Evelyne looked up, seemed to note the shock on Alexandre’s face and explained herself.
“She told me there was nothing medical in the way, according to your doctors. So unless you…hadn’t been together.” Evelyne pulled a face as she gazed down at the baby in her lap. “A monthly doctor’s appointmentcouldpoint to a baby. Perhaps more likely than some monthly illness if the doctor’s visits are happening exactly a month apart.”
Alexandre supposed he heard the words, absorbed them, but they left him in a strange in-between world. He did not know how to move forward from this simple question.
Is there any way she could be pregnant?
There was preciselyoneway, but surely… Surely it was an impossibility that after almost a year of trying she would finally fall pregnant when…
Alexandre felt a bit like his brain was short-circuiting. He couldn’t seem to follow any thought to completion. It was all…feeling. Complex, confused, irrationalemotions.
Surely she would have told him. If it was true, she would have returned. She would havetoldhim.
And why the hell would she do that?
“What are you going to do?” Gabriel asked.
The question was asked with a gentleness Alexandre could not engage with. No one should be that gentle with aking. He was in charge. He was the one thing keeping everything together. So there could be nogentle.
Only decisions. Only leadership. Only moving forward with certainty and surety.
“I am going to this cabin, and I am going to bring her home.”
“Alexandre, perhaps…perhaps you should let me or Gabriel do it.” Evelyne smiled at him encouragingly, but he could see underneath that smile was a worry that he would not conduct himself as he should.
“I will be reasonable.” Would Ines be? Well, she would have to be.
Reason was the only way out of this.
“Of course you will,” Evelyne agreed, still with that kind of encouraging tone that made him want to grind his teeth together. “But it wouldn’t hurt to have a friendly face—”
“I am herhusband.”
“Discuss what’s going on before you—”
“Before I what?”
“Make demands and proclamations or say something you might regret.”
You might regret.Likehewas the problem here? “I am the king of Alis, Evelyne. Everything I do is a proclamation. I cannot regret this.”
Evelyne sighed. “But you will,” she muttered.
Alexandre ignored her. He went to his office. Then he stood there, frozen with an indecision that made it hard to breathe. He had to decide. He had to take charge. He had toknowwhat was right or everything would crumble.
“If you’re looking to do this under the radar, I can fly you.”
Alexandre did not look behind him at the sound of Gabriel’s voice. He couldn’t face a man who knew him so well—who would read the panic when Alexandre could not allowpanic.
So he would not consider Gabriel’s words until he couldbreathe.
He had to breathe. Decide. Act. Protect. Ensure.
He blinked a few times, centering himself in the here and now. Ensuring he could speak clearly before he attempted it. “Yes. I will need to attend my meetings this afternoon.” Because he could not shirk his duties, no matter the circumstance. “Can you get away early tomorrow morning?”
“Of course,” Gabriel said.
He would act. Not regret his actions. He would go to thiscabin, he would explain what would happen now—she would return to the palace, they would go back to the way things were, and now she had a child, likely, so there was no need for an annulment.
