Chapter Eight #2
Now he was here. He was taking her home. He was talking about marriage. And it wouldn’t be the kind of marriage she wanted, she knew that, but what if…
She shook her head. No. She couldn’t introduce fantasies she’d avoided for six months just because he was here. She moved over to him though, peered over his shoulder at what he was working on.
It took her a while of watching him to fully understand what was happening. He was…working to forge some kind of marriage record.
For six months ago. As though they had married first. A legitimate child under law.
She wrinkled her nose, trying to work through how she felt about it.
An unnecessary lie—she would never allow her son to feel illegitimate just because of how he’d been conceived.
But this was something that would make Alexandre’s life easier.
And probably her son’s, if she was being realistic.
But there was something under the practicalities. The war of truth and best choices.
“Ah, so we are not actually getting married.” She refused to sound disappointed. She was amused. Damn it.
“There may be no ceremony, the date might be fudged, but it will be actually for all intents and purposes,” he replied, without looking up at her. “From here on out.”
It wasn’t romance at all, and still her heart fluttered. They would be married. From here on out. And what did that mean to him?
“We will be husband and wife to everyone who knows us,” he said, returning to his all-important computer.
“Will you share my bed then?”
His fingers fumbled on the keys, but he did not look at her. “That is hardly a concern right now.”
“It is one of my concerns.”
“You have a one-track mind,” he muttered, typing away again.
“No, it has many tracks, actually. Some more enjoyable than others. For instance, I like to wonder what he’ll look like, or plan the nursery, rather than read, think or imagine labor.
” She shuddered at the thought. There were so many worries, and she’d had to step away from them or get lost in them.
But there was one inevitability. This baby would come out of her one way or another. And the bigger he got, the bigger she got, the more impossible and inevitable it seemed.
She thought she could endure that inevitable if she was home. If she had the familiar, without her father’s overbearing evil.
She thought—and knew it was wrong to think it—if she had Gabriel by her side to be her husband and this child’s father, she might endure it just fine. Even if he didn’t love her or like her.
Haven’t you had enough of that in your life?
But Gabriel, for all his faults, was not her father. He was not cruel. His dedication to Alexandre no doubt meant he would be dedicated to their child.
Didn’t it?
“We have not discussed what kind of father you will be. You can forge whatever documents you wish, tell Alexandre we are married, but these are…small details. The most important thing is this child.”
She wasn’t sure his expression was one of hurt. No, it was more…arrested. “I have a very good father. A very good example to follow.”
“That makes one of us. What made him good?”
Gabriel blinked as if he did not know what to do with the question. “I suppose… He was a good man, who balanced his own needs with the needs of his family’s. I assume my parents love one another, but I think just as important, I never doubted my father’s respect for my mother.”
“So you will have to work on that then.”
He regarded her with a mix of emotion in his gaze that she could not quite make out. It was serious, weighty, but she did not know what it meant.
“And he did not leave us in Alis to become a pawn of the king,” Gabriel continued, without addressing her comment.
“The dead king,” Evelyne said, because she was still having trouble believing it’s true. “My father is dead and I am free.”
He glanced at her then, specifically at her belly. “You’re pregnant, not free.”
She didn’t wish to engage with that, so she wafted away from him. “So the plan is to waltz into the castle. Hello, Alexandre. Allow me to kiss the ring, Your Majesty. Oh, by the by, I married your best friend. Baby on the way.” She patted her belly to emphasize.
Gabriel was scowling now. “If that’s the way you want to characterize it.”
She did, because it felt silly that way. Not scary. Would Alexandre be disappointed in her? Would this baby… It suddenly dawned on her, if she was going back that meant…
“Is there another royal baby on the way?” she asked Gabriel suddenly.
He regarded her with a puzzled frown. “Not that I’ve been told. Why?”
Evelyne chewed on her bottom lip, a new trickle of worry jittering through her. “Do you not know the Alis law about heirs?”
“You’ll be shocked to know I have not studied the line of the Alis throne.”
She had been given no choice and had never given it much thought because of course Alex would be first.
But he wasn’t. “The firstborn of the king’s children is the heir. It does not matter who the parent is. Alex will be king as long as he chooses, of course, but then…”
“You’re saying our child will be the heir? That we have…usurped that from Alexandre’s future child?”
“I do not think Alex will mind overmuch.” She really didn’t, but it felt good to say out loud.
“I do not think being an heir served him enough to care about that. Though he might wish he hadn’t capitulated to father and married.
I quite like Ines, and maybe he does too, but it is certainly not love. ”
“She has made him a good wife. He has said so.”
“Ah, romance does exist,” she said sarcastically.
He did not engage with that. He closed his laptop and stood.
“Now that we are married for all intents and purposes, it is time to go, Evelyne. It should all be settled by the time we land. If there is anything you want, I will send for it once we arrive in Alis. Alexandre will not relax until you are home, safe and sound.”
“Even if I’m pregnant? And his best friend is the father? And, oh yes, we’re married. Very relaxing thoughts.”
“Perhaps relax is not the right word,” Gabriel muttered. “But we must go anyway.”
So Evelyne allowed herself to be led out to the car, away from the house she’d tried to make her own, tried to love. Away from the ocean and its comforting power.
And started the journey back home.