“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 itmeant.
“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 theheir? 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, romancedoesexist,” 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.
CHAPTER NINE
Gabriel did notbelieve inanxiety. He was not a man who allowed himself to worry. He dealt with. He acted.
But the tight band around his lungs as they drove up to the palace under the cloak of night wassomething, and he could not seem to work his way through it.
