His Royal Love-Child (12 page)

“You are not already married. You were a virgin the first time we made love—of course you could not be married,” he said as if speaking to himself.

She turned back to face him and smiled, albeit weakly. “No. I am not already married.”

“And the baby is mine. Do not try to convince me otherwise because it will not wash. You are a one-man woman and I am your man.”

“Of course the baby is yours, and I have no intention of trying to convince you otherwise.”

“Then nothing else could be bad enough to justify your look of unhappiness.”

“That’s what you think.”

“So, then tell me whatever troubles you and I will fix it.”

“You can’t.”

“You are so sure about this?” he asked as he took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb against her palm.

“Yes. In this case, there is nothing either of us can do but wait and hope.”

“Tell me.”

“I’m sorry.” She swallowed. “I don’t mean to make such a meal of it. It’s just really hard for me to talk about, but I’d decided when I was fifteen, I think it
was,
that I would never have children.”

“And why is that?” he asked with an indulgent look.

“Because I’d spent the last nine years of my life in a full torso brace to correct a genetic spinal deformity, and I knew I had more years to go, and I hated the thought of putting my own child through the same thing.”

“
Che
cosa
?”

“When I was six years old, I was diagnosed with a severe case of idiomatic juvenile scoliosis. It’s an extremely rare form of the disease; the only form more rare is that found in an infant. My doctors hoped to avoid the major surgery required to correct the disease.”

“I did not know that scoliosis required surgical treatment.”

“It doesn’t always, but in rare cases the risk of death from stress to the heart by the deformed rib cage or
paralysis are
so high that the only slightly less risky surgery is suggested. My parents and my doctors wanted to avoid that, but in order to do so, I had to wear a brace pretty much twenty-four seven until I was nineteen years old and the doctors were convinced that I had stopped growing. Even so, for two years after that, I was terrified my spine would revert to the curvature that is so disabling.”

“You say this disease is hereditary?”

“No, not exactly, but my mother had it and so did I.
What if our baby is born with it, too?
I’m sorry. I should have told you about it sooner, but I’d convinced myself that if I did conceive that it would be meant to be and that our baby would not suffer my childhood. Only now that I’m pregnant, it’s all I can think
about
. I’m so scared, Marcello.”

He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her in his embrace. “You are fine now? There is no risk to your health with this pregnancy?”

“No.
None.
I had an eighty percent curvature correction. It was a miracle, really, and there are no limitations on my lifestyle left over from the scoliosis.”

“So your fears are all for our child?”

She nodded against his shirtfront. “I’m sorry,” she said again, her voice choked with tears.

“Stop apologizing. This baby is a gift. Believe it.”

She looked up at him and the warmth in his eyes filled her with hope. “But…”

“Look at you. You are well now. Even if our children were to have this disease, it does not have to be life-altering.”

She grimaced with remembered pain. “Tell that to a thirteen-year-old girl who looks in the mirror and sees only the brace, not the body beneath it.”

“The brace is very unwieldy?”

“No. In fact, with the right clothes, you could barely tell I was wearing it, but my parents…especially my mother…were very protective of me. They never forgot I had it on and neither did I.”

“In what way were they protective?”

“Mom encouraged me to avoid physical contact with others so they wouldn’t know about my brace and I wouldn’t have to try to explain it.”

“And did they hug you?”

“No. I didn’t encourage physical touch with
anyone
.”

“That explains much.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing important.
It is only that sometimes you have an invisible wall around you.”

“I never noticed that stopping you from touching me.”

“It did not, and it would not stop me touching our child.”

Tears spilled over her eyelids at that assurance. “I’m glad, but that isn’t the only thing you have to take into account.”

“What else?”

“Interaction with other children.
Both my parents were concerned about me playing with other children and
I
spent grade school recesses inside, reading and doing schoolwork, rather than playing with other children.”

“How did you get your exercise?”

“My parents had me on a very specific regime, one with no chance of me being tackled by another child, or hurt in any way.”

“Was that necessary?” he asked, looking dubious.

“Actually not, but that isn’t the point is it? The point is that—”

“Our child will be ours and we will do our best for her regardless of what challenges she might face in life.”

“It isn’t that simple.”

“Yes,
Danette
, it is.”

“Don’t you think my parents did their best by me?”

“Yes, but they are not us, any more than I am my father. We will be different parents.”

“But you are so worried about the press. Can you imagine what they would do if they got wind of something like that?”

“If our child were to have the disease, we would go public with it and
detooth
the tiger before he had a chance to strike. Understood?”

“Yes. I am sorry I didn’t warn you, Marcello.”

“I told you to stop saying you are sorry.
All right?
If you truly believe that what you have told me has impacted my joy at prospective fatherhood, or the way that I will feel about our child, then you do not know me as well as I believed that you did.”

“We established that the day before yesterday when I realized all the assumptions I’d made about you had been faulty. Now I realize the other assumptions I made were equally faulty. The truth is, I’m pretty confused about you right now and learning I’m pregnant with your baby hasn’t improved that any.”

H
E GRIMACED
. “As long as we are handing out apologies, I am sorry that I hurt you.”

She winced tiredly. “I really don’t want to talk about it right now.” She yawned. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk at all, but I’m just so sleepy…I’m too tired to work anything out in my head, much less discuss it. Do you mind?”

“No. Whatever you might like to think, we have a whole lifetime to work out our differences. But I am not going to pretend I did not ask you to marry me.”

“But you didn’t.”

“What?” he demanded in a dangerously soft voice.

“You didn’t
ask
. You told me that for the sake of our unborn baby we should marry.”

For the second time in as many days, red scorched the skin along his sculpted cheekbones. “I should have asked, but I got carried away with my delight.”

It was such an endearing
admission,
she patted his chest in approval. “No matter what happens, I’m really, really glad you’re happy about the baby.”

“Only one thing is going to happen. We are going to marry.”

“I’ll think about it. That’s the best I can do, right now. I mean it. My mind is in a muddle and I feel like I have the flu, and I’m so tired, I could fall asleep standing up.”

“Then it is a good thing you are lying down. I will look into an effective remedy for your morning sickness, but for now I will get you some crackers and weak tea. My marketing director said that was something that used to help her.”

He carefully laid her back against the pillows and then got up to leave.

He came back a few minutes later and cajoled her into eating half a dozen saltines and drinking a glass of water. Afterward, she slipped into sleep, secure in the fact that Marcello was watching over her and their baby.

When she awoke two hours later, Marcello’s warmth surrounded her. It felt so good that she didn’t move, not wanting the sensation of peace and safety to end.

“You are awake?” he asked from behind her.

“Yes, how did you know?”

“Your breathing pattern changed.”

“Oh.”

“My mother has invited us to have dinner with her tonight.”

She went stiff with shock.
“Your mother?”

What had he been doing while she was sleeping, calling newspapers and making announcements?

He turned her to face him.
“My mother.
She is ecstatic about the baby, but equally thrilled I am finally remarrying.”

“You told her about the baby? You told her that we were getting
married
?” Every trace of lingering sleepiness vanished in the face of his revelations.

“We are close. She would be hurt if I did not tell her.”

“But I never said I would marry you!”

“You will.”

Danette
took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You are so darn arrogant.”

“It runs in the family.”

“No doubt.”

“So, you will come to dinner and make my mother happy?”

“I don’t know if I’ll make her happy or not, but I would like to get to know her.” She only wished it had happened before she got pregnant, that Marcello had wanted the meeting for her sake and not only that of their child.

“Did I not say that we would probably see one another again?”
Flavia
Scorsolini
asked after kissing
Danette’s
cheeks in greeting in the huge entry hall of the Sicilian villa.

“You said that?” Marcello asked.
“When?”

“You had left for our table already. The looks you were giving the girl and the man with her at the restaurant that night…they spoke very eloquently to one who knows you as well as I do. But I did wonder what my son’s girlfriend was doing at a restaurant with another man.” She smiled at
Danette
. “It all became clear when Marcello explained the reason for not yet introducing us, though you had been together for six long months.”

“It did?”
Danette
asked.

“Yes. He kept you a secret, and any man foolish enough to play that kind of game with his woman deserves to see her out with another man on occasion, though I trust it would only have taken one time for him to mend his ways.”

Marcello laughed.
“As always, you are too wise, Mama.
I had promised never to be caught dancing with another woman already.”

“Ah, the pictures.”
Flavia
gave
Danette
a sad smile. “Seeing them must have hurt a great deal.”

“Yes.”

“I am surprised you agreed to marry Marcello afterward.”

He sucked in a tight breath. “Mama…” he said warningly.

But
Danette
smiled. “I haven’t. Not yet. I promised to think about it.”

“For the sake of the baby?” the older woman pressed as she led them into the sitting room.

Danette
sat in the red velvet armchair
Flavia
indicated, before taking a matching one opposite the small table. Marcello sat down on the end of the long white sofa nearest
Danette
.

The startling red-and-white color combination with gold accents in the sitting room was very impacting and
Danette
said so.

“Thank you. I designed it myself. A hobby of mine,”
Flavia
admitted. “Now, tell me…do you plan to marry my son for the sake of the baby?”

The look that
Flavia
gave her was so vulnerable that
Danette
had no desire to prevaricate in any way. Whatever Marcello’s feelings for her, she would not pretend hers were other than what they were.

“If I marry Marcello, it will also be for my sake. I love your son.”

Flavia
nodded as if pleased. “Yes. I can see that you do. The way you looked at him the other night was very telling as well…or should I say, the way you avoided looking at him?”

“You must be a very adept people-watcher. My friends at the table had no idea anything was up between Marcello and me.”

“None at all?”

“Well, my date, Ramon, noticed that Marcello kept looking at me. He thought Marcello might be interested in me and he warned me off of him.”

“Smart man.
Marcello is a dear son, but his reputation as a playboy…
ai
,
ai
,
ai
.”

“Mama!”
Marcello protested.

“As if
your
young woman did not know?” She rolled her eyes. “
Danette
strikes me as an astute young lady. Too smart not to realize what a bad risk you are. She’s shown tremendous courage in falling in love with you.”

Danette
didn’t know whether to laugh, or to cry. The former queen had zero tact where her son was concerned, but
Danette
had the distinct impression it was on purpose.

“I loved his father, you know,”
Flavia
said to
Danette
. “Love is no deterrent to pain. I should know.”

Marcello paled, his blue gaze filling with real anger. “Mama, she has enough reservations about marrying me. She does not need you adding to them.”

“Good. I went into marriage with your father blind and lived to regret it, but she will not be so foolish.”

“Do you think Marcello would have an affair?”
Danette
asked with an honest need to know.

Marcello cursed angrily under his breath, but
Flavia’s
militant stance relaxed and she smiled with warm affection at her son before turning her gaze back to
Danette
. “No. I do not. If you want to know the truth, I think that if I had stayed married to his father, he would not have strayed again, either. He was still feeling guilty for sleeping with me so soon after the death of his beloved first wife. His behavior was entirely self-destructive.”