there was never the choice of giving in.
But now…Stefanos was offering them a home in a palace on an island in the Mediterranean. He was offering her a well-paid job. She’d have no more money worries. No wood-chopping. Did he realise how enticing it sounded? This man might appear seriously sexy but right now it was the lack of wood-chopping that was more seductive.
‘I do need to keep my research skills up,’ she muttered, fighting to sound practical and reserved and wary.
‘Of course. I see you doing the same things you’re doing now. With Zoe.’
‘Home-schooling?’
‘We can get a tutor. Zoe, you’ll need to learn Greek.’
‘I already know Greek,’ Zoe said proudly.
‘You already know…’
‘Christos spoke Greek to her as a baby,’ Elsa told him, feeling a bit smug herself as she noted his astonishment. ‘We figured it was part of who she was, so we’ve kept it up.’
‘Elsa speaks it now too,’ Zoe added, ‘and we both read it. There are two old Greek ladies in Waratah Cove. We visit them once a week and talk with them, and Elsa does their shopping and says it’s payment for our lessons. If we went away I’d miss them.’ Her face clouded. ‘And the cats. How can we go away without our cats?’
‘Yeah, the cats,’ Elsa said, as if it was a challenge.
He grinned at that. ‘That’s one more thing fixed. Zoe, open the blue suitcase.’
She opened it. Fascinated. To display cat food. Bulk cat food. A suitcase of cat food.
‘So we’re supposed to open the suitcase and come home when they need a refill?’ Elsa said and she couldn’t help sounding waspish.
‘That’s fixed too,’ he said, his grin teasing her to smile with him. ‘There’s a guy who works round here tending gardens, doing odd jobs. I’ve arranged for him to visit every night at dusk, feed the cats, lock them up, then let them out at dawn. In perpetuity. And if any other stray comes along then he’s to do exactly what you’d do. Take it in, get it neutered, tell it the house rules. He can even do your two Greek ladies’ shopping if you want. Now…Any more objections?’
‘My…my house?’ Elsa stammered.
‘I told you, he does gardens and odd jobs. He’ll maintain this place as long as we want.’
‘You found this guy when?’
‘The concierge at the hotel earned his keep last night,’ he said, and grinned again. ‘He brought his wife in to help. His wife knows you and knows what you need. So there you go. Local knowledge and my cash.’
‘Yeah, your cash,’ she said, breathless. ‘We can’t take it.’
‘See, what you don’t understand is that you can,’ he said. ‘Zoe’s a princess. You’re nanny to a princess. Are there any other problems?’
‘The medical facilities…’
‘I’ll be there and, as I said, there are fast flights to Athens. Until we get other medical facilities organised we can cope.’ He took her hand again and held, and with his other hand he took Zoe’s. ‘Khryseis needs a team,’ he said. ‘A royal team. Prince Regent, Princess Zoe and Nanny Elsa. Do we have it?’
‘Yes,’ Zoe said.
There were no arguments left. The only one that was still swirling round and round in her mind was, I don’t want to be a nanny to your prince.
But that was dumb. She glanced at the mantel where Matt still smiled.
Definitely it was dumb.
He glanced to where she’d looked. Saw what she’d been looking at.
Didn’t ask a question.
‘It’ll be fine,’ he said softly, and the pressure on her hand strengthened. Then, before she knew what he was about, he put his hand under her chin and tilted it-and kissed her. It was a feather-light kiss, quickly over, and why it had the capacity to make her feel…make her feel…
No. She had to stop thinking about how it made her feel, because that was nonsense. But his hand was still under her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze.
‘I will keep you safe,’ he said, strongly and surely. ‘And Zoe too. You’ve worked too hard for too long, Elsa Murdoch. Now it’s up to Zoe and me to see you have some fun. Just say yes.’
And what else was she to do?
‘I guess…yes,’ she managed, but she didn’t add, Yes, Your Royal Highness. Because that would be agreeing to all of it. The whole royal fairy tale.
Ridiculous.
CHAPTER SIX
TWO weeks later they left Australia, luxuriating in first class seats on a direct flight to Athens, to be followed by a smaller plane to Khryseis.
‘I’ll be on Khryseis to meet you,’ Stefanos had said in one of the scores of calls he’d made since then. ‘But our people will take care of you all the way.’
They hadn’t seen him since that fateful lunch. He’d had to leave. ‘Things are chaotic,’ he’d said. ‘I need to get back to the island straight away but I promise I won’t let that disorder touch you.’
It wasn’t touching them now. They were in first class airline seats. They had a cocoon each, with every conceivable gadget, including one that turned the seats into beds at the flick of a switch. A hostess had already made Zoe’s bed for her, with crisp linen and fluffy duvet, and she was fast asleep.
Elsa was staring out of the window and seeing what was probably Hawaii.
She was trying not to gibber.
She’d been on one overseas flight in her life. To Tasmania. She didn’t remember all that many gadgets and duvets and cocoons on that flight. She remembered being served a packet of nuts and a warm beer.
She was about to be a nanny to a princess.
The princess was bone weary. Her little body still wasn’t up to strength. The last weeks had been excitement plus, and Elsa had worried about the wisdom of letting her go at all.
‘But it’s imperative,’ Stefanos had said in his deep, grave voice and, dumb or not, she believed him. If Zoe wasn’t there he had no power to replace the council. He had no power to stop the corruption he told her was endemic.
So, once again, why rail against something she had no control over? Now, as Zoe snuggled into sleep, she thought with this level of luxury maybe her little charge could enjoy herself.
Maybe
Amazingly, her hip wasn’t hurting. Normally, sitting for more than a couple of hours made it ache unbearably, but her hip obviously decided it liked first class treatment, thank you very much, and it wasn’t only her hip thinking it.
She was on her way to live in a castle. As a nanny. A nanny, she reminded herself. A paid servant. She’d get to eat in the servants’ quarters, while Zoe ate in state. She’d use chipped pottery while Zoe swanned round in party dresses, using cut-glass crystal and silverware, attended by butlers and…and whatever else royalty had.
Um…this was Zoe she was talking about. Maybe she couldn’t see that happening.
And tucked in her bag was a document, prepared by Stefanos’s legal team, read from all angles by her local lawyer and then faxed to a team of international lawyers in Canberra for a final check.
The document said that if, at any time, Zoe seemed so distressed that it was damaging her mental or physical health-and that decision was to be made by a team of independent
So. Maybe it’d work?
But…she was a marine biologist, not a nanny.
Stefanos had promised her starfish.
