Romancing the Crown Series

by Romancing the Crown Series (13-in-1 bundle) (v1. 0) (lit)

  She prided herself on her listening skills, which had often succeeded in zeroing in on overlooked problems.

  "In fact, the sooner I could interview Dr. Chiara the better it will be. Is he available this afternoon?"

  The king shifted rather uncomfortably in his chair leading Sarah to believe that she'd just crossed an invisible line or breached royal protocol somehow Uh-oh. Was she being too forward? Too aggressive? Not deferential enough? She didn't have a clue.

  "I'm sorry, Your Majesty," she said, and then she almost laughed at the idea of addressing someone as "Your Majesty." It seemed so...so medieval. "I probably ought to have a royal rule book or something so I don't make a complete fool of myself while I'm here. It's just that sometimes I get carried away, a bit too eager to solve my patients' problems.

  "Nonsense, my dear." He reached out to put her hand. "There's no such thing as too much enthusiasm, especially in a worthy cause. You remind me very much of your father in that respect. Unfortunately..."

  With a sigh, he sat back in his chair. "...I'm afraid you're going to have to keep that professional enthusiasm of yours under wraps for a while.

  "I don't understand."

  He steepled his fingers beneath his chin as he continued. "My staff has arranged for you to move into Sir Dominic's residence in the capacity of nanny to young Leo. It's a ruse, quite obviously. But one which will guarantee your access to the child. Otherwise..."

  Ah. Sarah was beginning to see the light. "Otherwise his arrogant father will prevent me from seeing him," she finished for him. "Well, yes. You might put it that way. As I said, Nick is being quite obstinate about this situation. The donkey."

  She gave a tiny snort. "If you'll forgive the expression, Your Majesty, I'd say he's behaving like the part of the donkey that goes through the gate last."

  "Indeed." The king smiled as if in complete agreement. "Perhaps you'll be able to apply a sound kick to that part of his anatomy, my dear." Sarah sighed. She was a psychologist, and a damned good one. But she was accustomed to seeing children in a professional setting where her contact was usually limited to the traditional fifty-minute hour.

  She certainly didn't know the first thing about nannying. Her sole experience with that profession had been the movie Mary Poppins, and the only part of

  the movie she had liked, other than the flying, of course, was the song "Supercalifragilisticexpialedocious."

  The only thing Sarah was sure of at the moment was that a little boy desperately needed her her help inorder to escape from his self-imposed prison of silence.

  "I'll give it my best shot, Your Majesty." She grinned. "The child's problem as well as the father's behind."

  Chapter 2

  Sir Dominic Chiara stood at the window of his sixth-floor office in King Augustus Hospital, staring across the placid blue lake on the hospital grounds toward the palace in the distance. Wearing his starched white lab coat, with his stethoscope draped loosely about his neck, to the casual observer Dr. Chiara looked like a man in calm and quiet contemplation of a problem.

  His arms were crossed. His head was slightly, almost thoughtfully cocked to the right. A frown dug deeply in between his dark eyebrows, and his finely carved mouth turned down at the corners. To all appearances, he was a physician caught up in thought, perhaps about the current, grave condition of a patient, perhaps about an upcoming, particularly difficult surgery, or about revelations in a recent medical journal he had read.

  Actually, Nick Chiara was hiding out.

  From Dr. Alex Bettancourt, the hospital's new chief of staff, who was no doubt this very moment foaming at the mouth while reading Dr. Chiara's' letter in which he firmly announced, rather than humbly requested, a month-long leave of absence from all hospital duties. Beginning this afternoon. Right now, to be precise. He'd made all the proper arrangements He'd made absolutely certain that no one, especially, no one in the royal family, would be deprived of medical care in his absence. Nothing was negotiable

  From Dr. Antonia Solano, the venerable head of Ob-Gyn, who seemed to take his status as a widower as some sort of personal affront not only to herself but to every unmarried female on the hospital staff. as well. The woman was a certified nuisance. A terrible, albeit well-meaning, pest. She'd been nagging him incessantly for the past four years. He never passed her in the cafeteria or in a corridor that she didn't cluck her tongue and mutter "Such a waste." Lately she'd taken more drastic measures, which included sending him articles copied from arcane medical journals decrying prolonged celibacy. As if he wasn't well acquainted with those.

  And last but hardly least, he was in his office hiding out from the latest crop of giggling teenage volunteers from Santa Cecelia's Academy, those starry-eyed young girls in their candy-striped uniforms and crisp white caps, who insisted on mistaking him for some doctor on a popular American television program. George Somebody. His secretary, Paula,thought it was hysterical. Dammit.

  "You do bear an uncanny resemblance to him, Dr.Chiara," she kept telling him. "Surely you've seen the show. It's extremely popular. Although Dr. Ross,the one you look like, isn't on it anymore. He moved to Oregon or something after fathering twins."

  Nick sighed out loud now as he stared out the window. It didn't sound so bad, actually. Not fathering twins, God forbid, but moving halfway across the world to Oregon. If he remembered his geography properly, the state was on the Pacific coast in the northwest of the United States. With a rugged coast-line and mountains and a relatively temperate climate, it wouldn't be so different from Montebello.Language certainly wouldn't present a problem there.He and his son, Leo, both spoke English equally as well as they spoke Italian.

  Well, when Leo was speaking...

  Nick closed his eyes, blotting out not only the view but the thought of his son's inexplicable muteness these past few weeks.

  "It's not your fault, Nicky," his Aunt Honoria had said at breakfast just this morning for what must've chosen the hundredth, perhaps even the thousandth,time. "I do wish you'd stop punishing yourself dear."

  "I'm his father," he'd replied.

  "Yes, dear. That you are. But you're not God. Must I keep reminding you of that?"

  Nobody needed to remind Doctor Dominic Chiara that he wasn't God. The point had been driven home almost five years ago when his beautiful young wife died, when there had been nothing he could say or do to save her.

  He could have saved her, if only she'd given him a chance. He didn't have a doubt in the world about that. But she'd kept her condition secret in orders not to jeopardize the child she was carrying. And, even in his grief, he had yet to forgive her for her lies"

  Rumor had it that he'd gone back to work with a vengeance after Lara's funeral because being with their son was too painful a reminder of his loss, because he couldn't handle the anger he felt toward the baby who was responsible for his wife's death, be cause he needed to drown his grief and his guilt in work.

  It wasn't true.

  He loved his son with all his heart. Rather than a grim reminder, Nick found solace in the boy's resemblance to his mother. The way Leo tilted his head to the left when he was curious. The way his mouth flattened to a thin line when he was thoughtful or anxious. The color of his eyes. The cadence of his laughter. The silky texture of his dark hair. Just like Lara's. Little Leo was his shining star.

  He had immersed himself in his work in the hope of ending his feelings of powerlessness, in an attempt to regain some notion of control in his life. If he hadn't spent enough time with the boy in the past few years, it wasn't out of guilt or anger. It was out of fear that he couldn't be a good father until he found his own footing.

  Maybe he had. Maybe not. Nick wasn't sure. But it was clear to him now, in light of his son's sudden and strange silence, that his own attempts at healing were self-indulgent. Ready or not, it was time to act like a father, even if he failed. "There you are, Dr. Chiara." Paula's voice sounded behind him. "I've been looking everywhere for you. You didn't answer your page." />
  "I didn't hear it," he lied.

  He'd heard it, all right. Loud and clear. He'd simply ignored it. No emergency right now was as crucial as the one in his own home. He'd cancelled all his appointments and elective surgeries for the coming month. Doctor Max Schiel had agreed and was more than competent to oversee the health of the royal family for a few weeks. He'd sent the king a copy of his letter to the hospital chief of staff. Because the king was familiar with and was quite sympathetic to the situation with Leo, Nick wasn't anticipating any royal objections.

  "I'm on leave, Paula. Starting now."

  He looked at his watch. It was already later than he'd expected to remain at the hospital. "The staff is supposed to forward all my calls and refer all my patients to Doctor Schiel until further notice."

  "I know that," Paula said, a bit testily. She had after all, typed his letter for him this morning.She had even congratulated him on his decision before hand-delivering the letter to the chief of staff as well as to the palace. "It wasn't a professional call. It was from your Aunt Honoria. Apparently Leo flushed one of his toys this morning and the plumbing is backed up. Your aunt seemed rather flummoxed by it all,and wanted to know if there was a particular plumber whom she ought to call."

  Nick laughed out loud, something he hadn't done in a long time, startling himself as well as his secretary.

  "What's so funny about a backed-up toilet?" she asked.

  "Nothing, actually," he answered, still chuckling as he removed his stethoscope and shrugged out of his lab coat. "It just sounds—I don't know—so damned normal."

  "Well... Yes. I suppose it is. If you like that son of normalcy." Paula took his lab coat from him and proceeded to fold it. "I hope everything goes well for you and little Leo, Doctor Chiara," she said with soft sincerity.

  ‘Thank you, Paula." "Will the two of you be going on holiday?" "Perhaps. I'm not sure yet. But I am sure that whatever we do, it will be just the two of us. No cooks. No housekeepers. No nannies. I'm giving them all the boot this afternoon. I intend to send my aunt away on a long-deserved vacation, as well. For the next four weeks, it's just Leo and me." "That will be nice," she said. "Yes." Nick smiled, something else he didn't do much anymore. "It will be very nice."

  After Sarah's unexpectedly pleasant audience with the king, Sophia Strezzi returned in all her chilly splendor to accompany Sarah across the palace grounds to the residence of Sir Dominic Chiara and his son. It hardly seemed possible, but the appointment secretary was even less friendly than she had been earlier.

  There wasn't time for a tour of the palace, she claimed, hustling Sarah out a side door. "Some other time perhaps."

  Moments later, when Sarah commented on the beauty and charm of the landscaping, Sophia merely sniffed in response. Sarah's admiration of the sculptures and fountains that were scattered across the grounds was met with yet another disdainful sniff. When she commented on the lovely climate and the gentle breeze, the woman gave a distinct and dismissive snort.

  Fine. Okay. Forget the small talk and all the silly chitchat. Sarah wasn't some goggle-eyed tourist,for heaven's sake. She was a professional, here in Montebello to do a job for Signorina Strezzi's boss.The freaking king!

  She was about to announce just that when they passed a small stucco residence that showed signs of a recent fire. One window was boarded up on a badly scorched wall. Broken terra cotta tiles from the roof littered a portion of the yard. Pieces of yellow police tape still fluttered from doorknobs and one or two tree trunks. "When did this happen?" she asked.

  Sophia stopped on the cobbled walkway and stared rather glumly at the house. "About three weeks ago."

  Sarah blinked. Three weeks? That was presumably the same time the little boy stopped speaking.She wondered... No. It was just too obvious. Far too easy. Any untrained layman, even an idiot could make the logical connection between the fire and a trauma-induced silence. Surely they had already ruled this out.

  "How close is the Chiara residence?" she asked

  "Just down the walk." Sophia pivoted away from the burnt house and resumed walking.

  After gazing at the place a moment longer, Sarah jogged to catch up. "You don't happen to know if Doctor Chiara's son witnessed the fire, do you?" "I have no idea."

  Not one she was willing to share, anyway. Sarah made a mental note to inquire about where young Leo Chiara had been when the fire took place. Odd that the king hadn't mentioned it as a possible source of the boy's silence, but at this point she could only assume that the incident had been rejected as a possible cause. Still, she needed to rule it out for herself. The walkway angled to the left, around a huge oleander bush in magnificent bloom, and Sarah saw a small house not so different from the damaged one behind her.

  "Here we are," Sophia announced. "This is the guest cottage where Sir Dominic and his son reside."

  Cottage. Good grief. That was a bit like calling the palace a mere house. The place before her looked large enough to be a rambling three- or four-bedroom house. Its yard, an extension of the palace grounds,was clipped and beautifully landscaped. The only giveaway that it was home to a child was a bright blue-and-yellow plastic trike near the front door.

  She followed Sophia to the door. The appointment Secretary didn't reach for the doorbell immediately,but rather lifted a hand to her head, searching for stray wisps of hair. After that, she subtly adjusted the lapels and seams of her navy suit coat while she drew in a deep breath. They were the actions of a woman who wanted to look somewhat more than merely presentable. They were the gestures, the tiny unconscious tics, of a woman who wanted to look really, really good for someone special.

  So that was it! The icy Sophia was in heat! Her coolness and apparent disdain had nothing to do with Sarah, per se. She was merely being territorial, reacting to the presence of another female on a turf she considered exclusively her own. It made perfect sense, now that Sarah thought about it Sir Dominic was a widower, an undoubtedly mature and wealthy widower, so naturally the man must be considered quite a catch. She was briefly tempted to reassure Sophia that she was already spoken for and had no interest in the old coot other than helping his son, but then she decided, rather than being so kind and forthcoming, she'd let this female Popsicle shiver in her black pumps a while. It served her right.

  They waited several awkward moments, side by side, before the door was opened by an elderly woman whose bright purple silk, tent-size caftan filled the entire doorway. The woman was enormous, nearly the size of the Statue of Liberty, and just as regal, and obviously disappointed to discover who had rung her bell. The smile she wore immediately disappeared.

  "Oh, dear. Oh, drat. I was so in hopes it would be the plumber," she said, taking the two women in from head to toe. "I don't suppose you are, are you? Plumbers? No. You couldn't be, I'm sure. What a pity."

  Sleek Sophia seemed a bit taken aback. She blinked her big chocolate eyes. "Good afternoon, Lady Satherwaite. Let me introduce myself. I'm Sophia Strezzi, appointment secretary to the Sebastianis. At His Majesty's request, I've brought..." "Oh, dear. Oh, drat. I do wish you were a plumber." The big woman's ring-laden fingers plucked at the neckline of her caftan. "Leo flushed his Mr. Potato Head this morning and we're all stopped up."

  Sarah burst out laughing. She hadn't the vaguest idea who this queen-size, tent-garbed woman was, but she already liked her tremendously. It was the first moment since her arrival in this Mediterranean monarchy that she felt a kind of normalcy, as if Montebello wasn't just some fairy-tale place, but very real and connected to the world with all its fun toys and humdrum difficulties, including stopped-up toilets. At the sound of Sarah's laughter, huge Lady Satherwaite laughed, too. A booming, joyful sound. She gazed at Sarah, her eyes twinkling beneath her great, gray eyebrows. "I don't know who you are, young lady, but I do like the sound of you." But standing beside her, Sophia did not seem amused. Not in the least. In fact, Sarah could've sworn she heard the royal appointment secretary growl deep in her throat.

  "Is
Sir Dominic on the premises?" Sophia asked adjusting her glasses and launching herself on tiptoe to peer over the purple mountain majesty of the woman's wide shoulders.

  "No, he's not, damn the luck. I've had him paged at the hospital, but there's been no response as yet You don't happen to know if the palace employs a plumber, do you, dear? One would think so considering all the commodes they must have over there." She angled her head in the direction from which Sarah had just come.

  "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with any of the maintenance personnel," Sophia told her. She was obviously a woman who disliked discussing plumbing of any sort, even royal. "Do you expect Sir Dominic soon, madam?"

  Lady Satherwaite's gaze, no longer twinkling but rather clouded with suspicion, shifted to Sophia. "Who did you say you were, dear?"

  "I'm the royal appointments secretary, and I've brought Ms. Sarah Hunter, the new..."

  "The new nanny! Well, why didn't you say so." The big woman reached for Sarah's hands, grasping them in her own. "Come in. Come in. I can't tell you how happy I am that you've arrived."

  Before she knew what was happening, Sarah found herself being yanked across the threshold, while Sophia was left sputtering behind her. "Lady Satherwaite, one moment, please," the secretary protested. "The king has expressly requested that I speak with you regarding Ms. Hunter's duties, and if possible, I'd very much like to confer with Sir Dominic."

  "Oh, bother." The woman lifted her several chins with a resounding snort, which made her appear like a grizzly bear in a purple gown. "She's a nanny in disguise. What more do you need to tell me? Marcus and I have already spoken about this, and at some length, I might add. I suppose he led you to believe that this was his idea." "Well, His Majesty did say that—" "Yes, yes. I'm sure he did," the woman said dismissively.

  The royal appointments secretary wasn't ready to be dismissed, however. "Perhaps if I spoke with Sir Dominic..."

  "By all means, dear. Do give Nicky a call. And if you'd inquire at the palace about a plumber, I'd be most grateful." Lady Satherwaite shoved Sarah out of the way of the door, which she proceeded to slam in Sophia Strezzi's face. " Then the purple giant sighed as she smiled down at a rather bewildered Sarah. "Tea, dear? I'm so happy you've arrived to help our precious little Leo."