Of course the princess had no worry in that regard. Alex was pledged to her. Their future marriage had been decreed and settled years earlier. Darrell was an idiot to go on entertaining forbidden thoughts about him.
“Phillip?” she called out after entering the apartment. “Your father’s back!”
When he didn’t answer, she hurried through the door to the adjoining room where he planned to sleep. “He’s not here!” She turned to Alex. “I don’t know where he’d be.”
Something close to a grin broke out on his rugged features. “Considering it’s our son, we both know the possibilities are endless. But you don’t need to worry. He’s been assigned a bodyguard. I’ll call him.”
While he pulled out his cell phone, Darrell went over to the armoire where one of the maids had hung Phillip’s clothes. She picked out the navy blazer and khaki’s he wore to church. Even if Alex said the dinner would be informal, she wanted Phillip to be on his best behavior in front of Isabella.
After reaching for his white shirt and striped tie, she took everything over to the bed.
Alex spoke in Romanche, preventing her from understanding him. She had to wait until he’d hung up.
“Where did he go?”
“After touring the dungeon, he went to Carl’s office. They’re having an off-the-record chat about what it’s like to work for me.”
“Oh, no—Does Carl know Phill—”
“Yes,” Alex broke in, reading her mind with ease.
“Everyone must know by now. You two look too much alike to deceive anyone.”
One of his expressive brows quirked. “The family resemblance is strong. As you said earlier, the water has spilled over the dam. There’s no putting it back.”
She moaned. “You put on a brave front, but I know deep down you have to be apprehensive about everyone’s reaction.”
“You’re wrong, Darrell. My biggest concern is that when the novelty wears off, Phillip won’t like it here, and he’ll want to go home.”
She couldn’t believe he’d just said that.
“Alex—he has already bonded with you. It’s uncanny how well you get along and understand him.”
“It’s because I see certain traits of my cousin Chaz in him. He’ll never be a conformist.”
“You’re right, but that won’t prevent him from wanting to spend as much time with you as possible.”
Lines marred his features. “You just hit on the problem.”
“I—I don’t understand,” her voice caught.
“I may be his father, but I’m also the king. The two don’t necessarily mesh.”
Her anxious gaze swerved to his. “Weren’t you and your father close?”
“If you mean did we love and respect each other, then yes. But it was never the kind of relationship you’re envisioning. Father was the king. He belonged to every man. I was a typical selfish child who wanted him to myself.
“Phillip’s been deprived of his father all these years. Now that we’ve found each other I’m afraid he’s going to feel cheated in a brand-new way. I would understand if he didn’t want to hang around waiting to spend time with me. That’s what is haunting me.”
Put like that Darrell was haunted too. Not just for Phillip who had been hanging around all day waiting, but for Alex.
He’d just revealed something of his inner struggle as a child. He’d said it with a hunger that bespoke needs as strong in their own right as his son’s. She would never have guessed…
“But he knows you came to get him the second you found out you had a son. You didn’t let your kingly duties stand in the way. You’re one man in a million to have claimed him in front of everyone. He feels loved.”
“I pray to God that’s true,” he murmured.
“It is, and it’s all he ever wanted. Just try to get rid of him now and see what happens,” she teased to cover her emotions.
His expression grew solemn. “Where did you come from, Darrell Collier?”
The pounding of her heart almost suffocated her. “That’s the question I’ve been asking about you since we met aboard your jet. The chance of your world and Melissa’s colliding is so remote as to be almost impossible, yet it happened.”
If she kept the vision of him and her sister wrapped up in his sleeping bag, she might just make it through this painful experience without revealing her inner turmoil.
His chest rose and fell visibly. “I have to be honest and tell you the memory of that night is so vague that without the photos proving the existence of the ring, I wouldn’t have recalled it.”
“So what you told Phillip wasn’t completely true.”
He rubbed his bottom lip with his thumb. “If you mean that I spent as much time as possible with your sister, then no. Nor did I try to get in touch with her again. There was only the one night, but Phillip didn’t need to know that.”
Darrell hugged that piece of information to her heart. “I agree.”
“Chaz and a girl who worked at the ranch fixed me up with your sister. We went to a local bar and began drinking. One thing led to another.
“I’m not proud of my behavior, Darrell. Obviously I’d decided to do a little rebelling against my gilded cage. But the next day as I nursed a hangover all the way back to Switzerland, I vowed never to put myself or another woman in that position again. You have every right to hate me for what I did.”
“Of course I don’t hate you. That rebellion produced a wonderful boy. He’s my life!” her voice shook.
In fact knowing Melissa was simply a girl who happened to be there at the right time and place verified Darrell’s opinion that all the feeling had been on her sister’s part. Otherwise Alex would have come back to Colorado to take up where he’d left off.
The knowledge that Melissa wasn’t the great love of his life gave Darrell a lot to think about. To be betrothed to a princess who was only thirteen at the time meant Isabella hadn’t started out as his great love, either. But that obviously changed when she grew into the woman he adored.
Alex made an odd noise in his throat, jerking her torturous thoughts back to the present. “Phillip has become my life.”
Darrell felt the truth of his declaration to the marrow of her bones. “He already feels the same about you, Alex.”
“Mom?”
Phillip’s voice broke the odd tension between them.
“I’m in your bedroom, sweetheart!”
“I
