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“Is she crazy?” Zoe asked while she stood there, hesitant to try jumping.
“Be careful how you answer that,” Dottie warned him. “Little royal pitchers have big ears and hers seem to be working just fine.”
Alex couldn’t help chuckling. He smiled at his daughter. “She’s funny-crazy. Don’t you think?”
“Yes.” Zoe giggled again.
“Come on and jump.” After eight attempts accompanied by a few tears, she finally managed a perfect jump. Dottie clapped her hands. “Good job, Zoe. Next time you’ll do more.”
She put the rope aside and reached into her bag of tricks. His daughter wasn’t the only one interested to see what she would pull out next. “For this game we have to get on our tummies.”
The speech therapist might as well have been a magician. At this point his daughter was entranced and did what was suggested without waiting for Alex. In another minute Dottie had laid twenty-four cards facedown on the floor in four rows. She turned one card over. “Do you know what this is, Zoe?”
His daughter nodded. “Pig.”
“Yes, and there’s another card just like it. You have to remember where this card is, and then find the other one. When you do, then you make a book of them and put the pile to the side. You get one turn. Go ahead.”
Zoe turned over another card.
“What is it?”
“Whale.”
“Yes, but it’s not a pig. So you have to put the card back. Okay, Daddy. It’s your turn.”
Alex turned over a card in the corner.
“Tiger, Daddy.”
Before he could say anything, he saw their eyes look to the doorway. Alex turned around in frustration to see who had interrupted them.
“Hector?”
“Forgive me, Your Highness. There’s a call for you from Argentum on an urgent matter that needs your attention.”
Much as Alex hated to admit it, this had to be an emergency, otherwise Bari would have sent him an email. Barisou Jouflas was the head mining engineer on the island of Argentum and Alex’s closest friend since college. He always enjoyed talking to him and got to his feet, expecting an outburst from Zoe. To his astonishment, Dottie had her completely engrossed in the matching game.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Dottie nodded without looking at him.
“Bye, Daddy,” his daughter said, too busy looking for a matching card to turn her head.
Bye, Daddy—Since when? No tantrum because he was leaving?
Out of the corner of her eye Dottie watched the prince disappear and felt a twinge of disappointment for his daughter. They’d all been having fun and it was one time when he hadn’t wanted to leave, she felt sure of it. But there were times when the affairs of the kingdom did have to take priority. Dottie understood that and forgave him.
He might be gone some time. Dottie still had other tests to do that she preferred to take place outside the palace. Now would be a good time to carry them out while Zoe was still amenable. Her speech was close to unintelligible, but she was bright as a button and Dottie understood most of what she was trying to say because of her years of training and personal experience.
Once they’d concluded the matching game she said, “Zoe? Do you want to come down to the beach with me?” The little girl clapped her hands in excitement.
“All right, then. Let’s do it.” Dottie got up and pulled a bag of items out of the bigger bag. “Shall we go down from here?”
“Yes!” Zoe stood up and started down the stairs at the far end of the patio. Dottie followed. The long stairway covering two stories led to the dazzling blue water below.
It was a warm, beautiful day. When they reached the beach, she pulled out a tube of sunscreen and covered both of them. Next she drew floppy sun hats from the bag for them to put on.
“Here’s a shovel. Will you show me how you build a castle?”
Zoe got to work and made a large mound.
“That’s wonderful. Now where do you think this flag should go?” She handed her a little one.
“Here!” She placed it on the very top.
“Perfect. Make a hole where the front door of the castle is located.”
She made a big dent with her finger at the bottom. Dottie rummaged in the bag for a tiny sailboat and gave it to her. “This is your daddy’s boat. Where do you think it goes?”
“Here.” Zoe placed it at the bottom around the side.
“Good.” Again Dottie reached in the bag and pulled out a plastic figure about one inch high. “Let’s pretend this is your daddy. Where does he live in the castle?”
Zoe thought about it for a minute, then stuck him in the upper portion of the mound.
“And where do you sleep?” Dottie gave her a little female figure.
“Here.” Zoe crawled around and pushed the figure into the mound at approximately the same level as the other.
“Do you sleep by your Yiayia?” “No.”
“Can you show me where she sleeps?” Dottie handed her another figure. Zoe moved around a little more and put it in at the same height. Everyone slept on the second floor.
“I like your castle. Let’s take off our shoes and walk over to the water. Maybe we can find some pretty stones to decorate the walls. Here’s a bucket to carry everything.”
They spent the next ten minutes picking up tiny, multicolored stones. When they returned to the mound Dottie said, “Can you pour them on the sand and pick out the different colors? We’ll put them in piles.”
Zoe nodded, eager to sort everything. She was meticulous.
“Okay. Why don’t you start with the pink stones and put them around the middle of the castle.” Her little charge got the point in a hurry and did a masterful job. “Now place the orange stones near the top and the brown stones at the bottom.”
While Zoe was finishing her masterpiece, Dottie took several pictures at different angles with her phone. “You’ll have to show these pictures to your daddy. Now I think it’s time to put our shoes on and go back to the palace. I’m hungry and thirsty and I bet you are, too. Here—let me brush the sand off your little piggies.”
Zoe looked at her. “What?”
“These.” She tugged on Zoe’s toes. “These are your little pigs. Piggies. They go wee wee wee.” She made a squealing sound.
When recognition dawned, laughter poured out of Zoe like tinkling bells. For just a moment it sounded like her little boy’s laughter. Emotion caught Dottie by the throat.
“Mrs. Richards?” a male voice spoke out of the blue, startling her.
She jumped to her feet, fighting the tears pricking her eyelids, and looked around. A patrol boat had pulled up on the shore and she hadn’t even heard it. Two men had converged on them, obviously guards protecting the palace grounds. “Yes?” She put her arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “Is something wrong?”
“Prince Alexius has been looking for you. Stay here. He’ll be joining you in a moment.”
She’d done something wrong. Again.
No sooner had he said the words than she glimpsed the prince racing down the steps to the beach with the speed of a black panther in pursuit of its prey. The image sent a chill up her spine that raised the hairs on the back of her neck.
When he caught up to them, he gave a grim nod of dismissal to the guards, who got back in the patrol boat and took off.
“Look what I made, Daddy—” His daughter was totally unaware of the byplay.
Dottie could hear his labored breathing and knew it came from fright, not because he was out of shape. Anything but. While Zoe gave him a running commentary of their beach adventure in her inimitable way, Dottie put the bucket and shovel in the bag. When she turned around, she discovered him hunkered down, examining his daughter’s work of art.
After listening to her intently, he lifted his dark head and shot Dottie a piercing black glance. Sotto voce, he said, “There are pirates in these waters who wait for an opportunity like this to—”
“I understand,” she cut him off, feeling sick to her stomach. She’d figured it out before he’d said anything. “Forgive me. I swear it won’t happen again.”
“You’re right about that.”
His words froze the air in her lungs before he gripped his daughter’s hand and started for the stairs.
“Come on,” Zoe called to her.
Dottie followed, keeping her eyes on his hard-muscled physique clothed in a white polo shirt and dark blue trousers. Halfway up the stairs on those long, powerful legs, he gathered Zoe in his arms and carried her the rest of the way to the patio.
“The queen is waiting for Zoe to have lunch with her,” he said when she caught up to him. “A maid is waiting outside my suite to conduct you back to your room. I’ve asked for a tray to be sent to you. We’ll talk later.”
Dottie heard Zoe’s protests as he walked away. She gathered up the other bag and met the maid who accompanied her back to her own quarters. Once alone, she fled into the en suite bathroom and took a shower to wash off the sand and try to get her emotions under control.
No matter how unwittingly, she’d endangered the life of the princess. What if his little daughter had been kidnapped? It would have been Dottie’s fault. All of it. The thought was so horrific, she couldn’t bear it. The prince had every right to tell her she was leaving on the next flight to Athens.
This was one problem she didn’t know how to fix. Being sorry wasn’t enough. She’d wanted to make a difference in Zoe’s life. The princess had passed every test with flying colors. Dottie was the one who’d never made the grade.
After drying off, she put on a white linen dress and sandals, prepared to be driven to the airport once the prince had told her he no longer required her services. As she walked back into the bedroom, there was a knock on the door.
Dottie opened it to a maid who brought her a lunch tray and set it on the table in the alcove. She had no appetite but quenched her thirst with the flask of iced tea provided while she answered some emails from home. As she drained her second glass, there was another knock on the door.
“Hector?” she said after opening it. Somehow she wasn’t surprised. He’d met her at the airport in Athens for her helicopter ride, and would deposit her at Hellenica’s airport.
“Mrs. Richards. If you’ve finished your lunch, His Highness has asked me to take you to his office.”
She deserved this. “I’m ready now.”
By the time they reached it, she’d decided to leave today and would make it easy for the prince. But the room was empty. “Please be seated. His Highness will be with you shortly.”
“Thank you.” After he left, she sat on the love seat and waited. When the prince walked in, she jumped right back up again. “I’m so sorry for what happened today.”
He seemed to have calmed down. “It’s my fault for not having warned you earlier. There was a kidnapping attempt on Zoe at her preschool last fall.”
“Oh, no—” Dottie cried out, aghast.
“Fortunately it failed. Since then I’ve tripled the security. It never occurred to me you would take Zoe down that long flight of stairs, even if it is our private beach. We can be grateful the patrol boats were watching you the entire time. You’re as much a target as Zoe and you’re my responsibility while you’re here in Hellenica.”
“I understand.”
“Please be seated, Mrs. Richards.”
“I—I can’t,” she stammered. Dottie bemoaned the fact that earlier during the testing, he’d called her Dorothy and had shown a teasing side to his nature. It had been unexpected and welcome. Right now those human moments out on the patio might never have been.
He eyed her up and down. “Have you injured yourself in some way?”
“You know I haven’t,” she murmured. “I wanted to tell you that you don’t need to dismiss me because I’m leaving as soon as someone can drive me to the airport.”
His black brows knit together in a fierce frown. “Whatever gave you the idea that your services are no longer required?”
She blinked in confusion. “You did, on the beach.”
“Explain that to me,” he demanded.
“When I swore to you that nothing like this would ever happen again, you said I was right about that.”
His inky-black eyes had a laserlike quality. “So you jumped to the conclusion that I no longer trusted you with my daughter? Are you always this insecure?”
Dottie swallowed hard. “Only around monarchs who have to worry about pirates and kidnappers. I didn’t know about those incidents and can’t imagine how terrifying it must have been for you. When you couldn’t find us today, it had to have been like déjà vu. I can’t bear to think I caused you even a second’s worry.”
He took a deep breath. “From now on, whether with Zoe or alone, don’t do anything without informing me of your intentions first. Then there won’t be a problem.”
“I agree.” He was being much more decent about this than she had any right to expect. A feeling of admiration for his willingness to give her a second chance welled up inside her. When their eyes met again, she felt something almost tangible pass between them she couldn’t explain, but it sent a sudden rush of warmth through her body, and she found herself unable to look away.
CHAPTER THREE
THE prince cleared his throat, breaking the spell. “After spending the day with my daughter, tell me what you’ve learned about her.”
Dottie pulled herself together. The fear that she’d alienated the prince beyond salvaging almost made her forget why she’d come to Hellenica in the first place.
“I’ll give you the bad news first. She has trouble articulating. Research tells us there are several reasons for it, but none of it matters. The fact is, she struggles with this problem.
“Now for the good news. Zoe is exceptionally intelligent with above-average motor and cognitive skills. Her vocabulary is remarkable. She understands prepositions and uses the right process to solve problems, such as in matching. Playing with her demonstrates her amazing dexterity. You saw her handling the balls and jumping rope. She has excellent coordination and balance.
“She follows directions the first time without problem. If you took a good look at that castle, it proves she sees things spatially. Her little mound had a first floor and a second floor, just like the palace. She understands her physical world and understands what she hears. Zoe only has one problem, as I said, but it’s a big one since for the most part she can’t make herself understood to anyone but you and the queen and, I presume to some extent, Sofia.”
Alex nodded. “So that’s why she’s withdrawing from other people.”
“Yes. You’ve told me she’s been more difficult over the past few months. She’s getting older and is losing her confidence around those who don’t have her problem. She’s smart enough to know she’s different and not like everyone else. She wants to avoid situations that illuminate the difference, so she runs away and hides. It’s the most natural instinct in the world.
“Zoe wants to make herself understood. The more she can’t do it, the angrier she becomes, thus the tantrums. There’s nothing wrong with her psychologically that wouldn’t clear up immediately once she’s free to express herself like everyone else does. She pushes people away and clings to you because you love her without qualification. But she knows the rest of the world doesn’t love her, and she’s feeling like a misfit.”
The prince’s sober expression masked a deep fear. She saw it in his eyes. “Can she overcome this?”
“Of course. She needs help saying all her sounds, but particularly the consonants. H‘s and T‘s are impossible for her. Few of her words come out right. Her frustration level has to be off the charts. But with constant work, she’ll talk as well as I do.”
He rubbed the back of his neck absently. “Are you saying you used to have the same problem?”
“I had a worse one. I stuttered so severely, I was the laughingstock of my classes in elementary school. Children are cruel to other children. I used to pretend to be sick so I wouldn’t have to go to school.”
“How did you get through it?” He sounded pained for her.
“My aunt raised me. She was a stickler for discipline and sent me to a speech therapist every weekday, who taught me how to breathe, how to pace myself when I talked. After a few years I stuttered less and less. By high school it only showed up once in a while.
“Zoe has a different problem and needs to work on her sounds every day. If you could be the one encouraging her like a coach, she would articulate correct sounds faster. The more creativity, the better. I’ve brought toys and games you can play with her. While she’s interacting with you, she’ll learn to model her speech after you. Slowly but surely it will come.”
“But you’ll be here, too.”
“Of course. You and I will work with her one on one, and sometimes the three of us will play together. I can’t emphasize enough how much progress she’ll make if you’re available on a regular basis.”
He shifted his weight. “How long do you think this will take?”
“Months to possibly several years. It’s a gradual process and requires patience on everyone’s part. When you feel confident, then another therapist can come in my place and—”
“I hired you,” he interrupted her, underlining as never before that she was speaking to a prince.
“Yes, for the initial phase, but I’m a diagnostician and am needed other places.”
His eyes narrowed on her face. “Is there a man in New York waiting for you to get back to him?”
No. That was a long time ago, she thought sorrowfully. Since then she’d devoted her time to her career. “Why does my personal life have to enter into this discussion?”
“I thought the point was obvious. You’re young and attractive.”
“Thank you. For that matter so are you, Your Highness, but you have more serious matters on your mind. So do I.”
There she went again, speaking her thoughts out loud, offending him right and left. He studied her for a long time. “If it’s money …”
“It’s not. The Institute pays me well.”
“Then?” He left the word hanging in the air.
“There is no then. You have your country to rule over. I have a career. The people with speech problems are my country. But for the time I’m here, I’ll do everything in my power to get this program going for Zoe.”
An odd tension had sprung between them. “Zoe only agreed to stop crying and eat lunch with the queen as long as she could return to the patio to play with you this afternoon,” he said. “She had a better time with you this morning than I think she’s ever had with anyone else.”
Dottie smiled. “You mean besides you. That’s because she was given the nonstop attention every child craves without being negatively judged. Would it be all right with you if she comes to my room for her lessons?”
“After the grilling you gave me, will I be welcome, too?” he countered in a silky voice that sent darts of awareness through her body. The prince was asking her permission after the outspoken way she’d just addressed him?
“I doubt Zoe will stay if you don’t join us. Hopefully in a few days she’ll come to my room, even when you can’t be there. The alcove with the table makes it especially convenient for the games I’ve brought. If you’ll make out a schedule and rules for me to follow, then there won’t have to be so many misunderstandings on my part.”
“Anything else?” She had a feeling he was teasing her now. This side of him revealed his charm and added to the depth of the man.
“Where does her Greek tutor teach her?”
“In the library, but she’s developed an aversion to it and stays in her bedroom.”
“That’s what I used to do. It’s where you can sleep and have no worries. In that room you can pretend you’re normal like everyone else.” Maybe it was a trick of light, but she thought she saw a glimmer of compassion radiate from those black depths. “As for your patio, I think it ought to remain your special treat for her.”
“So do I. Why don’t you go on up to your room. I’ll bring Zoe in a few minutes. Later this evening you’ll join me in the guest dining room near your suite and we’ll discuss how you want to spend your time while you’re in Hellenica when you’re not with my daughter.”
“That’s very kind of you,” Dottie murmured, but she didn’t move because she didn’t know if she’d been dismissed or not. When he didn’t speak, she said, “Do I need to wait for a maid to escort me back to my room?”
His lips twitched, causing her breath to catch at the sight of such a beautiful man whose human side was doing things to her equilibrium without her consent. “Only if you’re afraid you can’t find it.”
She stared into his eyes. “Thank you for trusting me. With work, Zoe’s speech will improve.”
On that note she left his office, feeling his all-seeing gaze on her retreating back. She hurried along the corridor on trembling legs and found the staircase back to the guest suite. Now that she’d discovered she was still employed by him, she was ravenous and ate the lunch she’d left on the tray.
Before he came with Zoe, she set things up to resemble a mini schoolroom; crayons, scissors, paper, building blocks, beads to string, hide-and-seek games, puzzles, sorting games. Flash cards. She’d brought several sets so he could keep a pack on him. All of it served as a device while she helped his daughter with her sounds.
That’s why you’re here, Dottie. It’s the only reason. Don’t ever forget it.
Alex found Dottie already seated in the guest dining room when he joined her that evening. She looked summery in a soft blue crochet top and white skirt that followed the lines and curves of her alluring figure.
He smiled. “May I join you?”
“Of course.”
“You’re sure?”
“I came from New York to try to be of help.”
It wasn’t the answer he’d wanted. In truth, he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted, but he felt her reserve around him when she wasn’t with Zoe and was determined to get to the bottom of it. He sat down opposite her and within a minute their dinner was served.
Once they were alone again he said, “Whenever you wish to leave the palace, a car and driver will be at your disposal. Hector will arrange it. A bodyguard will always be with you. Hopefully you won’t find my security people obtrusive.”
“I’m sure I won’t. Thank you.” She began eating, but the silence stretched between them. Finally she said, “Could I ask you something without you thinking I’m criticizing you or stepping over the line?”
“Because I’m a prince?”
“Because you’re a prince, a man and a father.” She lifted her fabulous blue eyes to him. “I don’t know which of those three people will be irked and maybe even angered.”
Alex tried to keep a straight face. “I guess we won’t know until I hear your question.”
A sigh came out of her. “When did you stop eating dinner with Zoe as part of your natural routine?”
He hadn’t seen that question coming. “After my wife died, I had to make up for a lot of missed work in my capacity as overseer of the mining industry of our country. Hellenica couldn’t have the high quality of life it enjoys without the revenue paid by other countries needing our resources. It requires constant work and surveillance.
“I spent my weekends with Zoe, but weekdays my hours were long, so she ate dinner with her nannies and my grandmother, who could get around then and spent a lot of her time on Aurum with us. However, I never missed kissing my daughter good-night and putting her to bed. That routine has gradually become the norm.
“With Stasio gone the past six weeks, I’ve had to be here and have been stretched to the max with monarchy business plus my own work.”
“Do you mind if I ask what it is you do for your brother? I’ve often wondered what a crown prince’s daily routine is really like.”
“Let me put it this way. On top of working with the ministers while he runs the complex affairs of our country on a daily basis, Stasio has at least four hundred events to attend or oversee during a year’s time. That’s more than one a day where he either gives a speech, entertains international dignitaries, attends openings or christens institutions, all while promoting the general welfare of Hellenica.”