Page 29 of Pregnant With His Majesty's Heir

Lucien frowned. ‘What about your father?’

‘He took his cue from my stepmother. I was treated like a servant, abused if all the work wasn’t done. Ignored otherwise. The boys picked up their attitude.’

Distaste soured Lucien’s mouth. He was about to say that her brothers should have learned better. But Aurélie continued.

‘I’m not afraid of hard work. But when it’s clear your value isonlybecause of that, not because of any intrinsic worth of your own, family doesn’t mean the same.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘I delayed starting university because they said they needed me, that they couldn’t manage without me. But three months ago, when my father inherited a smallholding on the other side of the country, they packed up and left without even asking if I wanted to go too.’

He was horrified. ‘I’m sorry, Aurélie.’

‘It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past.’

Was it? She still bore scars from her family’s treatment. How much of her cheerful, friendly demeanour in the restaurant was real and how much a façade? Or, if not a façade, merely one side of a complex whole?

Lucien would give a lot to meet her so-called family and give them a piece of his mind.

He wanted to comfort her, draw her close and tell her shewasspecial. That she deserved to be cherished.

But he didn’t have the right.

The knowledge was a slam of pain that reverberated through his chest and down to his churning belly.

‘Of course it matters.’ He watched her eyes widen and her mouth gape in surprise. ‘Every child deserves love and support. I know that more than most, which is why I swear to you that, however we decide to bring up our baby, I’ll do my best for it, and for you.’

‘I... Good.’

She nodded, a jerky movement that made him wonder if she wasn’t used to people supporting her. Surely, even if her family had failed her, she’d had friends, lovers—someone to fill that gap?

‘I come to this from the opposite side,’ he said.

‘Sorry?’

‘I didn’t have step-parents but I was adopted. You know the story?’

‘I read that your parents died when you were a baby.’

Lucien nodded. ‘I don’t remember them. All I knew was my adoptive family, my aunt, uncle and cousin. I knew they weren’t my birth parents and that Justin was my cousin, not my brother.’ He ignored the gravel roughness that tinged his voice as he mentioned them. ‘But I never felt anything but loved. Justin and I received the same care and discipline. I never, for one moment, felt I didn’t belong.’

‘You were very lucky.’ A gentle smile lightened Aurélie’s features and Lucien felt another pang at the yearning he read there.

‘I was.’ His mouth curved in a crooked smile. All that he did now, accepting the throne and an arranged marriage, was tied to the love his family had given him. The desire not to let them down but to shoulder the responsibilities they’d left him and live up to expectations.

Though he’d never wanted a royal future. More than ever, it felt like a trap he couldn’t escape.

‘So.’ She exhaled on the word. ‘You’re serious about this?’

‘It’s a good option. If you decide you don’t want to bring up our baby.’

It struck Lucien forcibly that in other circumstances he’d offer to live with Aurélie to raise their baby together. Shotgun weddings might be old-fashioned but he preferred the idea of his child being born to his wife and having his name.

If he were still an architect and able to please himself, that was what he’d do.

It was easy to imagine being with Aurélie and their baby. Telling her about his day and asking about hers. Spending each night with her in his arms, her bright hair a halo on the pillow, those soft brown eyes welcoming him when he sank into her body and—

‘But surely...’ Her words dragged him to the present. ‘Surely it’s not so easy? You can’t keep this secret.’

‘Of course not.’

‘But what about public opinion? And the press? If anyone discovers the baby is mine and not...your wife’s, won’t there be scandal?’

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