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‘What?’ Danyl asked, noticing.
She allowed him a moment, to take in the chessboard, to realise his mistake, before moving her Knight into checkmate.
‘And the student becomes the master,’ Danyl said without malice or anger, only pleasure at seeing her win.
He swept her up onto his lap and peppered kisses across her face and neck, before Mason pulled away to lock eyes with him.
‘Are you sure you don’t mind?’
‘Mind about what? You beating me at chess? Yes,’ he said, finding that spot beneath her ear that never failed to drive her wild. ‘I mind greatly,’ he said, his words slightly muffled. ‘I might,’ he said, pulling back to look at her, ‘have to have you eliminated. I can do that, you know. I’m a prince.’
The sheer arrogance in his voice reduced her to giggles. Something Mason found was happening with alarming frequency these days. Before her train of thought brought back the seriousness in her eyes.
‘I’m not talking about that... I mean the baby. I know we don’t...’
‘I’m ecstatic. Over the moon. Ridiculously happy,’ he said sincerely. His eyes had sparkled the moment he’d told her about the pregnancy. The moment they realised they were going to have a beautiful baby. ‘And I can’t wait to tell the world!’ he half shouted into the empty apartment.
She stifled her laughter again. ‘What about the press...?’ she asked, doubts and hurt still present behind their shared joy.
‘The drug tests were negative and the press knows it. I’m sure Harry will be cleared too. And there’s nothing that time won’t heal. Nothing. Mason, I’m... I’m humbled by what we’re about to embark on. I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d rather be with, or do this with.’
His hand swept around her middle. And in that moment she knew that he was feeling the same as she, that neither could quite believe that they had created a child. He placed a kiss over their joined hands, gently replaced her on the sofa and disappeared off to the kitchen.
The last month had passed in a whirlwind. Danyl had arranged for a doctor to come to the apartment and visit before he’d even told her the news. It hadn’t upset her, which surprised her—it only made her love him all the more. He’d been concerned about the effects from the fall, but the doctor had reassured them that both mother and child were healthy and strong. She’d been worried about the painkillers she’d been taking, but the doctor switched her to paracetamol, which she’d used sparingly since then. Her arm was still in a cast, but that would be off within the month.
When she was with Danyl, she couldn’t contain all the joy she felt. It was as if there was a burst of light emanating from her and she never felt the need to try to stop the beams from falling wherever she went.
But... And there was a but. When he had to leave for college, or for the diplomatic duties he’d assumed at the embassy recently, she was left in the empty apartment and doubts began to creep in. What if he was only with her because of the baby? What would happen once the baby was born? How would she handle being the wife of the King of a country she’d never seen?
But even further beneath all of those were the ones about being a mother, were the ones about her own mother.
Danyl poured Mason her new favourite hot drink and went to the office to Skype his parents.
Mason took the cup, allowing the heat to seep into the palms of her hands, and went to stand beside the window. She’d wished on more occasions than one that there was a balcony, wished she could feel the air on her skin the way she did back home, in Australia.
Now that she had felt the stirrings of motherhood, now that she was about to embark on it with Danyl, it made her even more aware of the feelings she’d spent the best part of twenty years pushing aside, pushing down away from her consciousness. The sliver of pain she’d allowed herself to feel at her mother’s abandonment now felt like a river she wasn’t sure she could stop, building in speed and force every day she got further into the pregnancy.
Individual thoughts about it seemed almost intangible, but the one thing, the one word that rose above the rest on the tide, was why? Had it been her father? Had it been her? Had she not been enough? Had her mother not loved her enough?
Whether it was hormones, or just plain emotions, she couldn’t tell. It didn’t really matter, she supposed. She hadn’t been enough to make her mother want to stay. And now that fear was beginning to bleed into her relationship with Danyl.
Was she enough to make him stay, or was it just their child that had bound them together now? What would have happened had she not become pregnant? Would that horrible man have managed to convince Danyl that she wasn’t worth it? She knew those thoughts were harmful, knew she wanted to clear her mind, worried somehow that the negativity she sometimes felt would affect their baby. But every now and then the tide of questions and thoughts snuck up on her and swept her off her feet.
Danyl had noticed. She realised that. Every now and then he would look at her when this happened, and would find a way to distract her. Pull her back to bed, challenge her to a game of chess she was fast learning to master, offer to cook her some food—something that usually ended in disaster. For a man who was soon to rule a country, it had surprised her that he couldn’t even make toast without burning it, let alone the coffee he liked so much.
That she let him distract her, without telling him what was going on in her mind, was perhaps a little worrying. But when he lo
oked at her with that twinkle in his eye, the one that said they shared the most amazing secret of all time, she couldn’t resist. She fell willingly back into this bubble of joy they had created almost forty storeys above Central Park in New York.
* * *
Danyl closed down the Skype conversation with his parents. It was killing him not to be able to tell them about Mason. He might not have wanted to immediately take up his royal duties back in Ter’harn, but he loved his parents, and had never once kept a secret from them. He could already imagine his mother’s reaction. The surprise, the joy that she’d feel. Almost the same way he felt when he’d first realised that Mason was pregnant. He’d heard about other men in the same position as he, feeling unsure, worrying about the future. He’d felt none of that. He’d simply known that it was right. So right. It was as if some alien sensation had swept across his skin, sinking deep into his bones and somehow changing his DNA, in a way that made him feel complete. Made him feel a thread of happiness and focus that he’d never felt before.
For the first time in years he’d felt able to see himself taking up the reins of responsibility from his parents. Slowly easing himself into life in Ter’harn, learning everything he could from his father so as to best be able to continue the amazing work he’d done. And all of this would happen with Mason by his side.
He didn’t think for one minute that it would be easy for her to find her royal feet, but she was intelligent, a fast learner, kind and more compassionate than he could have imagined. She would make an amazing queen. One who didn’t hold back from challenging him, or his thoughts, to ensure that he really was seeing the right way through his thinking. He thought back to the comments he’d received from his professors at college. Each and every one of them had remarked on his renewed vigour as he attacked each paper, each project with relish.
Danyl knew that he was excited, that he was wrapping up his time in New York so that he could take Mason back to Ter’harn with him. That would, of course, only be after a stop in Australia to visit Mason’s father. Ideally it would be better to tell his parents and her father together, but that would have been not only a logistical nightmare but also simply impossible. There was no way he could get his parents to fly to Australia without first telling them what was going on. Eventually they’d agreed to wait until the cast was off her arm and she’d been given the all-clear before they flew out to her father and then on to his parents.
