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She let go of his hands and got up to sit on the side of the bed. “That’s because you’re grieving over the parents you never got to know.”
“It’s more than that, Fausta. Every time Queen Liliane looks at me, she’s torn apart all over again, hating the horrible truth that her husband had carried on an affair with my mother. I’m the son who should have been Liliane’s. It’s a monstrous scenario.”
“I agree,” Fausta said in a quiet voice, “and I can’t imagine her pain or yours. But if you will look beyond it for a moment, you now know who you are and where you came from. You don’t have to go through the rest of your life wondering and waiting.”
He stared into her eyes. She was making sense. “That’s true.”
“After I flew to Rome to be with my zia Ottavia, I unloaded on her. As we talked, I began to realize it was selfish of me to be hurt by your decision that we end our relationship. All these years you’ve been on a journey that needed to be taken alone. I understand that better now. I’ll admit I didn’t like it, but I refused to wallow in my pain and decided to concentrate on helping the orphanage.”
There was no one like Fausta. “So you don’t mind my trying to reach you tonight?”
Her chest rose and fell visibly. “I would never have forgiven you if you hadn’t.” The fierceness of her tone convinced him she’d meant it. “What’s going to happen now?”
Nico got up from the chair and walked around for a minute before turning to her. “Since my parents have died and are buried, I can go on with my life being a doctor here in Domodossola.”
She lifted her head to look at him, but her sober expression gave no indication of what was going on inside her. “Or?” she prodded. “You’re being pressured to become the next king.”
Fausta hadn’t grown up the daughter of a king for nothing. “I’ve been approached by Basil and the prime minister to consider it.”
“That isn’t surprising. A while back at breakfast I remember Papa saying how tragic it was that there was no son to inherit the throne of La Valazzura.”
“Your father spoke the truth. Unfortunately, it’s criminal that the only one is the bastard love child who is infinitely unqualified to be the head of the country.”
“I don’t know.” A smile broke out on her beautiful face. “You’ve been a pig farmer. That has to count with all the farmers who need their king to understand the industry that feeds its citizens.”
“Be serious, Fausta.”
“I’m being very serious. You’re a doctor at a time when health care is the chief concern of every head of state on earth. No one could know more about it than you. For that matter, who could dictate immigration policies or understand the plight of war-torn orphans and refugees of this world better than a king who’d grown up in an orphanage to survive?”
“Fausta...”
“It’s true. The more I think about it, I can’t conceive of a man in today’s world who would suit the demands facing your country more than you do.”
He scoffed, though he was deeply touched by her words. “You forget the faction of government that didn’t like my father’s policies. There’s a cousin of my father’s, Giuseppe Umberto, who started the war thirty years ago and is waging a campaign to be put in as king by the parliament.”
“There’s always an opposition party with someone overly zealous and ready to take over. Does this Giuseppe know you exist?”
“I’m afraid he does now.”
“How does the queen feel about it?”
“I have no idea. She hasn’t had enough time to get over the shock that I’m alive.”
“You mean she didn’t know?”
“She knew there’d been a child but thought I had died too. She was never told I’d been taken to safety. When Basil walked me in to the palace to meet her, she took one look at me and almost fainted. There’s a strong resemblance between me and my father. I’ll show you.”
He pulled four photos from his breast pocket and handed them to her. Two of them were the ones Basil had given him. The other two were of his father, one when he was older, the other just before he died.
As she studied them, she shook her head. “How utterly incredible! You don’t need a DNA test. No wonder the queen went into shock.” Fausta kept scrutinizing them. “Your mother was so lovely. There’s a look around her eyes that reminds me of you. How hard for you that you never got to know them.” She put the photos on the bed. “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured in a tearful voice.
“I’m afraid that’s my dilemma.”
“Of course it is—” she cried with infinite understanding.
Nico needed to hold her more than he needed life itself. In the next instant he reached for her. They clung to each other before he found her mouth and began kissing the daylights out of her. Tonight he’d discovered she was his rock.
“I’ve missed you so terribly, Nico.”
