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‘Just smile and wave,’ she said wisely. ‘It doesn’t matter if no one’s at home.’
‘If no one’s at home… ’
‘Anyone can be royal. Plan your gardens in your head while you wave.’ She waved a bit more and smiled a bit more. ‘Look at me. I’m getting good at it.’
‘So you… ’
‘I’m planning boats.’
They’d swung out of the palace grounds now. People were coming out of their houses to see them go past.
They had eight outriders behind and eight in front.
Lily waved to an elderly couple standing in their garden. The old man didn’t wave back but the old woman almost did. She lifted her hand—and then thought better of it.
‘They still think I’m like Mia,’ Lily said, stoically waving. ‘Just lucky I’m not taking this personally.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. He waved and the old man and woman immediately waved back.
‘You must have sex appeal,’ Lily said sagely. ‘Or something.’
‘They know me.’
‘They’re never going to know me,’ Lily said and it sounded as if the idea was comforting.
He should be reassured by that. But there was a stab of jealousy. And something more…
The only places Lily had seen on Sappheiros had been the royal palace and the chapel-cum-cathedral in its grounds. They’d been enough to take her breath away—all spires and turrets and opulence in a fairy tale setting, the sapphire coastline backed by mountains. The palace and cathedral were way over-the-top for a small country, she’d thought, but still, royal was royal, and she’d assumed the whole of the Diamond Isles must be in favour of a bit of pomp and splendour.
Now she wasn’t so sure. The coastal road was lined with houses that looked shabby, some almost derelict. From what she’d learned over the last two weeks, the people had been taxed to the hilt to pay for the kings’ follies.
Now Alex told her he was taking her to his private house. He’d been raised as nephew to the King. For much of his life he’d been first in line to the throne, so she assumed his home would be opulent as well.
Their retinue slowed as they came to a curve in a road that had been getting rougher the further they’d travelled from the city. At one time it must have been paved, but the bitumen was cracked now and giving way. The coastal road—a magnificent route set halfway up the cliffs and overlooking the sea—swept around a headland and on, but the coach slowed by a sign that said—discreetly—‘Hideaway’.
The coach stopped, as did the outriders.
Alex stepped down onto the track and held out a hand to help her down.
‘Um… where are we?’ She gazed around her with surprise. They were in the middle of nowhere. A beautiful nowhere but nowhere nevertheless.
‘We need to walk,’ he said.
‘Walk.’
‘It’s a rhododendron drive. It’s too low for the horses to go underneath.’
‘These guys can’t take off their fancy headgear?’ She gazed round at the impassive horsemen. The horses were standing motionless. There was not a blink from man or horse.
‘From this gate we’re not royal,’ he said, so softly only she could hear. ‘This road has been deliberately left so the royal vehicles can’t get through.’
‘Right.’ but it wasn’t right. She didn’t understand. This was where the fairy tale stopped?
They needed to walk? Fine if you were wearing glossy black boots and a sword to slash the undergrowth. She had four-inch heels and a twenty-foot train.
But she was almost past worrying. Hysteria was carrying her along nicely—as well as her innate sense of the ridiculous.
‘Okay then,’ she said, and she thought she even sounded hysterical. ‘We walk. Did you bring scroggin?’
‘Scroggin?’ he said blankly.
‘Food for serious hikers. You can’t go more than twenty miles without it.’
He grinned. ‘What about three hundred yards? Or I could bring the Jeep down to fetch you. Sorry about this, but this place is private. We don’t want horseguards on our honeymoon.’
‘No,’ she said cautiously.
Honeymoon.
Right.
Alex had obviously been planning this. Yeah, she could see that about him. A planner.
It made her nervous. Or more nervous. How nervous could she get?
Concentrate on practicalities, she told herself. Here she was, in full bridal attire, stuck in the middle of nowhere.
With a baby. Once again the issue of a diaper bag raised its head.
‘There is the small matter of our baggage,’ she said cautiously. ‘Much as I love being a bride, this look could get a bit over-the-top at breakfast. And you get to look after Michales if there are no clean diapers.’
‘Our luggage was brought here earlier.’
She gulped. And nodded. ‘Of course it was. So we were always coming here?’
‘Did you want to stay in the palace?’
‘It all depends,’ she said and picked up her skirts. ‘On what I find at the end of this rhododendron drive. Thanks, guys,’ she said to their escort and waved but they didn’t respond by one fraction of a lift of an eyebrow.
She wasn’t much good at this princess business.
Just lucky it was temporary.
She looked sideways at her temporary husband.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘If you didn’t bring the scroggin, then we’d better move fast.’ She faced up the track and took a deep breath and started walking. She was aware that Alex watched her for a minute without moving. Why? Surely the sight of a bride trudging into a gloom of rhododendrons must be commonplace!
But finally he followed, carrying her son.
She turned and looked—and then looked away again fast. The sight of Alex with Michales had the power to make her feel… hungry?
Hungry for what? She wasn’t sure.
‘You’re good,’ he said as he caught up with her. They were out of sight—and out of earshot of their outriders now.
‘At hiking? I’d like to see you hike in heels this high.’
‘I couldn’t,’ he admitted. ‘But that’s not what I was saying. You were great today.’
‘I did what I had to do,’ she said, stalking on as purposefully as four-inch heels allowed. ‘The islanders don’t like me, but that’s okay. I won’t be staying here long enough for it to matter.’
‘A year,’ he said.
‘That’s what the deal is.’
‘Unless we want more.’
She stopped. Uh-oh. There were things to clear up here before they went an inch further.
‘Alex, let’s get this straight,’ she said, making her voice firm. Or as firm as it was possible to get when her breathing wouldn’t work properly. ‘There are two things I want in life and only two.’
‘And they would be?’
You, she thought, but there was no way she was telling Alex that. She was afraid of even admitting it to herself.
‘My son and my boats,’ she managed. ‘I might be able to squash a marriage of convenience in at the edges but that’s all. If anything—anything—gets in the way of my two priorities then I’m out of here.’
‘You don’t want to be a fairy tale princess?’
‘That’s Mia’s department. I’m just me.’
‘It’s possible to compromise,’ he said softly. ‘That’s why I brought you here.’
‘To teach me to compromise. No deal. I told you… ’
‘Your baby and your boats. Yes, you did. I get that loud and clear. But there’s also the fact that we have a country to govern.’
‘You, kiddo,’ she snapped.
‘I need your help.’
‘For what? I’ve done the fairy tale bit. This train is so heavy… ’
‘I need you to help me create stability,’ he said. He took her train from her grasp so he was holding her son and the sheer weight of her gown. He met her look so steadily that she thought for a blind, dumb moment that he was sex on legs and she was married to him for real. She fought a fast internal fight and managed a sensible reply.
‘How can I do that when the islanders hate me?’
‘They don’t hate you. They don’t know you.’
‘Which is fine.’
‘Which would have been fine if I hadn’t seduced you… ’
She gasped. ‘What the… ?’ Whoa. Where was he going with this?
There was no way she was continuing this hike into nowhere if he stayed believing that. ‘If I remember rightly, it was me who seduced you,’ she snapped. ‘Did I not?’
He looked a bit… stunned. ‘I can’t remember,’ he admitted.
‘You said that before. Any minute now you’ll tell me you were drunk.’
‘I wasn’t drunk. I remember every part of that last night.’
‘Me, too,’ she said. ‘It was a truly excellent night. But it wasn’t me playing the pathetic part of Sleeping Beauty, leaving the action solely to my prince. I’m your equal in every way and I have rights. We made love once and we were stupid. We were both stupid. So get over it.’ She grabbed her train, turned and walked on a few steps, then swore, removed her shoes and picked up the pace.
He let her go. She was holding her own train again. She looked… free, he thought and was hit by a stab of pure, unadulterated jealousy. And more…
His bride, running under the dark canopy, looking nothing at all like Mia, nothing at all like any woman he’d ever met.
She was still wearing her veil and her headpiece. She was still a bride. If he wasn’t holding Michales…
She emerged from the tunnel of rhododendrons, angry and confused.
She saw Alex’s house and she forgot angry and confused. She forgot everything.
It was as if a wand had been waved, transforming the world from a dark, threatening place into sheer fantasy. Not fantasy as in the over-the-top royal palace. Fantasy as in sheer delight.
The house had been built into the cliffs. It was a whitewashed villa, built on three levels, with winding steps joining each level. There were rocky ledges between each level, with bench seats and tables so someone could conceivably carry a drink down towards the beach and pause at each bend, to sit and admire the view.
There were flowers everywhere, spilling from every crevice, so the rock face was bursting with colour. Bougainvillea—crimson, pinks and deep, deep burgundy. There were daisies, growing as if birds had dropped their seeds and they’d simply grown where they’d been dropped. A great twisted vine of wisteria seemed to hold the place together, its gnarled, knotted wood adorned with vast sprays of soft, glorious blues.
The house looked deceptively simple, built of stone, weathered to beauty, appearing to be almost part of the cliffs. Tiny balconies protruded from each window, joining the intricate flow of steps down to the beach.
And, below the house, the sea—sapphire, translucent, magic. A tiny cove. A wooden dinghy hauled up on the sand.
There were even a couple of dolphins in the bay.
Lily stopped and stared. It was all she could do not to cry out in delight.
‘The dolphins… ’
‘I pay ’em to do that,’ Alex said, coming up behind her. He smiled. ‘Welcome home.’
‘I… It’s not my home,’ she whispered, awed.
‘You’ve married me. I guess in a sense it is your home.’
‘Does the pre-nup say I get half?’ she said before she could stop herself, and kept right on gazing, eager to convince herself that this was real, that this wasn’t some Cinderella fairy tale. There was no midnight looming here, for fantasy to return this place to mice and pumpkins.
