Crowned: The Palace Nanny

Her own terror had to be put aside.

‘What do you think, Zoe?’ she asked, feeling inordinately pleased when she got her voice right. ‘Stefanos is offering us an initial three-month holiday on his island while we see what it’s like. It’s been…it’s been a shock, but I don’t think it’s something we should be scared of. His island looks really beautiful on the Internet.’

‘It’s your island, Zoe,’ Stefanos said, gently but firmly.

‘So let me get this right,’ Elsa said, opening the laptop to give her something to look at rather than Stefanos’s face. He saw too much, she thought. He knew how scared she was and he was sympathetic. But still he was determined.

She couldn’t afford to be seduced into doing what was wrong for Zoe.

Seduced? It was the wrong word but it was the one that popped into her head. Because…because…

Because he was too big and too male and too sexy and she’d been alone for far too long. It felt dangerous to even be in the same room as him.

Maybe he should be worried, she thought dryly. If he knew what this scary, ridiculous part of her was thinking…

Nanny jumps prince…

Whoa.

Well, at least that pulled her out of the fog, she decided, fighting an almost hysterical desire to laugh. Maybe she ought to focus on slightly more…realistic issues.

‘Let me get this straight,’ she said again, and watched him smile. How much of what she was thinking was obvious? To her fury she felt a blush start, from the toes up.

‘Christos…Zoe’s papa…should have been Crown Prince of Khryseis,’ she managed, staring fiercely down at the laptop as if she was totally absorbed in its keyboard. ‘How come the King wasn’t his father?’

Stefanos nodded, still serious. ‘Potted history? The Diamond Isles were principalities for hundreds of years,’ he told her. ‘Then the Prince of Sappheiros invaded the other islands and declared himself King. Subsequent armies kept the islanders under iron rule, and his line continued as long as there was a direct male heir. Six generations later, King Giorgos died without a son. The islands have continued supporting their own royal families, even though they haven’t been able to publicly acknowledge them, and now they can take their rightful place. Giorgos’s death meant Christos was heir to the throne of Khryseis. Under the old rule, men and women inherited equally. Therefore Zoe inherits after Christos. As her closest adult relative I’m Prince Regent until she can take the throne at twenty- five. Currently the island’s being run by a council set up by Giorgos. They’re corrupt and useless. The only way for us to unseat them is for Zoe to come home and for us to take over.’

‘Us?’

‘I was thinking me,’ he said, suddenly converting from history lesson to the personal. ‘But in the long-term…’ He smiled at her, considering. ‘Maybe you can find a way to be useful as well.’

‘Useful?’ The concept made Elsa gasp. What was she letting herself in for? This man…this prince…was moving way too fast, and she had no idea where he was going. ‘Like how?’ And then as he paused as if he wasn’t sure how to answer, she decided this was deeply scary and a girl had to set some limits.

‘Can we get some ground rules in place?’ she ventured, searching wildly for some way to ground herself. Employment as a palace nanny…What did she know of such a job? What did royal nannies do?

In the absence of a job description, maybe she ought to list her own.

‘Ground rules?’ he asked, quirking one eyebrow. Again he seemed to be on the verge of laughter, and the sensation made her feel crazy.

‘No washing, no ironing and definitely no scrubbing the stairs on hands and knees,’ she said wildly, while he and Zoe looked on with astonishment. ‘No attending royal banquets and sitting at the bottom of the table where I don’t know anyone. Neither will I wear a calf-length uniform with a starched collar and Nanny embroidered on the front. Nor will I curtsey or walk out of Zoe’s presence backwards. No shoe shining, no…’

‘But we do still need to go,’ Zoe said, cutting into a tirade that was getting…well, more than a bit irrational.

Elsa paused. She looked at Stefanos’s hiked eyebrows-both of them were hiked now. His lips were twitching.

Maybe she was being just ever so slightly over the top.

She struggled for calm. Hysteria wasn’t what was needed, she told herself severely. Nor was treating this as a crazy joke. She needed to stay practical and focus on Zoe-regardless of whether or not Stefanos was laughing at her.

In her short life Zoe had faced her parents’ deaths, and then more hospitals and doctors and paramedics and social workers than Elsa wanted to think about. Almost all of them talked over her head. It made Zoe mad, but usually she became quiet and passive.

Not now. She’d been listening to Elsa in astonishment, but with an attention more suitable to one twice her age. Now she turned to Stefanos and frowned.

‘Elsa doesn’t have to do all that stuff, does she?’

‘No,’ Stefanos said definitely. ‘I think Elsa’s been reading too many fairy tales.’

‘But there really is a palace?’

‘There really is a palace,’ he said and smiled at her. ‘And you really are a princess.’

He’d hooked Zoe, Elsa thought frantically. Just because he had a smile to die for.

Just because he was logical, thoughtful and he sounded as if he cared. Just because he was smiling at Zoe now with kindness and also the trace of a challenge, convincing her that this could be some sort of magical adventure.

He was glancing at her with a quizzical look that was kind as well as knowing.

How could he be kind? What did she know of the man?

What did she know about the island?

‘What…what medical facilities are on the island?’ she managed, trying valiantly to sound grown-up, sensible and in control. Or at least as grown-up, sensible and in control as Zoe.

‘Zoe will have me to care for her,’ he told her, matching her tone. ‘And there’s specialist backup in Athens.’

‘There are no paediatricians on Khryseis?’

He hesitated. ‘Education has hardly been King Giorgos’s concern,’ he admitted at last. ‘In fact he’s actively discouraged it. Even I haven’t been able to work there. Giorgos wouldn’t permit me to practice medicine on Khryseis, so I’ve built my career elsewhere.’

‘There are no medical facilities at all?’ she asked incredulously.

‘There’s one elderly doctor and a midwife. Up until now the fishermen have taken really ill islanders to Athens.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘Sadly, no.’

‘And…and now?’

‘And now we go back to the island and think about the future from there.’

‘You’ll get more medical staff?’

‘That’s one of my first priorities. The island’s not big enough to support a huge range of specialties but there will be good basic medicine with fast transfers to Athens at need.’

He hesitated. ‘Elsa, you will be looked after,’ he said, gently but strongly. ‘You both will. So no, Elsa, you will not be asked to scrub stairs or polish silver. You’ll be on the island as Zoe’s friend and as her nanny, for as long as you wish to stay. I’ll ask nothing more of you. This isn’t a trap, Elsa. I promise you. No strings.’ His face broke into another of his magical smiles. ‘Our island’s lovely, Elsa. Zoe. We can work things out. The three of us. Please?’

His smile caught her and held. Demanding a response. How could she resist an appeal like this?

And, despite her fears, a tiny trickle of excitement crept in.

She had no idea where this man was coming from-or where he was going-but his smile was mesmerising. And as well as that…

She and Zoe had eaten sandwiches for lunch almost every day for four years. She’d had to chop wood to cook and to heat their water. Wood-chopping jarred her hip so much that sometimes it was hard not to just give in. But