Page 58 of Stolen Princess's Secret

Outreach, Tomas called it. Surrounding Claudia with people who knew and accepted her as her own good self was what Tomas meant.

He’d made it happen. Simple.

He’d braced his big body as he’d stood in front of all comers, crossed his arms and reminded every last one of them of all she’d ever done for them and the love she deserved. He’d warned them ever so politely that should they ever feel the urge to use his wife’s overarching need to make herself useful for their own benefit they should do so extremely carefully. If anyone broke her, he would break them. No exceptions. He was being very reasonable!

How fortunate everyone agreed.

‘I need your help these next few weeks to supervise Alhena,’ he said to Claudia one morning as he pulled up a chair to her bedside. There were dozens of chairs in the room and yet not one of them seemed like a useful place to sit. ‘She’s not immune to one of the male goldens we introduced her to and I want to bring them both in here for you to keep an eye on.’

‘You mean in this room?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you chide me for bringing my work home with me,’ she murmured with a roll of her eyes. ‘Okay, yes. I’ll do it. But only because I like Alhena.’

‘Perfect.’ He sighed. ‘But if she has taken to him, they’ll need close observation. That’ll take weeks. In here. Under your watchful gaze.’

‘Now you’re just making stuff up.’

‘You noticed. You can always sit and watch the grass grow. I’m trying to be supportive about the fact that you’ll be spending these next few months on bedrest until this baby is born. You’ll crack unless you have something to do, and I need you whole when the baby comes. You’re going to be the most amazing mother, have I mentioned that? Adventurous and unconventional, tender and encouraging. There will be hugs. So many hugs, and falcon jesses. It takes a village to raise a child and I’m all for building one right here around you. We’re going to add a table and a couple of comfy chairs by the window, and in the mornings I can push the screens aside and let the mountains in. And we’ll put the baby’s bed over in the corner, and once she arrives she’ll sleep long and well, until we’re ready to greet her every morning.’

‘Oh, you poor deluded soul, but please continue. Are there tapestries on the walls?’

‘Er...yes?’

‘Excellent.’

‘What else do you want me to set right in our world?’ he wanted to know. Big or small, petty, silly or serious—he’d make a deal with the devil if it meant keeping his wife hopeful.

The doctor arrived for her weekly check-up, and asked questions and took Claudia’s temperature and blood pressure, then collected a blood sample and a urine sample and finally pulled out her stethoscope and listened to the heartbeat.

Then she sat back on the edge of the bed, arms crossed, and levelled them both with a no-nonsense gaze. ‘Here’s the deal. You’re too far away from proper medical care here and we need to do some investigating.’

‘I can relocate to the palace,’ offered Claudia, but the doctor was already shaking her head and Tomas’s heart was dropping to his toes.

Just when he’d thought he had everything under control.

But it came with the territory and he was there for it.

‘Pack your bags,’ the doctor said. ‘You’re going straight to the hospital.’

From bad to worse and worse again, Tomas paced the hall of the hospital and King Casimir, Ana and Ildris paced with him. He wasn’t built for narrow halls and tiny waiting rooms, he wasn’t used to this kind of terror. None of them were.

Part of him wished Claudia could see them all falling to pieces at the thought of her absence. She’d know she was loved then, without doubt, rhyme or reason. Her usefulness had nothing to do with it.

He couldn’t stop pacing.

He wanted nothing more than to return with her to the mountains.

‘You love her,’ Ildris murmured. ‘I wasn’t sure of that.’

‘You need to stop talking.’

‘Mr Sokolov?’ A woman had appeared by way of the door at the end of the corridor.

‘Yes.’ There was no need for titles here.

‘You can see your wife now.’

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