CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE moment he swung back into the palace grounds affairs of State took over again. Ramon couldn’t stay to watch Philippe’s reaction to being back at the palace. He couldn’t stay to see that Consuela and Ernesto were treated right.
He couldn’t stay with Jenny.
‘We can do this. Go,’ Jenny told him and he had no choice. He went, to meeting upon interminable meeting. Once again he was forced to work until the small hours.
Finally, exhausted beyond belief, he made his way through the palace corridors towards his personal chambers. Once again he passed Jenny’s door-and he didn’t knock.
But then he reached the nursery. To his surprise, Manuel was standing outside the door, at attention. The footmen were posted at the top of the stairs. Had a change been ordered? But Manuel spoke before he could ask.
‘I’m not permitted to move,’ the man said, and it was as if a statue had come to life. ‘But the little boy and Senorina Bertin… I thought you wouldn’t wish them harm so I took it upon myself to stay here.’
‘Good idea.’ He hesitated, taking in the full context of what the man had said. Reaching the crux. ‘Senorina Bertin’s in there?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Manuel said and he opened the nursery door before Ramon could say he hadn’t meant to go in; he was only passing.
Only of course he had meant to go in. Just to check.
Manuel closed the door after him. The room was in darkness but the moon was full, the curtains weren’t drawn and he could see the outline of the bed against the windows. It was a truly vast bed for a small child. A ridiculous bed.
He moved silently across the room and looked down-and there were two mounds in the bed. A child-sized one, with a cat-shaped bump over his feet, and a Jenny-shaped one, and the Jenny-shaped one spoke.
‘You’re not a Hun?’ she whispered, and he blinked.
‘Pardon?’
‘Manuel’s saving us from the Huns. I thought you might have overpowered him and be about to…plunder and pillage. I’m very glad you’re not.’
‘I’m glad I’m not a Hun either,’ he said and smiled down at her, and he could feel her smile back, even if he couldn’t quite see it. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Shh. He’s only just gone back to sleep.’
He tugged a chair forward and sat, then leaned forward so he was inches away from Jenny’s face. Philippe was separated from them by Jenny’s body but he could see that her arm was around him. The sight made him feel… made him feel…
No. There were no words to describe it.
‘This is Consuela’s job,’ he managed.
‘She was here until midnight. The staff put Consuela and Ernesto into one of the state apartments, and it’s so grand it’s made Ernesto quiver. Ernesto seems more frightened than Philippe so I said I’d stay.’
She said she’d stay. With a little boy who was the same age as her Matty. In this room that he’d once slept in. He looked at her, at the way Philippe’s body was curved against hers, at the way she was holding him, and he felt things slither and change within him. Knots that had been around his heart for ever slipped away, undone, free.
‘Gianetta…’ he whispered and placed his fingers on her lips, wondering. If she’d found the courage to do this…
‘Shh,’ she said again. ‘He woke and he was a little upset. I don’t want him to wake again.’
‘But you soothed him.’
‘I told him the story of the whale. He loved it. I told him about his cousin, the hero, saviour of whales. Saviour of this country. We both thought it was pretty cool.’
‘Gianetta…’
‘Jenny. Your employee. And Manuel is out there.’
‘Manuel can go…’
‘Manuel can’t go,’ she said seriously. ‘Neither of us is sure where to take this. You need to sleep, Ramon.’
‘I want…’
‘I know,’ she said softly and she placed a finger on his lips in turn. ‘We both want. I can feel it, and it’s wonderful. But there’s things to think about for both of us. For now… Give me my self-respect and go to your own bedroom tonight.’ She smiled at him then and he was close enough to see a lovely loving smile that made his heart turn over. ‘Besides,’ she said. ‘Tonight I’m sleeping with Philippe. One man a night, my love. I have my reputation to think of.’
‘He’s not Matty,’ he said before he could stop himself.
‘Philippe’s not Matty, no.’
‘But… Jenny, doesn’t that tear you in two?’
‘I thought it would,’ she said on a note of wonder. ‘But now… He fits exactly under my arm. He’s not Matty but it’s as if Matty has made a place for him. It feels right.’
‘Jenny…’
‘Go to bed, Ramon,’ she said simply. ‘We all have a lot of thinking to do this night.’
He left and she was alone in the dark with a sleeping child. She’d given her heart, she thought. She’d given it to both of them, just like that.
What if they didn’t want it?
It was theirs, she thought, like it or not.
Bebe stirred and wriggled and padded his way up the bed to check she was still breathing, that she’d still react if he kneaded his paws on the bedcover.
‘Okay, I can learn to love you, too,’ she told the little cat. ‘As long as your claws don’t get all the way through the quilt.’ Satisfied, Bebe slumped down on the coverlet across her breast and went back to sleep, leaving her with her thoughts.
‘They have to want me,’ she whispered in the dark. ‘Oh, they have to want me or I’m in such big trouble.’
And in the royal bedchamber, the apartment of the Crown Prince of Cepheus, there was no sleep at all.
Once upon a time a child had slept alone in this palace and known terror. Now the man lay alone in his palace and knew peace.
He woke and he knew, but he couldn’t do a thing about it.
It’d take him a week, Senor Rodriguez told him, this signing, signing and more signing. He had to formally accept the role of Crown Prince before he could begin to delegate, so from dawn his time was not his own.
‘I need two hours this afternoon,’ he growled to his lawyer as he saw his packed diary. ‘You’ve scheduled me an hour for lunch. Take fifteen minutes from each delegation; that gives me another hour, so between one and three is mine.’
‘I’ve already started organising it,’ his lawyer told him. ‘We all want you to have time with the child.’
‘All?’
‘I believe the staff have been missing him,’ the lawyer said primly. ‘It seems there are undercurrents neither the Princess Sofia nor I guessed.’
He didn’t say more, but they agreed a message would be sent to Jenny and to Philippe that he’d spend the early afternoon with them. Then Ramon put his head down and worked.
He finished just before one. He’d have finished earlier only someone dared ask a question. Was he aware there were up to fifty students in each class in the local schools, and didn’t he agree this was so urgent it had to be remedied right now?
He did agree. How could he put his own desire to be with Jenny and Philippe before the welfare of so many other children? Senor Rodriguez disappeared, leaving Ramon to listen and think and agree to meet about the issue again tomorrow. Finally he was free to walk out, to find the whereabouts of Philippe…and of Jenny.
