Page 34 of The Prince's Secret Daughter
For food? He wondered, noticing that she didn’t look back at him. He led her to the table where Angela had already climbed up onto the chair with her booster seat and was happily chatting with the butler, who had been let back into the penthouse. The man bowed politely as Raj held the chair for Helen, his arms behind his back.
“I’ll bring in breakfast, Your Highness,” he said, then turned and walked through that mysterious doorway.
“Why did he call you that?” Angela asked, taking a sip of her milk.
“Because I am a prince,” he explained, shaking the linen napkin out so that he could lay it over his lap. “My brother, youruncle, is ruler of a very large and powerful country. You have cousins, by the way. The oldest are twins, nearly the same age as you.”
Angela looked at him blankly. “What are cousins?”
That stumped Raj for a moment. He frowned thoughtfully, pursing his lips before he explained. “Well, I have brothers and sisters. The oldest is Khal, and,” Raj made a scarily charming face that made Angela giggle helplessly, “he’s a horrible, mean person.” His features cleared as he continued. “I think you should be afraid of Khal.”
“Don’t be silly, Daddy!” Angela admonished. “If he’s my uncle, he’s going to be nice.”
Raj chuckled. “Khal is married to a wonderful woman named Tasha.” He turned to Helen. “She’s from Georgia, I believe. She has a sweet, southern accent and is very stern.” He turned to Angela. “She bosses my brother around all the time.”
Angela giggled. “Like Fiona?”
Raj still had no idea who Fiona was, but he nodded. “Exactly like Fiona,” he lied. “Khal and Tasha have a three year old son named Zayn.” He took a sip of his hot coffee. “Then there is Joran. He used to enjoy all sorts of dangerous activities. He loved going out with my country’s special forces unit and doing wild stunts.”
“Like what?” Angela asked, beaming adorably at the butler as he placed two pancakes onto her plate.
“Like jumping out of planes or running into dangerous places without looking first,” he said, nodding his thanks for thepancakes. He lifted the container of syrup and poured some on both of their stacks. “Joran is married to a lovely woman named Tila. She gave birth to twins right about the same time you were born.” He paused, then looked curiously at Angela. “When is your birthday?”
Angela looked to her mother. Helen smiled gently and gave the date, then watched with surprise as Raj’s eyes glittered at the memory of when their daughter was conceived. He remembered! Goodness, Helen hadn’t realized how badly she’d wanted him to remember.
Holding her breath, she slowly let it out when Raj turned back to Angela to continue the story. “You also have a third aunt. Her name is Marianna and she is,” he paused for a moment, thinking, “twenty-two.”
Angela’s tiny mouth formed a moue as she sounded out the name, trying to add the accent exactly as her father had pronounced it. “Aunt Marianna,” she whispered back, then nodded. “What’s she like?”
Raj considered that question for a moment. “She’s…complicated.”
“Math is complicated,” Angela corrected, pointing a forkful of pancakes in his direction. But then she was distracted by the drip of syrup and concentrated on stuffing the too-large bite of pancakes into her mouth.
“My brothers and I didn’t know that Marianna existed until she was in her mid-teens.”
“What are mid-teens?” Angela asked around the mouthful of pancakes, then looked guiltily at her mother.
“Don’t…” Helen started.
“…Talk with my mouth full,” Angela finished, trying to swallow quickly.
“Marianna was sixteen when,” he paused and looked at Helen, obviously trying to choose his words carefully. “When she came to live with us, she was angry at having to leave her home and learn a different culture and language. It was a difficult challenge.”
Angela’s eyes were wide with interest. “Am I going to have to learn a different language?”
Helen started to explain, but Raj stepped in and gave their daughter the perfect response. “You don’t have to learn a new language, but I’d be delighted to teach you Arabic, if you think you’re smart enough to learn.”
Angela immediately nodded her head, climbing onto her knees as her eagerness to learn something, anything, to impress this new and fascinating person who had come into her life. “You started yesterday!” she interjected with a firm nod. “I can learn anything! My momma told me that.”
Helen shifted uncomfortably when Raj’s admiring gaze shifted towards her. There was a long moment of silence, then Raj turned back to Angela. “Jyid,” he said with a lyrical accent. “That means ‘good’ in my country’s language.”
Angela immediately repeated the word and her accent was surprisingly good. Raj nodded with pride and Helen hid her expression behind her coffee cup. But mentally, she repeated the word, wanting to learn the language as well. She should have been teaching herself the language over the past several yearsand teaching it to Angela. But somehow, time just seemed to keep going without her realizing it.
“Can we go to the zoo today?” Angela asked innocently, watching as Raj angled his knife and fork over his plate. She did the same, then looked at his plate and hers to ensure that she’d angled them exactly the same way. When Raj wiped his mouth with the napkin, she mimicked him perfectly.
Helen watched as her adorable daughter absorbed every detail of her father’s actions, her heart aching. Angela was so desperate to both impress her father, and to learn everything from him that she could, and Helen felt as if she were losing her daughter. Because Helen had been there from the beginning, Angela felt no need to impress her mother.
In one way, that was good. Angela’s belief that her mother would never leave her was rock solid. Her daughter’s confidence that Helen would always be there and there was no need to impress her was a positive sign that Angela knew that Helen was her soft landing.
