wore, he still had an imposing air about him, an aura of authority and command that only added to his breathtakingly handsome features.
‘I am glad you decided to come,’ he said into the silence.
‘I figured the orphanage is not quite ready for an impromptu visit from royalty,’ Cassie said, thinking on her feet. ‘The press attention might have upset the children.’
He frowned as he came closer. ‘Seeing you at the gala last night was a shock,’ he said, looking down at her. ‘A big shock.’
‘Did you think I had escaped from prison and had come to gatecrash your party?’ she asked, not quite able to subdue the bitterness in her tone.
He gave her a long and studied look. ‘No, Cassie, I did not think that. It was just that I wish I had been told you had been released.’
‘You could have made your own enquiries,’ she pointed out and, with another embittered look, tacked on, ‘discreetly, of course.’
A two-beat silence passed.
‘You are very bitter,’ he observed.
‘I’ve lost almost six years of my life,’ she bit out. ‘Do you know what that feels like, Sebastian? The world is suddenly a different place. I feel like I don’t belong anywhere any more.’
‘You killed your father, Cassie,’ he reminded her. ‘I am not sure what led you to do that, but the laws of this island dictate you must pay for that in some way. There are many people on Aristo who feel you have been given a very lenient sentence.’
‘Yes, well, they didn’t know my father, did they?’ she shot back without thinking.
His frown deepened. ‘Your father was well respected in all quarters. What are you saying…that he was not the private man we all knew in public?’
Cassie wished she could have pulled her words back. She had revealed far more than she had intended to. She had told no one of her father’s behaviour over the years. Who would believe her if she had? It was a secret, a dirty secret that she alone had lived with. Shame had always kept her silent and it would continue to do so. Besides, she hadn’t done herself any favours behaving like a spoilt brat for most of her life. Her father had played on that for all it was worth, publicly tearing his hair out over her behaviour to all his well-connected friends and colleagues.
Cassie quickly averted her gaze, and, shuffling in her bag, drew out the picture Sam had drawn in a desperate attempt to change the subject. ‘Um…I almost forgot to give you this,’ she said, handing it to him with fingers that made the paper give a betraying rattle. ‘One of the…er…orphans drew it for you. He insisted I give it to you.’
He took the picture and gently unfolded it, his eyes taking in the childish strokes of pencil and brightly coloured crayons. ‘It is very…nice,’ he said and brought his gaze back to hers. ‘You said this child is without parents?’
Cassie looked at him blankly for a moment.
‘Um…well…I…he’s…’
‘The child is a boy?’
‘Yes.’
‘And an orphan.’ He looked back at the drawing, his brows moving together over his eyes. ‘How old is he?’ he asked, looking back at her again.
Cassie felt as if his eyes were burning a pathway to her soul. ‘He’s…five or thereabouts,’ she said, shifting her gaze once more.
‘Too young to be all alone in the world,’ Sebastian said with deep compassion in his tone. ‘Do you know anything of his background, where he came from, who his parents were or what happened to them?’
The hole Cassie had dug for herself was getting bigger by the moment. She could feel the fast pace of panic throughout her body, making her heart thump unevenly and her skin break out in fine beads of perspiration, some of which were even now beginning to trickle down between her shoulder blades.
‘Cassie?’
‘Um…’ She brushed a strand of hair off her face as she returned her eyes to his, the stutter of her heart painful in her chest. ‘I’m not sure of the details of every individual child’s background. All I know is the children at the Aristo orphanage are there because they don’t have anywhere else to go.’
Sebastian laid the picture on a sideboard as if it were a priceless work of art. ‘I am very touched that a small abandoned child would take the time to do this for me,’ he said in a tone that was gravel-rough. ‘I have lived with nothing but privilege all my life so it is hard for me to imagine what it must be like to have no one you can turn to, especially when one is so young.’
Damn right it is, Cassie silently agreed.
He turned and looked directly at her. ‘I would like to meet this child,’ he said. ‘I would like to thank him personally.’
Cassie felt as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head and land on the carpeted floor at his feet. She looked at him in abject horror, her mouth opening and closing like a stranded fish, her heart going so hard and fast it felt as if it were going to come through the wall of her chest. ‘I—I’m not sure that can be arranged,’ she stammered.
He gave her a frowning look. ‘I fail to see why not. After all, I am now the royal patron of the orphanage. It is only reasonable and fair that I give my support in ways other than financial.’
‘Y-yes, but showing preference for one child over another is not to be advised,’ Cassie said, relieved she could think of something reasonably plausible on the spot. ‘The child who sent you this drawing is one of many who long to be noticed. You would be doing more harm than good singling any one of them out over another.’
His gaze was still unwavering on hers. ‘What if I were to invite all the children to a special party at the palace?’ he suggested. ‘That way no one will feel left out.’
‘Um…I…I…’ she choked as her self-made petard gave her another sharp poke.
‘At the gala it occurred to me that the most important people were not at the event—the children themselves,’ he went on. ‘I had a word to my events secretary about arranging something last night.’
Cassie was still trying to get her voice to cooperate. ‘Um…is that such a good idea?’ she asked. ‘The kids might be a little intimidated by the palace… I mean, royal protocol is off-putting enough for adults…’
‘My father had a hands-off approach when it came to the organisations he put his name to,’ he said. ‘I intend to do things differently, and what better place to start than the orphanage right on the palace doorstep?’
‘It’s hardly on the doorstep,’ Cassie said. ‘It’s practically attached to the prison.’
He rubbed at his jaw for a moment. ‘Yes, that is true. But that is something I would like to discuss with you over lunch.’ He pulled out one of the chairs next to the small dining table. ‘Would you care to sit down?’
‘Thank you,’ Cassie said, immensely glad of the seat as her legs were still trembling out of control.
She
