Her Prince's Secret Son

Excerpt

Sara looked up just then and smiled. Something stirred inside Aleks and, without thinking, he smiled back.

She turned to their son and said, “Come, Nico, let’s sing a song.” And in a sweet, clear soprano she began to sing a familiar song, pausing while Nico echoed each phrase in a childish, happy voice.

As he guided the boat onto land, Aleks heard his own baritone join in. Both Nico and Sara looked up in pleased surprise.

In that moment he saw what he’d never seen before. A mother and son. And the son had Sara’s radiant, full-mouthed smile.

His belly sank like the anchor he’d tossed overboard.

“Papá is singing. Papá is singing.” Nico clapped his hands. Sara laughed.

And Prince Aleksandre sang a little louder, just to watch them smile again.

Winner of the RITA® Award for excellence in inspirational fiction, Linda Goodnight has also won the Booksellers’ Best, ACFW Book of the Year, and a Reviewers’ Choice Award from RT Book Reviews magazine. Linda has appeared on the Christian bestseller list, and her romance novels have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Active in orphan ministry, this former nurse and teacher enjoys writing fiction that carries a message of hope and light in a sometimes dark world. She and husband Gene live in Oklahoma. Readers can write to her at [e-mail]

Her Prince’s Secret Son

by

Linda Goodnight

MILLS & BOON®

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Dear Reader

I hope you enjoy HER PRINCE’S SECRET SON. The idea for this book first came to me as a regular secret baby story—you know, the kind where the heroine has kept the child secret from the hero. But the more I thought about the story, the more I realised I wanted to do something different. So I decided the hero would be the one who had kept the baby a secret. But how in the world was such a thing possible? After all, the man wouldn’t be pregnant or giving birth. It took a while to give my characters the right backgrounds and situations to make a reverse secret baby storyline work, but finally the warrior prince and his commoner bookshop owner appeared. From there, I had a great time creating a popular fantasy—a regular girl discovers her true love is a real prince, only this prince has possession of the son she gave up for adoption.

I love hearing from readers. If you like HER PRINCE’S SECRET SON, please write and let me know. I can be reached through my website, at www.lindagoodnight.com, or c/o Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited, Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 1SR.

Warm wishes

Linda Goodnight

Chapter One

PRINCE ALEKSANDRE D’ GABRIEL took one look at Dr. Konstantine’s long face and knew the news was bad.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, there is nothing more I can do.” The royal physician, either unable or unwilling to meet his prince’s eyes, stared down at the gleaming marble floor. “Your son is dying.”

The softly spoken words pierced Aleks’s soul like a bayonet. His boy, his reason for living, lay just beyond the thick, ancient castle wall dying, while his father stood in the long, ornate corridor of Carvainian Castle wishing to die in his stead.

Aleks was a ruler, a warrior prince, a man of wealth and power, and yet he was helpless against the infection that was destroying his son’s internal organs.

He clenched his fists against the rising tide of fear, stifling the urge to pummel the stone walls in frustration and despair.

His mother, Queen Irena, touched his arm. “There must be something more we can do. Perhaps another physician?”

Dr. Konstantine’s head jerked upward. “Your Highness, we’ve consulted every hepatology specialist in the world. The only answer is an organ donation. A tiny piece of organ from the right person will save his life. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Queen Irena’s face, still lovely though she was nearing sixty, had aged in the past weeks of Prince Nico’s illness. The lines around her mouth deepened as she said, “My apologies, Doctor, I didn’t mean to imply anything less than the best on your part. It’s just that—” She lifted one hand in a helpless gesture.

Aleksandre understood exactly what she was feeling. The queen doted on the motherless boy she’d carried in her arms from America nearly five years ago. Without his mother’s help, Aleksandre would never have known his son.

Fate and determination had given him Nico, and he would not give up his child without a fight.

“There must be a match somewhere,” he said. “We will continue our search.”

“Thousands have been tested, Your Majesty.”

His people, loyal Carvainians, had lined the streets and clogged the telephones and computers in their sincere desire to save the adored little prince. But not a single person was a suitable match for the child whose blood was not one hundred percent Carvainian.

Aleksandre fought the sickness churning in his gut and the memory of an American woman who still haunted his heart. The child’s mixed blood was his fault, just as the illness was, and yet Nico would not be Nico without Sara Presley’s blood.

“I have a suggestion.” Dr. Konstantine’s gaze skittered away only to return with a fresh boldness. “May I speak frankly?”

The prince gave a bark of mirthless laughter. Dr. Konstantine had tended him for years, through childhood illnesses and wartime wounds. He trusted the man implicitly. “I have yet to quell your propensity for doing so. And we now are at a point of desperate measures. Say your piece.”

“Nico’s birth mother.”

“No!” At the queen’s outcry, both Prince Aleksandre and the physician turned to stare. Her face had gone white, and the long, graceful fingers pressed against her lips trembled. Aleks understood her reluctance for it matched his own, and yet, had he not just been thinking of Sara Presley?

“She won’t agree.” A deep and dreadful knot formed in his chest at the thought of the woman who had jilted him and abandoned their child. She had no love for either the father or the son. She had not cared then. She would not care now if Nico lived or died.

The physician pressed. “You have no other choice but to contact her, Your Majesty. She is the little prince’s last hope.”

The queen regained her voice. Her nails scraped against Aleksandre’s sleeve. Almost feverishly she said, “Listen to me, Aleksandre. The woman has a heart of stone. She will never agree. Contacting her can only bring trouble that we do not need. Our burdens are heavy enough to bear. Think of the consequences. Think of what she might require of you. Of your son.”

Aleksandre knew his mother was right. Sara Presley had damaged him before, but now, with Nico as a pawn, she might try to exact a price he was unwilling to pay. And yet, what choice did they have?

Dr. Konstantine was like a dog with a bone—or a man with no other recourse. “If she is a match, she could be the answer to our prayers.”

“If she is a match, and if she would agree,” Aleksandre said grimly. So many ifs. A woman who would abandon her newborn was not likely to go through surgery on his behalf…unless she had a strong incentive.

Queen Irena paced to the sunlit patch at the end of the hallway. She spun toward him, her agitation showing in jerky movements and the rapid rise and fall of silk over her breasts. “I won’t have her here, Aleksandre. She’s poison. She’ll hurt us. Hurt you. Hurt Nico. I can’t bear to watch that happen again.”

The prince held up a hand. “Stop. This is my decision. Let me think.”

Both his companions bowed slightly and grew silent. His mother’s soulful black eyes watched him, reproachful. A twinge of guilt niggled at his conscience.

If not for the Queen Mother, Carvainia would have no Crown Prince Nico, and he would have no son. No one, other than himself, understood the treachery of Sara Presley as well as Mother. She was trying to protect both of her princes as she always had.

Aleksandre closed his eyes tightly for a brief moment to calm his raging spirit. He’d learned in battle to shut out the noise and horror around him and go deep inside to a place of peace where wisdom lived. He did that now, weeding out his own anguish at the thought of seeing Sara Presley again and concentrated instead on saving his child.

Vaguely, he could hear the quiet hush of servants moving about the castle and of nurses moving in and out of Nico’s room. He listened deeper, imagined the sounds of the sea just outside the castle walls.

The sea was his solace and when time allowed he walked the beach to taste the salt spray on his tongue and smell the wind blowing across the great water. Someday he would teach Nico to sail and fish and race his speedboats. He would tell his son stories of the generations of Carvainians who had used the sea for defense and trade and livelihood.

But first, his son must live. And to live, he must have an organ donation. And that could only come from his biological mother.

He took a deep, cleansing breath and opened his eyes, certain now of what he must do.

“You are correct, Mother, when you say that the American woman will not come willingly. I also agree with you, Doctor, that she is our only hope. She must come.” His jaw hardened with resolve. “She will come.”

Queen Irena tossed her head. “You cannot force her. She is not under Carvainian jurisdiction.”

“Not yet.” A sly smile touched his bitter-tasting lips. “But she will be.”

The queen’s eyes widened. “Aleksandre, whatever are you thinking?”

“The American woman will not come to Carvainia for me or even for her son, but she will come if the incentive is great enough.”

“And you will see that it is?”

“I know exactly what matters most to Sara Presley.”

As a prince who’d led men into battle, he knew the importance of strategy and of knowing one’s enemy.

And so a battle plan was forged.

“If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Sara Presley said with a laugh as she unpacked a box of novels for the romance section of The Book Shelf.

“But what if the prize is real, Sara?” Penny Carter, her friend and business partner waved the letter beneath Sara’s nose for the umpteenth time in two days. “What if you’ve really won a fabulous trip to a European health spa—in a castle, no less?”

Sara scoffed. “To win, I would have to enter, right?”

“Well, maybe, but we own a bookstore. What if one of our vendors is rewarding us for outstanding sales?”

“Then you would be included in the trip. And you’re not.” Sara held a new book to her nose and sniffed.

“I love that smell,” she said, trying to direct Penny’s thoughts somewhere besides the goofy award letter. It couldn’t be real. The prize was either a joke, or when she called, they’d ask her to send thousands of dollars or to provide her credit card number. She wasn’t that stupid.

But as she’d done all morning, Penny stayed after her. “What about those contests you signed up for at the fair last month?”

Sara paused in thought, gazing down at a book cover. A shirtless cowboy gave her a sexy grin but she didn’t feel a thing. No matter how sexy or how nice, no man had gotten past her defenses in over five years. She was a strong advocate of “once burned, twice warned.”

“Cassie Binger won a blender at the fair last year,” she mused, “so I guess that’s possible.”

Penny let out a whoop, pounding her index finger at the letter. “Call this number, right now, before I die of curiosity.” She patted a hand over her heart. The letter crinkled against her plaid shirt. “Castle-by-the-Sea Health and Beauty Spa sounds so romantic.”

“The only place I’ll find romance is between the covers of the books we sell. The letter is a scam, Penny. It has to be. My luck ran out a long time ago.” She quickly turned to the wall-high bookshelves.

Penny marched around to her side. Hands on her hips she said, “Sara, listen to me. You’ve spent five years living in the past. Five years haunting the Internet in hopes of finding out who adopted your baby. Five years getting over the jerk who left you.”

Tears welled in Sara’s eyes. Her belly gnawed with emptiness now as it did every time she thought of the infant son she’d lost. And she thought of him constantly. A TV show, a book cover, a child on the street or in the store could send her into a tailspin for days. “Don’t, Penny.”

Penny grasped Sara’s upper arms and pulled her around, her face wreathed in compassion. “Honey, I’m not trying to hurt you. You’re my best friend and I love you like a sister. But I’ve watched you beat yourself up for too long. When life offers sunshine, don’t hide in the shade. You have to move on.”

“I can’t, Penny.” She sniffed. “My baby is out there somewhere. Is he happy and healthy? Does his adoptive mother love him the way I do?”

“You made the right choice. You did what was best for him at the time. Let it go. Move on. Let yourself live again.”

They’d hashed this through hundreds of times and Sara knew Penny was right. Penniless, without family to turn to, and still in college on scholarship, she’d done what she had to in order to secure her baby’s future. “I’m haunted by the thought that if I’d kept him, something would have worked out.”

“If that Aleks jerk had stuck around and been the man you thought he was, things would have worked out. But he didn’t. That’s my point. Life happened. It sucks but it happened. Now, life is happening again in a good way.” She shoved the letter at Sara. “Take a chance, Sara. Go for it. Just this once, let yourself be happy.”

Sara shook her head but took the letter in hand. Penny’s insistence was starting to wear her down. She did need a change. She needed to shake loose from the guilt and loss and depression that had plagued her for too long.

In a feeble attempt to resist, she muttered, “It can’t be true. I wish it was, but I’m not the kind of person who wins fabulous trips to Europe.”

A male voice intruded. “I beg to differ, Miss Presley. If you are indeed Sara Presley, you are our grand prize winner.”

Both women spun toward the tall, imposing figure who had entered the shop. Dressed in a business suit with hair graying at the temples and the smell of intellect coming off him in waves, the man reminded her of a slick television lawyer.

“Who are you?” Sara blurted. “And how do you know about the prize?”

“I am here as executor of the contest, Miss Presley. Since you have not yet called to claim your prize, the owner of the spa felt an official visit was in order to assure you that everything is in order and that our staff eagerly awaits your arrival.”

Sara looked from the man to Penny. Her friend’s eyes were as round as saucers.

“Are you serious?” Sara gestured to the letter. “This is for real?”

“Indeed.” The man moved into the small space behind the cluttered counter and offered Sara a manila envelope. “Inside you will find a brochure detailing the prize, a round-trip ticket and your cash prize.”

“Cash?” Sara squeaked. “Ticket?”

With hands now trembling, she removed the items from the envelope one by one. Penny leaned over her shoulder. “That stuff’s real, Sara.”

“I can’t believe this.” She read over the brochure and saw photos of pampered women getting massages and facials, of a fabulous castle standing proud and ancient by a perfect blue sea, of rooms so beautiful they stole her breath. She checked the airline ticket. Her stomach jumped into her throat. “First class?”

“A vacation unrivaled by any other awaits you, miss, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The man tilted his head. “Do you believe it now?”

“I’m beginning to.”

“Excellent. I will tell the owner of Castle-by-the-Sea to expect you. He will be delighted to greet you on Thursday.”

Sara trailed him as he moved toward the door. “Thursday? This coming Thursday? That’s only two days away.”

“Why, yes, madam. Is that a problem?”

Penny popped up behind them and gave Sara a little whack on the shoulder. “No problem at all. She’ll be there.”

Two days later Sara was still in delighted shock as she waved goodbye to a jubilant Penny and boarded a plane for London. Once there, she was whisked aboard a private jet that took her to Castle-by-the-Sea.

As she disembarked, she breathed in the scent of sea spray, warm and salty and so different from the landlocked aroma of Kansas.

At the bottom of the steps, a line of attendants waited, tidy and professional in red uniforms. The castle itself sprawled before her, a stunning old stone structure complete with spires and cupolas and towers that had no doubt once housed European royalty. In the distance, below the hill was a blue sea that would have provided protection for the castle inhabitants. Today a handful of people reclined on the white sand or cavorted in the crystal waters.

The butterflies in her belly fluttered. “This must be a resort for the rich and famous.”

She pinched herself. Surely there was a mistake. She was a nobody. Surely she would be sent packing by nightfall.

But that was not the case. She was escorted to a private suite high in one wing of the castle, and for the rest of the afternoon she was fed and massaged, pampered and waited upon so that when night came she fell asleep in the canopied bed with a smile on her face. Maybe her run of bad luck was finally over.

“Miss Presley. Miss Presley.” A woman’s accented voice penetrated the fog in Sara’s brain.

“I’m Sara. Just Sara,” she muttered, though her throat was froggy with sleep. She snuggled deeper into the smooth, silken sheets and pulled the down comforter up to her ears. She’d been having the loveliest dream ever.

“Well, ‘Just Sara.’ The intruding voice sounded amused. “I take it you slept well.”

Sara sat up straight and stared around the luxurious room and then at the young woman whom she recognized as Antonia, her personal attendant. “I wasn’t dreaming. This is real.”

“Yes, miss. Very real. Would you care for breakfast before we begin the day?”

“Coffee please.”

From a pretty tray, the round-figured Antonia poured the fragrant coffee and handed it to Sara. “Not a very healthy beginning to a busy day. Some melon perhaps? Or strawberries and cream? That seems to be a favorite with our guests. We grow our own, you see.”

“The strawberries or the cream?”

“Both.” The young woman giggled.

Feeling a little like Cinderella, Sara laughed with her. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

Something shifted through Antonia’s soft brown eyes. Sara noticed the slight hesitation and wondered. But before her thoughts could wander too far, the attendant smiled and the expression disappeared. “A very special treat awaits you. The owner of Castle-by-the-Sea wishes to see you.”

“I was hoping you’d say that. I really want to thank him.”

Antonia gazed at her a second longer before turning away.

Within the hour Sara was dressed and standing outside an enormous pair of ornate double doors inside a palace of such breathtaking beauty, it must be a tourist attraction. From the looks of this particular wing—one of many from what she’d observed so far—and the scurry of suit-clad men and women going in and out of offices, this was the business section of the spa. Apparently behind these white and gilded doors fit for a king was the owner himself.

A nervous jitter danced down her arms.

One of the doors opened inward. A butler uniformed in red and gold gave a slight bow. His perfect posture made her want to stand up straighter. “Miss Presley, Prince Aleksandre will see you now.”

Sara started to follow the man, then stopped. “Prince? As in a real prince?”

The butler inclined his head. “But of course.” He motioned her forward with one hand. “If you please. His Majesty is waiting.”

His Majesty? Oh my gosh. She was in a real castle with a real prince. Wait until Penny heard about this!

Knees quivering and curiosity driving her, Sara stepped into the room—a very large, regal office—and got her first glimpse of her benefactor.

The dark-haired man was standing with his back to her, gazing out at a panorama of green land and aqua sea. Legs spread, hands clasped at his back below a trim waist, his posture was as stiff as the butler’s, his shoulders wide and exuding strength. Though he didn’t appear much older than herself, an air of authority and power emanated from him. Dressed in a perfectly tailored suit, something about his well-honed physique looked eerily familiar.

The butler cleared his throat. If such a thing was possible, the servant’s carriage grew more erect and perfect as he snapped to attention. “Your Majesty, may I present Miss Sara Presley. Miss Presley, His Majesty Prince Aleksandre d’Gabriel.”

The name struck a chord of alarm in Sara as the prince turned and leveled an empty stare in her direction.

“So Sara,” he said quietly. “We meet again.”

Chapter Two

“ALEKS!”

The woman before him clutched her chest, her mouth open in shock. She had gone as white and still as the alabaster statues lining the palace staircase. Aleks fought down the unexpected and disturbing urge to cross the Persian rug, take her in his arms and offer reassurance. Only the stern mental reminder of her ruthlessness kept him standing rigidly behind his desk, his heart thundering in his chest. Though he had once loved her enough to give up anything to have her, that love had long since turned to loathing. She was here for one reason and one reason only. Nico.

“You are surprised to see me.” The sentence was a statement. He knew she’d be surprised. A surprise attack on one’s enemies always worked best.

“Aleks,” she said again and started toward him, one hand extended.

Aleks braced himself. Was that hope flaring in her sea-colored eyes?

He took a step back and forced a dark and forbidding expression. The woman paused. Her hand fell to her side. She looked lost and uncertain, and Aleks again fought the need to comfort her.

She was as beautiful to him now as she had been before, but he noted a subtle change, as well. The light had gone out in her. Where before she’d been vibrant and joyous, she now appeared older…sadder. Regret perhaps? Guilt? Or had life been unkind to Sara Presley?

He’d thought the terrors of war and near death added to the years of loathing had hardened him enough to face her. But he knew without a doubt he could not let her touch him. At least not now while his insides canted toward her like a seasick sailor.

“Welcome to Castle-by-the-Sea,” he said. “I trust your accommodations are satisfactory.”

Sara’s look of bewilderment was exactly what he’d hoped. He’d caught her completely off guard.

“You’re a prince?”

He inclined his head. “Ruler of Carvainia.”

It was imperative she understand his power and place and forget about the lovesick youth he’d once been. He must be in control, and now that he’d seen her again, this was going to be more difficult than he’d thought.

“You never told me,” she said. One hand went to her forehead and then fell to her side. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Considering her cruel abandonment, he was glad he hadn’t. “Would it have made any difference?”

“No, of course not, but—”

He didn’t believe her. “My country has enemies. To protect my friends and myself, I chose to attend college without fanfare, though I always had bodyguards at hand.”