Royals Untamed!. Annie West

reached the point where they’d started and Ruby put her arms around Annabelle’s waist and swung her in the air.

      ‘Whee!’

      Annabelle laughed again as Ruby swooped her through the air and landed her on the blanket that he’d spread out. She picked up a corner of the blanket and started drying Annabelle’s toes.

      Alex opened the basket and started unpacking the food. The palace chef had outdone himself, as usual, but the most curious thing was a small tub full of steamed-up food.

      Annabelle gave a little shriek of excitement and grabbed it, pulling open the lid and searching for a spoon.

      Ruby wrinkled her nose and leaned closer. ‘Macaroni cheese? Is this one of Annabelle’s favourites?’

      Alex nodded. ‘Apparently.’ He peered in the basket. ‘I’m not quite sure how it managed to find its way into the picnic basket, though.’

      Ruby grabbed an apple, bit into it, then leaned back on her hands, staring up at the palace. ‘I can’t say I’ve ever had a picnic in front of a palace before.’

      He stared up at the hundreds of windows. There might be a whole host of palace staff looking down on them at any moment. It might look like a private picnic, with no one visibly around them, but the truth was it was anything but.

      He pulled a bottle of water out of the basket and popped the tab for Annabelle. ‘Would you like to go and see the horses? Or the maze?’

      She shook her head and continued to eat the macaroni. He reached into the basket for some more food, and squinted when his hand came into contact with something strange. A leg. A plastic doll’s leg. And another doll. And another.

      He pulled them out. One was in a princess dress, one in a swimsuit and one in a semi-naked state with her arms partway into a spacesuit.

      He winked at Ruby. ‘Ruby, I see you brought your dolls to play with.’

      She laughed and grabbed the blonde astronaut, pushing her arms and legs into the silver and white suit and fastening it appropriately. ‘Of course I did, Alex. I like playing with dolls.’

      Annabelle’s head shot up and she gave a little smile, abandoning the macaroni and walking over to the dolls. Her comprehension was perfect. She understood everything that was going on around her. So why didn’t she talk?

      Ruby held up the princess doll and the swimsuit doll. ‘Which one do you like best? The pink one or the purple one?’

      He wondered what she was doing. Annabelle screwed up her face and shook her head. There were no pink or purple clothes.

      Ruby just smiled, as if this was something she did every day—which she did. She held each doll higher. ‘Oh, I see. Silly me. Blue or red, then?’

      Annabelle came over and picked the doll wearing the pale blue dress and pointed towards her own.

      Ruby nodded. ‘You like blue, then?’

      She gave Alex a secret smile. Every little thing she did was part of Annabelle’s assessment. Every other person who had come to see her had been much more rigid in their processes, wanting Annabelle to do certain things at certain times. Being three was difficult enough. But Alex had been made to feel as if Annabelle was being difficult or uncooperative. She didn’t seem that way with Ruby.

      Annabelle took her dolls and walked over to the ornamental fountain with all three.

      ‘I think they’re all about to go for a swim—costumes or not,’ murmured Ruby.

      She seemed perfectly relaxed out here. She picked up a ham sandwich and started to eat. He reached in and pulled out his favourite. Tuna. Hardly royal. Probably not the thing that most Prince Regents would eat. But this had been Alex’s favourite since he was a child.

      The tension between them wasn’t as high as it had been in the room when they were alone. But then again, they hadn’t been on display there. He kept wondering if there were any unseen eyes watching what should be a private affair.

      ‘She knows her colours. For a three-year-old that’s good.’ Ruby was watching Annabelle again.

      ‘You can tell just from that?’

      She shook her head. ‘Oh, no. I’ve done a few other exercises as well.’ She leaned forward and pulled her knees up, wrapping her dress around them. ‘Listen...’ she whispered.

      Alex sat a little straighter, straining to hear what Ruby had heard above the constant trickle of water from the fountain.

      There it was—floating across the air.

      Ruby touched his arm. ‘She’s humming. She did that the other night with me.’ She gave a tiny shake of her head. ‘I know that one of the reports about Annabelle questioned whether she could even make sounds. But she can. You’ve heard her laugh. You’ve heard her squeal. And she can communicate with sign language. She’s choosing not to speak.’ A frown marred her complexion. ‘I’ve just got to figure out why.’

      Her eyes were fixed on Annabelle playing with her dolls. This was all so easy for Ruby. Annabelle was just a patient. She didn’t have the same investment, the same emotional connection that he did. She didn’t have the same frustrated feeling that there must be something else he could do. She was a professional with a puzzle to solve.

      ‘You make it sound so easy.’ He couldn’t help the way the words sounded. He’d forced them out through gritted teeth.

      But Ruby didn’t react. She just kept looking at Annabelle. ‘I don’t think it’s easy, Alex. I just think that you—and I—are going to have to be patient. That’s the only way this can work.’

      Her eyes met his. For a second he wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about. They were talking about Annabelle, right? Because those words might sound as if she were talking about them instead.

      ‘What’s your first memory, Alex?’

      ‘What?’ He was surprised by her question.

      She smiled at him. ‘I can honestly say the first thing I remember is from around age seven. I was on holiday with my mum and dad in Boulogne in France. I can remember walking about with cases because we couldn’t find our hotel. Then my father thought it would be interesting to go and watch the fishermen.’ She gave a shudder. ‘Watching fishermen gut their fish was not something I wanted to see as a seven-year-old.’ She turned and smiled at him. ‘That’s my first real memory.’

      He sat back a little, unsure where this was going. ‘I can remember having to sit very still for a long, long time. It was at some awards ceremony and my father glared at me every time I moved. I hated the shirt and tie I was wearing because it felt too tight.’

      She nodded. ‘What age do you think you were?’

      He shrugged. ‘Around five, I think.’

      She lifted her hand towards Annabelle. ‘Here’s the thing. Science tells us that the first three years are the most important for a child’s brain development. It’s the first time we’re supposed to form memories—but I can’t remember anything from back then. The experts tell us that young children’s memories change over time, replacing old memories with new ones. So I’m looking at Annabelle and wondering what she remembers.’

      ‘What do you mean?’ This was starting to make him uncomfortable.

      She interlinked her fingers. ‘The brain has connections—hard wiring. Children’s brains are like a sponge—they take in everything all around them. Children are born to learn. By their first year seventy-five per cent of the hard wiring is in place.’ She pointed at Annabelle again. ‘By age three ninety per cent of the hard wiring is there.’

      She ran her fingers through her hair.

      ‘Under the age of two, lots of their development depends on attachment. I wonder if Annabelle’s speech issues could