‘I’m glad you asked that, because I’ve given this some thought and I know what I believe is best for Amil’s future.’
The smoothness of his voice alerted Sunita’s anxiety. The presentiment of doom returned and this time her very bones knew it was justified. Spearing a dumpling with an effort at nonchalance, she waved her fork in the air.
‘Why don’t you tell me what you have in mind?’
His hazel eyes met hers, his face neutral. ‘I want you to marry me.’
CHAPTER FIVE
‘MARRY YOU?’ SUITA STARED at him, flabberghasted. ‘That’s a joke, right?’
It must be his opening bid in negotiations designed to throw her into a state of incoherence. If so, he’d slammed the nail on the head.
‘No joke. Trust me, marriage isn’t a topic I’d kid about. It’s a genuine proposal—I’ve thought it through.’
‘When? In the past few hours? Are you certifiably nuts?’
‘This makes sense.’
‘How? There is no universe where this makes even a particle of a molecule of sense.’
‘This is what is best for Amil—best for our son.’
‘No, it isn’t. Not in this day and age. You cannot play the let’s-get-together-for-our-child’s-sake card.’
That was the stuff of fairy tales, and she was damned sure that her mother had been right about those being a crock of manure.
‘Yes, I can. In the circumstances.’
‘What circumstances?’ Her fogged brain attempted to illuminate a pathway to understanding and failed.
‘If you marry me Amil will become Crown Prince of Lycander after me. If you don’t, he won’t.’
The words took the wind out of the sails of incredulity. Of course. Duh! But the idea that Frederick would marry her to legitimise Amil hadn’t even tiptoed across her mind. The whole concept of her baby one day ruling a principality seemed surreal, and right now she needed to cling onto reality.
‘We can’t get married to give Amil a crown.’
‘But we can get married so that we don’t deprive him of one.’
‘Semantics.’ Think. ‘He won’t feel deprived of something he never expected to have.’ Would he? ‘Amil will grow up knowing...’
Her voice trailed off. Knowing what? That if his mother had agreed to marry his father he would have been a prince, a ruler, rather than a prince’s illegitimate love-child.
‘Knowing that he can be whatever he wants to be,’ she concluded.
‘As long as what he wants to be isn’t Ruler of Lycander.’
Panic stole over her, wrapped her in tentacles of anxiety. ‘You are putting me in an impossible position. You are asking me to decide Amil’s entire future. To make decisions on his behalf.’
‘No. I am suggesting we make this decision together. I believe this is the best course of action for Amil. If you think otherwise then convince me.’
‘He may not want to be pushed into a pre-ordained future—may not want to be a ruler. Why would we burden him with the weight of duty, with all the rules
and obligations that come with it?’
‘Because it is his right to rule. Just as it was my brother’s.’
His voice was even, but she saw the shadows chase across his eyes, sensed the pain the words brought.