‘I…who?’
‘Who do you think?’ Honey said and beamed and collected a pile of plates and walked up the veranda steps. ‘Who do you think, indeed?’ she repeated as she walked past Holly and through the door into the kitchen. ‘Some wife you make.’
For it was him. Of course it was him. The chopper settled in the same dusty paddock it had landed that first day, carrying Sebastian’s thugs. Georgiou stepped out first and for one awful moment Holly expected the other three men to follow.
But she needn’t have worried. Georgiou hauled open the door to the rear, and it was Andreas who stepped lightly out onto the dust and looked up to the house.
Andreas. And in his arms…
Deefer.
‘Deefer,’ Holly whispered as if it were the little dog who mattered most and not the man holding him.
‘Call him,’ Andreas yelled as the sound of the motor died to nothing. Holly was already moving numbly down the veranda steps, her legs operating without any conscious thought.
‘Deefer,’ she called as if in a dream, and Andreas set the little dog down and he barrelled across the paddock so fast he was a black and white blur. He didn’t check until he reached her. She stooped a little but not much-she didn’t need to-for he was leaping high, with one bound flying straight into her arms. His rough little tongue was licking her from chin to forehead and his whole body was wriggling in ecstasy.
‘Deefer. Oh, Deef,’ Holly said and would have burst into tears. But there was no room for tears for Andreas was striding across the gap between them, almost as fast as Deefer. Before she knew it she was gathered into his arms, held in a grip of iron with Deef somehow sandwiched in between.
‘What…? What…?’
‘You said you couldn’t collect Deefer yourself,’ he said, and smiled down at her with a look of such tenderness that something melted deep inside. That he look at her like this…
It’d only be a flying visit. She had to get hold of herself. She couldn’t afford to melt.
She couldn’t.
‘You planned this.’
‘I hoped it’d work out. I couldn’t promise, because I’ve just come back from France.’
So it was a flying visit. A reassurance to his people that there was a marriage. She could barely make herself speak. How could she bear it? That he come and go again at will?
‘How…how long are you staying?’ she whispered and she could barely get the words out. Her face was muffled against his chest and a fair bit of Deefer was interfering with her ability to speak as well.
He laughed and set her back from him. His black eyes gleamed, with laughter and with something else. Something she’d never seen before.
Assurance? Strength? He truly was a royal prince, she thought. Until this moment she’d never thought of him as truly royal-he’d just been her Andreas who she loved with all her heart. But there was that about him now that spoke of absolute assurance. As if his entire lineage of royal ancestry was right behind him, making him who he was.
‘I’m staying for as long as you want me,’ he told her and her heart stilled within her chest.
‘As long…’
‘As long as you’ll have me, my heart,’ he told her and he bent and kissed her with such tenderness that she could scarcely bear it.
She must have misheard. There must be some sort of catch. But she wasn’t releasing him. He was kissing her and she was kissing him back with such fierce possessiveness that surely he couldn’t let her go.
But finally he did, setting her back, holding her shoulders in his hands and smiling down into her eyes.
‘I suspect Deefer needs air.’
In Holly’s arms Deefer wriggled with grateful comprehension. Andreas smiled and set the little dog down.
Rocket was out near the overseer’s quarters, wandering over to investigate these newcomers. Deefer saw him from the distance, wriggled in ecstasy and launched himself forward into his new life.
‘Will he be okay?’ Andreas asked.
‘Rocket’s a great dog,’ Holly managed, turning slightly within the crook of Andreas’s arm. As if to confirm it, the big, old dog crouched low, then rolled over before the puppy reached him, in an attitude of complete subjection.
‘Is that healthy?’ Andreas demanded.
‘Probably not.’
‘Training tomorrow, then,’ Andreas said. ‘Deference to your elders, lesson one.’
‘You will be here tomorrow?’
‘Yes.’ He kissed her.
She allowed him to kiss her. When she’d been kissed to her satisfaction-for now-she pushed back a little. Deefer was jumping over and over Rocket in the dust. Bluey had come out his back door and was watching…the dogs. Honey had the curtains of the front room twitched aside and was watching…the dogs.
‘We have an audience,’ Holly murmured, and giggled.
‘Then we should put on a show,’ Andreas said and tugged her to him.
She took a deep breath, forcing her knees to steady and her voice to sound a little resolute. As resolute as she could manage. ‘Explain.’
‘Explain what?’
‘How you can just calmly walk back into my life.’
‘I’m saving my country,’ he said, sounding virtuous. ‘As a noble prince who knows his duty to his people, I can do nothing else.’
‘You’ve a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.’
He looked wounded. He set her back again and held her at arm’s length. ‘You’re saying I’m crazy? Me, who brought you your dog.’
‘Virtue all round. Bringing me my dog. Saving your country. Would you mind telling me how?’
‘Easy,’ he said, and he smiled and it was the smile that Holly loved and it was almost enough for her to say forget the explanations, just head straight to the bedroom, because it had been a really long month and that smile made her toes curl. But somehow she forced herself to be patient. Somehow she let him keep smiling at her while he had his say.
‘You were a hit,’ he said. ‘The people of Aristo love you. Or they love what they saw of you. There was a public outcry when you left.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
His smile faded. ‘You need to believe me,’ he said softly, ‘because it’s true. I’ve had to be away so much we put out rumours that I’d come home with you. Only then your local press investigated and found I wasn’t here.’