The Royal House Of Karedes Collection Books 1-12. Кейт Хьюит

He had been through an awful shock about his father. She could grant him some leeway, couldn’t she?

      And she carried his child.

      She had to tell him. She knew she did. They had created this tiny life together. No matter what the consequences, Alexandros had the right to know. She was not her mother and he was not a clone of her father.

      “Maria? Please, sweetheart, say you’ll forgive me.”

      “You know I will,” she said softly, smiling through her tears.

      Alex let out a long breath. “Glyka mou. We must talk. About us.”

      “Yes. We do.”

      “But not now.” He held her closer. “The next days are going to be hectic. I’ll have to tell my family about the Stefani diamond. We’ll have to meet with the council and decide how to handle this. And there’s my mother’s birthday …”

      “Can you postpone the celebration?”

      “My father has already said it must go on as scheduled.”

      “But if he’s ill …”

      “This is a national celebration, sweetheart. Royal responsibility to the people comes before everything else.” He frowned. “And now that I know this about the diamond, I wonder if my father isn’t concerned that his illness should not seem too important. You see, if something should happen to him, if a new king had to be crowned… That could not happen unless the real diamond were found and placed in the crown. Do you understand?”

      Maria nodded. Like most little girls, she’d loved fairy tales. Now she knew, first-hand, that real kings and queens and princes and princesses did not live such easy lives.

      That fairy tales didn’t always end happily, she thought, and a shudder went through her.

      “What is it, agapoula mou?”

      “Nothing,” she said quickly. “Just—I’m just thinking of how busy everyone will be the next few days.”

      “We’ll manage. I, especially, because I’ll have you beside me.”

      Alex bent to her and kissed her. Whispered soft words against her lips. Her arms crept around his neck. Now, she told herself. Never mind that there’s no time for real talking. Let him ask you to stay with him, and you can tell him about the baby—

      His cell phone rang. He blanched as he grabbed it from his pocket.

      “Ne?” he said brusquely.

      But it wasn’t the hospital, it was Andreas. The conversation was brief. When it ended, Alex drew her against him.

      “I can’t stay, sweetheart. I must meet with Sebastian and Andreas. There are many things to discuss, and now is as good a time as any to tell them about the diamond.”

      She nodded. “Tell them, too, how sorry I am.”

      “You have nothing to be sorry for, glyka mou.” His lips curved in a smile. “But if you feel you must show contrition for some imagined misdeed, I’ll consider letting you find creative ways to do so later on.”

      She laughed and kissed him, and when he whispered something that made her blush, she kissed him again.

      “Tonight,” she promised.

      He gathered up the papers and the Aristan crown; he put his arm around her as they walked to the door.

      “Tonight,” he said softly.

      But one night became another and then another. The mystery of the diamond, the king’s illness, the birthday celebration on the horizon… Alex was caught up in the politics of the palace.

      There was no time for anything else.

       CHAPTER TWELVE

      THE day of the queen’s birthday celebration was an anomaly.

      It was winter, when cool winds and rain often lashed Aristo, but this day dawned bright and warm.

      Alex hardly noticed. He had not been home since he’d left Maria in the guesthouse. He’d returned the crown to the display case in the vault and, ever since, he’d been closeted with his brothers.

      They were trying to come up with answers. Where was the missing diamond? Who had stolen it? When? How could the switch have gone unnoticed? Where did they start searching for the real stone? Most pressing of all, how could they keep it all a secret?

      And it had to be a secret. They could not permit word to get out that the stone was gone.

      On the simplest level, news like that would be humiliating. Far more unsettling were the possible political consequences. What if a Calistan sheikh somehow gained control of the diamond? Could he then twist the true meaning of King Christos’s legacy, join the Aristan stone to the one in the Crown of Calista, and claim the right to rule both kingdoms?

      It was a real possibility, one that might well destroy Aristo.

      He missed Maria terribly. Her smile. Her quiet strength. The feel of her in his arms. He phoned her whenever he could: even the sound of her soft voice was an oasis of calm in the middle of a storm.

      “I miss you, glyka mou,” he told her softly.

      She missed him, too. Terribly. But she understood that he was needed at the palace. Sometimes, she could forget her lover was a prince. Now, she couldn’t escape it. So, rather than burden him with her own feelings, she did what she thought was right. She said she missed him, too, but she was busy.

      “Even if you were here, Alexandros, I couldn’t spend time with you. I have last-minute work to do on your mother’s necklace.”

      “Oh,” he said, just that one word, but he sounded disappointed. She almost told him she was lying, that she missed him so badly she ached, that if he came through the door she’d toss everything aside and run into his arms…

      But the last thing he needed now was a clinging female. Her Alex, along with Sebastian and Andreas, were like jugglers trying to keep a dozen balls in the air. Elissa had just arrived home. She and Kitty were busy helping their mother get ready for the party.

      The king had come home from the hospital against the advice of his doctors. The heart attack had not done any damage, true, but they wanted other tests. Nonsense, said Aegeus. There were affairs of state to deal with. Tia’s birthday. All the media attention the celebration had brought. Scores of foreign dignitaries.

      “I am fine,” he insisted.

      Was he? The brothers thought their father looked ill.

      “Actually,” Sebastian said, “he looks like hell.”

      It was an accurate assessment. The king was pale. He seemed to have shrunk in size and there was a constant sheen of sweat on his forehead. And why did he never mention the missing diamond? That seemed strangest of all.

      “If we can just get through the celebration tonight …” Alex said, and they all agreed. Get through tonight and then they could institute a real if subtle search for the missing stone.

      Alex was going home to shower and change. “We’ll have half an hour alone, sweetheart,” he said when he phoned Maria, “but we can make the most of that half hour.” He told her how they’d do that, in explicit detail, and she gave a sexy little sigh and said she’d be waiting.

      Smiling, he flipped his cell phone shut. He needed that thirty minutes, not just to make love to her but to tell her what he’d started to tell her three days ago. What he should have told her weeks ago.

      He didn’t want her to leave him.

      Once she gave the necklace to the king, once the king presented it to the queen, Maria