Bound by the Prince's Baby Read online

  Elisabetta’s eyes lit up with glee. ‘I knew I’d like you! Come on, you won’t need a ball of wool when you’re with me, but don’t try this alone until you’re a lot more confident—they say there are miles of hidden tunnels beneath the castle and it’s easy to take a wrong turn, believe me. Which way do you want to go first? Wine cellars or stables? You choose. And as we walk you can tell me all about what you’ve been up to and how Tris persuaded you to give him a try. I promised my sisters I would ferret out all the details and I always keep my word!’

  CHAPTER SIX

  TRIS EXITED THE courtyard and took a moment to enjoy the late afternoon spring sunshine warming his face. He loved this time of year, when the spring flowers began to bloom in earnest and, despite the April rain and the chill that still came with the night, lighter nights and warmer days banished winter. But his moment of enjoyment was fleeting. He had given Amber several hours to settle in before offering to show her around the castle. However, when he had rapped on her door there had been no answer. A few questions had elicited the information that his sister had gone to introduce herself to his fiancée. Which meant the two women could be anywhere, inside or outside the castle.

  Elisabetta knew the castle as well as he did, including every secret way out into the gardens and into the land beyond. After all, they had explored the secret passages and grounds together, along with his other sisters, their cousin Nikolai and the other palace children, before his mother and his sisters had left the castle and Tris had had to start growing up. He had never allowed himself to envy his siblings and other companions for the years of childhood they’d still enjoyed whilst he was learning about tradition, etiquette and what being King really entailed. Never allowed himself to mourn the distance that had naturally grown up between them. His father had told him that a king was always alone. It hadn’t taken Tris very long to realise how true those words were. The only time he hadn’t felt alone in the twenty years since his mother and sisters had left was the night he’d spent with Amber.

  But that night had been a lie. Which meant that while he planned for them to marry within the next few months, live together to raise their child and do their best for the country he had been born to rule, he would still be alone, no matter that his pulse speeded up at the very sight of her, that he wanted to wipe away the forlorn look on her face and promise her that everything would be okay.

  It wasn’t a promise he was qualified to make; all he could do was his best. Do his best not to make Amber as lonely and unhappy as his mother had been, his best to let their child be a child and not a mini monarch in waiting.

  His child. Tris stopped. What kind of father would he be? He had no concept of what a good father looked like. He set his jaw and sent out a silent promise to his unborn child; he didn’t know how to let go, how to have fun, how to be anyone but the decisive and responsible King, but his child would be more. Would have a childhood full of love and laughter and fun.

  The castle gardens were vast, a perfectly designed jigsaw of formal gardens, careful wildernesses, follies, lakes, mazes and woodlands. A man could wander in them for hours and not find the person he was looking for but there was one place everyone visited: the famed fountains that cascaded down the terrace leading to the lake. It was one of the most famous sites in Elsornia, pictured in a thousand books and millions of social media posts. Sure enough, as he reached the first terrace and looked down towards the lake, Amber was sitting on a bench below, the sun glinting off her red hair.

  She looked up as if sensing his presence, gazing directly at him, her expression distant, as if she were only half there. Slowly but purposefully, Tris made his way down the stone steps bordering the fountains to join her.

  ‘So, this is where you slipped off to.’

  ‘I know it’s a really obvious place to come,’ she said, her welcoming smile mechanical rather than genuine. ‘But I’ve seen this view so many times in pictures and paintings, I simply had to see it myself. It’s breathtaking.’

  ‘Which way did Betta bring you?’ Tris asked. ‘Through the wine cellars, or the tunnels that run behind the stables?’

  Amber’s smile widened, this time reaching her eyes, and Tris couldn’t help responding in kind. ‘So you know about those?’

  ‘I know all the tunnels,’ he said. ‘I spent most of my childhood exploring them.’

  Her smile dimmed. ‘It’s hard to imagine you as a small boy, exploring and getting dirty. I’m glad to know you did though, I’m glad to know it’s possible. My grandmother always made it sound as if growing up in a place like this was all responsibility and no fun. I don’t want that for my child, no matter what the future holds for him or her.’

  ‘Nor do I, Amber.’ Tris shifted round to look her straight in the eyes, tilting her chin until her green-eyed gaze met his. ‘I promise you, I promise the baby, that his or her childhood will be as full of play, magic and mayhem as any child could wish for.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Amber reached up and touched his cheek, the light caress burning through him; he could feel her touch long after her hand fell away. ‘Your sister was called away, but I wanted to explore a little more. Would you like to join me?’

  ‘Of course.’ Tris stood up and extended a hand to Amber and, after a second’s hesitation, she took it and allowed him to help her to her feet. ‘Where would you like to go?’

  ‘I don’t mind. No, actually, I do have a request. I would like you to take me to somewhere that means something to you. Would that be possible?’

  ‘Somewhere that means something?’ Had he heard her correctly? He’d been expecting her to suggest the ornamental lake, the maze or the woodland path, or any of the other places on the tourist map.

  ‘Yes.’ She took a step away and looked back at him. ‘This is where you were born, where you were brought up; I would really like to see somewhere special to you. Would that be okay?’

  Tris didn’t answer for a long moment. Somewhere special? The request implied an attempt at intimacy, that Amber was trying to get to know him better. Tris didn’t even know where to start. His life wasn’t about individual special moments or places; it was about duty.

  Only, maybe there was one place...

  ‘Are you warm enough? It’s about a twenty-minute walk.’

  Amber nodded and they set off. Neither spoke for the next few minutes as Tris led them down the stone steps until they reached the large pond at the bottom of the fountains. Amber turned to look at the water cascading down, a riot of froth and foam and sparkling drops, and Tris watched her, enjoying her evident awe at the famous sight, giving her plenty of time to enjoy the spectacle before resuming their walk. A small stream snaked away from the pond carrying the water towards the lake and Tris followed it, Amber by his side.

  ‘How did you find my sister and Maria?’ Tris asked at last as the silence threatened to become oppressive.

  ‘They’re both really lovely,’ Amber said. ‘Thank you so much for suggesting that Maria help me; it was really thoughtful to assign me someone who is both Elsornian and English. And your sister has been very kind. I think I’m going to like her a lot.’

  ‘Betta is one of a kind; her heart is very much in the right place. Just don’t believe everything she tells you; she is an incorrigible chatterbox. And I’m glad you like Maria. I hope she’ll convince you that Elsornia isn’t too bad a place to live.’

  Tris knew a little about the life Amber had led after leaving New York, the months travelling through Europe before settling in London and painstakingly building her life there. The busy, noisy city had no parallels in his small mountainous country. If it was urban culture and living she craved, she was going to find it hard living here. His mother had struggled, had never really adjusted. He didn’t want his own wife to resent his country the way his mother had.

  ‘Oh, I’m sure she will. Even from the very little I’ve seen it’s clear Elsornia is extrao
rdinarily beautiful. I love London, but I love the countryside too. But Tris, there’s something I really need to make clear to you.’ She paused, clearly uncomfortable.

  Foreboding stole over him. Whatever Amber wanted to say, he had a feeling she didn’t think he was going to like it. ‘What’s that?’ He did his best to sound reassuring. ‘It’s okay, Amber. I really want you to feel that you can speak to me, however difficult it might seem. If we’re going to be married we have to be able to communicate.’

  ‘But that’s it. I realised after I agreed to come here that you thought that meant I was also agreeing to marry you. But I’m not, at least not yet.’

  A curious numbness crept over Tris. Of course it couldn’t be this easy. Of course the girl who had looked at him with desire and light and laughter didn’t want him when all the baggage that came with him was included. Of course the answer to the dilemmas he had been wrestling with for the last eight years couldn’t finally be within his grasp.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ he said as evenly as possible. ‘In Paris, when you told me you were pregnant, you also said you knew this meant you couldn’t end the betrothal. I know you are here for a month so we can get to know each other better, but I thought we would announce our engagement at the end of that month.’

  ‘Tris, I am here to get to know you better—and I’m here so you can get to know me. And I am absolutely considering marriage—now I understand your situation, I know that’s your preference. But Tris, if you didn’t have to marry, would it even be an option for you? Honestly? Marrying someone you’ve met just a handful of times? Having a baby together doesn’t mean we have to spend our lives together, not any more. We can easily co-parent, raise this child together; we don’t have to be married to do it well. We don’t have to be in a relationship at all.’

  Amber’s words hung in the air. Would marriage to her be his choice without the ticking clock hanging over him? He pushed the thought away—what was the point in hypotheticals?

  ‘How exactly do you see this civilised co-parenting working? You back in London, me here, unless you’re planning to settle in Elsornia?’

  She shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘I thought not. So are you planning on granting me the odd weekend and a few weeks in the summer? Is that the plan?’ Tris struggled to keep his voice conversational, to hide the biting anger chilling through him.

  But, judging by the wary look Amber threw him, he wasn’t succeeding. ‘There is no plan...how can there be? This is all so new and so unexpected. There’s no manual, no guidebook.’

  ‘But there is a law and there is a deadline and I’ve wasted enough time, thanks to you...’

  ‘That agreement had nothing to do with me.’ Her green eyes flashed and his own blood stirred in response to her passion. ‘I did you the courtesy of nullifying it, but my lawyer agreed the only court it would ever stand up in was here in Elsornia—and even then there were no guarantees.’

  ‘Maybe. But the fact remains you are carrying my child.’

  ‘And you think that means I have to marry you? Like some medieval maiden, compromised and helpless?’

  ‘Amber, you came to my bed willingly. You came to my bed willingly and in full knowledge of who I was and what our relationship was. Knowledge you didn’t share with me. If anyone was compromised by the events of that night, it was me.’

  ‘You? You’ve got exactly what you wanted. An heir on the way and if I marry you a substantial dowry, along with the Princess your family chose for you. It’s all worked out for you, hasn’t it?’

  Tris bit back an angry retort. He knew how she felt, the lack of control, the realisation that life would never be the same—it was the feeling that had forced her to flee eight years ago. He couldn’t let her leave again, but he had to allow her to feel she had a say. More, he had to actually give her a say—and ensure, however difficult, that her answer was the one he needed.

  ‘What exactly are you proposing?’

  Amber turned to him, eyes bright with hope. ‘I’m proposing that you convince me that Elsornia is right for me and, more importantly, right for this child. If we don’t marry, he or she can still grow up with two loving parents, can grow up wanted and cherished and happy, free from all the obligations that you and I know come with a royal title. That’s all my father wanted for me; of course I want the same for my child. But it’s your baby too. So I need you to show me that if I marry you Elsornia is worth all the sacrifices we both know this baby will make. That it’s worth the sacrifices I’ll make. That I can be happy here and with you. Are you willing to show me that, Tris?’

  Tris had been so intent on the conversation that he hadn’t noticed how far they had walked and, with a jolt of surprise, realised they had entered the woods and were close to their destination: the large hollow tree where he had played countless games pretending to be one of the fearless folk heroes he had idolised as a child stood right next to them. And as he put a hand onto the rough bark, realisation hit him hard. He wanted his child to play in this tree, in these woods, to grow up with Elsornia in his or her veins and blood, just as it was in his. All he had to do was convince Amber that it was the right place for her, the right place for their child. Convince her to marry him. How hard could it be?

  ‘How long do I have?’

  ‘I agreed to a month and I’ll keep my word,’ Amber said. ‘At the end of the month I’ll be fourteen weeks along, and I’ll have had the first scan so hopefully we’ll know the baby is healthy. You have until then. Show me your Elsornia, show me why you love it and if you can convince me then we’ll talk next steps. I know how important marriage is to you, and why. But you have to understand that I always wanted a very different kind of marriage, a very different life. I am willing to put that aside if you convince me that staying here and marrying you is the right thing for me, for the baby and for you. Fair?’

  Was it fair? Tris had less than five years to marry and father an heir. The solution to all his problems was tantalisingly in reach and yet frustratingly far away. But he couldn’t deny that Amber had a point. She had to come to this marriage willingly. And if he couldn’t convince her, what kind of king was he anyway?

  He extended a hand and she took it cautiously. ‘Okay. You have a deal.’

  He wasn’t usually a gambling man, certainly not with stakes this high, but he had no choice. He had to win.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘YOU’RE A REAL natural with children,’ Tris said. He sat beside Amber in the car as tall, straight-backed and formal as ever, expression neutral and eyes unreadable. But he was trying; she had to give him credit for that. True to his word, Tris was showing her Elsornia. Over the last week Amber had accompanied Tris and Elisabetta on a tour of a chocolate factory and stood unobtrusively in the background on visits to a hospital and schools. They’d taken her to a production at the Theatre Royale, an impressive baroque building in the capital city, and to several fancy restaurants as well as a trip to a glacier.

  But she still hadn’t seen beneath the tourist-friendly sites and gloss. She hadn’t visited small neighbourhood restaurants or strolled along cobbled streets or shopped in little local stores. The only people she spoke to for more than five minutes were Tris, Maria and Elisabetta, who weren’t exactly representative of the normal population. She had yet to use public transport, to order her own drink, to ask directions or sit with a coffee and watch the world go by. How could she decide if this was a place where she could live when she was sheltered from the real world?

  It had been an entertaining week, but it felt more as if she was on a whirlwind tour—The Highlights of Elsornia—rather than beginning to know and understand Tris more. At no point in the last week had she seen any sign of the man who had made her head spin, for whom she had thrown caution to the wind. They were rarely alone, barely even made eye contact and never touched. She’d asked for time and space and she’d got it, b
ut instead of it helping her resolve her feelings she just felt more and more confused with every busy and courteous day.

  ‘I’m really fond of children; I’ve worked with a lot, especially since working for Deangelo and starting the agency.’ Amber looked out of the window at the gorgeous mountain scenery, so different to the Chelsea streets she usually trod, and her chest ached with homesickness—for the city, for her friends, for her work. For the life she had worked so hard for.

  She made herself carry on, cringing at the artificial brightness in her voice. ‘It’s strange to think that we’ve only really been open for a year. Things have changed so much, not just our personal lives, but for the agency too. When we started I was busy with small concierge jobs, sourcing babysitters, doing a bit of nannying and arranging domestic chores. Alex was pleased to be doing the PR for a couple of local restaurants and Emilia’s first event was the opening of the café down the road. Opening a new agency was tough without contacts and a reputation. That’s why Harriet went back to work for Deangelo for what was supposed to be a short contract.’ She smiled a little wistfully. ‘Looking back, I think we all knew that she was in love with him but hadn’t admitted it to ourselves. They’re so perfect for each other.’

  Amber stopped, painfully aware that yet again she was babbling to fill a silence Tris seemed far more comfortable with than she was. At least talking about her friends was a small step up from this morning’s small talk attempt, which had incorporated everything from the cuteness of the local Alpine cattle to the excellence of the palace food to that old staple, the weather. It was a lot easier on the days when Elisabetta accompanied them—or when Tris had to work and the two girls went out alone.