Chapter Eleven #2
“It was the last time my husband and I visited Alis, before we decided to not return ever again. You were only three or four. And pretty as a picture, as you are now.” Mrs. Marti squeezed her hands then began to bustle her to the couch. All the while talking.
“I didn’t want our first meeting to be some formal royal affair. I know Alexandre means well, but he is just a man and cannot understand such things sometimes.”
Evelyne smiled in spite of herself as she was nudged into a sitting position. “Yes, he is just a man.”
Mrs. Marti laughed and sat next to Evelyne. “I wanted just a few moments to meet the man my son married without telling me.”
“We are sorry.”
“I understand that things with King Enzo were…complicated. I can’t hold it against you, as much as I might like to.” She smiled though, like she really did understand. Then she picked up a small package from the table. “I brought this for you.”
“Oh…”
“For you. Not a baby gift, though I will shower my grandson as well when he arrives, but I always thought the woman carrying the child never got enough attention.”
Evelyne felt overwhelmed with too many emotions to name. She didn’t know what else to do but open the gift when Mrs. Marti urged her to.
The box was small, the beautiful pendant inside delicate and stunning. And it reminded Evelyne of Gabriel’s eyes.
“You’re a princess so no doubt you have access to the most beautiful jewelry, but this is an heirloom. It has been passed down in my family for many generations.”
“Mrs. Marti—”
“Bianca.”
“Bianca… I couldn’t possibly—”
“Gabriel is my only son. My only child. I had always planned to present this to his wife once he married—unless I hated her.”
Evelyne looked up at the woman, a little desperate to have this connection but not feeling like she deserved it. “You don’t know me.”
“I know Alexandre. I knew your mother. And I know my son. I won’t hate you, Evelyne.”
Evelyne’s breath caught. “You knew my mother. I suppose I knew that, but I didn’t realize…”
Bianca smiled sadly. “I’m not sure I knew her well, but we were friends as much as anyone can be friends with a queen.
Manuel brought me to Alis after we were married.
The king had not fully ended Alis’s relationship with Italy yet, so Manuel was still working as a diplomat.
Your mother and I were pregnant at the same time, so she would invite me to teas and such. ”
“Alexandre always says she was…perfect.”
Bianca laughed. “No one is perfect, though I’m sure she was perfect to Alex. Poor boy. She was very good. Very, very kind. Too soft for the likes of this place.” Bianca’s smile went sad at the edges. “She would have loved you very much.”
Tears filled Evelyne’s eyes. She swallowed at the lump in her throat. She didn’t have the words. She didn’t have…anything. She would have loved you very much would stick with her for all her days.
“And since she is not here, I will be. Manuel and I have a life in Italy, but now that King Enzo is gone, there is no reason to fear coming back to Alis whenever it is wished. We will be at your beck and call, I promise.” She patted Evelyne’s stomach. “And his.”
“Mrs.… Bianca… I…” She flicked a tear off her cheek. “I’m overwhelmed.”
“You’ve had so much thrust at you, and so quickly.
Of course you are.” Bianca scooted closer, put her arm around Evelyne and squeezed.
“And growing a little one is hard work—physically and emotionally. It’s a study in overwhelm, but you’ll handle it beautifully.
I have faith in the woman my boy chose.”
Chose. Not really, but Evelyne could hardly lay that at Bianca’s feet. So she changed the subject. She pulled the necklace out of the box, fastened it around her neck. “How does it look?”
“Beautiful.” Bianca beamed, her own eyes a little wet. “You’re such a beauty, it’s no wonder you caught Gabriel’s eye, but you have your mother’s kindness. It shines through you.”
Evelyne didn’t know what to say to that.
It put a lump in her throat she couldn’t speak around.
She had this angelic idea of her mother, thanks to Alexandre, and even though Bianca did not consider her perfect, to hear a nice account, and that Evelyne might take after the woman she’d never met… It was just too much.
“I have worried about my Gabriel, you know. He used to be so driven as a young man. He and the prince so…full of determination and plans. Something happened when Gabriel was younger, I do not know what. I have never been able to understand, but he changed. Not at his heart, thank goodness, but just in how he moved through the world. Such a…lack of direction. Oh, he was successful, that business of his. Good at it, for certain.”
Evelyne wondered if whatever happened was what Gabriel had referred to Alexandre saving him from. Whatever darkness might have ended him. What might have happened to Gabriel that even his mother did not know about? That would have changed him so deeply?
Would he ever tell her? It was hard to imagine a situation where he let her in that intimately. He was always holding himself just a little bit back. Claiming obsession and acting… She didn’t know.
“But he lacked an…anchor, I suppose,” Bianca continued.
“He does a wonderful impression of a man who knows what he’s after, but I’m his mother.
I can see it. All I’ve watched him do for over ten years is run.
” She beamed at Evelyne. “And now he has you. The both of you. Do you mind?” She held her hand over Evelyne’s stomach.
Evelyne shook her head, and Bianca put a hand on the swell of baby.
“I would so like to be his anchor. I’m not sure…
” Evelyne struggled against the need to lay all her fears out on this woman she barely knew.
This woman who would always be just a little bit more dedicated to her actual son than to Evelyne.
She forced herself to smile. “He’s been very good to me. I hope I’m as good to him.”
“Let me tell you, Evelyne. That is a good first step to a loving, successful marriage.” She said it so approvingly, Evelyne felt buoyed, even knowing the marriage wasn’t real and likely would never be.
Even knowing Gabriel didn’t love her so there was no loving marriage on the horizon.
But she was beginning to realize that she didn’t just like him or enjoy him.
She loved him. The man he was, even when he was trying to hold himself apart.
His strength, his desire to protect. His intelligence and irreverence when he wasn’t so worried about protection. He was just…exactly what she wanted.
Oh, he would not like her being in love with him. Not at all.
But there was nothing to be done about it now. Except decide how to deal with it. But first, dinner.
Evelyne swallowed at the lump in her throat, blinked away the moisture that threatened to fall. She straightened her shoulders. “Shall we walk down to dinner together?”
“I would like that.”