‘Dammit, this is past history.’

‘It’s not. It’s here and now. It’s two kids we care deeply about, an island we care deeply about, and our future.’

‘My future’s in Manhattan.’

‘You won’t be safe in Manhattan. I can’t protect you there. Thena, there are six diamond mines at stake. We’re talking billions. That money has to be held in trust for the island for ever. It can’t stay in royal hands. We need to get the royal thing sorted, the government sorted, so we can finally transfer the mines to the community. So these mines are no longer owned by one man-or one woman-but the island as a whole so they can be worked sensitively as the community needs them. You need to stay for three reasons. One, so I can protect you. Two, so we can keep the mines safe. And three…’ He hesitated. ‘Three, because Nikos is my son. I’ve missed ten years of his life, and I believe I have the right to know him now.’

This was doing her head in. The impersonal and the personal were mixing in a combination that was threatening to overwhelm her.

Nikos had been her first love. For the last ten years she’d tried to forget him, but she never could. Every man she’d dated she’d compared with Nikos and they’d fallen short.

She’d finally decided Nikos was a figment of a young girl’s romantic longings. Impossible to be true, but also impossible to leave behind.

But here was the dream, come spectacularly to life. Nikos, with a body to die for, a smile to die for…And words so blunt and decisive that she believed him.

There was no reason to believe him, she told herself desperately. Christa. Remember Christa.

‘Why can’t I sign the diamond mines over now?’ she demanded. ‘Put them in a community fund or something?’

‘There’s no community fund. Everything’s owned by the Crown.’

‘Then set one up.’

‘I can’t set one up, Princess. Only you can do that.’

‘Then I’ll do it,’ she said wildly. ‘Tomorrow. And don’t call me Princess.’

‘It can’t be done tomorrow. You think you can just hand that amount of wealth to the town council and walk away? I need to tell you now that it would be a catastrophe. It’ll take years to get this right. So how about it, Thene? Say you’ll stay and let me protect you. I’ve told Demos I’ll protect what’s mine and I mean just that.’

And amazingly, infuriatingly, he was smiling. That smile was so…so…Seductive. He was seducing her with his voice and with his smile, she thought wildly.

‘I’m not yours,’ she managed.

‘You’re the mother of my son.’

Oh, great. What sort of answer was that? One that joined them at the hip for ever?

‘You saw the press here tonight,’ he said. ‘The world has another princess. Do you think you can escape that? The press will follow you all the way to Manhattan. And so will Demos.’

‘You’re scaring me.’

‘You need to be scared.’ His smile faded. ‘I’m sorry, Thena, but you need to face facts.’

‘You didn’t tell me these facts when you conned me into coming here,’ she snapped. ‘That there’d be threats to Nicky…’

‘You wouldn’t have come.’

‘Exactly.’

‘You had to come. And I will protect both you and Nicky.’

‘You’re still angry I didn’t tell you about Nicky.’

‘How can I not be?’

She wrenched her hands back so strongly that this time he did let her go. ‘Well how do you think I feel? You betrayed me in the worst possible way. I thought you were my best friend as well as my lover-and nothing. Nothing!’

‘It was your decision to walk away.’

‘It wasn’t.’

He stilled. ‘What do you mean?’

But she wasn’t going there. Some things were best left unsaid.

‘I need to go to bed, Nikos,’ she said wearily, knowing it was true. ‘I’m exhausted. It’s been some day.’

‘You will think about what I’ve said?’

‘I will think about it,’ she said. ‘Of course I’ll think about it. You’ve scared me. You seriously think Demos could harm me? Yes, he’s greedy and shallow, but he’s my cousin. I don’t know what you stand to gain by my staying…’

‘I told you. Nicky.’

‘You think I trust you enough to think that’s the only reason?’

‘You can trust me, Thene.’

‘This is nonsense, Nikos,’ she said wearily. ‘Once upon a time we trusted each other, but that was a long time ago. I’m so confused I can’t think straight. So let me be. Tomorrow I’ll think about arrangements for when I return to Manhattan. I’ll do my best to protect the island from Demos. I’ll talk to lawyers-I’ll do what I have to do. But trust you? How can I ever do that?’

And she turned and walked back into the ballroom, her gown swishing around her.

Leaving Nikos in the shadows, watching with troubled hooded eyes.

Knowing she was walking further into danger. Knowing there was only one real way he could protect her but to do that…to trust her that far…

Once upon a time we trusted each other…

It cut both ways.


Finally, thankfully, the interminable evening was at an end. She listened while the Archbishop made his ponderous farewells, she said a formal goodnight to those she must, and then she practically ran upstairs.

Nicky was safe. She opened the adjoining door and saw a mound in the bed by the window, draped by another mound. Nicky with Oscar on top.

He wasn’t supposed to let Oscar onto the bed, but who was complaining tonight? Now, all she felt was comfort from the big dog’s presence.

A shape rose from a chair beside the door and she practically yelped.

‘Ma’am, it’s only me.’

Mrs Lavros. Her heart thudded back into place. ‘Wh…why are you here?’ she stammered.

‘Mr Nikos asked me to stay here,’ she said. ‘His instructions are that we’re not to leave the little one alone.’

‘What…what right does he have…?’

‘No right, more’s the pity. But he cares about this island so much.’

‘You think…’ It was hard to stop her voice from squeaking. On the second try she managed it. ‘You think he should be Crown Prince?’

‘Everyone knows and trusts him,’ the housekeeper said solidly. ‘You’ve been away so long…But Nikos has been here. He’s always been the one we’ve turned to in times of trouble. He’s always been ready to stand up to Giorgos. In the last few years we’ve been left more or less alone, thanks to Nikos. But now…you’re here…and Nikos says you’ll make a fine Crown Princess and I’m sure you will too, ma’am. It’s Demos and his friends who Nikos worries about. He’s fearful for you.’

‘He shouldn’t worry. I’ll be fine.’

‘I know you’ll be fine,’ the housekeeper told her. ‘For Nikos is keeping you that way. He has guards in place in the corridor and out in the grounds. You’re safe.’

She stared, bewildered. ‘Are you kidding? He’s scaring me witless.’

The housekeeper nodded. ‘He said that. He said he couldn’t protect you without scaring you a little. But I wouldn’t be fearful. He’s a good man.’

‘He’s been talking crazy talk tonight,’ she said.

Mrs Lavros raised her brows in polite disbelief. ‘Has he now? It’s not something I’d credit. All I know is that whatever Nikos does there’s reason for. Goodnight, ma’am. Sleep well and safely, for he’ll be watching over all of us.’


She sat for a while and watched Nicky and Oscar sleep. She tried to sort the events of the day into some sort of order.

She failed. It was a weird kaleidoscope of emotions, with Nikos front and centre.

Finally, so tired she could scarcely stand, she walked into her bedroom-the King’s bedchamber-and started to undress.

Uh-oh.

One of the maids had helped her dress. The gown had something akin to a corset underneath, designed to make her figure a lot more hourglass than it naturally was. There were fine bands of what was surely whalebone inserted inside.

It was laced down the back.

This gown was designed to have people help the wearer in and help the wearer out.

Here there was only her.

She struggled. She struggled some more. She was almost turning herself inside out.

It wouldn’t even rip. And where were a pair of scissors when she needed them? She was in a royal palace-where did she go in a royal palace to find scissors?

There was a bell pull by the mantel. She could pull it-but how loud would it be? She might wake the whole palace.

She struggled and swore some more. She was practically breaking her neck trying to see where the lacing was. Even if she could see how it was laced, she couldn’t reach.

She could wake Nicky, she thought desperately.

Right, that’d be a help. Once he went to sleep Nicky slept like the dead. She’d wake him and it’d take a cold shower to get him alert enough to unlace her.

Dammit, she could do it. If she could just reach an inch further…

There was a knock on the door.

She froze. It was two in the morning. What the…?

‘Who is it?’

‘Nikos.’ There was no mistaking the voice. Brusque. Urgent.

Nikos. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.

‘Are you okay?’ he demanded.

‘Of course I’m okay,’ she managed. ‘Why wouldn’t I be okay?’

‘The security guards in the garden contacted me. They said you appeared to be in trouble.’

‘I’m not.’

‘They said you were struggling-that you appeared distressed.’

What the…?

She stared at the window.

And winced.

The great bay windows of her bedroom were hung with fine silken netting. That formed the first layer of curtaining. But there was a second layer. Swathes of crimson velvet were pulled back, fastened to the sides with huge golden tassels.

Oh, no.

She glanced through into Nicky’s room, checking his windows.

The velvet curtains had been pulled closed.

Until now she hadn’t even noticed that there were heavier curtains over the fine ones. But now…She’d been standing before the dresser, trying to see the back of her dress in the mirror.