The Prince's Heir. Sally Carleen

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      Fortunately she’d recovered her good sense before doing anything that stupid and had not, she hoped, given him any sign of her absurd reaction.

      When she’d grabbed him by that ridiculous tie and invaded his space to issue her warning, she’d been fighting dual urges to use that tie to choke him or to pull his lips to hers. Even now she could remember the sizzle that had seemed to pass from his body to hers, though they hadn’t actually touched physically. Even now his elusive scent that was both foreign and familiar, civilized and wild, tantalized her memory.

      She snapped a leaf off the bush beside her and crumpled it in her fingers. Her hormones must have gone into overdrive, focusing on the first attractive man they spotted, causing her to attribute to that man all sorts of traits that he didn’t possess. Stephan Reynard was a stuffy, snobbish, arrogant prince who wanted to take her son.

      She had to shove her rebellious hormones back into their cells and launch a crusade against Stephan Reynard. She had to protect Alena’s son—her son now—keep her promise to Alena and Lawrence and keep her family intact.

      She drew in a deep breath, determinedly pulling in the familiar scents of honeysuckle and trees and dust in an effort to drive out Stephan’s enigmatic, enticing scent.

      Spine straight and head high, she returned to the backyard where Stacy, Josh and Prince were involved in one of Josh’s favorite games. Stacy threw Prince’s bone, then Josh raced with the dog to see who would retrieve it.

      “I’m going in to talk to Mom and Nana, Stacy. Would you keep Josh out here for a little while longer?”

      Stacy tossed the bone, then when Josh and Prince ran after it, she turned to Mandy, a worried frown marring her young features. “What’s going to happen, Sis?”

      “Nothing. We’ll figure out some way to deal with this.” She had no idea what that way might be, but she would find it. She couldn’t conceive of anything else.

      Josh charged back, jubilantly clutching the plastic bone and chattering happily.

      “Good boy!” Stacy approved. “See how much easier it is to carry it in your hand than in your mouth?”

      Mandy scooped him up and gave him a big hug, loving him so much it was almost painful. Josh wrapped his chubby arms about her neck and hugged her back, gave her a sloppy kiss, then demanded to be allowed down again so he could play with Prince. She set him on his bare feet and he scampered away.

      “He doesn’t appreciate how much he’s loved because that’s all he’s ever known,” Mandy said. “That’s the way it ought to be, and it’s not going to change.”

      “I’m with you all the way,” Stacy replied.

      Mandy went back inside to her mother and grandmother who sat at the table, waiting for her.

      “We got problems,” she said.

      Her grandmother grinned wryly. “You always did have a talent for understatement.”

      She flopped into the chair beside her. “Any thoughts on what we’re going to do?”

      Nana shook her head. “When you told us you were adopting Josh, you didn’t tell us about that decree of illegitimate ascension.”

      Mandy sighed. “It didn’t seem important. I thought Lawrence would marry the woman his parents had picked out for him and have lots more sons. It’s the male who determines the sex, you know, so the odds were pretty good on that one. I certainly had no idea the Taggarts would ever in a million years find out about Lawrence. It’s not like they would be on a guest list for the palace ball and recognize him.”

      The front door slammed. “Hi, honey! I’m home!”

      “In the kitchen, Dan!” her mother called.

      Mandy had to fight the urge to jump up, run to her father and throw herself in his big, capable arms, the way she had done when she was a little girl, when he could make everything all better with a kiss. “You’re going to wish you’d stayed at the hardware store!” she shouted instead.

      Dan Crawford appeared in the doorway, a large, smiling man with auburn hair fading to a lighter color and streaked with white. He took one look at the three of them and his smile vanished, concern furrowing his brow instead. “What’s wrong? Has something happened to Lynda and the baby?”

      “No, they’re fine,” Rita assured him. “Sit down, dear. We need to have a family meeting.”

      Dan took a seat at the table and listened quietly while Mandy told him the whole story.

      “We need a plan of action,” she concluded. “I don’t think this is going to go away like the chicken pox did.”

      Dan Crawford leaned back and exhaled a long sigh. “What did this Stephan Reynard say he plans to do next?”

      “He didn’t say,” Rita replied. “He’s staying at a hotel in Dallas and we’re to phone him there after we’ve had time to discuss everything.”

      “There’s nothing to discuss,” Mandy said adamantly. “Joshua’s my son now. Both his parents wanted him to have the kind of life I had, not the kind they had.”

      “Stephan Reynard is Joshua’s uncle,” her father said, his voice quiet but resolute. “He may not have any legal rights, but don’t you think he’s entitled to some kind of relationship with his nephew? Someday Joshua’s going to want to know about his heritage.”

      “Stephan Reynard doesn’t want a relationship with his nephew. He wants to steal him and turn him into a carbon copy of himself, and we can’t let him do that. Josh would be just as unhappy in that role as Lawrence was.”

      She rose, unable to sit still any longer, and paced across the kitchen, then turned around and leaned back against the cabinet as if for support. “When I was little, I envied Alena. She had so many toys and clothes and her own suite of rooms. But she always wanted to come to our house to play. I didn’t understand that. Then I went to Dallas to go to school and we got really close again and she told me she’d been lonely and envied my family.”

      She wrapped her arms about herself and smiled weakly. “That was the first time I’d been away from you all. I used to think it would be wonderful to have a place of my own, central heat and air, my own private bathroom. Well, it wasn’t. I never told you how much I missed all of you because you were so pleased about my getting that scholarship and going to school. But I did. Something terrible. If I hadn’t had Alena, I wouldn’t have stayed even that first semester. When Gramps died, it really hit me how valuable you all are to me. Then Alena died, too, and Lawrence put that tiny baby in my arms, and it was like everything shifted and I totally understood. I knew that making lots of money and having lots of things the way Alena had always had was not what I wanted. I’d had the world and given it up. I couldn’t get everything back. Gramps was gone. But I could reclaim the rest of my life, and I wanted Josh to have what you gave me, such a good life that he’d never comprehend loneliness. And he does. Where his ancestors came from doesn’t matter. Love is the only heritage that matters.”

      “You’re almost right, baby,” her grandmother said. “Love is the most important, but do you really want to deprive Joshua of knowing about his biological heritage? You’re always saying how it makes you feel connected to СКАЧАТЬ