from the balcony.
“Dad’s back! We’re going to go meet him.’
“Wait, Phillip—” Darrell cautioned.
“Why?”
“Because he always has important things to do first.”
“That’s what mother says,” Jules muttered. Vito nodded. They adored Alex, but they also revered him as king. Phillip had a different problem. To him Alex was his father. Period.
“He said he’d phone you when he could, sweetheart.”
“But it’s already afternoon.”
Darrell was painfully aware he was long overdue. He and Isabella must have managed to work things out, otherwise he would probably have come home a lot sooner.
In order to pass the time without falling apart, she’d talked Phillip into taking a walk on the extensive grounds with her. Then they’d gone swimming with the boys.
The four of them would still be having fun if clouds hadn’t started to gather. At the first sign of lightning she’d insisted they go indoors. A storm was almost upon them. Darrell was thankful the helicopter had landed before Alex got caught in the downpour.
She shivered when she remembered his cousin’s plane had gone down in bad weather, leaving his sons fatherless.
They were so darling, Darrell couldn’t help but love them. She could tell Phillip liked them, too. It was a heady experience to be looked up to by the younger princes who were already enriching his life.
Alex had been worried about Phillip not wanting to hang around waiting to spend time with him. But his fears were groundless. You couldn’t separate Phillip from his father now or ever.
“I’ll get it,” Phillip called out the second the phone rang.
Darrell’s heart raced so hard it was a good thing he picked up instead of her. Since he’d climbed up her balcony, the less she had to interact with Alex the better.
Their conversation didn’t last long. Phillip hung up and turned to her with an excited look on his face.
“Dad wants us to meet him at his office. He says he’s got something special planned and you have to come, too, Mom, because we’re going to have dinner with Aunt Evelyn after.”
Aunt Evelyn…
Darrell hadn’t even met the boys’ mother yet, but Phillip was already calling her aunt.
“Hurrah!” Jules cried enthusiastically.
Under the circumstances Darrell couldn’t refuse. It was a good thing she’d put on her pleated tan pants and fitted purple top. Not too dressy, not too casual for her first meeting with his cousin-in-law.
The boys knew their way around the castle blindfolded. She followed them down the exquisitely sculpted marble staircase to the first floor. They took a right through the magnificent vaulted corridors lined with paintings and tapestries leading to the king’s official workplace.
“See the flag?” Vito spoke up.
“Yes.”
“If the Valleder flag is posted, then you know Uncle Alex is in the city and his ministers can have access to him.”
“That’s very interesting. Thank you for telling me.”
“You’re welcome.”
The boy knew everything and took it all so seriously, Darrell decided he had the makings of a king.
Then she glimpsed the real king. At the first sight of Alex in a black turtleneck and jeans standing in the huge double doorway, her pulse skittered off the charts.
The boys huddled around him while he gave their dark blond heads a gentle roughing.
Yesterday she’d felt those strong hands in her hair and knew how it felt. She almost passed out reliving the sensation until she remembered he’d spent the night with Isabella.
Judging by his laid-back demeanor, he’d won Isabella over and there was going to be a wedding. Then she would always have the right to his affection.
Darrell couldn’t bear it.
“Mom?” Phillip shook her arm, jerking her from a place she’d promised herself never to go again. Her gaze happened to collide with a penetrating pair of eyes that were more gray than green at the moment.
“When a storm rages, there’s a knight whose ghost walks around the castle below the waterline. Chaz and I only saw the back of him one time. I thought we’d all go down and search for him now.”
The boys laughed nervously. Phillip smiled, but his heels moved up and down, indicating his adrenaline had kicked in.
“Think you’re up to it?”
Alex had issued her a direct challenge she couldn’t refuse. In truth she didn’t want to. Who else besides Alex would think up something this entertaining for a bunch of adventurous boys on a dark, dreary afternoon inside a castle of all things?
“I wouldn’t miss snooping around this place for anything in the world.”
Another smile of satisfaction curved his lips. “Then let’s go.”
With a heavy-duty flashlight in hand, Alex strode down the hall forcing everyone to run after him.
“Admit you’re a little freaked, Mom.”
She was, but not for the reason her son was suggesting.
Alex led them down another hall and through a heavy wooden door to the ancient part of the castle. A circular stone staircase over a thousand years old seemed to go down, down forever. The only light came from the slit windows spaced every so often. Rain beat against the panes.
Without the flashlight they would have been entombed in total darkness once they reached the bottom.
Alex flashed the beam around the vast cavern with its labyrinths and pillars. Water dripped from the dank walls where moss was growing. Above them she could hear the waves on the lake crashing against the castle walls. It caused her to shiver.
“Whoa—” Phillip whispered. Vito stood manfully by himself, but Jules stuck close to his uncle.
“Stay with me everybody,” Alex warned them. They advanced a few feet.
“What are those chains for?” Jules asked.
Darrell could see them lying on the stone floor at the base of one of the pillars.
“When it’s good weather, the knight is the castle’s prisoner.”
“No, he’s not, Dad—”
“Shh. I think I can hear him,” Alex whispered. He handed Phillip the flashlight. “Go ahead with the boys. See what you can find.”
“Come
