Marion Lennox - Cinderella: Hired by the Prince

‘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 Sofía 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 Ramón 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. ‘Ramón, 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, Ramón, 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, Ramón 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. ‘Ramón, 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-Ramón would be late for his meeting but not much-his little red Boxster finally left the farmhouse, with Philippe once again snuggled between Ramón 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 Ramón could join her.

THE moment he swung back into the palace grounds affairs of State took over again. Ramón 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 Señorina 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. ‘Señorina Bertin’s in there?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Manuel said and he opened the nursery door before Ramón 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, Ramón.’

‘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, Ramón,’ 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.