Cinderella: Hired by the Prince

‘I’m rather in shock,’ Jenny confessed.

‘Me too,’ Sofia confessed. ‘And Ramon too, though we’re making the best of it.’

‘But Ramon’s the Crown Prince,’ Jenny managed. ‘How can he be intimidated?’ She could see him through the crowd. He drew every eye in the room. He looked truly magnificent-Crown Prince to the manor born.

‘Because he wasn’t meant to be royal,’ Sofia said darkly, but then her darkness disappeared and she smiled encouragingly at Jenny. ‘Just like you’re not. I’m not sure what Ramon’s told you so I thought maybe there’s things you ought to know.’

‘I know the succession was a shock,’ Jenny ventured, and Sofia nodded vigorously and ate another eclair.

‘Yes,’ she said definitely. ‘We were never expected to inherit. Ramon’s grandfather-my father-sent my mother, my younger brother and I out of the palace when my brother and I were tiny. We were exiled, and kept virtual prisoners on an island just off the coast. My mother was never permitted to step back onto the mainland.’

Jenny frowned. Why was she being told this? But she could do nothing but listen as Sofia examined a meringue from all angles and decided not.

‘That sounds dreadful,’ Sofia continued, moving on to a delicate chocolate praline, popping it in and choosing another. ‘But, in truth, the island is beautiful. It was only my mother’s pain at what was happening to her country, and at losing her elder son that hurt. As we grew older my younger brother married an islander-a lovely girl. Ramon is their son. So Ramon’s technically a prince, but until three months ago the only time he was at the palace was the night his father died.’

There were places here she didn’t want to go. There were places she had no right to go to. ‘He…he spends his life on his yacht,’ she ventured.

‘No, dear, only part of it, and that’s only since his mother and sister died. He trained as a builder. I think he started building things almost as soon as he could put one wooden block on top of another. He spends every dry season in Bangladesh, building houses with floating floors. Apparently they’re brilliant-villagers can adjust their floor levels as flood water rises. He’s passionate about it, but now, here he is, stuck as Crown Prince for ever.’

‘I imagine he was trained for it,’ Jenny said stiffly, still not sure where this was going.

‘Only in that my mother insisted on teaching us court manners,’ Sofia retorted. ‘It was as if she knew that one day we’d be propelled back here. We humoured her, though none of us ever expected that we would. Finally, my brother tried to reinstate my mother’s rights, to allow her to leave the island, and that’s when the real tragedy started.’

‘That was when Ramon’s father was killed?’

‘Yes, dear. By my father’s thugs,’ Sofia said, her plump face creasing into distress. The noise and bustle of the ballroom was nothing, ignored in her apparent need to tell Jenny this story. ‘My mother ached to leave, and we couldn’t believe my father’s vindictiveness could last for years. But last it did, and when my brother was old enough he mounted a legal challenge. It was met with violence and with death. My father invited my brother here, to reason with him, so he came and brought Ramon with him because he thought he’d introduce his little son to his grandfather. So Ramon was here when it happened, a child, sleeping alone in this dreadful place while his father was killed. Just…alone.’

She stared down at her chocolate, but she wasn’t seeing it. She was obviously still stunned at the enormity of what had happened. ‘That’s what royalty does,’ she whispered. ‘What is it they say? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. So my father had his own son killed, simply because he dared to defy him. We assume…we want to believe that it was simply his thugs going too far, meant to frighten but taking their orders past the point of reason. But still, my father must have employed them, and he must have known the consequences. This place…the whole of royalty is tainted by that murder. And now Carlos…the man who would have been Crown Prince if Ramon hadn’t agreed to come home…is in the wings, threatening. He’s here tonight.’

She gestured towards the supper table where a big man with more medals than Ramon was shovelling food into his mouth.

‘He makes threats but so quietly we can’t prove anything. He’s here always, with his unfortunate wife towed in his wake, and he’s just waiting for something to happen to Ramon. I can walk away-Ramon insists that I will walk away-but Ramon can’t.’

Jenny was struggling to take everything in. She couldn’t focus on shadows of death. She couldn’t even begin to think of Carlos and his threats. She was still, in fact, struggling with genealogy. And Ramon as a little boy, alone as his father died…

‘So…so the Crown Prince who’s just been killed was your older brother?’ she managed.

‘Yes,’ Sofia told her, becoming calm once more. ‘Not that I ever saw him after we left the palace. And he had a son, who also had a son.’ She shrugged. ‘A little boy called Philippe. There’s another tragedy. But it’s not your tragedy, dear,’ she said as she saw Jenny’s face. ‘Nor Ramon’s. Ramon worries, but then Ramon worries about everything.’ She hesitated, and then forged ahead as if this was something she’d rehearsed.

‘But, my dear, Ramon’s been talking about you,’ she confessed. ‘He says…he says you’re special. Well, I can see that. I watched Ramon’s face as he danced with you and it’s exactly the same expression I saw on his father’s face when he danced with his mother. If Ramon’s found that with you…’

‘He can’t possibly…’ Jenny started, startled, but Sofia was allowing no interruptions.

‘You can’t say it’s impossible if it’s already happened. All I’m saying is that you don’t have to be royal to be with Ramon. What I’m saying is give love a chance.’

‘How could I…?’ She stopped, bewildered.

‘By not staying in this palace,’ Sofia said, suddenly deadly serious. ‘By not even thinking about it. Ramon’s right when he tells me such a union is impossible, dangerous, unsuitable, and he can’t be distracted from what he must do. You don’t fit in and neither should you. Our real home, our lovely island, is less than fifteen minutes’ helicopter ride from here. If Ramon could settle you there as his mistress, he’d have an escape.’

‘An escape?’ she whispered, stunned.

‘From royalty,’ Sofia said bluntly. ‘Ramon needs to do his duty but if he could have you on the side…’ She laid a hand over Jenny’s. ‘It could make all the difference. And he’d look after you so well. I know he would. You’d want for nothing. So, my dear, will you listen to Ramon?’

‘If he asks…to have me as his some-time mistress?’ she managed.

‘I’m just letting you know his family would think it was a good thing,’ Sofia said, refusing to be deterred by Jenny’s obvious shock. ‘You’re not to take offence, but it’s nothing less than my duty to tell you that you’re totally unsuitable for this place, even if he’d have you here, which he won’t. You’re not who Ramon needs as a wife. He needs someone who knows what royalty is and how to handle it. That’s what royal pedigree is-there’s a reason for it. But, as for a partner he loves…that’s a different thing. If Ramon could have you now and then…’

She paused, finally beginning to flounder. The expression on Jenny’s face wasn’t exactly encouraging. She was finding it impossible to contain her anger, and her humiliation.

‘So you’d have him marry someone else and have me on the side,’ she said dangerously.

‘It’s been done for generation upon generation,’ Sofia said with asperity. Then she glanced up with some relief as a stranger approached, a youngish man wearing more medals than Ramon. ‘But here’s Lord Anthony, wanting an introduction. He’s frightfully British, my dear, but he’s a wonderful dancer. Ramon won’t have any more time for you tonight. He’ll have so little time… But I’m sure he could fit you in every now and then, if you’ll agree to the island. So you go and dance with Lord Anthony, and remember what I said when you need to remember it.’

Jenny danced almost on automatic pilot. She desperately wanted to leave, but slipping away when the world was watching was impossible. As Sofia had warned her, she barely saw Ramon again. He was doing his duty, dancing with one society dame after another.

She’d been lucky to be squeezed in at all, she thought dully. What was she doing here?

It wasn’t made better with her second ‘girls’ talk’ of the night. Another woman grabbed her attention almost straight after Sofia. This lady was of a similar age to Sofia, but she was small and thin, she had fewer jewels and she had the air of a frightened rabbit. But she was a determined frightened rabbit. She intercepted Jenny between partners. When the next man approached she hissed, ‘Go away,’ and stood her ground until they were left alone.

‘I’m Perpetua,’ she said, and then, as Jenny looked blank, she explained. ‘I’m Carlos’s wife.’

Carlos. The threat.

‘He’s not dangerous,’ Perpetua said, obviously reading her expression, and she steered her into the shadows