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She wheeled herself over to the couch where he’d sat down. “We always knew there was something exceptional about you. Angelo told us the same thing after observing you at the orphanage. When I spoke with the Mother Superior, she predicted you’d been placed there by God for a unique reason. She claimed that one day all would be revealed.”
Tears filled her eyes. “That day has finally come, and we couldn’t be happier for you. You’re the son of a great king. It all fits.”
“Pippa—” He struggled to say her name, but he was too overwhelmed to think, let alone talk. After studying the photos once more, he put them in his shirt pocket.
“There’s much to tell you,” Signor Bruno broke in. “I understand you’ve never traveled to La Valazzura. The name of our beautiful country comes from its many blue lakes hidden in the mountains that are covered in pine trees. In the fifteenth century it was a free imperial enclave of self-ruling and autonomy, represented in the imperial diet, subordinate only to the Holy Roman emperor.?
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Unable to stay seated, Nico walked around for a minute while he attempted to process what he was hearing.
“Our country speaks Italian and some Slovenian. It has undergone a civil war started by your father’s cousin almost thirty years ago. Giuseppe Umberto, now sixty-three, has tried many times to bring about a coup that would take your father down. He never succeeded, but there was an interminable amount of suffering that cost thousands of lives. There were many attempts on the life of your father.
“For a short time at the beginning of the rebellion, your father had a mistress, who conceived his child at a time when his marriage to the queen went through a bad period. They couldn’t have children. Though she wanted to adopt, he wanted a child of his own body. Like you, he wanted his own blood. No one else’s.”
Nico’s eyes closed tightly for a minute.
“The two of them became estranged because of it. For a short time he sought comfort elsewhere. When Carlo learned Nedda was pregnant, he had her installed in her own apartment in Mesecino on the other side of the country and provided for her needs.
“He didn’t want to embarrass the queen, whom he loved despite their problems. Naturally he wanted to protect Nedda and you, the only son he would ever have.
“But when full war broke out, Carlo begged me to take both of you out of the country where you and your mother would be far from danger. Unfortunately, she was severely injured and died in the hospital before she could be rescued. I had her buried there, then I brought you to the orphanage here in Italy.”
“Did my father know I was still alive?”
“No. I didn’t dare tell him, or he would have insisted on my bringing you back to the palace. It wasn’t safe at that time. The queen could never have handled it, and both of you, maybe all three, could have been assassinated by followers of Giuseppe.”
The story was stranger than fiction, but it was Nico’s story. By now he was riveted.
“There were many refugees. I decided to take five other orphaned children who’d lost their parents to safety with you. Since then, all five have been adopted. But apparently you didn’t want to belong to anyone except your own parents.”
“No,” Enzo conceded. “As you’ve discovered, Nicolo was always his own person.”
The other man chuckled. “Just like your father. You have to understand that the king was a target for years. His evil cousin wanted the power. Word got out that your father had a mistress and a baby. For that reason, no one could know where you’d been put in hiding for fear of assassination. Not even the church in Turin or the Mother Superior ever knew they were housing the son of King Carlo.”
This was all too much. “What about the queen?”
“Incredibly the secret stayed intact from her. But now the prime minister of our government is calling for a new king. On one side, Giuseppe wants desperately to attain the throne and has been the root cause of the unrest. He’s super ambitious and doesn’t have the love of the country, but he commands his own army. The second your father’s funeral was over, I took the queen aside and told her you were alive.”
Nico groaned. “I’m the love child she could never have. How she must despise me!” he bit out.
“Not despise. Like everyone else, Liliane believed you’d died with your mother. To learn that there’s a part of him alive in you has come as a tremendous shock. Their inability to have children caused real trouble in their marriage. I’m sure her pain over his affair will continue to stay with her, but she believed in him and the monarchy.
“The fact is, your father was well loved and she knows it. No matter her bitterness, if you—his son—are equal to the task and have his same remarkable genes, she’ll sense it after meeting you. If she thinks you could fill your father’s shoes after the parliament guides and helps you learn how to rule, her opinion will weigh heavily with them because she’s revered by most of the people too.”
A strange sound escaped Nico’s throat. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know how she can she feel anything but the fiercest resentment of me. It wouldn’t surprise me if she wished I were dead.”
“That’s for you to find out if you decide to meet her.”
“Cara Dio! Did the queen know my mother?”
“She met her once.”
“I can’t imagine any good coming out of this.”
“Would you rather I hadn’t contacted the duca? Do you wish you didn’t know anything?”
His jaw hardened. “I don’t know if I have an answer to that question.”
