The Heir

I start to feel nauseous and I don’t have my dry biscuits. “I need to call Dante and just tell him I’m going.”

She shakes her head. “This is exactly what I mean. If you do that you will tip everyone off. You have to slip away. Call him once you are safely out of the country. It is only while you are on Avantian soil that you are in danger.”

Everything seems to be moving too quickly for me to comprehend. “My passport. I don’t have my passport,” I mutter.

“I’ve got it here. Everything is ready for you.”

I run my fingers through my hair. “But I have no clothes.”

“I brought Elsa with me. She has packed your suitcase and brought you something to wear. She will fly with you to England and make sure that you arrive safely. Once you arrive, a car will be waiting to take you wherever you want.”

She walks to the door, opens it and calls Elsa in.

In a daze, I allow myself to be helped out of bed and into my clothes. Elsa brushes my hair, which has the effect of making me feel even more helpless. Every time I move, pain shoots through my body.

“Do you want more painkillers?” Linnea asks.

“No. That would be bad for the baby,” I mumble.

A nurse brings a wheelchair. I sit in it and Elsa pushes me out of the ward, and into the elevator. No one utters a word as we travel downwards.

Once we get out of the doors I see a limousine and outrider escorts waiting for us. The driver holds open the back door. Painfully, I limp into the seat. The door closes, and I wait while Elsa gets in the front passenger seat. The driver gives the signal and the outriders kick off the journey. The car starts to move. I turn and watch Linnea.

There is no expression at all on her smooth face.

Up ahead, all the other cars are making way for us. I was enthralled at having the limo and outriders when we were taken to the palace upon our arrival in Avanti. Now I wish I was on the back of Dante’s Vespa.

Those days are gone forever.

That thought is like a knife thrust into my heart. I turn my face to the window and tears fill my eyes. The limo stops on the landing tarmac. The plane with the royal family’s crest is waiting. The captain and an air stewardess are standing next to it.

The driver jumps out and opens my door. I get out of the car with great difficulty. Elsa comes to help me walk to the plane.

My hand touches the cold steel railing of the steps. Suddenly, I am homesick. Homesick for my mother. Homesick for Star. Homesick for simple, real people who don’t play games with every word they utter.

I put my foot on the first step.

Yes, I’m running away, but I am making the right decision. I’m going back to England where I belong. Where some of this incredible stress will abate. Where my baby will be safe. I’ll call Dante when I get there. I’m a strong person. I’ll recover from this temporary setback.

Everything will work out.

Chapter 39

Dante

My father’s butler is standing outside the library, so I know he is inside having a glass of cognac. It’s a long tradition for him to retire to his library for cognac and a Cuban cigar. I nod to the old man as he opens the door for me. The disagreeable scent of the cigar slaps me in the face.

My father looks up from the paper he is reading and our eyes meet.

“So the cub comes into the lion’s den,” my father says.

“No, the lion tamer visits the aging, toothless lion.”

“I am as strong as I ever was,” he boasts hollowly.

“Then why does your hand tremble?”

His brow creases.

“You think I didn’t notice that at the dinner table. You taught me to always closely observe my opponents,” I say eyeing his right hand.

“So I am your opponent now?”

“Weren’t you always, Father?”

The emphasis on the word father is not lost on him. He flinches. “No. Never.”

I nod toward his right hand. “Parkinson’s?”

For a moment, he looks as though he isn’t going to answer. “Early stages,” he admits with a sigh.

“You will have to abdicate when it progresses.”

“It will be many years before that happens. There are medications to keep it under control. Why do you care? You’ve renounced the throne.”

I smile. “Not officially. Only verbally to you.”

He cocks his head. “What does that mean?”

“It means I am the rightful heir to the throne, and I plan on becoming the king when your disease gets so bad you’ll be forced to abdicate.”

“I could fight you,” he says feebly.

I smile. “You won’t. You wouldn’t want to air the royal dirty laundry.”

“We have none,” he snaps.

“Your daughter-in-law deliberately injured my fiancée in an effort to make her miscarry so that when she gets herself pregnant her child will become the heir to the throne,” I accuse.

My father sags in his seat. He starts to speak, but stops, shakes his head, then tries again. “If that’s true, whose fault is it? You told me you didn’t want the throne and stormed out. Then you stayed away from Avanti for two years. If you hadn’t done that, the conflict of who’s child is going to become king wouldn’t have arisen.”

“Are you excusing her criminal behavior? She wanted to kill your grandson! Doesn’t that concern you?”

He pauses like he’s in deep thought. “How can you be sure it was not an accident, Dante?”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” I roar furiously.

“You can’t prove it though.”

“No, but the fact is she did, and I can see it in your eyes that you know she did,” I say sternly.

“I knew she was ambitious, but I didn’t see this coming,” he mutters.

I point my finger at my father. “She and my brother are going to pay for this. You are going to ban them from the palace. You will order them to move to the summer cottage by the lake.”

He drops his face into his hands. “I can’t do that to Linnea’s son. It will kill her.”

“But, Father, I am going to be king soon. If you don’t banish them from the palace, I will exile my brother and Cassandra from Avanti with a pension barely large enough to buy milk and groceries. Would you rather I do that to your favorite son, Father?”

He lifts his head and looks at me with tortured eyes. “All these years you never figured it out. He was never my favorite. You were. Why do you think I sent you away? I wanted to protect you. It was

you I loved more.”

I bark with laughter. “Protect me. You sent me away so you could play happy families with Linnea and Linnus. It was Oncle who took me and protected me. He is my protector. Not you.”

He looks at me sadly. “What do you think would have happened to you if I had let you remain in the palace?”

I stare at him with narrowed eyes.

“You would have never made it past childhood, I was convinced of it.”

“Why didn’t you get rid of her then?”

“I was obsessed with her. It was as if I was under a spell. I knew what she was, but I could not let her go. The only thing I could do for you was send you away from her presence.”

“Do you want me to thank you for that?”

“You will never understand me because you are not a weak man. You don’t know what it is like to be so utterly bewitched by a cruel and vile woman. You think Cassandra is dangerous. You have no idea.”

I shake my head. “I don’t care why you sent me away. The time for you to declare your love for me is long past. I don’t need your love anymore. I have survived all these years without it! I’m looking forward to being the kind of father to my child that you never were to me. Now all I want from you is the promise that you will send them away and give me the power to rule. You’re not interested in ruling anyway.”

He sighs heavily. “And if I agree, you will see that your brother receives the revenue he deserves and can remain in Avanti?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll do as you demand, but it’s a very hard thing you ask me to do, Dante.”

“Your loyalty to her makes me sick,” I say.

Our conversation is interrupted by a light knock on the door. A moment later my father’s butler enters.

“Your Majesty, you wanted to know when the Queen returns. She has just arrived.” he announces in his booming voice.