“She’s been more happy these past few days than I’ve seen her since Father’s disappearance,” Dominique said. “I’m glad we’ve done that much for her.”
Marcus followed his wife’s line of vision. “Queen Josephine will be even more happy when you present her with another grandchild.”
The thought was consoling to Dominique, yet she wished more than anything that King Michael was here tonight. Especially for her mother’s sake. Now that Dominique had Marcus in her life, she understood more than ever how crushed and empty her mother must be feeling without her husband.
“Yes,” Dominique agreed. “She will be happy about the baby. But Father’s return is what she needs most.”
“We all need that,” Marcus murmured. “And maybe it will happen soon. Hopefully, long before our baby comes. By the way,” he added, “we haven’t discussed your plans for after the baby arrives. Are you still going on with plans for the education center?”
Dominique turned in the circle of his arm so that she was gazing up at her husband’s handsome face. The past week had passed in a whirlwind and the realization was just now sinking in that she was not just a princess of Edenbourg anymore. She was the wife of the king’s high counsel. Her plans would always be centered around him and their marriage.
“Only if you want me to.”
He smiled at her generous answer. “Of course I want you to. That’s been one of your dreams. It’s important that you follow it through.”
She was beginning to see that Marcus was going to consider her wishes and desires meaningful to both of them and she had taken a silent vow to always show him how much his thoughtfulness meant to her. She would never take him or his love for granted. Losing her father had taught her how precious was each and every moment of their life together.
“I only need a few more hours to get my degree,” she told him. “Hopefully, I can do that with correspondence courses. Or if not, I’ll finish my studies here in Edenbourg. I’m not about to go off to New England without you or the baby!”
“I like the sound of that,” he whispered. “And maybe, if we’re lucky, King Michael will one day see your degree and his new grandchild.”
Her eyes shone up at him. “No matter what happens about Father,” she said earnestly, “we have each other. And that makes me a very lucky woman already.”
Smiling sexily, Marcus lifted a finger to her rosy cheek. “And if you keep looking at me the way you are now, we’re going to cut the ball short and slip out of the castle while everyone else is dancing.”
Laughing, Dominique slipped her arms around his waist. “What a naughty, delicious thought!”
Across the room, Isabel absently sipped from a champagne glass as she watched her sister and new husband. Their open display of newly found love was a sight for sore eyes and it gladdened her heart to see Dominique so happy. Yet her sister’s bliss wasn’t the thing that was preoccupying her thoughts at the moment.
Several feet away, Sammy, Jake Stanbury’s two-year-old son, was wailing loudly. For the past month, Isabel couldn’t help but notice that the boy appeared to be quite a handful for her American cousin. At the moment, he was having little success in pacifying the child, much less keeping him in his seat. Obviously Sammy wasn’t accustomed to such social affairs. Nor had he been taught how to behave in public, much less in the presence of a royal family. But then, Jake and his father and brother had never taken part in Edenbourg royalty, she mused. Not until the morning King Michael had disappeared.
In the chair next to Isabel, Rowena, her lady-in-waiting, exclaimed in a low voice, “The poor little tot. He’s in misery. Doesn’t his father realize this isn’t the place for a two-year-old child?”
Isabel glanced thoughtfully at Rowena. “I’m not even sure why Jake or his father and brother are continuing to stay here at the castle.” She glanced once again at the dark-haired man who’d supposedly driven up on her father’s accident just moments after it had happened. “But I think I know a way to find out,” she added with sudden insight.
Twisting around in her chair, Isabel bent her head and said close to Rowena’s ear, “I want you to become Sammy’s nanny. That way you’ll be inside Jake’s apartment. You’ll be privy to all that goes on between him and Edward and Luke. If any of the three let anything slip about Father’s accident, you’ll be there to hear it.”
Shocked, Rowena stared at her. “Nanny! A spy! Isabel, I can’t do it!”
“You must,” she said firmly, then before Rowena could make any further protest, she grabbed her by the elbow and tugged her up from the chair. As they began to walk toward Jake, Isabel instructed under her breath, “All I want you to do right now is make Sammy happy and leave the rest to me.”
The moment the two women approached Jake he looked up at them with helpless frustration.
“I’m sorry Sammy is causing such a commotion,” he apologized. “He wants more cake and I refused because he’s already had too much sugar tonight. My son doesn’t like the word no.”
“Most men don’t,” Rowena replied coolly, then inclined her head toward Sammy, who was still bucking and straining against his father’s hold. “May I take him?”
“Gladly,” Jake told her.
The instant Rowena lifted him into her arms, the boy quieted. She smiled at him gently and tapped her finger playfully against his little chin.
“You don’t really want more cake, do you, young Sammy? You’re just tired of sitting in that stiff old chair for so long.”
Sammy nodded in full agreement and wrapped his arms trustingly around Rowena’s neck.
Jake rolled his eyes with disbelief. “Wouldn’t you know he’d make a liar out of me,” he exclaimed. “‘More cake’ was all I could hear out of the kid.”
“Jake,” Isabel inserted with a display of sudden excitement, “have you thought about acquiring a nanny for Sammy? A woman’s touch with the boy would surely be a help to the both of you.”
Jake frowned at his cousin’s suggestion. “I wouldn’t know where to begin to find a nanny. And even if I did, the poor woman would probably run off screaming after one day of Sammy’s tantrums.”
Isabel gestured toward his son. Sammy’s tears had dried. He was already talking and making fast friends with Rowena.
“As you can see, Rowena is wonderful with children. If she was in charge of the boy, Sammy wouldn’t be having so many tantrums.”
Jake glanced skeptically at Rowena. “She seems to have him behaving at the moment,” he cautiously agreed. “But Rowena is your lady-in-waiting, not a nanny.”
Isabel dismissed his words with a wave of her hand. “I’m willing to lend her to you. In fact, she’s been telling me she doesn’t have nearly enough to do, haven’t you, Rowena?”
Rowena glanced from her princess to Jake then back to Isabel once again. “That’s true. I bore easily if I don’t keep busy.”
“And you’d be glad to be Sammy’s nanny for a while, wouldn’t you?” Isabel persisted.
Careful to keep her gaze averted from Jake, Rowena nodded. “Anything to please my princess. And to make a better young man out of Sammy.”
Isabel turned a satisfied smile on her American cousin. “See. I’ve just handed you a perfect nanny. Your troubles are over.”
Jake took another long look at the young woman holding his son and decided his generous cousin was wrong. His troubles were just beginning.
ISBN: 978-1-474-02504-1
THE EXPECTANT PRINCESS
© 2001 Stella Bagwell
Published in Great Britain 2014
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited,
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*Heartland Holidays
†Twins on the Doorstep
The Expectant Princess Page 15
