep. Sleeping, she knew, was the best thing for a stomach bug. Let the abdomen rest. Her mind drifted. She had not heard from Alexander since he left. It had not been very long, but she would have liked a phone call when he arrived. Or at least a text. She would have heard if anything had gone wrong, but would it have been too much to ask for her to hear from him herself?
Her thoughts were interrupted by another round of gut-wrenching into the trash can. By the time she finished, Dr. McCall was in the room with her.
The good doctor helped her lay back down. “How long as this been going on?”
Christiana closed her eyes and put the washcloth back on her forehead. “About eight hours. I have thrown up at least nine times.”
Dr. McCall removed the washcloth. “I want to get your temperature,” she explained. “We’ll give it a few minutes. Diana said you were in contact with a sick little girl?”
“Apparently.”
She spent a few minutes taking Christiana’s vitals and then her temperature. “No fever, but I am a bit concerned. I don’t think the anti-nausea meds are the way to go this time. We’ll let it run its course and give you IV fluids for support. The duke is out of town?”
“Yes. Diana offered to stay as long as I need her since she has already been exposed.”
Dr. McCall’s nurse chose that moment to walk in, and they put the IV into her hand.
“I am seriously considering a pallet in the bathroom.” Christiana attempted a joke, though she only smiled weakly at best.
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Dr. McCall squeezed her hand. “Hopefully, you’re on the down slope of this now.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.” After a few more minutes, Dr. McCall and her nurse left, and Christiana tried to get some sleep. When she couldn’t, she picked up the massive remote and turned on the projector as the screen lowered.
Before she could flip over to the movie screen, the news came back from commercial. Had Alexander been the last one to watch? American News Network International was not usually her first choice.
“And in international royal news, Prince Alexander is back in Serenity Landing for a few days. Sources tell us his grandmother suffered a heart attack two days a
go.”
The picture on the screen changed to a shot of her husband trotting down the stairs of Royal Air One and getting into a waiting car.
“The prince and his twin brother were seen walking through the halls of Cox South hospital in Springfield, Missouri, but the family has made no comment to the press at this time. His departure so quickly on the heels of the truth of his engagement and wedding to the queen has led to speculation that all is not well in Revenzarian palace. The queen, who has been on bed rest and restricted activity for much of her pregnancy, did not accompany him.”
They moved on to some other story as Christiana changed the input to movies. At least he was there. He was safe. He had security with him, and she knew he had friends who ran a security firm who would be there as well. Why did the thought of something happening to him bother her so? There were no known threats. Perhaps because all of the threats were against her.
Her stomach roiled. With just enough time to get to the bathroom, she hurried that way.
* * *
“Next up, Margie McCoy of 2 Cool 4 School talking with us about the possibility of a reunion.”
Julia’s ears perked up. A reunion? Alex and Chris Slate hadn’t been seen since the show ended, and they disappeared back to whatever Midwestern town they’d emerged from a year before the show started.
She hurried through her morning routine and urged her own Alex to move a bit faster. The bus would be here before she knew it. By the time they came back for the bottom of the hour news break, she was brushing her teeth.
“And in international news, Prince Alexander of Ravenzario is in Springfield, Missouri visiting his grandmother after a heart attack.” The picture shifted to show Alexander with his twin brother. “The American is making his first visit to his homeland after marrying Queen Christiana in the fall. The royal couple is expecting their first child later this year. Back to Abby and Tod in New York.”
This time the picture showed the two co-hosts sitting with Margie McCoy on tall barstools.
The actress had a look on her face that Julia couldn’t quite identify, but it was quickly replaced by a pasted-on smile.
Winning the Queen's Heart: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 2) Page 17