his uncle, to achieve financial independence, he’d kept on designing. He’d sent in an entry to an international competition.
That entry had changed his life.
This wasn’t his life, he told himself savagely. It was the last lingering trace of Giorgos’s reign. Lily was sister to the last Queen. This woman sitting beside him, waving to the crowd, her smile wide and genuine, was a fairy tale princess. Like Mia, she was playing a part. In time she could move on.
Whereas he… he was stuck with reality.
In the shape of his son?
It wasn’t just that, though the sensation of a small robust person sitting on his knee was certainly unnerving. It was the whole set-up.
As an idealistic youngster he’d dreamed of ruling this country, of being able to do what he had to do to make the island prosper. He’d dreamed of being given the authority to do it.
He’d never dreamed of this. He was in a fairy tale coach with a fairy tale wife and a tiny son.
She was looking as if she enjoyed it.
Maybe she was better at pretending than he was.
This was so… fake. The only problem was, though, that when he woke in the morning it would be worse. There were so many problems. He’d take a couple of days out of the frame here to get this marriage thing settled and over, but he had to get back. Two or three days’ honeymoon…
It wasn’t really a honeymoon.
Lily was waving at the crowd as if she meant it. She was enjoying herself?
Maybe he could use this to his advantage, he thought suddenly. If she was to be accepted by the islanders… she could stay here and play princess. He could still make the important decisions but it might give him time to escape to his other life. The garden designs he loved.
It was worth a thought. Lily as a figurehead.
Maybe… maybe…
Maybe this was too soon to tell. There was no way he was going to trust her.
She was doing okay now. Better than he was.
She was better at pretending. Better at… deceiving?
He looked out over the crowd of onlookers. There were those in the crowd who wished him ill. There were those who wanted this fledgling principality to fail so they could gather the remains.
He had to do this. He had no choice.
His bride was by his side and she was waving. It seemed he was part of a royal family, even if that family was as fractured as his family always had been.
He waved.
‘My smile hurts,’ Lily whispered.
‘My face aches,’ he confessed.
‘Really?’ She swivelled to stare. ‘But you’re used to this.’
‘I’m a landscape architect. Not a prince.’ He shook his head. ‘No. This is what I wanted. It just feels too ridiculous for words.’
‘Just smile and wave,’ she said wisely. ‘It doesn’t matter if no one’s at home.’
‘If no one’s at home… ’
‘Anyone can be royal. Plan your gardens in your head while you wave.’ She waved a bit more and smiled a bit more. ‘Look at me. I’m getting good at it.’
‘So you… ’
‘I’m planning boats.’
They’d swung out of the palace grounds now. People were coming out of their houses to see them go past.
They had eight outriders behind and eight in front.
Lily waved to an elderly couple standing in their garden. The old man didn’t wave back but the old woman almost did. She lifted her hand—and then thought better of it.
‘They still think I’m like Mia,’ Lily said, stoically waving. ‘Just lucky I’m not taking this personally.’
‘Yeah,’ he said. He waved and the old man and woman immediately waved back.
‘You must have sex appeal,’ Lily said sagely. ‘Or something.’
‘They know me.’
‘They’re never going to know me,’ Lily said and it sounded as if the idea was comforting.
He should be reassured by that. But there was a stab of jealousy. And something more…
The only places Lily had seen on Sappheiros had been the royal palace and the chapel-cum-cathedral in its grounds. They’d been enough to take her breath away—all spires and turrets and opulence in a fairy tale setting, the sapphire coastline backed by mountains. The palace and cathedral were way over-the-top for a small country, she’d thought, but still, royal was royal, and she’d assumed the whole of the Diamond Isles must be in favour of a bit of pomp and splendour.
Now she wasn’t so sure. The coastal road was lined with houses that looked shabby, some almost derelict. From what she’d learned over the last two weeks, the people had been taxed to the hilt to pay for the kings’ follies.
Now Alex told her he was taking her to his private house. He’d been raised as nephew to the King. For much of his life he’d been first in line to the throne, so she assumed his home would be opulent as well.
Their retinue slowed as they came to a curve in a road that had been getting rougher the further they’d travelled from the city. At one time it must have been paved, but the bitumen was cracked now and giving way. The coastal road—a magnificent route set halfway up the cliffs and overlooking the sea—swept around a headland and on, but the coach slowed by a sign that said—discreetly—‘Hideaway’.
The coach stopped, as did the outriders.
Alex stepped down onto the track and held out a hand to help her down.
‘Um… where are we?’ She gazed around her with surprise. They were in the middle of nowhere. A beautiful nowhere but nowhere nevertheless.
‘We need to walk,’ he said.
‘Walk.’
‘It’s a rhododendron drive. It’s too low for the horses to go underneath.’
‘These guys can’t take off their fancy headgear?’ She gazed round at the impassive horsemen. The horses were standing motionless. There was not a blink from man or horse.
‘From this gate we’re not royal,’ he said, so softly only she could hear. ‘This road has been deliberately left so the royal vehicles can’t get through.’
‘Right.’ but it wasn’t right. She didn’t understand. This was where the fairy tale stopped?
They needed
