Cinderella: Hired by the Prince

‘How do you know?’ he snapped. ‘He was there for over four years and no one cared.’

‘Maybe no one had a chance. The maid I talked to this morning said no one was permitted near except the nursery staff, and Philippe’s mother was constantly changing the people who worked with him. He’s better off here if no one loves him at the palace, of course he is. But you could change that.’ She hesitated. ‘Ramon, I’m thinking you already have.’

He shook his head, shaking off demons. ‘This is nonsense. I won’t risk this.’

‘This?’

‘You know what I mean.’ His face grew even more strained. ‘Gianetta…’

‘Yes?’

‘I hate it,’ he said explosively. ‘The paparazzi almost mobbed you yesterday. The threat from Carlos… How can anyone live in that sort of environment? How could you?’

Her world stilled. Her heart seemed to forget to beat. How could you? They were no longer talking about Philippe, then. ‘Am I…am I being invited?’ she managed.

‘No!’ There was a long silence, loaded with so many undercurrents she couldn’t begin to figure them out. Through the silence Ramon held the steering wheel, his knuckles clenched white. Fighting demons she could hardly fathom.

‘We need to get back,’ he said at last.

‘Of course we do,’ she said softly, but she knew this man now. Maybe two weeks of living together was too soon to judge someone-or maybe not. Maybe she’d judged him the first time she’d seen him. Okay, she hardly understood his demons, but demons there were and, prince or not, maybe the leap had to be hers.

‘You know that I love you,’ she said gently into the warm breeze, but his expression became even more grim.

‘Don’t.’

‘Don’t say what I feel?’

‘You don’t want this life.’

‘I like tiaras,’ she ventured, trying desperately for lightness. ‘And caviar and French champagne. At least,’ she added honestly, ‘I haven’t tasted caviar yet, but I’m sure I’ll like it. And if I don’t, I’m very good at faking.’

‘Jenny, don’t make this any harder than it has to be,’ he snapped, refusing to be deflected by humour. ‘I was a fool to bring you to Cepheus. I will not drag you into this royal life.’

‘You don’t have to drag me anywhere. I choose where to go. All you need to do is ask.’

‘Just leave it. You don’t know… The paparazzi yesterday was just a taste. Right now you’re seeing the romance, the fairy tale. You’ll wake in a year’s time and find nothing but a cage.’

‘You don’t think you might be overreacting?’ she ventured. ‘Not everyone at the Coronation ball looked like they’ve been locked up all their lives. Surely caviar can’t be that bad.’

But he wasn’t listening. ‘You’re my beautiful Jenny,’ he said. ‘You’re wild and free, and I won’t mess with who you are. You’ll always be my Jenny, and I’ll hold you in my heart for ever. From a distance.’

‘From how big a distance? From a photo in a frame?’ she demanded, indignant. ‘That sounds appalling. Or, better still, do you mean as your mistress on your island?’

He stared at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘What the…?’

‘That’s what Sofia said we should do.’

‘I do not want you as my mistress,’ he said through gritted teeth.

‘So you don’t want me?’ His anger was building, and she thought good. An angry Ramon might just lose control, and control had gone on long enough. She wanted him to take her into his arms. In truth she wanted him to take her any way he wanted, but he was fighting his anger, hauling himself back from the brink.

‘I want you more than life itself, but I will not take you.’ He took a deep ragged breath. ‘I could never keep you safe.’

‘Well, that’s nonsense. I know karate,’ she retorted. ‘I can duck and I can run and I can even punch and scratch and yell if I need to. Not that I’ll need to. Perpetua says Carlos is all bluster.’

‘Perpetua…’

‘Is a very nice lady with an oaf for a husband and with very old-fashioned ideas about royal wives shutting up. Ideas that I don’t believe for one minute. You’ll never see me shutting up.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said, exasperated. ‘I want you free.’

‘Free?’ She was fighting on all fronts now, knowing only that she was fully exposed and she had no defence. All she had was her love for this man. ‘Like our whale?’ she demanded. ‘That’s just perspective. Our whale’s free now to swim to Antarctica, but she has to stop there and turn around. A minnow can feel free in an aquarium if it’s a beautiful aquarium.’

She hesitated then, seeing the tension on his face stretched almost to breaking point. She’d gone far enough. ‘Ramon, let’s not take this further,’ she said gently. ‘What’s between us…let’s leave it for now. Let’s just think of Philippe. Is his room still as it was at the palace?’

‘No one’s touched the nursery.’

‘So you could go in right now and say, Philippe, what about coming back to the palace for a night or two? Tell him maybe if it works out he could come for two nights every week. See how it goes.’

‘Jenny…’

‘Okay, maybe it is impossible,’ she said. ‘This is not my life and it’s not my little cousin. But you know him now, Ramon, and maybe things have changed. All I know is that Philippe’s breaking his heart in there, and if he returned to the palace there’s no way he’d be alone. Consuela is looking out the window and I wouldn’t mind betting she knows exactly what we’re talking about. She’s bursting to visit the palace, even if she’s scared, and if you raise one finger to beckon she’ll have bags packed and Bebe in his cat crate and you can still reach your three o’clock appointment. And, before you start raising quibbles like who’ll look after their alpacas, you’re the prince, surely you can employ half this district to look after this farm. So decide,’ she said bluntly. ‘You’ve been making life and death decisions about this country. Now it’s time to make one about your family.’

‘Philippe’s not my family.’

‘Is he not? It might have started with sympathy, Ramon Cavellero, but it’s not sympathy that’s tugging him to you now. Is it?’

‘I don’t do…love.’

‘You already have. Just take the next step. All it needs is courage.’ She hesitated. ‘Ramon, I know how it hurts to love and to lose. You’ve loved and you’ve lost, but Philippe is going right on loving.’

‘He can’t,’ he said but he was looking at the window where Consuela was indeed peeping through a chink in the curtains.

And then he was looking at Jenny-Gianetta-who knew which?-and she was looking back at him with faith. Faith that he could take this new step.

‘You can,’ she said.

‘Gianetta,’ he said and would have taken her into his arms right then, part in exasperation, part in anger-and there were a whole lot more parts in there besides, but she held up her hands in a gesture of defence.

‘Not me. Not now. This is you and Philippe. Do you want him or not?’

He looked at her for a long moment. He glanced back at the farmhouse, and Philippe was at the window now, as well as Consuela.

And there was only one answer to give.

So, half an hour later-Ramon would be late for his meeting but not much-his little red Boxster finally left the farmhouse, with Philippe once again snuggled between Ramon and Jenny. There was a cat crate at Jenny’s feet. The Boxster was definitely crowded.

Behind them, Consuela and Ernesto drove their farm truck, packed with enough luggage to last them for two days.

Or more, Jenny thought with satisfaction. There were four big suitcases on the back. For all she talked of class differences, Consuela seemed more than prepared to take a leap into the unknown.

If only Ramon could join her.