Revelations of a Secret Princess

by Annie West

  Now, instead of suspicion, Jake felt concern. He was familiar with pain and he recognised its shadow in this woman’s unnaturally still features.

  ‘What is it, Caro? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing’s wrong.’ Her lips curved in an unconvincing smile. ‘I wanted to check Ariane before I went to bed. She’s going through a difficult time and something she said made me think she was prone to nightmares.’ She spread her hands in a wide, helpless gesture that told him more about her state of mind than her face did. ‘Truly, I just wanted to make sure she was safe.’

  Her words rang convincingly and for once instinct told him it was true. She was here out of concern for Ariane.

  True but not simple. That awful vulnerability he’d glimpsed in her momentarily unguarded face, that wealth of emotion had bordered on anguish. It couldn’t be about Ariane, whom she’d only known a few hours. So it had to be about another child. A child she’d cared for and lost? Cot death? Illness? Accident? The possibilities were endless.

  Pity rose, a rush of sympathy that made him want to comfort her. He moved closer then stopped himself.

  ‘Get some sleep. My room’s next to Ariane’s so I’ll hear if she wakes.’ Maybe if he gave her this job she’d sleep near Ariane too, but he hadn’t yet made that decision.

  She nodded. ‘Goodnight, Mr Maynard.’

  ‘Goodnight, Ms Rivage.’

  When she’d disappeared from view he exhaled slowly, thrown by what had happened. He’d wanted to haul Caro Rivage into his arms and hold her close. To ease the grim shadows that rode her.

  His nostrils flared and he stepped back into Ariane’s doorway, glancing at the curled-up child.

  Tonight had revealed several things.

  Caro Rivage was serious about caring for his niece.

  She carried some distressingly heavy burden.

  And he, with no real knowledge of the woman, without even wanting her here, had been on the verge of easing her pain with his arms around her and his lips on that inviting pink mouth. He wanted to hear her sigh with delight instead of anguish. He wanted her to smile at him with the warmth she bestowed on his niece. He wanted...

  No. She was not his type. He wasn’t interested.

  Yet he’d stood mesmerised by the gentle sway of her hips till she disappeared from view.

  He’d been right. Caro Rivage spelled trouble. Yet for Ariane’s sake he wouldn’t turn her away.

  Ariane’s sake?

  With a snort of self-disgust Jake turned and stalked into his bedroom.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ‘I’M SORRY I don’t have better news, Caro, but this situation is a minefield.’ Despite the early hour, Zoe’s voice was crisp. No doubt, as one of the finest lawyers in St Ancilla, she was used to cutting to the heart of complex issues. ‘This is likely to become a protracted court battle unless the two parties come to agreement.’

  Her words fell like sharpened blades, slicing the sinews at Caro’s knees. She grabbed the carved post of her four-poster bed, letting it take her sagging weight.

  She’d been excited when she saw who the caller was, hoping Zoe had rung because she’d found a simple way through what promised to be a legal nightmare.

  Her lips twisted. Since when had anything in her life gone as she’d hoped?

  Wishing for something wouldn’t make it happen. A happy family, a man who’d love her for herself, a future with her precious child—she’d dreamed of them all but not one had become real. No matter how hard she’d tried.

  Caro set her jaw. This time it would be real. No matter what it took.

  Beyond the window was a magical vista of soaring mountains and sparkling, fresh snow. So clear and pristine. So different from the mess she found herself in.

  ‘But surely the adoption wasn’t legal? How could it have been when I didn’t consent?’

  She closed her eyes, her mind swimming with memories that had haunted her for years. The exhaustion, the blur of pain and fear, punctuated by moments of startling clarity when she realised something had gone badly wrong with the delivery. Her growing distress, and then...nothing, just blankness as the drugs took effect.

  ‘That’s something I’m trying to investigate. It’s proving difficult.’

  Caro dragged in a deep breath. She understood what Zoe wasn’t saying. The impenetrable wall of denial and obfuscation that would meet her attempts to discover more.

  Caro’s father had pulled strings to arrange the adoption. He was a man adept at getting his way and as far as she knew no one had ever had the wealth, the will or the power to hold him to account.

  Till now. In this he’d gone too far.

  Sometimes, in her more desperate moments, she considered confronting him and calling him to account. Except she knew it would be like a gnat biting a bull. He’d swat her aside and immediately turn all his considerable power to making the problem go away. Then she’d be up against two powerful men, not one. Better to bide her time, for now.

  ‘Difficult or not, there must be a way forward.’ She bit her lip. ‘I want to avoid a long court battle, for Ariane’s sake especially.’

  ‘It appears both sides can argue a legitimate claim to the child.’

  She’s not ‘the child’. She’s my daughter!

  Caro clenched her teeth against the instinctive protest. Zoe was only doing her job, telling her the legal reality.

  ‘My advice is to talk to her guardian. Negotiate. See if you can find common ground.’

  Negotiate with Jake Maynard? The man was a world-class financier, regularly working with some of the largest and most successful corporations in the world. It was rumoured he was here for secret meetings with officials of unnamed governments. Caro couldn’t imagine him negotiating with her. He’d be more likely to throw her out before she could do more than explain why she was here.

  Then where would she be? Caro would fight with everything she had to win her daughter, but she wasn’t fool enough to compare her power or negotiation skills with Jake Maynard’s.

  She couldn’t quite stifle a choked sound of dismay.

  ‘I don’t mean straight away,’ Zoe said quickly. ‘Not till I’ve got to the bottom of the adoption process and checked some more precedents. Especially as Ariane’s not in St Ancilla now. Different legal jurisdictions can complicate things.’

  ‘As if they weren’t already complicated.’ Caro pushed her hair behind her ear, frowning.

  ‘We knew that from the start,’ Zoe’s matter-of-fact voice cut through her troubled thoughts. She let a pause lengthen. ‘Unless you don’t want to proceed?’

  ‘No!’ Caro shook her head, her hair swirling again across her cheeks. She stalked to the window, pressing her palm to the cool glass. Along the horizon formidable peaks rose stark and seemingly unconquerable. Yet she knew that against the odds mountaineers had reached those impossible summits. ‘I do want to proceed.’ She drew a measured breath then said more evenly, ‘I can’t give up, Zoe. I can’t.’

  ‘Of course you can’t.’ Gone was the sharp voice of legal opinion, replaced by warm understanding. ‘Who could, in your place?’ The other woman sighed. ‘Try to be patient. Time enough to talk to Ariane’s guardian when I’ve done some more checking and we know exactly where we stand.’

  As she ended the call Caro was torn between frustration and relief. Stupid to have thought there’d be any easy way through this, but after finding Ariane and spending time with her, it had felt as if anything was possible.

  She’d gone to bed last night overcome by emotion at finally seeing her little girl. Being free to talk with her, watch over her as she slept. She’d assured herself it was a good sign that Jake Maynard had invited her to stay. He wouldn’t do that unless she had a chance at the job.

  Yet she didn’t want to be a nanny. She was Ariane’s mother.

  No wonder she hadn’
t slept. She’d tossed all night, imagining one scenario after another where Ariane’s uncle stopped her claiming her daughter.

  Zoe was right. He was her uncle despite being no blood relation. Before Caro met him she’d wondered if he might be relieved to be rid of responsibility for his orphaned niece. That hope had died as she’d seen his protectiveness for Ariane.

  Thinking about Jake Maynard disturbed her. He made her...unsettled.

  Caro told herself it was because he had a claim to her daughter. His sharp eyes had softened when he watched Ariane. Clearly he was determined to do his best for her.

  He’d never tamely give her up, even to her rightful mother.

  That explained Caro’s edginess. Because they were destined to be rivals, if not enemies.

  It had nothing to do with the fact that he made her feel, for the first time in ages, aware of her femininity.

  She couldn’t be so self-destructive as to be attracted to the man who stood squarely between her and her daughter.

  * * *

  Caro stepped into the office, masking her nervously roiling stomach with a façade of calm. She was grateful for her father’s insistence that she learn to conceal her feelings behind a show of well-bred calm. Being in the same building as her child for the first time in four and a half years tested her to the limit.

  ‘Take a seat, Ms Rivage.’

  Instead she stopped beside the desk. How could she sit while Jake Maynard paced the room?

  He was even more intimidating than he’d been yesterday in his tailored business clothes. Those black jeans revealed muscled thighs and, when he moved away, a taut, rounded backside that turned her throat to sandpaper. His fine-knit pullover was a shade darker than his eyes and clung to broad shoulders and a flat belly. Even the way he’d pushed the sleeves up to reveal strong forearms dusted with dark hair did strange things to her insides.

  He was potently masculine and far too disturbing.

  And last night he’d called her Caro.

  The knowledge beat in her bloodstream, slowing her pulse, making it ponderous with unexpected need.

  For one crazy second she’d thought he might reach out to her as she grappled with yesterday’s emotional onslaught. She’d been disappointed when he didn’t.

  When she’d thought of finding her daughter, she’d imagined Ariane’s uncle as kind and ordinary. Not sucking up all the oxygen in the room. His presence shouldn’t be electric, demanding, stifling the breath in her lungs.

  How woefully underprepared she’d been.

  He turned and surveyed her over his desk. No sympathy in his eyes now.

  Not that it was sympathy she wanted.

  She hurried into speech. ‘I’d prefer to stand, thanks.’

  One slashing eyebrow rose. ‘You look like you’re facing a firing squad.’

  She inhaled roughly, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. How did he read her so easily?

  He was right. After the way he’d quizzed her in Ariane’s room last night, she knew he was suspicious of her. All through breakfast she’d been conscious of his piercing stare trained on her.

  Did he hope to discomfit her? On the thought she pushed her shoulders back. He might be tough and used to taking charge but as an adversary he had nothing on her father. Jake Maynard was a hard man but he seemed to play by honest rules, unlike her devious, despised dad.

  ‘I’m expecting to hear your decision. And after sitting for the last hour with Ariane I’m comfortable standing.’

  ‘As you wish.’ He surveyed her in a leisurely way that made her skin itch. He might have all the time in the world but she needed an answer.

  He must know she was on tenterhooks. Was this some extra test to pass? Despite her joy at being in the same building as Ariane, Caro felt as if she’d been scraped too thin by the emotional overload. She hadn’t slept and her mind spun relentlessly like a mouse on a wheel, trying to work out the best way to deal with this fraught, complicated situation. She didn’t have answers, just the certainty that whatever she did Jake Maynard wouldn’t be happy.

  ‘You still want to work for me?’

  Caro’s heartbeat accelerated, hope leaping. ‘You’re offering me the job?’ She grabbed the back of the chair.

  He raised his hand. ‘Not quite.’ Her heart plummeted. ‘To be frank I still have reservations, but,’ he forestalled her when she opened her mouth to respond, ‘I’ve noticed Ariane has taken to you and how attuned you are to her.’

  That was good, surely?

  ‘But?’ She leaned forward, willing him to put her out of her misery.

  His eyebrows lifted as if he wasn’t used to staff demanding answers.

  ‘But my niece’s well-being comes before everything else. I want to be sure I’m making the right decision, especially as on paper you’re far from the best applicant.’

  Caro choked back the impulse to say Ariane could have no better carer than her birth mother. But that would be disastrous. She couldn’t reveal all too early and risk messing everything up. She had to choose her moment carefully, wait for news from Zoe. She guessed he’d resist her claim and he had far more resources at his disposal.

  ‘So I’m offering you a job but with a six-month probationary period.’ His crystalline gaze pinned her to the spot. ‘If I’m satisfied with your work then we’ll make it permanent.’

  Permanent. That was precisely what Caro wanted.

  But not permanent in the way he meant—with her as a paid carer.

  Caro wanted her child. The right to love Ariane openly, to be acknowledged as her mother. Not because Jake Maynard employed her.

  And, one day if she tried hard enough, maybe Ariane would love her back.

  Caro’s throat closed convulsively.

  The situation was convoluted, with so much potential for failure. Caro met that questioning gaze. ‘You accept?’ One dark eyebrow slashed his brow as if he was surprised she hadn’t eagerly accepted his proposal.

  Caro hesitated on the brink of declaring herself. She abhorred lies yet she was deceiving this man, even if it was a lie of omission. Then she thought of Zoe’s advice. And the very real possibility Jake Maynard would eject her when she revealed her identity.

  So she curved her lips in the gracious smile she’d perfected almost before she could walk. ‘That sounds ideal. I accept.’

  ‘Good.’

  He didn’t smile. In fact, there was a crease between his eyebrows as if something bothered him. Caro silently vowed to do whatever it took to allay his doubts.

  ‘Ariane already calls you Caro.’ He paused, her name lingering in the silence. ‘I’ll do the same. And you can call me Jake. There’s no need for formality in front of Ariane.’

  A little shimmer of pleasure exploded deep inside as Caro imagined the taste of his name on her tongue. Her pulse quickened.

  A second later devastating self-knowledge slammed into her. To be thrilled at the prospect of saying his name? At hearing him say hers?

  She blinked and concentrated on keeping her expression bland while inside anxiety coiled. Jake Maynard was a remarkably attractive man and she’d deliberately avoided such men for five years. Maybe that explained why he got under her skin. Whatever the reason, it wouldn’t do. She had to keep her distance.

  ‘Of course you may call me Caro.’ She nodded briskly. ‘However, I’d feel more comfortable calling you Mr Maynard.’

  She watched his eyebrows lift, as if he were surprised to find someone who didn’t instantly agree with him.

  For a full ten seconds he said nothing. Finally he nodded. ‘If that makes you feel better, Caro.’

  Surely she imagined the way his voice dropped on her name and his intense scrutiny.

  Abruptly Caro felt that, instead of blending into the background, she’d thrust herself into the limelight.

  Exactly where she di
dn’t want to be.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A WEEK LATER Jake stood at his office window watching two figures track through a layer of white that was forecast to be the last, late snow of the season. They pulled a small toboggan.

  When Caro had asked permission to take Ariane out he’d been sceptical. Since she’d left hospital in St Ancilla his niece hadn’t shown interest in anything except staying inside with her teddy bear and toys.

  He guessed her reluctance to go out stemmed from memories of the storm that left her parents dead and her trapped in their car, crushed beneath a massive tree.

  Jake’s belly clenched. At least Connie and Peter had died instantly.

  He knew nothing about being a father, and not as much as he should about being a hands-on uncle, but he’d get there. He’d give Ariane the love and stability she needed.

  Jake’s mouth twisted. He wouldn’t let her face what he and his sister had, a gaping hole where parental love should have been. It had been his determined older sister who’d given him the love, discipline and constancy their feckless mother hadn’t.

  He owed Connie everything and he was determined to give her daughter what his sister had given him. Once this deal was through he’d ease back, spending more time with Ariane. Which meant finding a permanent home. In Australia? St Ancilla? Renting a castle in Europe was useful for his current scheme but it was hardly the home his niece needed. Nor were his high-rise apartments in Sydney, New York and London. He’d get somewhere with a garden and plenty of sunshine.

  He planted his hand on the glass, watching the pair skirt the castle. Ariane wasn’t smiling but nor did she look nervous, as she had previously when he’d suggested an outing.

  Caro had succeeded where he’d failed.

  Jake stifled what felt suspiciously like jealousy. It didn’t matter who helped Ariane come out of her shell of grief and shock. He should be pleased.

  Plus, it reinforced the fact he’d made a wise choice offering Caro the position on probation.

  Yet he reserved judgement on Caro Rivage.