Crowned For My Royal Baby (Mills & Boon Modern) by Maisey Yates

Author:Maisey Yates [Yates, Maisey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mills & Boon Modern
Published: 2020-08-20T13:26:18+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Hercules

THE DAY OF the wedding, of the coronation, dawned bright and clear. My father was nowhere to be seen, and I was not unhappy with that. I was told by members of staff that he had gone up to his new home—a lavish keep nestled in the mountains—and would likely not be coming down.

It was fine by me, and I would be making an announcement regarding the King’s health for the benefit of the media.

I was ready.

Ready for all of this to be cemented. Ready for it to be over.

We had settled into a pattern at my home, the four of us. Lily chattered and filled the awkward spaces that existed between the adults, and Marissa’s mother had assumed an easy and content position nannying the child. Marissa had been undergoing a crash course in the customs and laws of the country, and what duties were required of a royal spouse.

Meanwhile I had made sure that every piece was in place for an easy transition of power and that I could swiftly repudiate the prohibitive laws my father had placed that kept the people in poverty.

Change what happened. And I knew that change would not be instantaneous, but it would be as close to it as possible under my watch.

And Lily would bear witness to it. To the changes that a good ruler would make, and I had confidence that she would make changes of her own. Her sweet nature—which seemed natural to her—surprised me at every turn.

And it made me wonder if she would have turned out half so well at this point in time if she had been raised with me.

There was something in that child—a lightness—that was not in me. And I knew that it could have only come from Marissa.

I wouldn’t see Marissa until she actually began to walk down the aisle, but I did see Lily, dressed all in white, with ribbons woven through her dark hair and a basket of flowers in her hand. She lit up, and she ran to me, opening her arms.

And the sight was enough to bring me to my knees.

I did not understand how this worked. I had never cared for children much at all. I didn’t dislike them, but they weren’t often in my presence. My sister had been born when I was fifteen, but my father had never allowed me much interaction with her.

But every fiber of my being responded to this child, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would wage war for her.

Essentially, I had. And it had nothing to do really with fairness to her. Everything to do with the fact that I wanted her. She was my child, and I wanted her as mine. I could not go on in a world where I knew she existed and pretended that she did not. An emotional revelation for a man like me, especially one who had a father such as mine.

Every so often that terrified me.

Because wanting just for the sake of it was a dangerous sort of drug.

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