She really had taken to life as Princess, he thought wryly, but especially here. In New York it didn’t mean much—it was only another title—but on Mardivino itself she had real power and real status. Things which obviously meant more to her than the husband she had been forced to marry…
As soon as they arrived at the Rainbow Palace Guido turned to her. ‘I’m going to see my father,’ he said briefly. ‘I’ll see you at dinner.’
Lucy watched him go, feeling their closeness—however superficial it had been—evaporating into the warm spring air.
At least the others seemed overjoyed to see her. Ella was chattering with excitement, and Lucy saw Gianferro’s hard face relax with relief when he saw her.
‘Why, you are blooming, Lucy,’ he observed with a smile. ‘The pregnancy progresses well, I understand?’
‘Very well.’
‘And how was New York?’
‘Oh, it was just like New York,’ she said lightly. ‘It’s good to be…back.’
‘Indeed,’ he agreed, and although a look of curiosity flashed into his black eyes he said nothing.
Lucy was walking around the Palace gardens on a warm, bright afternoon when the first pains began, and she doubled over, trying like crazy to shallow breathe, as she’d been taught.
Stopping every few minutes, she managed to make her way back to their suite and Guido was brought to her. Concern and fear etched deep shadows on his hard face as he saw the doctor bending over her.
‘Come e?’ he demanded.
‘Highness,’ said the doctor, straightening up. ‘For a first baby, this one is intent on arriving very quickly. We must get the Princess to hospital.’
‘Then do it!’ he said urgently.
It all became very blurred after that—the screeching of wheels and the flashing of lights, and the pain getting more and more intense. In the back of the ambulance Lucy’s nails bit into Guido’s palm.
‘Don’t leave me,’ she gasped. ‘Will
you?’
He wanted to tell her that Royal husbands did not stay with their wives during labour, but he saw the stark terror in her eyes and sensed her isolation with a perception which he would have usually blunted.
‘Of course I will stay,’ he bit out. ‘Don’t worry, Lucy—it’s going to be all right. Everything is going to be all right.’
But he was aware that his words were hollow—for who could utter them with any degree of certainty? Nature was in charge now—random and cruel nature—who could change lives at one capricious stroke. His mouth tightened and he smoothed a damp strand of hair back from Lucy’s brow. He wasn’t going to think about that now.
Lucy’s preconceived ideas about how she’d wanted to have the baby, while floating in a tank of water, were immediately banished by the midwife, and soon she was on a hard bed with her legs in stirrups. She tried not to thrash around.
‘Oh, what must you think of me, Guido?’ she moaned.
He was having difficulty speaking. ‘I think you’re pretty damned wonderful, if you must know.’
Had the gas and air made her completely uninhibited? ‘You’ll never fancy me again now you’ve seen me like this!’ she wailed.
This was more like the Lucy he knew! A wry smile curved his mouth as he saw the midwife’s look of horror. ‘Let us not concern ourselves with that right now, cara,’ he murmured smoothly. But then he saw her face twist with pain once more, and an unfamiliar wave of helplessness washed over him.
‘Can you not help her?’ he demanded.
‘We are doing everything we can, Highness!’
Lucy was in a hot, dark tunnel of torture. There were instructions not to push when she wanted to push, and then to push when she was so tired she could barely open her eyes. And the pain! She whimpered, and then drew in all her strength for one last, huge effort.
The midwife was encouraging her, and Guido was saying something disbelieving in Italian, and then their baby daughter was born—all black-haired, like her daddy, and covered in gunk.
They put her on Lucy’s stomach, and she stared down at her with a kind of wonder.