Soldier Prince's Secret Baby Gift. Kate Hardy

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      Wednesday. ‘Hump day’, they called it in civilian jobs. The middle of the week.

      Except you didn’t get a day off from being a prince, Antonio thought.

      And you particularly didn’t get a day off when you had a long-lost older sister who was very probably going to be the one taking their father’s place as the ruler of the kingdom, and an older brother whose fiancée had told him on the eve of their wedding that she was pregnant with her true love’s baby, resulting in the royal wedding that the whole country had been looking forward to being cancelled at the last minute. The Asturias family were just as keen as the Valentis to minimise the scandal, so they’d issued a joint statement to the media that the wedding had been cancelled due to ‘irreconcilable differences’ between the bride and groom.

      Luca, wanting to get away from the palace, had gone to meet their long-lost half-sister Gabriella in Canada; which meant that, instead of their original plan of Antonio being the one to go over and meet Gabriella, he was stuck here.

      In charge of the country.

      Something he’d never really expected to happen, despite being third in line to the throne. He’d thought his father would go on for ever, and then Luca would take over, and then Luca and Princess Meribel would have children who would be next in line.

      But, this last year, their lives had been turned upside down. Everything he’d thought he knew turned out not to be true.

      Life at the palace was turning out to be much more stressful than taking part in dangerous missions in the army. At least as a soldier Antonio had known what he was doing. He’d had a strategy. He’d had a team he could rely on. They were all working on the same side; his team listened to him, as their leader, and he’d had a brilliant second-in-command in Nathan. In Casavalle, things were nowhere near as clear cut. It was so easy to misinterpret words and put the wrong spin on things; the most innocent comment could swiftly turn into a political nightmare.

      Just one day, he thought wistfully. He’d love to have just one single day where he could have the time to gather his thoughts instead of constantly firefighting and dealing with political situations. Had it been like that for their father? Was that why King Vincenzo had always been so remote and distant, even from his sons, because he’d simply been worn out from watching every single word or expression or gesture?

      At the rap on his open door, Antonio looked up to see the palace secretary standing there.

      ‘Good afternoon, Miles. What can I do for you?’ he asked, forcing a smile and hoping that whatever the secretary wanted from him wasn’t going to mean yet more politics and media attention.

      ‘Sir,’ Miles began.

      The palace secretary was usually unflappable. Right now he looked distinctly nervous and Antonio’s heart sank. Was the palace about to be hit with yet another scandal? They said things came in threes, and a long-lost princess and a broken engagement because the bride was pregnant by someone else definitely counted as two…

      This felt like living in a television soap opera. And Antonio wasn’t enjoying the drama one little bit. Yet again, he wished he was back in the army. Back in the job he was really good at.

      ‘What is it?’ he asked.

      ‘I have someone asking to see you.’

      Why would Miles be worried about that? ‘Who?’ he asked, narrowing his eyes.

      ‘A young lady. Tia Phillips. She said she knows you.’

      Tia was here?

      Antonio shook himself mentally and damped down that little frisson of desire. Their one night together wasn’t going to be repeated. They’d both made it clear that it was for comfort, it was for one night only, and neither of them had any expectations of the other. And Miles didn’t need to know anything about that. He just needed to know that Tia was telling the truth. ‘Yes, she knows me. I served with her brother.’

      Guilt flooded through Antonio. In a way, he’d abandoned Tia twice, now—the first time after he’d told her that her brother had been killed, because he hadn’t known how to deal with it; then he’d been called back to work, and after that his father had died and he’d been busy with official duties. The second time had been that night in London following the charity gala, when they’d ended up comforting each other in bed. Tia had vanished early the next morning before he’d awoken, leaving him a note explaining that she was due at work.

      Which had pretty much let him off the hook.

      Part of him had felt relieved, because it meant he didn’t have to unpick his feelings and deal with them; but part of him had felt guilty about sleeping with his best friend’s little sister. It had been mutual comfort, but he still felt responsible. And he’d planned to call her to see if there was anything he could do to help her mother. He wasn’t that much of a cad, no matter that the media liked to call him a playboy who would never settle down. The only true bit about the media’s claims was that he didn’t want to settle down; he kept his love affairs short and very discreet. And he always made it very clear that he wasn’t offering his girlfriends a future. That the relationship was just for now, not for ever.

      But, as he’d been about to call Tia, that morning, his mother had called him with the news about Gabriella and her potential claim to the throne. Queen Maria had needed her youngest son to come home to discuss the situation with her and help her to plan what they should do next; and it would all have to be done confidentially because she hadn’t wanted to put the extra pressure on Luca, who they both thought had quite enough on his plate ruling the country. All thoughts of Tia had flown out of his head and he’d gone straight back to Casavalle without getting in touch with her.

      Antonio and the Queen had been close to working out how to deal with the situation about Gabriella when Princess Meribel dropped her bombshell and Luca’s wedding was cancelled. Everything had gone haywire after that, and in the last month Antonio felt as if he’d barely had a moment to breathe.

      ‘She’s telephoned the palace a few times,’ Miles said, ‘but I didn’t expect her to turn up here.’

      Tia had called a few times? Why? ‘Why didn’t you put her through?’ Antonio asked.

      Miles winced. ‘I didn’t want to repeat the mistake I made with Gabriella’s letter to Queen Maria.’

      Gabriella’s letter. The bombshell that had made it through to the Queen because it was marked ‘Personal and Confidential’. Luca had been quite hard on the palace secretary about it, and Miles had been extremely vigilant about which messages made it through to the family ever since.

      But Antonio was the youngest child, and he was СКАЧАТЬ