‘I don’t want to.’ She sounded like a child-petulant-and she winced but he looked at her with understanding.

‘Of course you don’t. But this way you’ll have your son.’

‘There must be another way.’

‘There is,’ he said reluctantly. ‘We could set you up somewhere else, some gated community where you’d be safe. You have all the royal allowance you’ve never touched, and if it’s used to care for Matty even you might swallow your principles and use it. But you’d be even more isolated than you are here.’

‘I’m not isolated.’

‘I think you are,’ he said softly. ‘You’ve been so badly hurt that you’ve run, not just back to Australia but back in time. Kelly, you’re the mother of the Crown Prince of Alp de Ciel. You knew that when you bore Matty. The crown is his birthright, and it’s your duty to be his mother.’

‘But your mother loves him. His Aunt Laura…’

‘Are you saying you don’t want to be his mother?’

‘No, I…’

‘He doesn’t know you yet,’ Rafael said. ‘He will. He’s already proud of what you do-fascinated. He already thinks you’re beautiful. Trust takes time, and so does love. Kelly, can you give that to him?’

‘But to go back…’

To where she’d been stripped of everything that was important to her-her heart, her pride, her son. How could she go back?

‘You won’t be alone. My mother will be there.’ The grip on her hands grew stronger. ‘You didn’t meet her last time. She comes across to Manhattan in the worst of Alp de Ciel’s winter and spends time with me. You were at the castle for only six weeks after the old prince died, in the last stages of your pregnancy and after Mathieu’s birth. The fuss was such that my mother stayed longer with me and when she returned your son was there but you were gone. You’ll love her.’

‘I don’t do love,’ she snapped and he stilled.