‘I want more.’
‘You can’t have more. My people have been betrayed by what your sister has done.’
‘So they hate me?’
‘They don’t know you. But you look like her. So no, you can’t have access. Contact your sister instead. Drum some sense into her. Make her be a mother.’
‘And meanwhile…’ she swallowed ‘…will you be a father to Michales?’
‘Are you joking?’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘I didn’t like his father and I can’t abide his mother. I’ll make sure there are good people raising him, but he’s nothing to do with me.’
‘So he’ll be raised how you were raised?’
‘How the hell do you know how I was raised?’
‘You told me, Alex,’ she said flatly and he stared at her.
‘I must have,’ he conceded at last. ‘That one night…I hardly remember.’
It needed only that. A night that had changed her world, and he hardly remembered.
‘Look, what is this?’ he demanded. ‘Lily, we slept together but you left the next morning without even a goodbye. Why bring it up again now? I have to think you got what you wanted.’ He sighed again, looking weary of the whole business. Weary of her. ‘I’ll see you get reports of the baby’s progress—even though your sister says she doesn’t want anything to do with him. That’s all I can do.’
‘But he’s your…’
She couldn’t say it. A maid was standing in the doorway, looking anxious. Looking at Lily in recognition.
‘Your Highness, you’re wanted downstairs,’ the girl said to Alex, but she was still staring at Lily. ‘I remember you,’ she said. ‘You’re the Queen’s sister.’
‘I know I’m wanted,’ Alex said grimly. ‘I was just saying goodbye to Miss McLachlan.’
‘Are you leaving, miss?’ the girl asked, looking confused.
‘I suppose I am,’ Lily said, fighting back tears. ‘But…I need to spend some time with Michales. Just a little.’
‘Take as much time as you want,’ Alex agreed, his tone once again implacable. ‘Cradle him all night if you want. See if you can make up for his lack of mothering. But you’ll stay out of sight of my guests, and you’ll leave by tomorrow morning. Goodbye, Lily. Get off my island. You can return with your sister or not at all.’
And, without another word, he wheeled and walked out of the room, leaving her staring after him.
Feeling ill.
‘Did someone give you the letter?’ the maid asked tentatively across the silence.
‘Letter?’
‘The Queen…your sister left only yesterday.’ There was awe in the girl’s voice, as if she still couldn’t believe such scandal. ‘She told me you were expected.’ She crossed to the vast marble fireplace and lifted an envelope from the mantel. ‘I promised I’d give it to you. Oh, but, miss, what was she thinking? To abandon her baby…’
Lily closed her eyes, not even thinking how she could answer. When she opened them the girl was gone. Leaving her with the letter.
What have you done, Mia? she asked herself. Dear God, what a mess.
She flicked open the letter and made herself read. It was like Mia. Blunt, with no emotion.
Dear Lily,
I never wanted your baby. Giorgos was so desperate to stop Alexandros inheriting he decided to adopt a child and swear it was ours. He had it set up—bribing doctors—the works. Then, when you told me you were pregnant and too ill to care for the kid, it was like it was meant.
But now Giorgos is dead. I’m no dowager, Lily, asking for pin money from Alex for the rest of my life. Ben’s rich and fabulous and I’m going with him. Now your head’s been fixed, the baby will be safe with you.
Mia
Lily stared at the letter for so long her eyes blurred. The blurring was frightening all by itself. The last twelve months had been blurred and more blurred, and then completely blank.
That Alex could look at her as he had…
Once there’d been tenderness but, as he’d said, it had been one night of passion, and one night only. It had been a night of fantasy. Not real. Her baby was real.
She stared down into the cot and she felt her heart twist. After all the horror, the bleakness that had been her life thus far, this was reality. This tiny being.
She’d thought he was the result of loving.
He was. She thought that fiercely. Even though they’d only just met, she knew she’d loved his father when she’d conceived this child. Yes, she’d been half crazy with fear, but she’d also been in love.
Her baby would be loved.
What had Alex said? Take as much time as you want.
The door opened and the maid was there again. ‘If you please, miss,’ she said. ‘It’s time for the baby’s feed.’
‘He’s asleep.’
‘It’s four hours since he was last fed,’ the girl said primly. ‘We follow rules.’
‘I see,’ Lily said, swallowing a lump that felt the size of a golf ball. And then she thought, no. No and no and no.
‘You heard what Prince Alexandros said,’ she told the girl, her thoughts eddying and surging, then, like a whirlpool, finding a centre. Enabling her to pull herself together and fight for what she most wanted. ‘Prince Alex said I can take care of Michales until I leave,’ she said. ‘Can you bring me his formula—everything he needs until morning—and let us be?’
‘What—everything?’ the girl said, startled.
‘I mean everything.’
‘But…we have shifts. We change every eight hours. You can’t look after the baby yourself.’
‘Of course I can. A baby should have one carer.’
‘The rules…’
‘Can start tomorrow,’ Lily said flatly. ‘For today I’m his aunt and I’m caring for him. I’ll feed him and then I’ll take him for a walk in the grounds. I’ll sleep in here with him tonight. Can you let the rest of the staff know I don’t need their help until morning?’
‘They won’t be happy,’ the girl said, dubious.
‘Their job is to follow rules,’ Lily said softly and she gazed out of the window again, but this time she looked towards the sea, where her borrowed boat lay at anchor, gently rising and falling on the swell of the incoming tide.
Dared she?
How could she not?
This boat wasn’t big enough for the journey she had in mind. She’d need help. But then, maybe it was time she called in some favours. What had Mia said? Ben’s rich…
Her sister owed her big time. That debt was being called in, right now.
‘You heard Prince Alexandros,’ she said. ‘I need to leave. Tomorrow the nursery’s yours again, but for today…he’s mine.’
It was well into the small hours before Alex found his bed, but still he woke at dawn. He lay staring up at the ceiling, searching for answers.
Trying not to think about Lily.
Thinking about Lily was the way of madness. His life was complicated enough already. He had to find an escape.
There