“How is it your fault? I don’t understand.”
“By denouncing the throne, I set in motion a plot that will affect any child I have.”
“What?”
“Please, Rosa, just hear me out.”
“All right, tell me.”
“If I don’t take the throne after my father, then the rules of ascension state that the first child born of the next generation becomes the rightful heir to the throne.”
Seeing that I am about to speak, Dante holds up his hand again. “Cassandra hoped to give birth to the first child, but when I returned with you and announced that you were already pregnant, she saw her dream of giving birth to the future king, or queen of Avanti, die.”
My muddled brain struggled with that information. “Oh my God! What a fake bitch. She pretended to be my friend. All that kissing and hugging,” I shake my head, “and the whole time she was planning to kill my baby!”
“Yes.”
I frown at Dante. “Why did you bring me here knowing that neither I nor our child would be welcome?”
“Rosa, you know I never wanted to be King and I never wanted my child to have the responsibility and pressure of being the next King or Queen either. Because I always made my position clear I thought I was out of their political games and shenanigans. I brought you here for the weekend to make it clear I had found my soul mate, the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and to tell them that I would never be coming back as King. I did not account for how power hungry they have all become. Maybe they were always that greedy. I just didn’t know it because I always did my own thing and stayed away from them.”
“Hmm … I guess your innocent weekend scared the shit out of them: the useless playboy prince who they had completely written off returns with a woman who is already pregnant with the future ruler of Avanti.”
“Yes,” Dante admits, his eyes dark and stormy. “I didn’t see it coming.”
“Oh, Dante.” I lift my hand to his face. “It was not your fault. You are not like them. There is not one bad bone in your body, so you couldn’t have known what they were capable of.”
His face hardens. “Rosa, the blood that runs in their veins runs in mine too. My happiness made me careless, and I underestimated their greed and jealousy. I won’t make that mistake again. They are no longer dealing with the playboy prince as they are all going to quickly learn. What was done can be undone!”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need your blessing for what I have to do, Rosa. Avanti might seem like a tiny insignificant country to you, but we are sitting on one of the largest deposits of money in the world! What Linnus is planning will destroy this country and I cannot allow it. It is time for me to step up and be counted.”
My heart swells with pride to see Dante grow right before my eyes from a pleasure-seeking player to a real man of strength and a purpose higher than him. Tears fill my eyes. “You don’t need my blessing to take back what is your birthright, my darling.”
“I do need your blessing, Rosa. You will be my wife. It is important that you understand what you are signing up for. Your whole life is about to change into something unrecognizable. You will have to live in Avanti. You might be able to run your own magazine, but you will most probably be too busy with charitable work to do so. Being royalty is a burden. It’s not as glamorous a role in real life as it is in movies. It’s a life with little personal freedom. Almost everything is dictated by tradition and rules and expectations, especially expectations. And your every word and action will be examined under a magnifying glass and more often than not criticized.”
“My place is next to you, wherever you are.”
“Are you sure, because I will abandon my plans in an instant if it will make you unhappy?”
I shake my head. “I’m proud of you, that you have chosen this noble path. Whatever comes our way, we will work it out together. I’m here for the long haul,” I say softly.
His shoulders sag with relief, then he straightens them. “I have to go and face the King now. Will you be okay here?”
I smile at him tenderly. “I’m in a hospital. Of course, I’ll be fine. Go do what you have to.”
He kisses me lingeringly. “Rest. I’ll be back soon. I have something important to tell you.”
I grin. “Can’t wait.”
Chapter 38
Rosa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggrz8mzy-e0
It’s Not Goodbye.
After Dante leaves I look around me. There is a remote by the side of the bed. The button to call the nurse is clear. It’s red. I press one of the other buttons and the TV comes on. I switch it off and press another. The blinds open.
It is already daylight outside.
I lie back and stare at the lightening sky and think of my baby. My body still feels sore and my head still feels strange as if it doesn’t really belong to me, but what a lucky escape the baby and I have had. I think of Dante crying with happiness and a warm feeling fills my chest. We will be fine. Everything will be fine.
A light knock on the door brings me out of my daydream.
“Come in,” I call.
Linnea opens the door and immediately my entire body contracts with fear. My hand reaches for the remote. I hold it in my hand, ready to call the nurse, but I know I am not really in physical danger from her. She is the Queen of Avanti. All the staff would have recognized her as she came into the ward. She won’t try anything in a hospital.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I wanted to make sure you were all right,” she says, closing the door.
I look at her incredulously. “Spare me.”
“There is no one to blame. You were drinking. It was an accident.”
“I did not drink, and it was not an accident,” I fume.
“I saw you drinking.”
“I took one sip of champagne. I was perfectly sober. I know exactly what happened. Cassandra tripped me deliberately.”
She moves her hand distractedly. “She is a silly girl.”
“Silly girl?”
“I didn’t come here to fight with you, Rosa. Contrary to what you think, I am not your enemy. I came here to warn you. Dante is a nice guy, maybe too nice. He doesn’t understand what he has blundered into. Important treaties and agreements are being drawn up and there are billions of dollars at stake. There are people who will kill for a lot less. Avanti is not safe for you, your baby, or Dante anymore. He will never be able to protect his family twenty-four hours a day. Unless you all become prisoners in the palace. And even then, how can he be sure someone will not bribe the servants to poison your child?”
She takes a step closer to me and I feel myself unconsciously shrink back against my pillow.
“Your child will never be safe. Never have a normal life. At any time you could get the dreaded news that the child is dead. It will be an accident, of course. No one will be responsible. The whole world will become hostile. You will never be able to trust anyone again. Just like you mistook Cassandra for your ally. Any person who comes into your life could be the one who will take away the most precious thing you have. Even while you are here, a nurse could come in and inject you with something that will cause you to miscarry. There is no happy ending for you in Avanti, Rosa.”
A shiver of fear goes through me. Instinctively, my hands go to cover my belly.
“How will Dante fight this level of evil? It is not just Cassandra, Linnus, and my weak husband he will have to watch. It is all the grasping, deceitful courtiers about whom Dante knows nothing.”
I take a deep breath. “I assume you have a solution for me.”
“Nobody wants to see you, your baby, or Dante get hurt. Just get out of the way.”
My head starts to hurt. “Get out of the way?”
“Take your man and go back to where you came from. You can have a nice life with the man you love and your gorgeous children. You will have more money than you know what to do with, but yo
u have to go now.”
“I need to speak to Dante first.”
“Please trust me. You know I have no love for you, but I don’t wish you harm. And harm will befall you if you remain. As I said before, while you are here, you are vulnerable. Leave. Protect your baby. If you leave Dante will follow. If you stay, he will try to fight them, and it will cause only harm.”
I frown.
“Until last night,” she continues, “Dante was a player. All he did was party and chase women. He has no experience in politics and he doesn’t understand his enemy, so he can never fight them and win. You must believe me. Even if I am being too dramatic, it is better for you to leave than to stay and take the risk that I am wrong. You have nothing to lose by leaving and everything to lose by staying.”
I don’t feel like my usual self. I feel bewildered and anxious. So many things have happened to me in the last twenty-four hours. There are painkilling drugs rushing around my system. I’m disorientated by my physical injuries. I’m still in shock at Cassandra’s betrayal and thinking I lost my baby, and now I’m really frightened for my helpless baby. I feel light-headed and woozy, but what she said does seem to make sense. Dante is a newbie at this and they seem ferocious in their intent to keep the power base. I could stay and fight if I did not have my baby. As it is I have only one duty. To put my unborn child above my own needs. Above all else.
“One of the royal jets is ready to fly you back to England.”
I start to feel nauseous and I don’t have my dry biscuits. “I need to call Dante and just tell him I’m going.”
She shakes her head. “This is exactly what I mean. If you do that you will tip everyone off. You have to slip away. Call him once you are safely out of the country. It is only while you are on Avantian soil that you are in danger.”
Everything seems to be moving too quickly for me to comprehend. “My passport. I don’t have my passport,” I mutter.
“I’ve got it here. Everything is ready for you.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “But I have no clothes.”
“I brought Elsa with me. She has packed your suitcase and brought you something to wear. She will fly with you to England and make sure that you arrive safely. Once you arrive, a car will be waiting to take you wherever you want.”
She walks to the door, opens it and calls Elsa in.
In a daze, I allow myself to be helped out of bed and into my clothes. Elsa brushes my hair, which has the effect of making me feel even more helpless. Every time I move, pain shoots through my body.
“Do you want more painkillers?” Linnea asks.
“No. That would be bad for the baby,” I mumble.
A nurse brings a wheelchair. I sit in it and Elsa pushes me out of the ward, and into the elevator. No one utters a word as we travel downwards.
Once we get out of the doors I see a limousine and outrider escorts waiting for us. The driver holds open the back door. Painfully, I limp into the seat. The door closes, and I wait while Elsa gets in the front passenger seat. The driver gives the signal and the outriders kick off the journey. The car starts to move. I turn and watch Linnea.
There is no expression at all on her smooth face.
Up ahead, all the other cars are making way for us. I was enthralled at having the limo and outriders when we were taken to the palace upon our arrival in Avanti. Now I wish I was on the back of Dante’s Vespa.
Those days are gone forever.
That thought is like a knife thrust into my heart. I turn my face to the window and tears fill my eyes. The limo stops on the landing tarmac. The plane with the royal family’s crest is waiting. The captain and an air stewardess are standing next to it.
The driver jumps out and opens my door. I get out of the car with great difficulty. Elsa comes to help me walk to the plane.
My hand touches the cold steel railing of the steps. Suddenly, I am homesick. Homesick for my mother. Homesick for Star. Homesick for simple, real people who don’t play games with every word they utter.
I put my foot on the first step.
Yes, I’m running away, but I am making the right decision. I’m going back to England where I belong. Where some of this incredible stress will abate. Where my baby will be safe. I’ll call Dante when I get there. I’m a strong person. I’ll recover from this temporary setback.
Everything will work out.
Chapter 39
Dante
My father’s butler is standing outside the library, so I know he is inside having a glass of cognac. It’s a long tradition for him to retire to his library for cognac and a Cuban cigar. I nod to the old man as he opens the door for me. The disagreeable scent of the cigar slaps me in the face.
My father looks up from the paper he is reading and our eyes meet.
“So the cub comes into the lion’s den,” my father says.
“No, the lion tamer visits the aging, toothless lion.”
“I am as strong as I ever was,” he boasts hollowly.
“Then why does your hand tremble?”
His brow creases.
“You think I didn’t notice that at the dinner table. You taught me to always closely observe my opponents,” I say eyeing his right hand.
“So I am your opponent now?”
“Weren’t you always, Father?”
The emphasis on the word father is not lost on him. He flinches. “No. Never.”
I nod toward his right hand. “Parkinson’s?”
For a moment, he looks as though he isn’t going to answer. “Early stages,” he admits with a sigh.
“You will have to abdicate when it progresses.”
“It will be many years before that happens. There are medications to keep it under control. Why do you care? You’ve renounced the throne.”
I smile. “Not officially. Only verbally to you.”
He cocks his head. “What does that mean?”
“It means I am the rightful heir to the throne, and I plan on becoming the king when your disease gets so bad you’ll be forced to abdicate.”
“I could fight you,” he says feebly.
I smile. “You won’t. You wouldn’t want to air the royal dirty laundry.”
“We have none,” he snaps.
“Your daughter-in-law deliberately injured my fiancée in an effort to make her miscarry so that when she gets herself pregnant her child will become the heir to the throne,” I accuse.
My father sags in his seat. He starts to speak, but stops, shakes his head, then tries again. “If that’s true, whose fault is it? You told me you didn’t want the throne and stormed out. Then you stayed away from Avanti for two years. If you hadn’t done that, the conflict of who’s child is going to become king wouldn’t have arisen.”
“Are you excusing her criminal behavior? She wanted to kill your grandson! Doesn’t that concern you?”
He pauses like he’s in deep thought. “How can you be sure it was not an accident, Dante?”
“I saw it with my own eyes,” I roar furiously.
“You can’t prove it though.”
“No, but the fact is she did, and I can see it in your eyes that you know she did,” I say sternly.
“I knew she was ambitious, but I didn’t see this coming,” he mutters.
I point my finger at my father. “She and my brother are going to pay for this. You are going to ban them from the palace. You will order them to move to the summer cottage by the lake.”
He drops his face into his hands. “I can’t do that to Linnea’s son. It will kill her.”
“But, Father, I am going to be king soon. If you don’t banish them from the palace, I will exile my brother and Cassandra from Avanti with a pension barely large enough to buy milk and groceries. Would you rather I do that to your favorite son, Father?”
He lifts his head and looks at me with tortured eyes. “All these years you never figured it out. He was never my favorite. You were. Why do you think I sent you away? I wanted to protect you. It was
you I loved more.”
I bark with laughter. “Protect me. You sent me away so you could play happy families with Linnea and Linnus. It was Oncle who took me and protected me. He is my protector. Not you.”
He looks at me sadly. “What do you think would have happened to you if I had let you remain in the palace?”
I stare at him with narrowed eyes.
“You would have never made it past childhood, I was convinced of it.”
“Why didn’t you get rid of her then?”
“I was obsessed with her. It was as if I was under a spell. I knew what she was, but I could not let her go. The only thing I could do for you was send you away from her presence.”
“Do you want me to thank you for that?”
“You will never understand me because you are not a weak man. You don’t know what it is like to be so utterly bewitched by a cruel and vile woman. You think Cassandra is dangerous. You have no idea.”
I shake my head. “I don’t care why you sent me away. The time for you to declare your love for me is long past. I don’t need your love anymore. I have survived all these years without it! I’m looking forward to being the kind of father to my child that you never were to me. Now all I want from you is the promise that you will send them away and give me the power to rule. You’re not interested in ruling anyway.”
He sighs heavily. “And if I agree, you will see that your brother receives the revenue he deserves and can remain in Avanti?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll do as you demand, but it’s a very hard thing you ask me to do, Dante.”
“Your loyalty to her makes me sick,” I say.
Our conversation is interrupted by a light knock on the door. A moment later my father’s butler enters.
“Your Majesty, you wanted to know when the Queen returns. She has just arrived.” he announces in his booming voice.
The Heir: A Contemporary Royal Romance Page 18
