“No.”
“Yes.”
Bryan and Shea spoke at the same time.
“Be reasonable, Bryan. You need medical attention,” Shea admonished him.
“No delays. We marry today,” Bryan answered stubbornly, flinching as the doctor probed his ribs.
“The Arcano should be pacified. The wedding can wait,” Xander declared.
“I don’t give a damn about the Arcano. I can’t wait,” Bryan grumbled, shooting Xander a defiant look. “I’ve waited for years already.”
Shea’s heart melted. “Get your x-rays and let the doctor tend to your wounds.”
Bryan opened his mouth, presumably to argue, but he never got the words out. The high-pitched wail of a woman’s anguished screams sounded outside the parlor. “Bryan. My Bryan.”
The eerie sound of her voice got closer and closer. As the owner of the tortured cries came bursting into the room, Bryan’s father moved to intercept the woman and pull her into his arms. “He’s okay, Moira,” Prince Francis crooned to the panicked nanny as he enfolded her against his chest. “Bryan is going to be fine.”
Shea watched in morbid fascination as Bryan’s father rocked the disheveled older woman against him, comforting her as she sobbed against his shoulder. Every set of eyes turned to the sight of the former king comforting the nanny as she whimpered two words that got the entire room’s undivided attention.
“My son.”
*****
The wedding ceremony was short, but Bryan got what he demanded — wed before another day passed. He and Shea were married just before midnight in a candlelight ceremony in the castle’s small chapel, only family and a few friends present.
Shea had worn a beautiful sky-blue dress that had swirled gracefully around her ankles. Bryan had dressed…well…like a prince. In his navy blue dress uniform, complete with gold braid and the royal insignia, he’d been so handsome he’d taken her breath away. Even with his face full of sutures, as Bryan stood next to her to say their vows, it was like a fairy tale for Shea. She was happy that they’d been able to skip the royal ceremony, because all that had mattered to her was that they were finally man and wife.
Even though it had been way past her bedtime, Hayden had stood at her Uncle Xander’s side while she watched her mother and father say their vows. Moira had discretely hustled her off to bed as soon as the wedding was over.
Very little had been discussed about Moira’s outburst and earlier disclosure. Bryan had been taken for x-rays and treatment almost immediately after her arrival, and the others had appeared stunned …all except for Bryan’s father and Reanna. Obviously Prince Francis knew the truth, and apparently Reanna had already suspected.
I should have realized that Bryan and Moira were related. Reanna was probably trying to hint to me about Bryan’s possible heritage when she pointed out the similarities in their appearance.
She twisted the enormous diamond ring on her finger, a ring that Bryan had requested be designed before they had left for the summer castle. Clearly, he’d been pretty certain even then that she’d marry him. Really, she needed to talk to him about his arrogant assumptions later, but for now she simply smiled blissfully
After the wedding, they’d all gathered in the great hall for an informal reception. Personally, Shea thought the enormous room looked anything but informal. The food spread looked like they were hosting hundreds, and the wedding cake that she and Bryan had cut was several tiers high. Everything had been delicious, and Xander and Christopher had both given toasts for a happy marriage for her and Bryan. However, once everything had settled down, a tension started to form in the room when everyone was finally idle and all of the wedding customs had been performed.
Continuing to finger her ring, Shea looked at the man sitting next to her wearing a matching wedding band. Both of them were still in their wedding attire, as were the remaining guests: Xander, Reanna, Prince Francis, Christopher and Simon. They were down to family only except for Simon, though the advisor might as well be family. He certainly was privy to every detail about the royal family.
“How is it that I never knew?” Bryan asked gruffly, stroking the back of Shea’s hand that he was holding on his thigh.
The question had been directed at his father, who was sitting in a chair next to the couch on which Shea and Bryan were seated.
“We never intended for you to know the truth,” his father admitted soberly. “You’re my son and that was all that mattered.”
“Bullshit,” Bryan exploded. “How did you ever manage to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes all these years?” He hesitated before adding, “Am I the reason Mother threw herself off that cliff?”
“Of course not,” Francis sputtered. “Stephanie agreed to take you in as her own child. She didn’t want the scandal. Then we had Christopher.”
“Then can I assume that Queen Stephanie was my natural mother?” Christopher asked quietly from his chair next to the sofa.
“And me?” Xander queried stoically as Reanna reached for his hand in support from her position on the loveseat beside him.
“Yes.” Prince Francis looked at Xander and then at Chris. “You’re both Stephanie’s boys.”
“But not me,” Bryan stated flatly. “How did this happen?”
Their father sighed. “It happened because I fell in love with Moira. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to be with her. I was a married man and a king. But I fell so hard for her that I couldn’t stay away from her.”
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” Bryan asked angrily. “It was obvious that Stephanie cared nothing for any of us, but she hated me most of all. Now I know why.”
“Do you think she cared any more about your brothers? No, not at all, though they were her natural children.” The older man sighed. “Stephanie had issues. She was clinically depressed and the disorder became even more prominent after Xander was born. She was treated by several physicians, but she refused therapy and often wouldn’t take her medication. She stayed secluded for weeks at a time at the summer castle, not speaking to anyone or caring about anything. If anyone was to blame for her throwing herself off that cliff, it was me. She never forgot for even a moment that she wasn’t my first choice for a bride, that I didn’t love her, and she hated me for it. What happened with Moira was wrong. I shouldn’t have ever let anything happen. She was an employee — ”
“I wanted it, too, Francis. Stop making it sound like I had no choice,” Moira said flatly as she moved into the room and approached the chair where the former king was seated. “I fell just as hard for you as you did for me. I knew it was wrong, too, but we both were younger and wilder at the time.”
“Why hide this from me?” Bryan grumbled. “Why not just tell me the truth?”
Moira lowered her head as she gripped the back of Prince Francis’s chair. “We’d hidden the truth for so long; we didn’t want it to get out in public. We thought it better that only Francis and I knew about your parentage. We didn’t want you boys hurt by our indiscretion. We didn’t want it to change the way you felt about each other.”
Shea squeezed Bryan’s hand. Her heart ached at the thought that he must have felt unwanted as a child. Really, maybe all of the brothers had felt that way if their father was telling the truth and Stephanie had cared for none of them.
“That would never happen,” Xander rasped. “We’re brothers first and always. It doesn’t matter how much blood we share. We made that decision after what happened on the cliff the day Mother died, and it’s always been so. It won’t change just because Bryan doesn’t have the same mother we did.”
“No…it won’t,” Chris declared forcefully.
Bryan’s father frowned. “Did something happen on the cliff that I don’t know about?”
“We witnessed Mother’s swan dive off the cliff,” Xander admitted readily, looking his father in the eyes. “Bryan tried to rescue her; he saw her getting ready to jump and he ran forward and grabbed her skirt. He
nearly fell because he wasn’t willing to give up even though he couldn’t hold onto her. I pulled him back up just in time, forced him to let go of her.” Xander’s brows narrowed as his intense gaze clashed with his father’s. “Your son was willing to die in a futile attempt to save a woman who had been nothing but cruel to him. I refused to watch that happen.”
Shea gasped at the thought of Bryan as a young child clinging to the woman he thought was his natural mother as she threw herself off a cliff. He could have died. He would have died to save a woman who despised him. “Oh, Bryan,” she whispered huskily, her heart pounding with fear, even though the incident had occurred so many years ago.
“Is this true?” Their father asked incredulously.
Bryan simply shrugged.
“I was too young to remember much about that day, but I remember our pledge,” Chris muttered quietly. “Brothers first.”
“Brothers first,” Xander repeated.
Bryan nodded. “Brothers first.”
Xander addressed their father in a low, emphatic tone. “I couldn’t save Mother, but I saved Bryan. We decided that day that we would always be brothers first, royalty second. And we have always abided by that oath.”
“Oh, my boys!” Moira fretted as she wrung her hands. “We could have lost both Xander and Bryan that day.” She choked back a sob. “Please tell me that you boys don’t hate me for what I’ve done. I love every one of you like you’re my blood. I have since the moment you were born.”
Shea’s breath hitched and she silently hoped none of the Demande brothers would spurn Moira. Shea knew how unconditional a mother’s love was, and she could see that love, the same love she had for her own daughter, shining from Moira’s eyes for every one of the Demande siblings.
Xander stood. “None of us hate you, Moira. And we don’t hate Father. We might dislike the way things were handled, but we wouldn’t have Bryan if you and Father had never fallen in love. However much Bryan might irritate me at times, I wouldn’t want to know what my life would be like without him.” He hesitated before adding, “I can’t entirely fault father for grabbing at some happiness for himself. Life with our mother was…difficult. I don’t think she was capable of loving anyone or anything except her position as a queen.”
