‘Will you at least agree to a visit?’ he had asked her the next day. ‘Nothing more than that. To allow my parents and brother to meet Ben.’ His voice had changed. ‘I do not have to tell you how much they long to meet him at last. Please do not deny them that,’ he’d finished quietly. ‘It will be a very emotional moment for them.’
She had nodded. Something seemed to have changed between them. He didn’t know what, but somehow it was easier to talk to her. She, too, and he was sure it was not just his imagination, seemed less tense, less awkward in his presence.
Maybe, he thought sombrely, the scene that night had brought everything to a head.
Whatever it was, he was grateful. Grateful that she had agreed to move forward, even in this circumspect way, that she finally seemed to have moved beyond the stonewalling denial that had made her so difficult to deal with.
He had spoken to Luca that morning, telling him they were going to fly out the following day. What he hadn’t told him was that it was only for a visit, not permanently. He would tell Luca privately that there could be no question of a marriage of convenience. That the situation would have to be resolved differently, in a way that Ben’s adopted mother was comfortable with.
Luca had not been communicative, had merely wanted to know that Ben was finally on his way and when they would be landing. He’d seemed tense, preoccupied.
Well, it had been a stressful time, Rico acknowledged. Their father was not an easy man, and Rico had sympathy for Luca being the one to bear the brunt of it. However much of a miracle Ben’s existence was, it had come with a price tag—one that his father hated to pay. The focus of the world’s tabloid press on his family’s private affairs.
The stewardess came forward into the cabin to request they put their seat belts on. Rico smiled reassuringly across at Ben’s mother. She seemed outwardly calm, but he wondered how real it was.
Ben simply seemed excited.
Ironically, thought Rico, Ben seemed a lot more excited about flying in a plane than he did about the news, broken to him tactfully and carefully the previous afternoon by his uncle and his aunt, that he was, in fact, a royal prince.
‘Will I have a crown?’ had been his only question, and, when a negative answer had been returned to him, had lost interest in the matter.
His interest in royalty was revived momentarily when they transferred to the car waiting for them at the airfield. The car was flying a colourful standard from its bonnet, and Ben wanted to know why.
‘It’s your grandfather’s flag,’ Rico answered. ‘Because he’s the Ruler of San Lucenzo. We are going to meet him. And your grandmother and your other uncle. The one I told you about yesterday.’
The car glided off. Ben chattered away to Rico, asking him question after question. Beside him, Lizzy sat, willing herself to stay calm.
But it was hard.
In England, cocooned in the safe house, it had been hard to appreciate the reality of Ben’s patrimony. Now that they were here, in San Lucenzo itself, it was suddenly all too real. Fear and apprehension gouged at her, and she could feel her muscles tensing.
She was so completely out of place here. It had been bad enough in England, in that country house, but boarding a private San Lucenzan-registered jet, flying in luxury, with the stewardess saying ‘Highness’ to Ben’s uncle every time she opened her mouth, and a uniformed airfield commander greeting them as they deplaned, and now a bodyguard, Gianni, sitting next to a peak-capped chauffeur driving them in the sleek, officiallooking limo with the royal standard on it…It was all telling her that this was a world to which she did not belong.
A world as alien to her as if she’d landed on another planet.
Anxiety and nerves bit through her with merciless pincers.
‘It will be all right. Trust me.’
Prince Rico had spoken in a low voice, but there was a note of consideration…kindness, even…that she was not used to. Perhaps it was simply because she was finally doing what the Ceraldis wanted her to do—bringing Ben out to San Lucenzo to meet his royal relatives.
But it seemed more than that.
And Lizzy knew why.
He’s sorry for me. He’s sorry for me because he knows that I know that the insane idea of a marriage of convenience was just grotesque.
His kindness should have made her feel more embarrassed than ever. And yet, strangely, it seemed to achieve the opposite.
She looked across at him, to where he was patiently answering Ben’s questions. Ben was completely at ease with him now—and Rico with Ben, Lizzy could see. He was warm and affectionate, open and demonstrative with his nephew.
It brought a reassurance to her that she badly needed.
If he’s like that with Ben, it means his parents and his brother will be too. OK, so they happen to be royalty—but what does that matter in the end? They want Ben to love, because they loved his father, and that’s all that matters.
It would be all right—she had to believe that. It would be all right.
And if it wasn’t—well. She took a heavy inhalation of breath as she reminded herself she had committed to nothing in coming out here. Ben, like her, was a British citizen, and she was his legal guardian. Nothing happened to him without her consent.