‘Crown Prince and my heir,’ Gaetano confirmed succinctly. ‘Isn’t it obvious?’
‘No, not when I believed our marriage might not be legal and I thought that for the whole of the two years we were apart,’ Lara told him quietly. ‘And I don’t know anything about royalty except that here in the UK the family have a lot of rules to follow.’
‘Mosvakia is not a large country and it’s rather more laid-back,’ Gaetano responded in a tone of apology. ‘Sorry I was short with you. I was miles away, reading something.’
‘You are also, automatically as the King’s wife, our Queen, Your Majesty,’ Dario slotted in.
Lara nodded and nodded again and backed away as though she had been threatened by a hot poker. A queen.Her, a queen? A woman who had washed dishes and floors and served in run-down bars as a waitress? A woman who had only three pairs of shoes to her name?
‘You shouldn’t have said that,’ she heard Gaetano reprove before she could close the door again. ‘Lara’s not some social climber, keen to acquire a title. All that nonsense scares her off!’
Unexpectedly, that little overheard snippet, which told her just how well Gaetano understood her more reticent nature, made Lara straighten her spine, square her slender shoulders and smile. Gaetano had explained her for Dario’s benefit, taken her side, shown his support. She brought her phone in the corridor and rang Alice.
‘Aking?’ Alice almost shrieked when she was told. ‘Are you kidding me? Is this an April Fool or something?’
‘Of course I can leave early...joys of being my own boss,’ Alice quipped a few minutes later. ‘Don’t worry. I’ll pick up Iris—no need to involve some nanny. Oh, Lara, isn’t Freddy just going tolovebeing a prince and the centre of attention?’
‘Without a doubt,’ Lara agreed ruefully.
‘I can’t wait to talk to you,’ her friend admitted. ‘When I left the house this morning, you were meeting Gaetano to discuss a divorce and now, only a few hours later...my goodness, that guy moves at supersonic speed!’
‘I don’t know how I could explain it or explain why I didn’t tell you.’
‘I’m a complete blabbermouth,’ Alice filled in chirpily. ‘Always have been, always will be. No explanation required. As for why you’re reconciling. Well, no surprise there on your side of the fence.’
‘Am I really that predictable?’
‘Where he’s concerned? I’m afraid so. Look, I’d better run if you’ve already handed over the keys and you don’t want your vast wardrobe stuffed disrespectfully into bin bags,’ Alice teased, because they both knew that Lara owned very little. ‘See you later.’
Lara joined Freddy in the nursery. Gaetano joined them for Freddy’s bath, dive-bombing little boats and ducks with an aeroplane while Freddy screamed with excitement. After a quick supper, her son was ready only for his cot.
‘Your friend has arrived and will be joining us for dinner,’ Gaetano informed her. ‘I gather you hadn’t told her who I was.’
‘Why would I?’ Lara parried ruefully. ‘I was Cinderella, but I didn’t get my prince.’
Gaetano’s eyes flared fiery gold. ‘I married you! What greater faith in you and what we had could I have demonstrated?’ he demanded in a raw undertone of condemnation that told her she had touched a nerve. ‘But you were too weak to seize the moment and you ran away!’
Slowly, Lara straightened. ‘That’s not how it happened. I wasn’t weak and I didn’t run away. It’s interesting how reality gets massaged and twisted out of shape when people are apart. People develop their own story.’
But once again, Lara was being reminded of what a risk she was taking in trusting Gaetano again. Their unsuccessful past together still hung over them like a dark cloud and could still catapult them into conflict. She could get hurt again, badly hurt, if their marriage failed a second time and that still filled her with fear and insecurity.
Gaetano flexed long brown fingers that had briefly clenched with the force of his emotions and breathed in slow and deep, calming himself down as he recognised the tripwire that had almost entrapped him and damaged what he had gained. ‘No doubt we’ll talk about it some day butnotany day soon,’ he murmured with smooth emphasis. ‘Re-establishing our relationship is more important than dwelling on our past mistakes.’
Having been taken aback by that sudden flash of anger, Lara turned away, as pale and shaken as though a shark had leapt out of a tranquil pond in front of her. She had been ridiculously naïve, she thought painfully, to think that all was forgotten and forgiven. Evidently, he had put the blame on her, and she was tempted to round on him and give him her frank opinion of what he had done and said to drive her from his side. But Gaetano had been quite correct in that this was neither the time nor the place to dive into the swamp of the past. Everything was too new and fresh between them, and it would be wiser to concentrate on the present than risk destructive recriminations.
That afternoon, a stylist arrived to take her clothing measurements, Gaetano having pointed out that she would require what he described as a ‘more flexible wardrobe’. By the time the stylist had moved on from measurements to requesting her colour and fashion preferences, even Gaetano’s subtle approach had warned Lara that she was really receiving a makeover. She joined Gaetano, Alice and Dario for dinner in a lofty-ceilinged formal dining room where they were waited on as if they were...well, royalty.
She learned from a question that Alice asked that this was Gaetano’s very first visit to the house he had inherited three years earlier. As her friend raised her brows in her direction, Lara knew exactly what Alice was thinking. Who on earth inherited a giant house from their grandfather, unknown or otherwise, and waited three years to visit it? And only then because it was convenient to where he wanted to be? Someone who might well own a lot of property, someone from a world entirely removed from theirs in every way...
Alice studied Lara when she accompanied her back to her bedroom where Iris already slept in one of the twin beds. ‘You really have jumped in with both feet again with him, haven’t you?’
‘Yes, there’s just something about Gaetano which blasts all common sense right out of my head,’ Lara conceded wryly. ‘I’m still insanely attached to him.’
Alice laughed. ‘Well, I’m not sure I would call it insane. He’s filthy rich, devastatingly handsome, very entertaining and he’s a king. He does also seem incredibly keen to be married to you again.’
‘It feels a bit too much like a fairy tale,’ Lara whispered worriedly.
‘You really dodeservethe fairy tale,’ her friend told her softly.