But…

But.

Prince Alexandros and Princess Lily would be here.

And…this was really huge…Nikos would be here as well.

Nikos, who’d fathered a child to another woman before she’d left the island. Nikos, who’d married Marika. Nikos, who she’d thought she loved with all her heart. Who’d finally, dreadfully, taught her not to trust…anyone.

He’d thrown her in the deep end here-but she would not sink.

He hadn’t warned her. He’d expect her to be…ordinary.

She glanced at her watch. It was still only midday. She had seven hours. Could she?

Nikos would be here.

She would be a princess.

Nothing to it, she thought, mentally spitting on her hands and getting down and dusty. She wasn’t fashion editor of one of the world’s biggest glossies for nothing.

‘Mrs Lavros, if my cellphone doesn’t work here then I need a landline,’ she said. ‘And the Internet. I need help to become a princess and I need it fast.’

She didn’t come down until seven-thirty. She almost didn’t come down then.

She was listening to Nicky read. She and Nicky had changed reader/listener roles about two years back when he’d decreed her choice of stories was boring. Since then this had become her special time of day-to quieten nerves, to remind herself what was important, to focus solely on the two of them.

And this night she needed her quiet time more than she’d ever needed it in her life. This night she was terrified. For the moment she went downstairs she turned into a princess.

Nicky was reading from a manual for a Model T Ford. Gripping stuff. Much more gripping than what was happening downstairs.

But she couldn’t stay up here for ever. Finally the housekeeper appeared. ‘Ma’am, it’s Nikos,’ she said apologetically. ‘He says if you’re not downstairs in two minutes he’ll come up and carry you down. And I think he means it.’