Claimed: Secret Royal Son

by Marion Lennox

  ‘Does that mean I have to take off my dungarees?’

  ‘For the wedding, maybe, but afterwards…I see us as the people’s prince and princess,’ he said and he pulled her against him and was holding her so their hearts were suddenly beating in synch. She could feel it. Magic.

  Magic!

  Move over, Cinderella, she thought. This prince is mine!

  ‘So where does that leave us?’ she whispered.

  ‘It leaves us planning our future,’ he said, awed by the vision. ‘In between government duties I’ll design gardens from one end of this island to the other. When I finish here I’ll start on the gardens of Argyros and Khryseis. And, as for you…The fishing fleet on the three islands is in shocking condition. Shocking!’

  ‘Really?’ she whispered, starting to smile.

  ‘You’ll be appalled when you see. I think you have a job for life.’

  ‘I love you,’ she said.

  ‘You do?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Will you say that in front of Father Antonio?’

  ‘I’ll say that in front of the world if you want me to.’

  ‘So you’ll marry me? Properly? With your heart?’

  There was only one answer to that. ‘When?’

  ‘How about now? If I can get Father Antonio away from his fishing, if there’s no funeral and if he has a clean cassock…Why not now?’

  ‘Just…just us?’

  ‘And Nikos to hold me up,’ he said promptly. ‘He’ll never forgive me otherwise. Stefanos is in New York, but we’re not waiting that long.’

  ‘We need a photographer,’ she whispered, her eyes alive with laughter. And something else.A joy so great he could see it.

  ‘Why would we want a photographer?’

  ‘Because this is a real wedding,’ she said and, astonishingly, she was starting to sound efficient. ‘I need photographs to show our grandchildren.’ Then she paused—and blushed. ‘I mean…eventually Michales might have children. I might even be a grandma. I might…’

  And he watched her eyes widen as the implication of what they were about to do sank in.

  He laughed. He felt as if the weight of the world had shifted from his shoulders.

  They could do this. Together they could face their future and plan and laugh and love.

  ‘What if we let the two reporters who met us on the beach know what’s happening?’ he suggested. ‘A scoop.’

  ‘Wow,’ Lily said and she was smiling. A chameleon smile—from anger to laughter in seconds. ‘Okay. Deal. Can I tell Spiros and Eleni? They’ll have to come.’

  ‘I suspect they’ve guessed,’ he said wryly and glanced at the boatshed door—which closed very quickly. ‘Spiros will give you away? What about in three hours? Seven o’clock. Right on sunset. The photographs will be fabulous, for us or for our grandchildren. If I can find Father Antonio.’

  Her smile didn’t fade. ‘You’ll have to do the organisation,’ she warned. ‘I have sawdust under my fingernails. A girl has some pride. You go find the priest and I’ll go let Eleni turn me into a bride.’

  ‘Lily…’

  ‘Mmm?’

  He kissed her gently on the lips. Tenderly. Then he set her back from him again. There was still something he needed to say. ‘Lily, I want the islanders to know the truth about you.’

  ‘The truth…’

  ‘I will not let them go one minute more than I must, thinking you abandoned your son. Please…will you trust me to tell them?’

  ‘I don’t like…’

  ‘I know you don’t like,’ he said. ‘But the time for protecting your mother and your sister is past. We need to move forward and the only way we can do this is with truth. Do you trust me to tell your story?’

  He was looking at her with such gravitas…Her Alexandros.

  ‘I trust you with my heart,’ she whispered. ‘With my life.’

  ‘It’s the greatest gift a man can be given,’ he said and pressed her hand to his heart. ‘And I’ll honour it as long as I breathe.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  ALEX left.

  The door of the boatshed opened.

  Maybe she had to move. Maybe she had to speak.

  ‘Eleni?’ she ventured but the word came out a squeak.

  Eleni was the closest thing to a mother Lily knew. Alex had brought Spiros and his family here as part of her future. These people were her future.

  She couldn’t do this without them.

  ‘What is it?’ Eleni demanded, looking torn between awe and fear. ‘Lily, what’s happened? You haven’t sent him away?’

  ‘Just for a bit,’ Lily confessed. ‘Until seven.’

  ‘What’s happening at seven?’

  ‘That’s something I thought I might talk to you about,’ she said, suddenly feeling absurd. Dumb. Crazy.

  ‘What?’

  She walked back into the boatshed. She had the attention of everyone, including the men who worked for Spiros.

  ‘I thought I might get married,’ she said, and the silence was deafening. ‘Sort of like last time,’ she added, sounding defensive. ‘Only different. Only…’ She gasped and could hardly go on. ‘Only for ever.’

  More silence. More and more silence.

  And then…‘At seven,’ Eleni said at last, and this time it was Eleni’s voice that came out a high-pitched squeak.

  ‘I need a dress,’ Lily told her.

  ‘The one you wore last time?’ Eleni said.

  ‘That was everybody’s dress. The royal bridal gown. I want my own.’

  ‘In three hours.’ Eleni was squealing for real now. ‘In three…Look at you!’

  ‘Don’t I look like a bride?’

  ‘You’re making fun, no?’

  ‘No,’ she said, and got serious. ‘This is for real. But I want you all there.’

  Another long silence. Then, ‘Spiros,’ Eleni said, rounding on her husband. ‘Take a bath.’

  ‘Whaa…?’

  ‘Take a bath,’ she ordered. ‘Now. It’ll take until seven to get the grease off you. You can sit right up the back and…’

  ‘I want Spiros to give me away.’

  There was another of those deathly hushes. She was getting used to them.

  She looked round at their faces—at their open mouths—and she giggled.

  It was either giggle or faint, she thought. She was hysterical, either way.

  ‘Can we do it?’ she asked Eleni, and Eleni stared at her for another full, long minute. Lily could practically see lists being written. And then she nodded.

  ‘Yes,’ she said at last. ‘Shops first. A dress. A dress so fast. Ooh, I want to see the faces of the shopkeepers.’

  ‘They don’t like me,’ she said.

  ‘You’re a princess. They’ll love you. They don’t know you, is all. Spiros, bath. Boys, get into town. I want flowers. Soft and romantic—tell the florist what it’s for and she’ll break an arm to get it right. Bouquet for Lily, sprays for me, and single roses for the men…’ Eleni was already on item three on her list and working down.

  This wedding was going to happen.

  Nikos was still at the castle. He was deep in a pile of paperwork, looking put upon.

  ‘I’d rather be fishing,’ he said soulfully as Alex entered. ‘This ruling business has knobs on it.’

  ‘You need a break,’ Alex said. ‘How about a wedding?’

  Nikos had been entering figures in a ledger. His hand paused mid-pen-stroke. He turned and looked at his friend, long and hard. ‘Have you been out in the sun?’ he asked slowly.

  ‘No,’ Alex said and then he grinned. ‘Actually, come to think of it, I have.’

  ‘So whose wedding?’

  ‘Mine.’

  ‘I thought we just did yours.’

  ‘This is sort of a rerun. We’re doing it properly this time.’

  ‘I…see,’ Nikos said, nodding to hide any confusion he just might be feeling. ‘So…you’re thinking of marrying…Lily?’

&
nbsp; ‘How can you doubt it?’

  ‘When?’

  Alex glanced at his watch. ‘In two hours,’ he said. ‘Sorry it’s short notice. Father Antonio was fishing!’

  Nikos nodded. Bemused. ‘He likes to fish, does our Father. So…You’ve interrupted him to marry you?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘What a truly excellent way to avoid these figures,’ Nikos said and grinned and threw his pen aside. ‘A wedding, you say. Okay, my Prince. Lead the way.’

  The leading reporter for the Sappheiros Times was halfway through an article on the Princess Lily’s astounding outburst in a local café when the call came in.

  ‘It’s the palace,’ the receptionist mouthed to him.

  The man sighed. He’d been one of the two men on the beach on Alex’s wedding night. His instinct then had been to warm to Lily, but the reports coming in were damning. Her mother’s outburst and then Lily’s declaration that this was a marriage of convenience were going to cause problems that might even unseat royalty.

  The palace secretary would be ringing to attempt to put a different spin on it, he thought. He was accustomed to being bullied by palace officials. Giorgos’s threats had made this newspaper almost puppet media.

  So what was new?

  He picked up the phone with distaste. ‘Yes?’

  ‘This is Prince Alexandros. If you can be at the palace in fifteen minutes I have a story for you. A very long story. How soon can you get the presses rolling?’

  He didn’t like rushed weddings but this…this was different.

  Father Antonio glanced into the mirror and thanked God his cassock was clean. There were probably fish scales on his boots, but at least they were covered. He gave his cassock a last twitch, then stepped out into the church proper.

  Prince Alexandros was waiting. To his astonishment, Alex was dressed almost casually for a prince, in a simple dark suit, crisp white linen and a tie with boats on.

  He’d last seen Alex a little less than two hours ago when he’d hailed him from a friend’s boat. He’d been dressed in jeans—this was the Alex that the old priest had known from childhood.

  The Alex who smiled at him now was the same. He’s a prince no matter what he wears, the old priest thought emotionally. This is as he’s always been. He’s a man with a good heart.

  Nikos, too. He had high hopes for these islands with men like these as rulers.

  He looked out over the church. His congregation was tiny. One Greek lady he knew already—Eleni, cradling a sleeping Michales. They were in the front pew.

  In the second pew were the lads from Spiros’s boatyard. They looked scrubbed and uncomfortable in their hastily hired suits. They looked as if they’d never worn a suit before.

  These boys needed to be introduced to his church, Antonio decided, thinking already which nice girls he could introduce them to.

  And then he forgot them. Sophie Krykos had interrupted her evening by the television to play, and play she did. The organ blared out the wedding march.

  And at the church door…Spiros and Lily.

  Lily’s dress was simple. Maybe it was not fit for a princess, the priest thought, but then what did he know of princesses? His job here was to marry this man to this woman and, simple or not, this dress made a man sigh with pleasure.

  If he’d been privy to the hysteria in a local dress shop over the last three hours maybe he’d have chuckled but there was no sign of that chaos now. The dress clung to Lily’s slight frame as if it had been sewn on her—as, actually, it had been. It was a shimmering lace confection, held by butterfly straps, the bodice arching softly over each breast, clinging to her waist and then flowing outward to form soft folds falling to the floor.

  She wore no veil. There were tiny rosebuds threaded into her short-cropped curls. She carried a trailing bouquet of roses and ferns.

  She was beautiful.

  The priest watched Alex’s face and felt his heart swell within him.

  He did love a good wedding. A wedding where love was all that mattered. And the look on Alex’s face right now…

  Love was all that mattered, he thought. Everything else would fall into place.

  She was about to be married. For real.

  ‘Ready?’ Spiros asked, patting her arm.

  Her prince was at the end of the aisle, waiting to marry her.

  But it was Alex…simply Alex.

  Spiros was nervous. Beads of sweat were building on the boat-builder’s brow.

  They couldn’t both be whimpering heaps. A girl had to have courage. But who needed courage when this was just Alex? Her Alex.

  The man she loved with all her heart.

  She took his hand and steadied. ‘I’m ready, Spiros.’

  ‘Than let’s see you married,’ Spiros whispered. ‘Before I collapse in fright.’

  ‘You don’t need to be afraid,’ she said. ‘It’s as Eleni said. When you marry for love it’s different. It’s as it should be. It’s as it is.’

  She was a bride in a million. His Lily.

  Home was where Lily was, he thought with a flash of insight and he found himself smiling. That she’d agreed to this…

  ‘You still need to go to Manhattan?’ Nikos whispered.

  He couldn’t drag his eyes from Lily. How could she be so beautiful?

  ‘What?’

  ‘Your business,’ Nikos teased. ‘Is it so important?’

  ‘I can’t even remember what it is.’

  ‘Funny about that,’ Nikos said, watching Lily start the slow walk up the aisle. ‘I believe you’re not alone in falling for Lily. I think there’s not a man or woman in this church who wouldn’t die protecting her. And I suspect the islanders are about to follow.’

  But Alex was no longer listening. He was watching his bride walk steadily towards him and he had eyes for no other.

  Nikos smiled, fingered the ring in his pocket and decided okay, enough of the talking, he needed to turn into a best man.

  With this ring I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. All my worldly goods, with thee I share.

  She blinked at that. Alex, giving her half his wealth?

  This was hardly the time to argue. The priest was waiting for her to repeat the words, as Alex had just repeated them. She’d have to let the wealth thing go.

  Now she’d have to let everything go, for Alex was smiling down into her eyes, sliding a ring on her finger, holding her hand for longer than he needed to.

  There was that teasing smile. Half laughing but half serious.

  The ring…It was the Sappheiros royal ring. A sapphire surrounded by three exquisite diamonds—breathtakingly beautiful.

  It was on her finger.

  It seemed she was a princess.

  As long as we both shall live…

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  ALEX had told one reporter.

  He hadn’t expected him to share, but share he had. He emerged from the church with his bride on his arm and was confronted by a crush of media.

  ‘Thanks for the heads up,’ the reporter he’d talked to called. ‘I got the release out. The papers are already on the streets.’

  Thus there were even reporters here from Athens. Television crews. Palace staff were appearing, slipping into the crowd. Islanders from all over. Their private ceremony was being gate-crashed.

  So be it, he thought. He’d give an even bigger party some time in the not so distant future, when everyone who wanted to be here would be here, when they did the full royal bit and declared Lily to be Crown Princess.

  There had to be some really dignified ceremony for that, he thought, and if there wasn’t then he’d make one up.

  Actually…he hadn’t been crowned Crown Prince yet. That meant a double ceremony. A ceremony to share. A life to share. But first…

  ‘We need to go to the palace balcony,’ he told his bride. ‘We’re doing this properly or not at all.’

  ‘It’s too late for not at all,’ she said, smiling and smiling. ‘So I
guess the balcony it is.’

  It took them half an hour to get back to the palace. The whole island was out to see what was happening. Their chauffeur drove them but they had to drive slowly through the crush.

  A woman taking photographs through the car window had a newspaper tucked visibly in her bag. Alex put a hand through the window and snaffled it.

  ‘May I borrow this, ma’am?’

  ‘Keep it,’ she called. ‘It’s my wedding present. Why didn’t you tell us about Princess Lily?’

  And there it was, emblazoned on the front page.

  ‘Our Princess’s Secret.’

  Lily all but snatched the paper from his hands. He watched as she read—he watched her face change.

  From joy to bewilderment.

  ‘This…this is my story.’

  ‘It is,’ he said gently and he wondered if he’d done it wrong.

  ‘I need the islanders to know who you are,’ he said gently. ‘I can’t bear our people not knowing how wonderful you are. I love you and I need our people to love you, too.’

  ‘They’ll feel sorry for me,’ she whispered, scanning the story he’d told the reporter.

  ‘Maybe for a while,’ he said. ‘But then they’ll be as proud as I am. They’ll know they have a princess in a million.’

  ‘Alex…’ Her face twisted in distress.

  ‘It’s a price,’ he said to her softly, holding her close. ‘A responsibility. It’s why I wanted to keep you at our hideaway a bit longer. But events took us over. Maybe it would be better if the way your mother and sister treated you was never known. But their actions tainted us, and they’ll continue to taint us until the truth comes out. I love you, Lily. I’ll spend my life protecting you, but we can’t hide lies.’

  ‘It’s that important?’

  ‘I believe it is. We’re going into this marriage proudly,’ he said. ‘We’ll rule this island with pride. With love. With honour.’

  ‘Properly or not at all?’ she whispered.

  ‘That’s the one.’

  ‘Then I guess properly it is,’ she said and she kissed him.

  And he kissed her.

  To the roar of the crowd, he kissed her all the way to the palace.