He squinted at her. “You only think?”
“Well, I don’t know for sure. Mark might be pretending because he wants to haul off some of those peacock feathers.”
Alex’s shoulders shook in silent laughter. While his spirits seemed so much improved, she decided to tell him about the email from Dr. Rice.
He nodded. “I was already informed by him.”
Naturally he was. She cleared her throat. “Under the circumstances I thought the new therapist could come to Aurum and stay in one of the guest rooms. We’ll let Zoe get used to her and I’ll involve her in our games.”
When Alex didn’t respond she got nervous and said, “Mrs. Hawes will have her own techniques to try out on your daughter, of course. By the time of the coronation, they’ll be used to each other. I know it will be difficult for Zoe to say goodbye to me, so we need to handle that carefully.”
“I agree.” He sounded remote. “I’ll think on it.”
With those few words, Alex remained quiet, but she didn’t mind because his mellow mood was so different from the way he’d been, she was able to relax. For a little while she could pretend they were a normal couple out enjoying each other on this glorious blue sea with the same color of sky above them. Despite her aunt’s warnings, Dottie still had a tendency to dream forbidden thoughts, if only for the few minutes they had until they reached the shore.
In this halcyon state she noticed him turn his dark head toward her. “After we dock, you’re free until this evening. At eight-thirty I’ll send for you. In light of Mrs. Hawes’s imminent arrival, we’ll finalize the termination of your contract tonight. For Zoe’s sake it will be best if you don’t drop by her suite to say good-night.”
The trip between islands hadn’t taken long. Dottie had been given her few minutes of dreaming, but that was all. With one royal pronouncement, even that brief time had been dashed to smithereens.
CHAPTER NINE
TONIGHT was different from all the other nights in Alex’s life. As he’d told Dottie last week, he couldn’t be in two places at once. In order to help his brother, he’d sent her and Zoe to Aurum. But this night he needed to be alone with the woman who’d turned the lights on for him. Only Dottie had known the location of the secret switch. Through her magic, she’d found it and now no power could turn it off.
After eating dinner with Zoe and putting her to bed, Alex asked his brother to read her some stories until she fell asleep. While he did that, Alex slipped away to shower and dress in a black silk shirt and trousers, just formal enough to let Dottie know what this night meant to him.
He flicked his gaze around the private dining room of his own jet. It was one of the few places where they could have privacy and be secure away from the palace. The steward had set up the preparations for their intimate dinner, complete with flickering candlelight.
Alex had never used his plane for anything but transportation and business meetings. Tonight it would serve as his portal to a future he’d never dared dream about. Now that he could, his body throbbed at every pulse point. When he pulled the phone from his pocket to answer it, his hand trembled.
Hector was outside. He’d brought Dottie to the airport in the limousine. “Tell her to come aboard.”
He moved to the entrance of the plane. When she saw him, she paused midway up the steps in a pink-and-white-print dress he hadn’t seen before. She looked breathtaking. Her honey blond-hair had been swept into a knot.
Though she’d picked up a golden tan over the past month, she had a noticeable pallor. He hoped to heaven it was because the thought of leaving him was killing her. Maybe it had been cruel to set her up this way, but he’d wanted proof that she couldn’t live without him either. If he’d misread the radar c
“Come all the way in, Dottie. I’ve got dinner waiting for us.”
She bit her lower lip. “I couldn’t possibly eat, Alex. I’m sorry for any trouble you’ve gone to. We could have taken care of business in your office.”
He lounged against the opening, half surprised at that response. “We could have, but the office is too public a place for the proposal I have in mind.”
By the look in her blue eyes, she acted as if she’d just had a dagger plunged into her heart. “There can’t be anything but indecent proposals between you and me.” Her wintry comment might have frozen him if he didn’t know certain things she wasn’t aware of yet.
His black brows lifted. “If you’ll finish that long walk into the plane, I’ll enlighten you about a very decent one you wouldn’t have thought of.”
She remained where she was. “If you’ve decided to abandon your family and the monarchy and hide away in some distant place for the rest of your life, then you’re not the prince I imagined you to be.”
Her answer thrilled him because it meant she’d not only thought of every possibility for finding a way the two of them could be together, she’d actually put voice to it.
“Then you like it that I’m Prince Alexius?”
He could tell she was struggling to pretend her breath hadn’t almost left her lungs. “That’s an absurd question. You couldn’t be anyone else. It’s who you are.”
“In other words I’m your highness, and you’re my lowness.”
She averted her eyes. “Don’t joke about serious matters like this.”
“Joking is how I’ve gotten through life this far.”
Her head flew back. “That’s very tragic. Why did you have me driven here?” she cried. “The truth!”
“Can you stand to hear it?” he fired back in a quiet voice.
“Alex—” She’d dispensed with his title. That was progress.
“I have a plan I want to talk over with you.”
He could see her throat working. “What plan? There can be no plan.”
“If you’ll come aboard, I’ll tell you. In case you think I’m going to kidnap you, I swear this jet won’t leave the ground. But since I’m a target for the press, who have their Telephoto lenses focused on us as we speak, I’d prefer we talked in private.”
He felt her hesitation before she took one step, then another, until she’d entered the plane. His steward closed the door behind them.
“This way.” Alex refrained from touching her. The time wasn’t right. As soon as they entered the dining room, he heard her soft cry. She looked at everything as if she was in some sort of daze. He’d been in one since last night.
“Why did you go to all this trouble?”
“Because it occurred to me you’ve done all the work since you came to Hellenica. I thought you deserved a little fuss to be made over you for a change.” He held out a chair for her, but she didn’t budge.
“Alex—it’s me you’re talking to. Mrs. Richards, the speech therapist. If there are lies between us, then this meeting is pointless. Please stop dancing around the subject. What’s the purpose in my coming here?”
“More than you know.”
“You’re being cryptic. I can’t do this.” She turned away from him but he caught her arm.
“All I ask is that you hear me out.”
The beautiful line of her jaw hardened. “What if I don’t want to listen?”
They stood there like adversaries. “I thought that after everything we’ve been through together, you trusted me. I think you know I trust you with my life, but apparently I’ve made a mistake about you.” Alex took a calculated risk and let go of her hand. “If you don’t want anything more to do with me, then you’re free to leave now.”
Dottie stayed planted to the same spot. Her breathing sounded labored. “Is this about Zoe?”
“About Zoe. About you. About me. If you’ll sit down, Hector will explain.”
Her eyes widened. “Hector—”
“Yes. I’ll phone him now.”
The older man had a certain gravitas even Dottie recognized. While she continued to stand where she was, he rang the older man. Within a minute, Hector joined them.<
br />
“Your Highness?” He bowed.
“Would you please tell Mrs. Richards what you told me last night?”
“Certainly.” Hector cleared his throat and proceeded to explain what Stasio had jokingly said earlier was Alex’s get-out-of-jail-free card. “Before Prince Alexius married, his father, King Stefano, knew of Princess Teresa’s heart condition and worried about it. Eventually he made a legal proviso that cannot be broken.
“Simply stated, it reads that should she precede him in death and he wishes to marry again, he—who is second in line to the crown—would have the constitutional right to choose his own wife whether she be of royal blood or a commoner. However, any children born of that union would have no claim to the throne.”
Alex watched Dottie slowly sink to the chair he’d pulled out for her. When the older man had finished, he thanked him.
“I’m happy to be of service, Your Highness. If you need me, I’ll be out in the limo.” He exited the plane while Dottie rubbed her arms with her hands, as if she were chilly.
“The gods on Mount Pelos have heard me,” Alex began. “Until I met you, Dottie, I never wanted to marry again. And now, thanks to my father, I’m now able to ask you to marry me.” He stared at her for a long moment. “I’m making you an honorable, legally binding offer of marriage.”
She finally looked at him. The pupils of her eyes had grown so large, she was obviously in shock. “I couldn’t be happier that because of your father’s intervention, you’ve suddenly been given your free agency to choose your own wife. For him to think that far ahead for your welfare shows he really did love you. What I don’t understand is why didn’t Hector come forward ages ago so you could have found someone else by now?”
Alex was thunderstruck by her question. Had his proposal of marriage meant nothing to her?
“Hector didn’t tell me why, but I suspect it’s because he secretly loves Zoe like his own granddaughter. He never married or had children. I’m convinced that seeing her so happy with you and so unhappy at the prospect of becoming the stepdaughter of Princess Genevieve prompted him to come forward. The queen may have his allegiance, but Zoe has his heart. Hector has seen the three of us together and knows I’ll always put my daughter first.”
“But you’ve only known me for a month, Alex! You’re young! You’ve got years to find the kind of relationship you’ve dreamed of having.”
He leaned forward. “I’ve already had years of relationships that filled the loneliness from time to time, but now I have a daughter who’s as precious to me as your son was to you. If I’d searched the world over, I couldn’t have found the more perfect mother for her than you.”
“So that’s all you want? A mother?”
“After what we’ve shared, you know better than to ask me that. I’m in love with you and you know it, but even though you’ve responded to me physically, I’m aware your heart died when you lost your husband and son. I live in the hope that one day you’ll come to love me with the same intensity. As for Zoe, she loves you so much, she was calling you mommy almost from the beginning.”
“Yes, but—”
“It would be a second chance for both of us to find happiness,” he spoke over her. “We could make a home anywhere you want. If you prefer to stay in New York and further your career, we’ll buy a house there. Our home will be our castle.”
An incredulous expression broke out on her face. “What are you talking about?”
“What all normal couples talk about when they’re discussing marriage. I want you to be happy.”
“But your place is here in Hellenica!”
“Listen to me, Dottie. I’ll always be Prince Alexius, but I don’t have to live here. Not now. Thanks to technology, it won’t matter where we settle down because I can do my mining engineering work anywhere.”
“Be serious—your family and friends are here!”
“Yes, and we’ll come for visits.”
“I’m talking about your life!”
“My life will be with my own little family. You have no idea how much I want to take care of you. I love you. You’ll be my first priority.”
“You think the queen is going to stand for that?” She sounded frightened.
“She has no say in this matter.”
“You’re really serious, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
In the quiet that followed, Dottie stared into the candle flames. “I feel like I’m in some kind of strange dream. What if I didn’t exist?” she cried out. “What would you be planning to do with this new freedom?”
It appeared he was wrong about her feelings. The knowledge that they could be together legitimately hadn’t changed anything for her.
“It’s a moot point. You do exist, and you’ve won Hector around, otherwise he would never have come forward with that document.” At this point Alex couldn’t comprehend life without her, but maybe he’d been mistaken in thinking there was a future for them. “After the coronation, I plan to live with Zoe on Aurum as always. Shall I consider this your answer?”
When she didn’t say anything, Alex’s burgeoning hopes disintegrated into blackness. He pushed himself away from the table and got to his feet. “If you’re ready to leave, I’ll walk you out to the limo and Hector will see you get back to the palace.”
Once she’d said good-night to Hector, Dottie hurried to her room so torn up inside she didn’t know how she was going to make it through the night. Alex’s marriage proposal had turned her world upside down.
He’d told her he’d fallen in love with her, but that had to be his desire talking. She knew he desired her, but feared it would eventually wear off now that she was no longer forbidden fruit. If they married and then he grew tired of her, she couldn’t bear it.
She still couldn’t comprehend that one minute he was doomed to the life he’d been born into, and the next minute he was free to take a commoner for his wife. It was too convenient. If she hadn’t heard it from his own lips—from Hector’s—she wouldn’t have believed it, not in a million years.
Didn’t he realize he could marry any woman he wanted? The idea that he’d move to New York for her was a pipe dream. You didn’t take the prince out of the man no matter how hard you tried. She didn’t want to do that to him. She loved Alex for who he was, but she wasn’t about to ruin his life by condemning him to another prison.
Dottie was painfully in love with him, but she wasn’t his grand passion. Once his gratitude to her wore off, he’d want his freedom. She couldn’t handle that. It was better to remain single and just do her job. The time had come for her to watch out for herself and what she wanted.
Full of adrenaline, she went to the closet for her luggage and started packing. Mrs. Hawes would be on the job in the morning. Zoe wouldn’t be happy about it, but in time she’d adjust. Her speech was improving every day. She was already getting some self-confidence. Alex would keep working with her.
As Dottie cleaned out the schoolroom, she kept telling herself Zoe was going to be fine. She and her daddy had each other. That was the important thing. After another hour she had everything packed and finally crawled into bed, praying for sleep to come. But her pillow was wet before oblivion took over.
The next time she had cognizance of her surroundings, she heard a child crying. The sound tugged at her deepest emotions.
“Cory?” she murmured. Her eyes opened.
“Dot,” a voice called out her name clearly in the early morning light. It was Zoe! “Dot?”
“I’m right here.”
“Mommy,” she cried her other name for her and climbed onto the bed.
Dottie pulled her close and rocked her in her arms. “Did you have a bad dream?”
“No. Yiayia says a new teacher has come to help me. Don’t go, Mommy. Don’t go.” Her little body shook from her tears. She clung to Dottie.
“Shh. It’s all right.” Dottie kissed her wet eyes and cheeks. Her dear l
ittle face was flushed. She sang some songs she used to sing to Cory. After a few minutes Zoe started to quiet down. Just when it appeared she’d fallen asleep and Dottie could alert the staff, the palace phone rang, startling both of them.
Zoe lifted her head. “I want to stay here.”
Dottie reached for the receiver and said hello.
“Dottie—” The anxiety in Alex’s voice was that of any frantic parent who couldn’t find his child.
“Zoe’s with me. I was just going to let you know.”
“Thank heaven. I’ll be right there.”
Alex must have broken the speed record. By the time she’d thrown on her robe, he’d entered her bedroom out of breath and looking so pale it worried her. He was still dressed in the stunning black silk shirt and trousers he’d worn on the jet. It meant he’d been up all night, which made her feel so guilty she wanted to die.
Zoe stood up in the bed. “Don’t be mad, Daddy.”
A sound of anguish escaped his throat as he reached for her and hugged her tight. “I went to your room to kiss you good morning, but you weren’t there.”
“I know. I came to see Dot.”
“How did you get past the guards?”
“I ran when they didn’t see me.”
Dottie heard his groan. “You gave me a fright.”
“Yiayia said I have a new teacher and Dot is leaving. I don’t want a new teacher. Please don’t let Dot leave—” The pain in her voice was too much for Dottie, who couldn’t stop her own tears.
“I can’t make Dottie stay, Zoe.” The sound that came out of him seeped from a new level of sadness and despair, finding a responding chord in her.
“Yes, you can,” Zoe fought her father.
He shook his dark head and kissed her curls. “You’re going to learn you can’t force people to do things they don’t want to do. Come on. Let’s take a walk on the beach and then we’ll have breakfast.”
“No—” she screamed as he started to carry her out. Still in his arms, Zoe turned her head to look at Dottie. “Don’t leave, Mommy. I don’t want to go. Stop, Daddy—”
A Bride for the Island Prince Page 13
