He could install a decent government, he thought. This was what he’d planned when he’d talked Sarah into marriage. He could set up a decent infrastructure, install a government that would work, and then he could return again to the medicine and the obscurity that he…

‘You see, there’s my condition,’ she said, apologetically, as though she was reading his thoughts, and to his amazement it seemed she had been. ‘I’m not prepared to let you do that.’

‘Do what?’

‘Dump it on your mother.’

‘I beg your pardon?’

‘That’s what you planned,’ she said, and as well as apologetic she sounded defensive. ‘I know you’ll organise a better government here and things will be better for the country. But your mother’s not strong enough to cope with a little boy and you know it.’

‘She’ll have servants,’ he said, stunned, and Jess winced.

‘Edouard doesn’t need servants. He needs you.’

‘I don’t do family.’

‘Of course you do,’ she told him, as though he was being thick. ‘Oh, I know, you had to walk away from your father and your brother when you were six and that must have been appalling. And then you lost Lisle, which broke your heart. But right over there…’ She motioned to her bed. ‘Over there you have Edouard. He’s your family, whether you want it or not. He doesn’t want servants. He doesn’t want designer nurseries or money or anything you can organise from a distance while you’re off saving the world in Somalia. There’s a world here to save. I hate to say this, Your Highness. It’s absolutely none of my business, but your country needs you, your mother needs you, your nephew needs you, and your place while Edouard is growing up is right here.’

There was a long silence. A stunned silence. He stared at this chit of a girl and she stared right back. Not flinching. She’d said what she’d wanted to say, she’d made her offer and now it was up to him.

‘But what would I do?’ he asked blankly and that smile broke out again, impudent and teasing. Her toast and marmalade smile.

‘You could sit on a throne and look regal.’

‘I’d look pretty silly,’ he told her and suddenly that tension zoomed back again. That link. She’d smiled, he’d smiled back and suddenly…

Wham. It was enough to knock the air right out of him. He didn’t have the faintest idea of why he felt like this, or even how he actually felt-all he knew was that he had to get to the other side of it fast. His world was being tilted and he’d spent his life desperately trying to keep his world right way up. After Lisle’s death he’d sworn never to get that emotionally involved again-he’d never give anything or anyone the power to hurt him so much-but now…

Hell, what was he thinking? This was a marriage proposal she was making. Not a…

This was a marriage proposal!

He was just slightly out of his depth here. By about a mile.

‘What would I do?’ he asked again and if he sounded dumb that was because dumb was how he was feeling. Really, really dumb. What had she said? Knocked right over by a porrywiggle.

‘For a start you’d fix your hospitals,’ she told him, and lightness had suddenly faded. Her face was shadowed again. ‘You know, we were here when Dominic got sick.’

‘Here?’

‘Warren and I were having a rocky patch,’ she told him, and then gave a rueful smile. ‘Actually our marriage was one long rocky patch. But my designs were getting known and I’d heard about the Alp’Azuri weavers and the yarns available here. I’d also heard the place was lovely. So Warren and I brought Dominic here for a holiday. But on the flight over I noticed Dom was bruising in a way we couldn’t explain. By the time we’d been here for two days he was ill. And your hospitals… Have you spent any time at all in your hospitals?’

‘No,’ he said faintly. ‘I’ve been back in the country for two weeks.’

‘You’ve truly never been back since you left as a child?’

‘My father wanted my sister dead,’ he said, and after all this time it was still raw and painful to say it. ‘And Jean-Paul never forgave my mother for taking Lisle and me to Paris. She tried desperately to explain. After my father died she tried to see him but he refused. And his hostility extended to me. So I figured it was a closed book. I haven’t been back.’

‘So it’s your country-your responsibility-yet you don’t know it.’

‘That’s right.’

She took a deep breath. ‘OK. Then know this. Your hospitals are little better than third-world medical centres. They’re a disgrace. You need to get in there and sort them out.’

He stared. ‘You’re very direct.’

‘The word is bossy,’ she said. ‘But if I’m to make a supreme sacrifice…’

‘A supreme sacrifice?’

Once again that cheeky grin. The grin that set him back. That made him feel…that made him feel like he didn’t know how he felt.

‘Marrying you,’ she told him. ‘Throwing myself away on a mere prince regent.’

Lightness. Maybe he should follow her lead. Maybe humour was the only way to cope with this. ‘You figure you should hang out for the crown prince? For Edouard? For the real thing?’

‘Maybe I should, but he might not want to marry me when he reaches maturity,’ she conceded, smiling. ‘My bloom of fabulous beauty may have faded a little by then. They tell me it happens. Bloom fading. It’s caused by cabbage wilt or something.’

‘Cabbage wilt?’ He was so out of his depth that he thought he was drowning.

‘It happens to all the best commoners. And sooner than you think,’ she added darkly. ‘So you’ll be doing me a favour. You’ll marry me and save me from the consequences of cabbage wilt.’

Deep breath. Levity wasn’t going to work, he decided. She might be joking but he couldn’t. She had to see how serious this was. ‘Do you have any idea what you’re suggesting?’ he demanded.

‘Sure I do. I’m suggesting marriage.’

Marriage. This was what his Uncle Lionel had suggested the day of Sarah’s funeral, he thought, still stunned. ‘Find someone else to marry-fast,’ Lionel had said. But even Lionel had conceded the idea was fraught with peril. And now an unknown girl was calmly proposing.

Not an unknown girl. Jess.

‘Only if you stay here,’ she said and he met her gaze head-on. Their eyes locked and held. ‘I’m only agreeing to marriage if you agree to stay.’

‘You’re really serious,’ he said at last, and she nodded.

‘I’m serious. I’m not the least bit interested in marrying anyone else-I’ve been there, done that, so I’m happy to stay married to you for as long as you need me to be. But your mother’s not fit to be Edouard’s guardian. Anyone can see that life’s knocked her round. She’ll make a lovely grandma but Edouard needs a parent. He needs you.’

He tried to make himself think. He tried to focus on Edouard. ‘He loved you tonight…’

‘And he’ll love you. Don’t stick him in a room with boa constrictors.’

‘I’m expected back in Somalia.’

‘That’s nonsense,’ she told him bluntly. ‘I know enough about organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières to know they’d say your first responsibility is to the people of your country.’

‘This is not my country.’

‘Oh, yes, it is,’ she told him. ‘You were born here. Your father was ruler. You’re rich-’

‘How do you know I’m rich?’

‘I’m guessing that not even a creepy crown prince would keep his kids starving. I’m right, aren’t I? You’re rich.’

‘Yes, but-’

‘Look, stop running from it, Raoul. You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, so you might as well wriggle down and make yourself comfortable.’

‘By marrying you.’

‘It’s a perfectly good offer.’

‘So what would you get out of it?’ he asked, and then watched as her face stilled and a wave of anger followed.

‘I’d get a fairy-tale wedding, a prince, a tiara and I’d get to eat caviare and cream cakes for the rest of my life. Every girl’s fantasy. What do you think?’

‘I didn’t mean-’

‘Well, don’t say it if you don’t mean it,’ she told him. ‘You needn’t worry. I don’t want a thing except the reassurance that Edouard will be safe.’

‘So why do you care?’

‘For no reason,’ she snapped, still angry. ‘Except that no one else seems to have cared. Sure, you were doing your best in offering to marry Sarah, but if Edouard had been my nephew and he looked at me like he did tonight, I would have stuck my notice on the palace gate, married the first woman who offered and worried about the consequences later. I wouldn’t have left him in the ghastly Cosette’s care for one minute longer. If you knew how important a little boy’s life is-’

‘I do know.’

‘Then do something,’ she snapped. ‘Marry me and take over your rightful role. You needn’t worry that I’ll take liberties. I’ll do whatever you need to make Edouard safe and then you won’t see me again. It’s a very good offer, Raoul. Take it or leave it. But take it or leave it now.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Because, to be honest, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I can’t believe I’m saying it. But I am. Marry me, Raoul. Yes or no.’

He gazed into her face and she gazed back, her expression calm and determined. She was totally serious, he thought, and the realisation was astounding. She’d do this thing.

And in return… He’d have to stay here.

He could marry her and then leave after she’d gone back to Australia.

No. What was being offered was a gift, and the gift wasn’t personal. It was a gift to Edouard and it was a gift to the people of Alp’Azuri. If he betrayed her trust, if he betrayed her promise…

He couldn’t and she could tell that he couldn’t. She was watching him, waiting for him to make a decision and there wasn’t the least suspicion of mistrust on her face. She’d take his promise and she’d ask no questions.

He’d still be on his own-which was the way he’d planned his life. He simply needed to reorient his career. Incorporating Edouard.