Revealed: A Prince and A Pregnancy (14 page)

Rafael watched with idle curiosity as Etienne’s senior aide slipped into the meeting room as unobtrusively as possible. Given the delicacy of the water negotiations currently on the table, that wasn’t very unobtrusively at all. Conversation ceased. The senior aide grimaced. Etienne scowled.

Whatever it was, thought Rafe, it had better be important.

But the aide did not cross to Etienne’s side.

The aide came straight to him.

‘Señor,’
muttered the man as he bent down closer to Rafael’s ear. ‘It’s your…it’s the Señorita Simone. One of the guards found her in the vineyard. She’d been working there, tending the vines.
Señor
, we do not know what happened exactly but she’s unconscious.’

Rafael stood abruptly. The aide moved back. Every gaze fixed on him. Some in censure, others with curiosity. He realised, as he’d been realising all morning, that diplomacy required a patience and a moral fluidity that he did not have. ‘Gentlemen,’ he said with a nod. ‘Excuse me.’

Etienne would broker this deal, not Rafael.

Rafael Alexander belonged elsewhere.

He left without a backward glance.

Etienne called Carlos, his senior aide, to his side with a glance. Negotiations had been stalling all morning. Two of the three parties at the table were not ready for this discussion; they were simply biding their time and wasting his. ‘Problem?’ he murmured.
Tell me what you said to my son was what he meant. Tell me what you said to my wary and unapproachable son that had his face turning ashen and his eyes bleak with pain.

‘Señorita Simone fell unconscious in the vineyard,’ murmured Carlos. ‘El doctor’s with her now.’

‘And the baby?’

‘I don’t know.’

It had been years since Etienne’s late wife had miscarried her babies, but a man did not forget such times or the bereavement and loss of faith in the goodness of life that invariably followed. Would Rafael want him there if Simone had lost the baby? Would this son who so baffled him want Etienne beside him on his bedside vigil or would he stand alone as he always seemed to do?

There was only one way to find out.

Etienne rose. So did everybody else. ‘Gentlemen, a family matter needs my attention. I suggest we break for the rest of the day and reconvene tomorrow. You may be ready to sit at this table and negotiate by then. You may not. Give it some thought.’ Carlos stared at him in horrified amazement, and well he should given that Etienne had just broken every unwritten rule of a peace broker’s code of conduct.
He
was the one who was supposed to display patience when everyone around him
had abandoned theirs.
He
was the one who was supposed to counsel continued negotiation in the often futile hope that something good would come of it.

He didn’t.

He headed for the door, his aide at his heels. ‘See if you can stop Rafael before he reaches his car,’ he said to Carlos. ‘Offer him the use of the helicopter.’

‘The pilot’s not here, Your Highness. Who’s going to fly it?’

Etienne smiled grimly. Finally some small way in which he might be of use to his son. ‘Me.’

Rafael paced the outer sitting room of the suite he shared with Simone. Etienne de Morsay, King of Maracey, negotiator extraordinaire, and—lately—helicopter pilot, sat on a nearby settee and waited with him, a silent, watchful presence. Rafael didn’t know why Etienne had accompanied him. Maybe they were supposed to bond or something.

They didn’t.

‘Would you like me to call Harrison for you?’ asked Etienne. ‘I could arrange to get him here as soon as possible.’

‘No.’

‘Your sister, then?’

‘No.’

‘Someone else?’

‘No,’ he said tightly. ‘I just want to see Simone.’ The doctor had been in with her for ever. Rafael ran a hand through his hair and kept right on pacing. ‘What’s taking him so
long
?’

‘The doctor is very good and very thorough. He’s simply doing his job.’

Rafael scowled. ‘Better that he did his job faster,’ he muttered.

‘Better he does it
well
,’ corrected Etienne.

‘Don’t you have a meeting to attend to?’ enquired Rafael sourly.

‘No.’

The doctor emerged from the master bedroom, the door clicking closed behind him. Rafael stopped pacing abruptly. Etienne stood.

‘What’s wrong with her?’ asked Rafael.

‘As far as I can tell, nothing more than exhaustion and a touch of heatstroke. I’ve taken some blood samples to send for testing—the results will be back within a few days.’

‘And the baby?’ said Rafael.

‘The baby’s heartbeat is strong and there is no bleeding. I believe the baby will be fine provided the
señorita
rests for a day or two.’ The doctor frowned. ‘The
señorita
’s mind is fevered. I’ve given her something to help bring her temperature down, but right now she dreams uneasy dreams. She’s protecting someone. A boy. A youth. She protects him in her sleep.’

Rafael cursed viciously.

‘It will pass,’ said the doctor gently.

Rafe said nothing, but he knew differently. They weren’t dreams but memories. And no matter how hard a body tried to deny them they never went away.

Etienne thanked the doctor and saw him to the door.

Rafe slumped to a chair with the heels of his hands to his eyes. ‘She dreams of me,’ he muttered. ‘She dreams of Caverness.’ He passed his hands across his face. ‘She guarded me then as she protects me now
against foes both real and imaginary, and she shouldn’t have to. I should be the one protecting
her
.’

Etienne said nothing.

Rafe sat forward, with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped before him. ‘I’m ready to tell you what I want,’ he told the older man, the one with eyes the same as his. ‘What I’m willing to do for you and for Maracey.’

Etienne stared at him hard. ‘You want to discuss this
now
?’

‘Yes.’

‘And will it be what you want or what you think the mother of your child needs?’

‘It’s the same thing,’ said Rafe simply. ‘I won’t be staying in Maracey much longer. Not permanently. I’m not the son you’re looking for.’

‘You’re wrong,’ said Etienne. ‘You’re more than I ever hoped for.’

He couldn’t have hoped for much, thought Rafe. ‘From now on, Simone and I will be spending three months of every year at Angels Landing, and three months at Caverness,’ he said as the idea unfurled before him. Caverness was Simone’s home, Angels Landing was his. It seemed only fair. He thought Simone would think it fair. ‘I want the Maracey vineyard estate deeded to my children and in return I will give you six months of my time every year. During that time I’ll endeavour to learn as much as I can of matters of state. Give me ten years of this arrangement and I’ll stand as your heir.’

‘Done,’ said Etienne simply.

So much for negotiation.

But there was one more point he had to make perfectly
clear. ‘Know this though. I will
never
put my responsibility towards this kingdom before my responsibility to Simone and my children. I’m not like you.’

‘I’m glad,’ said Etienne quietly. ‘I’m glad that such a love sustains you.’

Rafe looked to his father and for the first time glimpsed the loneliness of the man who sat so seemingly effortlessly on the throne of Maracey.

‘My choices haven’t always been the right choices, Rafael,’ said Etienne softly. ‘Particularly where you and your mother were concerned. We both know that. But they were the only ones I felt I could make at the time.’

Etienne offered no other excuses, no explanation beyond those few words, but Rafe had picked up bits and pieces of the story from the papers and from the king’s aides. How Etienne’s parents had perished in a light plane crash. How the young prince, fresh from his studies in France, had returned from his stay in Champagne, picked up his father’s mantle and been married within weeks to the considerably older and politically astute Mariette Sulemon. A strategic union and by all accounts a happy one, aside from the fact that no children had ever come of it.

When had Etienne learned of Josien’s pregnancy? wondered Rafael. Before his marriage or afterwards? Josien was the most secretive and aloof person he knew—apart from himself, he conceded wryly. Had Josien even
told
him she was carrying his child?

Rafe stood and headed for the door to the bedroom. He had to see Simone for himself, he wanted to try and ease her sleep, but after that…Rafael stopped and slowly turned back. He never looked back, but this time he did. A remarkable woman had once told him that
sometimes he should. ‘Will you wait for me? I don’t know how long I’ll be.’

‘I’ll wait,’ said Etienne.

‘I’d like to talk to you afterwards.’

‘About what?’ Etienne’s eyes were piercingly familiar. ‘Haven’t we just reorganised the world?’ His faint smile was familiar too.

‘No, just the future.’ Rafael took a deep breath. It was time. Past time. ‘I want you to tell me about Josien.’

Simone woke to find herself in a dusk-lit room with a breeze blowing softly into it through a doorway to a balcony beyond. She didn’t remember how she’d got here. The last thing she remembered was a fiery Spanish sun and a poky little puppy.

She put her hand to her head where a headache pounded away, throbbing and insistent. The movement caused more movement from somewhere just outside her peripheral vision. Her vision wasn’t the greatest at the moment. Too many black dots, not enough sharp edges. Then Rafael came into view as he sat on the edge of the bed. Face of an angel. Soul of a warrior. Heart that didn’t belong to her.

Now
she remembered where she was.

‘Hey,’ she said by way of greeting.

‘Hey, yourself.’ His eyes were relieved. Far too searching for her liking. ‘How are you feeling?’

She’d certainly felt better. ‘So-so. What happened?’

‘You fainted in the garden. You have a touch of sunstroke. And the baby’s fine.’

Good news, then, apart from the fainting and the sunstroke part. She felt as if she’d slept the day away. A quick glance at the clock revealed that she probably had. Unless she’d slept for days, plural. ‘It’s still Friday, isn’t it?’

A smile tugged at his lip. ‘Yes.’

‘So…what else has been happening while I was away?’

‘Plenty.’

‘Anything that should concern me?’

‘Nothing that should concern you
now
. The doctor has seen you. He took some blood, and he gave you something to bring your temperature down. He wants you to rest.
I
want you to rest. And as soon as you have, I’m taking you back to Caverness.’

‘What?’ Her mind went as fuzzy as her vision. ‘
Why?
What happened? Did Etienne’s dissident statesman finally win him over?’

‘No. Nothing like that. Etienne’s been waiting out there in the sitting room, worrying right along with me about whether you would be fine.’ Rafael smiled briefly. ‘The doctor says you need to rest, that’s all, and I know you, Simone. You won’t do that here.’

‘I won’t?’ She didn’t think she’d been doing too badly on that front. ‘Why not?’

‘Because you’ll be too busy playing politics and trying to protect
me
.’

‘Well…yes. That’s part of the deal. It comes with the chef, the housekeeper, the cleaning staff, the cars, the castles and the princess dresses. I really don’t think it’s too big an ask.’

‘I do,’ he said. ‘You’re going home.’

‘I am?’ Simone closed her eyes before they started watering again. She wanted to go home, she realised. Even if only for a little while. She hadn’t said goodbye to Caverness yet. Not properly. Maybe she never really would. But the thought of being away from Rafael made her head ache more than it already did. The knowledge that he wanted to send her away crushed her.

‘And you?’ she said faintly. She opened her eyes and saw by the look in his eyes and the strain on his face that Rafe had made a decision on his own future too. Rafael never made decisions lightly, but once he’d made them there was very little that could sway him. Love could. And duty too. But not much else. ‘What will you do?’

‘I thought…’ He looked away. He swallowed hard. ‘I want to go home too.’

‘To Angels Landing?’ she whispered.

‘No.’ It was costing him, this decision of his. It was costing him plenty. Simone stared hard at him, willing the dots and the fuzziness away as she waited for a reply that seemed an agonisingly long time coming. ‘To Caverness.’

Simone heartily approved of Rafael’s full plan for their future when finally he thought to reveal it to her, some two mornings after she’d first fainted. Whether he thought she would faint once more upon hearing it was anyone’s guess, but she did not and Rafael’s eyes lightened as she expressed her enthusiasm for the idea.

‘You hear that, Ruby?’ said Simone from her position propped against the bed head with everyone’s pillows, including Rafael’s, at her back. Ruby was currently under the bed somewhere and Simone was well aware that one of her slippers had disappeared under there with the still Rubenesque puppy. The minute Simone had lined her stomach she intended to retrieve that slipper. Or more accurately, what would be left of it. ‘You’re going to be an international jet-set puppy.’

Ruby did not reply. Probably just as well.

‘She’ll not be able to come to Australia with us,’ warned Rafael. ‘The quarantine period’s too long.’

‘A European jet-set puppy then. She can stay with
Luc and Gabrielle when we go to Australia,’ amended Simone. ‘When do we leave?’

Rafael paced the room in his pyjama bottoms, the soft glow of morning light making him appear more angelic than ever. ‘I thought tomorrow. Etienne agreed. He’s put Carlos to work planning a formal dinner at the castle tonight in our honour. I told him I’d let him know if you were well enough to attend.’

‘And have you let him know that I’m well enough to attend?’ she asked curiously.

‘Are you?’ he countered.

‘Just checking how autocratic you’re planning to get,’ she said airily. ‘Of course I’m well enough to attend. Thank you for asking.’

‘You’re welcome.’ His lips twitched. His eyes stayed sombre. ‘I set this course for us just after you collapsed.’