Marion Lennox - Crowned: The Palace Nanny

‘Did you see them?’ Elsa said softly, speaking almost to herself. ‘We saved thousands. They face so many dangers in the water but now…Thanks to Helena, they have a chance.’

‘Thanks to you.’

‘Helena was on her own,’ she whispered. ‘She’s been watching the mounds. If one mound had hatched she would have had a chance to save some. She hadn’t realized, or she’d forgotten, that Kemp’s Ridley turtles lay their eggs in synchronisation so they all hatch together. There’ll be another hatching in twenty-five days-that’s set as well. I’ve worked it out-that’s before your coronation so you’ll still be here. Kemp’s Ridleys lay in synchronisation twenty-five days apart. Isn’t that amazing? Aren’t we lucky?’

She looked up at him then, and she smiled. ‘But it’s you,’ she said on a note of awe. ‘You’re a prince. The islanders moved today because you asked them to. If they’d thought about it-if Helena had had the time to individually plead-then maybe she’d have got half a dozen people to help her, but you said come and they came. They came because of you and I can’t thank you enough.’

‘There’s no need for you to thank me.’ He was watching her and he was feeling…weird. She was slight and feisty and sand-coated and bedraggled.

He’d hurt her today. He hadn’t meant to but he was starting to realise how he’d got it so wrong. And why. She was tugging his heart strings in a way he didn’t recognise. Or maybe…in a way he did but until now he’d been afraid to face.

‘Do you know how rare these turtles are?’ she said softly. ‘I can’t believe it. They’re so endangered. To have a breeding site on this island…I so wish Matt was here.’

That set him back a bit. Pushed what he was thinking to the side.

It didn’t completely obliterate it, though.

Even if she didn’t tell him about Matty…He could compete with someone who’d died four years ago, he thought, and then realised where his thoughts were taking him and thought who cared; they were going there anyway.

‘This is wonderful,’ she said softly into the firelight. They had the fire almost to themselves now. The children were nestled in their beds on the far side of the barbecue but the rest of the islanders had either gone home to rest or were back on the beach on their shift. ‘I can stay here,’ she said. ‘I can do so much work here.’

‘What about your starfish?’

She looked startled. ‘What about my starfish?’

‘Have you really lost your enthusiasm?’

She looked at him as if he were a sandwich short of a picnic. ‘Enthusiastic about starfish?’

‘According to Zoe, it’s what you love.’

‘I love Zoe.’

‘You don’t love starfish?’

‘As opposed to Kemp’s Ridley…’ Her voice was awed. ‘Kemp’s Ridley turtles on an island where my Zoe needs to be. This is awesome.’

‘But your research…’

‘I can work around that, too,’ she said. ‘I’ve already handed over my initial starfish research-there were any number of students just aching to take it on. But if I can do this and keep Zoe happy…There’s so much. Helena says there are plans for development of this beach. Something about moving the town’s refuse station close by. She’s worried.’

‘We can protect this beach.’ He hesitated. ‘And…I hope we can get tourism going. The island’s desperate for income.’

‘It’s hardly touched,’ she whispered, looking out through the trees where the lights of a score of torches showed the turtles still had safe passage. ‘It could be the best eco resort. Matt and I had such plans…’

There it was again. Matt.

Maybe this was going to be harder than he’d thought.

Maybe what was going to be harder? He knew. More and more, he knew. He watched her face and he thought he wanted this woman so much…

It was too soon. Way too soon. Stupid, even?

‘Okay, we have that settled,’ she said, not noticing his silence. ‘I’ll stay here and love Zoe and save turtles. You’ll have to figure your own direction, but I have mine.’ She rose and wiped her hands on her shorts-a gesture he was starting to recognise. ‘Let’s move on. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.’

‘I’d be honoured to help,’ he said. ‘And…I will be here long-term. I will be part of this island. Elsa…’ He reached out and took her hands.

She stood, looking down at them in the firelight. The linking of fingers.

‘Not a good idea,’ she whispered.

‘We could work this together.’

‘Sorry?’

‘It’s just a thought.’

‘I’m quite happy for you to help with the turtles any time you want,’ she said and he knew she was deliberately misunderstanding him. ‘But for now…Your patients and the islanders need you, and the turtles need me. Zoe needs me. That’s enough for one girl, wouldn’t you say, Dr Antoniadis?’

‘Steve.’

‘Prince Stefanos,’ she retorted, still watching their linked hands. ‘My employer.’

‘I’m not your employer.’

‘Why, what else would you be?’ she asked and she carefully untangled their fingers. Separated their hands. Took a step back and looked at him with eyes that were carefully watchful. ‘I need to go back to the beach. Will you stay here and watch over Zoe?’

‘I’ll go back to the water. Your hip must be hurting.’

‘My turtles are important,’ she said. ‘They’re my job. Let me have that at least,’ she retorted and, before he could respond-before he even knew how to respond-she turned and headed back down to the beach.

Leaving him to try and figure where to take things from here.

He stared down at the fire-and then focused. Heading for the flames were three tiny turtles.

How had they made their way back here? They’d built this fire purposely far back from the beach, out of sight of the mounds, so the light couldn’t distract the hatchlings from their course. Maybe these three had been distracted by a torch, had deviated from their course and ended up here. He scooped them up before they could get close enough to the fire to harm themselves.

‘Elsa?’ he called into the night and in seconds she was back. Looking straight to Zoe.

But Zoe slept on. Elsa’s face slackened in relief, and he thought how much had she worried? How many infections, dramas had she endured during these four years of getting Zoe back to health?

‘It’s just turtles,’ he said swiftly and she looked down at his hand. He had one hand cupped over the other but tiny flippers were peeking through. They felt weird. A handful of flippering.

‘They were just…here,’ he said, in case she thought he’d collected them from the beach, done something less than noble, he didn’t know what, but he was starting to suspect she thought he wasn’t exactly hero material.

Hell, he wished he could be.

‘What in the world are they doing here?’ she asked, opening his hands and taking them into her smaller ones with all the tenderness in the world. ‘Hey, guys, the ocean’s this-a-way.’

‘I guess, if they walked far enough, the ocean is that-a-way,’ he said.

‘Yeah, but changing direction’s easier,’ she whispered. ‘I ought to know. Come on, guys, I’ll take you where you need to go.’

‘What do you mean, changing direction’s easier?’ he asked.

She looked up at him in the firelight and shook her head. ‘If you need to explain it, you can’t do it,’ she said. ‘You just…follow your heart. Thank you, Stefanos, for saving my turtles. And thank you for giving me another direction. I’ll make the most of it.’

‘Your hip…’

‘Has nothing to do with direction,’ she said. ‘Some things still hurt, no matter what direction you’re travelling.’

FOR the next three weeks she immersed herself in this new life and felt herself…unfurl. That was what it felt like, she thought. As if she was coming to life again.

For the last four years she’d been constantly worried, constantly battling for their survival. Here, Zoe’s welfare was more than taken care of. It was Stefanos who inspected the little girl’s grafts, who worried about her medically, who even told her to back off a little, she was fussing. Others cooked for her, cleaned…Elsa was an honoured guest, free to do as she wished.

And she was free. Zoe had made a friend her own age, Pip, daughter of Phillip the butcher, granddaughter of Helena, defender of the turtles. She was friends with every one of the castle staff now, she was happy and confident and more than content that Elsa do her own thing.

So Elsa was making her own friends. The turtle breeding grounds was a project which had her waking up every morning aching to get up and go.

The only problem was…in the moments when she’d sit opposite Stefanos at meals and watch his face as the palace secretary outlined what needed to be done that day, she felt…bleak.

He was doing the right thing, the honourable thing. But, for Zoe and for her, this new life promised excitement and freedom. For Stefanos…There was still a conflict that seemed to be tearing him apart.

She didn’t know what was happening with his practice in Manhattan. The plan was to leave straight after the coronation and do what needed to be done and return. She tried to talk to him about it, but it was as if after their appalling picnic he’d decided he’d overstepped the boundaries; his life was separate, only overlapping with her need to be with Zoe.

Oh, his bleakness wasn’t overt. Outwardly he was cheerful and confident and purposeful. It was only that she seemed to know this man; she seemed to sense how he was feeling.

His trouble was the one cloud on her horizon. Actually, no, sometimes it felt more than that, like a fog she could see rolling in to envelop him, but she had no idea what to do about it. The fact that sometimes she had an urgent desire to take him and hold him and love him…Well, that was just plain dumb.