Royal baby born in the ER!

Dr. Elias Santini, secret prince of Medrindos, has his world rocked when he attends an emergency delivery. The patient is Beth Foster, the woman he spent one stolen night with, and she’s in premature labor...with his baby!

Estranged from her strict parents, Beth both fears the desire between them and yearns for the support Elias offers her as their tiny newborn fights for her life. A fiery kiss tempts Beth to risk everything, but what will happen when she discovers her daughter is the future heir to the Medrindos throne?

Dear Reader,

I had the opening to Elias’s story in my mind for such a long time. Beth took a little longer to arrive, but the moment she did I was ready to start writing!

My gorgeous hero, Elias, is asleep during a lull in his shift in Accident & Emergency when he is woken and asked to help with an emergency delivery. The trouble is he knows the mother—in fact Beth is someone he has been unable to forget since their one night together—and judging by the dates…

We have all read stories about emergency personnel having to care for their own loved ones, and I have seen it happen myself. It takes a real hero or heroine to push their own feelings aside and deal with such a situation, and I think Elias rises to the occasion very well.

I hope you enjoy reading Beth and Elias’s story as much as I did writing it.

This is my 101st book! My 100th book, The Innocent’s Secret Baby, is also out this month—if you enjoyed Beth and Elias’s story I hope you will enjoy The Innocent’s Secret Baby too!

Happy reading.

Carol x

Their Secret Royal Baby

Carol Marinelli

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Books by Carol Marinelli

Mills & Boon Medical Romance

Desert Prince Docs

Seduced by the Sheikh Surgeon

The Hollywood Hills Clinic

Seduced by the Heart Surgeon

The Socialite’s Secret

Playboy on Her Christmas List

Mills & Boon Modern Romance

The Sheikh’s Baby Scandal

The Innocent’s Secret Baby

Visit the Author Profile page at

millsandboon.co.uk for more titles.

Praise for Carol Marinelli

‘It had me in tears at the beginning, and then again at the end, and I could hardly put it down. A brilliant emotional read by Carol Marinelli!’

—Goodreads on

The Baby of Their Dreams

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Dear Reader

Title Page

Booklist

Praise

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

EPILOGUE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

‘DID YOU GO home for Christmas, Elias?’

It was coming up for midnight and it was the first chance for the staff to have a catch-up after a busy few hours in Accident and Emergency.

Mandy, the nurse in charge tonight, had brought around a tray of coffee and cake and was in the mood for a chat.

‘No.’ Elias shook his head and took a very welcome drink as he wrote down his findings on Mr Evans—a patient that he had just referred to Cardiology.

‘Did you work it, then?’ Mandy asked.

Elias Santini was a locum Accident and Emergency registrar and, for the last few months, had worked at several locations across London, though he was fairly regular at The Royal. This meant that, as he became more familiar, people wanted to know more about his life.

‘No,’ Elias said. ‘I just took a couple of weeks off and travelled. I saw in the New Year in Scotland.’

It was rare that Elias volunteered information about what he got up to in his personal life. Possibly he offered that sliver of information to distract Mandy from what he was sure she had been about to ask.

It didn’t work, though.

The question still came. ‘Where exactly is home?’

It would be easier to lie.

With his dark good looks and rich accent, Elias could say he was from Italy or Greece. He spoke both languages and could easily carry either off, but he didn’t want to lie and neither did he want to deny his heritage.

He hadn’t wanted to reveal it before.

Yet he was starting to feel ready to now.

‘Medrindos,’ Elias answered.

‘Oh!’ Mandy exclaimed. ‘Mark and I went there on our honeymoon! We’d love to go back someday and see if it’s still as beautiful as we remember.’

‘It is,’ Elias assured her.

‘Where are you talking about?’ Valerie, another nurse on tonight, asked as she selected a cake.

‘Medrindos. Where Elias is from,’ Mandy told her. ‘It’s an island in the Mediterranean and it’s stunning.’

It was, in fact, a small but extremely wealthy principality, though Mandy was right in her description. Medrindos really was stunning. It was an absolute jewel in the Mediterranean and an expensive holiday location. Mandy chatted about the pristine beaches and azure water, as well as the churches and the palace, while Elias carried on writing his notes.

And, while he didn’t deny his country, he chose not to mention that he was a prince there, and second in line to the throne.

Soon, Elias knew from experience, he would be outed as a royal.

Maybe something would come on the news, or Mandy would go on the internet for a quick reminisce and would see pictures of the royal family, or she would read some headline about the errant young royals. His brother was currently kicking up his heels on board the royal yacht and partying hard in the South of France.

Elias knew he would soon be recognised, or the press would discover that he was working here, as had happened when he’d been a doctor in Oxford. The ensuing publicity had meant that the palace had summoned him home and for a couple of years Elias had lived the same depraved, albeit luxurious, lifestyle that his brother Andros adhered to.

Scandal had abounded but that didn’t seem to matter, just so long as he remained in the fold. ‘Princes will be princes,’ his mother would say when another salacious article appeared. There had been one that hadn’t been so readily dismissed. Elias had run into the inevitable trouble that awaited a man in his position—a heavily pregnant woman had gone to the press saying that she was carrying his child.

Despite Elias’s assurances that there was no need for them to do so, the palace had set their lawyers and PR people into action. They had even worked out the payments should the baby prove to be his.

They had ignored two pertinent details, though.

Yes, there were pictures of the woman with Elias at a prominent London wedding and, yes, they had both attended the same gathering back in a luxury hotel.

But they hadn’t slept together.

And had his mother known him at all, the other detail should have made her laugh at the absurdity of it all—the woman claimed Elias had told her he loved her.

Elias had never even thought, let alone uttered, those words to anyone.

No one had cared to hear that, though; instead, they had awaited the DNA result. Everyone, except Elias, had breathed a sigh of relief when the results had proved the baby was not his.

He had always known.

Elias had emerged from the scandal even more jaded—the life of a young single royal, though fun at first, had soon turned into what had felt a rather pointless existence. He didn’t want to spend his life attending lavish parties, long-winded functions and openings, or getting wasted on the royal yacht.

It had felt empty and meaningless and when he’d discussed it with his parents they’d suggested that he marry. Princess Sophie of Theodora was their choice for him. They’d refused to accept his love for medicine and he’d refused to marry at his parents’ command and so, six or so months ago, he had left it all behind and moved back to England, though to London this time.

He returned to Medrindos for formal occasions when his presence was required but here in London he relished the freedom of people not knowing his royal status. It came with its own unique difficulties—Elias held back from others and maintained his distance, yet it was a price that he had been willing to pay for this rare chance of normalcy and to do the job he loved.

Elias wanted more now, though.

He looked over as Roger, the consultant in charge tonight, returned from examining a patient.

‘How’s Mr Evans?’ Roger asked.

‘I’ve just referred him to Cardiology,’ Elias said, ‘but they’re busy with a patient on ICU so it might be a while before they can come down and see him.’

‘Why don’t you go and grab some sleep while it’s quiet?’ Roger suggested.

Roger would finish at nine in the morning, whereas Elias was on call for the whole weekend.

It felt a little too early to be taking a break but he knew to seize the chance to rest when it arose, for it could be a long while before the department was quiet again.

‘Sure.’ Elias drained his mug of coffee but as he went to go, he changed his mind.

‘Roger, I was wondering if I could speak to you on Monday.’

‘You can speak to me now,’ Roger said, but Mandy was hovering and Elias wanted to do this properly.

‘I’d rather speak on Monday.’

‘How about I come in at eight thirty?’ Roger suggested. ‘We can speak before you go home.

‘I’d like that.’ Elias said.

He walked through the department and around to the observation ward. Behind that was the staffroom and the on-call room.

An elderly gentleman who Elias had admitted to the observation ward a couple of hours earlier was singing ‘I Belong to Glasgow’, even though they were in the heart of London.

Elias shared a smile with the nurse sitting at the desk.

‘I need earplugs,’ she said. ‘I think he’ll be singing for a while.’

The singing followed him into the on-call room and Elias looked for the white-noise machine so that he could turn it on and block out the noise from outside.

He couldn’t find it but knew that it would be in here somewhere.

Sometimes, if a new cleaner started, they put it away so he checked the cupboards.

There it was.

Elias turned it on and flicked off the light.

He kept his runners on and just stretched out on the bed and closed his eyes.

The white-noise machine was good but it didn’t completely block out the sound and he could hear the deep baritone voice.

‘I belong...’

He was starting to feel that maybe he belonged here.

He liked London.

Oh, he would always belong to Medrindos, as his parents frequently pointed out. But he was starting to think that perhaps he could juggle both.

Yes, Mandy or someone else would soon work out who he was but he was prepared for that. He would soon turn thirty and knew he wanted to specialise in Accident and Emergency. He had completed two years of military service for his country but had then pushed to study medicine in England.

His royal status meant that it was impossible to practise medicine in Medrindos.

Elias loved his country very much and his parents ran it well.

And therein lay the problem.

It was a wealthy principality and there was very little for the second in line to the throne to actually do. His father, Bruno, was sixty and, with their genes, was likely to rule for another thirty years. His errant brother, Andros, would then take over the throne.

Elias wanted to pursue his career in medicine; he wanted to test and stretch his skills. He was thinking of applying for a placement so that he could become a registrar in the department and work his way up to consultant.

He drifted off to sleep. No dreams, no nightmares, no thoughts.

At least, not at first.

But then he fell into a deeper sleep.

Perhaps it was the strong Scottish accent from the vocalist outside that guided his dreams because his mind wandered back to that night.

The night he had walked away from it all...

There he was, aboard the royal yacht after weeks spent cruising around the Greek islands. On this night he and Andros were hosting a lavish party.

Princess Sophie was there, and not by chance.

It had been suggested by Alvera, Head of Palace Public Relations, that they be seen dancing tonight and that tomorrow they could be spotted on shore, having breakfast.

Their people wanted a wedding and to see one of the young Princes settled down.

He looked over at Sophie and she appeared as excited at the prospect of getting things started as he.

She gave him a pale smile.

Both their countries wanted this union and were waiting with bated breath for it to start. Sophie and Elias knew that one dance, one kiss would mean that their relationship had begun. And even though it would all, for a while, be unofficial, to end things once they had begun would cause great embarrassment for Sophie and her family.

Better not to start things until they were sure.

And so, instead of walking towards her, Elias selected an unopened bottle of champagne and made a discreet exit.

No one noticed him leave and walk along the pier. He was dressed in black evening trousers and a fitted white shirt and was barefoot.

He walked onto the beach, enjoying the night and the feel of sand beneath his feet and the freedom. Not dancing with Sophie had bought him some time. Not much, as they were betrothed in their families’ eyes. It really was just a matter of time before it was made official.

Oh, there would be a price to pay for refusing to toe the line but he was more than used to that.

Really, he only spoke with his mother when there was a scandal that needed to be ironed out or a tradition that needed to be upheld. It had been the same growing up. Queen Margarita had rarely put in an appearance in her sons’ lives. There had been nannies to take care of all that. She might come into the nursery once the young Princes had been given supper to say goodnight.

His earliest memory was of his mother coming into the nursery. He had been so excited to see her that he had spilled his drink and she had recoiled.

‘Can someone deal with Elias?’ she had asked.

They had moved on from spilt milk but the sentiment was the same.

Elias, though, neither wanted nor needed to be dealt with.

His and Andros’s job was to stand by her side during public appearances.

Elias wanted more.

He didn’t want to marry and he was tired of partying and meaningless sex. He turned and looked out towards the yacht. The laughter drifted across the water and he was simply relieved to be away from it.

Yes, his mother would not be pleased that nothing had happened between him and Sophie but Elias refused to be compliant.

He was bored, he realised. He missed being part of a team and using his brain. His father had suggested an advisory role on the board of Medrindos Hospital and Elias could think of nothing worse.

He uncorked the champagne and it was then that he heard a voice.

‘Celebrating?’

He turned and saw that he did not have the beach to himself—there was a woman sitting beneath a tree with her legs stretched out and her hands behind her as if she was sunbathing beneath the moon.

‘I guess I am,’ Elias said, though he didn’t add that the champagne corks popped at lunchtime every day in his world.

‘And I thought this was my slice of heaven.’

‘I didn’t mean to interrupt,’ he said, smiling at her soft Scottish accent.

‘It’s fine.’

He saw that she had a plastic glass in one hand and he held up the bottle, offering her a drink of champagne. He saw her teeth as now she smiled.

‘I thought you’d never ask.’

He walked over and filled her glass and he could see that she had long curly hair but he could not make out the colour.

‘Cheers!’ she said.

‘Cheers.’

They both took a drink, she from her plastic glass and he from the bottle, and it was pleasant.

‘They sound as if they’re having fun,’ she said, and nodded in the direction of the yacht.

He didn’t tell her that that was where he had just come from, or that he hadn’t been having fun in the least.

‘They do. I’m Elias,’ he introduced himself, but then frowned as he did so—Elias had been said in a woman’s voice that wasn’t his.

‘Elias!’

His eyes snapped open as he realised that it was Mandy who had just invaded the memory of that night. He sat up straight as the door to the on-call room opened and the bright light from outside hit him and that long-ago night was left behind.

Immediately his feet were on the ground. He knew, from the sharp knock at the door and the call of his name, and from the fact that Mandy had come directly to get him, that it was serious.

The reason she hadn’t simply called him to come around was because she had been busy making another urgent call on her way.

As they walked swiftly through the department she brought him up to speed.

‘I’ve got a young woman in premature labour. I’ve just put out an urgent call for the obstetric team but it’s bedlam in Maternity apparently.’

It happened at times.

The obstetric team wasn’t sitting around, drinking coffee and waiting for an urgent call from Accident and Emergency. Last month Elias had delivered a baby boy before they had arrived.

That had been an easy delivery, though, and the baby had been full term.

This one wasn’t.

Chimes started to ring out as Mandy explained further. ‘Mr Evans has deteriorated, I’ve put out an arrest call and Roger is in Resus with a sick child.’

The department had, as it so often did, just got extremely busy.

‘How pregnant is she?’ Elias asked.

‘Twenty-nine weeks. Her waters broke as we got her onto the gurney. Elias, this baby is coming and very rapidly.’

They had reached the cubicle and Elias took a steadying breath. He hadn’t dealt with a premature baby on his own before.

He heard a low moan of pain from behind the curtain.

‘What’s her name?’

Before Mandy could tell Elias he was already stepping into the cubicle.

And before Mandy said the name, he knew it.

‘Beth.’

She was sitting up, wearing a hospital gown, and there was a blanket over her. Her stunning red hair was worn up tonight but it was starting to uncoil and was dark with sweat. Her gorgeous almond-shaped eyes were for now screwed closed and she wore drop earrings in rose gold and the stones were rubies.

They were the same earrings she had worn the night they had met.

He could vividly remember stepping into her villa and turning the light on and watching the woman he had seen only in moonlight come into delicious colour—the deep red of her hair, the pale pink of her lips and eyes that were a pure ocean blue.

Now Valerie had her arm around Beth’s shoulders and was telling her to try not to push.

For Elias there was a moment of uncertainty.

Could Mandy find someone else perhaps? Could he swap with Roger?

Almost immediately he realised there was no choice. Being brought up to speed on Roger’s ill child, and having Roger brought up to speed on Beth, would lose vital minutes for both patients.

They were already stretched to the limit.

And from what Mandy had told him this baby was close to being born.

His baby?

He could not afford to think like that.

‘Beth,’ Valerie said. ‘Dr Santini is here...’

Yet her eyes had already opened and met his and recall was instant for she would remember that night for ever.

Not just the romance and kissing and not just the delicious love they had made.

But that the results of that night had torn her life and her family apart.

CHAPTER TWO

BETH FRANTICALLY SHOOK her head when she opened her eyes and saw that Elias was there but then she saw he was wearing navy scrubs.

Squinting, she read his name badge and it registered that he was the doctor who had been summoned to treat her.

She simply didn’t have the breath to speak yet, but she did not want to see him like this, or for him to find out he was about to become a father like this!

Everything was going wrong.

Rapidly so.

Fifteen minutes ago she had been patting herself on the back for a job well done and about to cross the street from the restaurant she had just left and head for the hotel. Now she stared into the eyes of her one and only one-night stand.

Elias.

All Beth wanted was to go back to the hotel and to wake up in the bed there and declare this a bad dream so she tried to climb from the gurney.

‘I want to go home.’

‘Beth, you need to lie back,’ Valerie said, and held her, but Beth shrugged off the arm and as she did so she lost the gown.

‘I can’t...’ Beth said, and she rattled at the side of the gurney. ‘I want to go back to the hotel. I want...’

Elias caught her hands. He recognised her anguish and knew enough to be sure that it was not simply down to his presence.

She was in a rapid, tumultuous labour and that was a very scary place to be.

‘You’re okay.’

His was the voice of reason and she wondered if he even recognised her, he was so completely calm when everything, everything, was going wrong.

As an events co-ordinator, Beth was here in London for the opening of Mr Costas’s London branch of his renowned restaurant.

He was her top client.

The night had gone beautifully and to plan. The restaurant had been filled mainly with friends and relations of Mr and Mrs Costas. Most had travelled to London for the occasion and, because she had liaised with a lot of the guests for a previous event, the opening night had been easy to organise. The hotel opposite the restaurant was hosting the guests and all had gone well.

It had only been at the very end of the night, as the last of the guests had left, that Beth had suddenly felt terribly warm.

She had been wearing a black light wool dress, sheer black tights and high heels and, despite it being a cold night in early January, she hadn’t put on her coat.

The cold air had been welcome on her burning cheeks and she had taken a moment to gulp it in. She had just started to walk when she’d felt a sharp pain in her back.

It was the high heels, Beth had decided, but the pain had been acute enough to stop her and, even though the pavement was wet, she had bent to take her shoes off.

The pain, though, as she’d bent over, had stretched from her back and wrapped around her stomach like a vice, and Beth had placed a hand over her bump and felt that it was hard and tight.

As the pain had passed she’d straightened up and leant against a wall, trying to get back her breath.

She’d been standing in stockinged feet, holding her shoes, when she had broken out into a cold sweat and suddenly felt as if she might vomit.

The hotel, even though it was just across the street, had seemed a very, very long way off.

It had happened as rapidly as that.

Beth had taken out her phone and stared at it, wondering who she should call, trying to fathom what to do. Should she call the hospital she was booked into?

But that was in Edinburgh.

Did she need an ambulance?

No, she decided.

The pain had gone now.

Was it perhaps the beginnings of an upset stomach?

She tried to console herself that it was that.

Even if it meant that all Mr Costas’s family and friends were bent over a toilet right now, somehow she convinced herself that she must have eaten something that had disagreed with her.

But then another pain came.

It wasn’t as severe as the first but it was way more than the practice contractions that the midwife at her last antenatal visit had told her to expect. Then she felt a pulling sensation low in her pelvis that had her gasp and it felt as if the baby had shifted lower and was pressing down.

She knew she had to get to hospital and she saw a taxi and stepped forward and hailed it. Thankfully he slowed down.

‘Can you take me to the nearest hospital?’ she asked.

‘The Royal?’

‘Please.’

Beth sat there with her heart hammering, telling herself she was overreacting and wondering who she could call.

Her parents?

Immediately she pushed that thought aside.

They were furious and deeply embarrassed that she was pregnant and wanted nothing to do with her for now.

Oh, her mother visited occasionally and came armed with knitted cardigans and booties, and her father had sent her a card with a long letter as well as a cheque to buy some essentials for the baby.

It wasn’t the child’s fault, he had said in his letter.

She thought of calling Rory, her ex.

Only it wasn’t fair to call him after midnight when there was nothing he could do.

It wasn’t as if it was his baby.

Beth willed herself to stay calm.

The pain had stopped and even if she was in labour she knew that there were drugs that could be given to halt it. That had happened to a friend of hers. Yes, she’d be stuck in London perhaps for a little while but she could handle that.

Just as long as the baby was okay.

Then another pain hit.

And this was even worse than the first had been.

So much so that Beth let out a long moan as she fought the urge to crouch down on the taxi floor.

‘It’s okay, love,’ the taxi driver called out. ‘We’re just about here.’

He stopped the taxi outside the Accident and Emergency department and started sounding his horn and making urgent hand gestures for someone to come and assist. Beth watched as a security guard raced inside.

The pain had passed but it felt as if her legs had turned to jelly and she couldn’t move. She was starting to shake yet she was still desperately trying to cling to the denial that her baby was on the way. First babies took for ever, Beth knew that, and she had only had a few contractions. She was fine, so much so that she went in her purse to pay the fare.

‘How much is it?’ Beth asked in a voice that sounded vaguely normal.

‘It’s okay, love,’ the driver said. ‘This one’s on me.’

‘Here,’ Beth said, and held out some money, but he didn’t take it. ‘Here!’ she shouted when she never, ever shouted.

She wanted this to be a normal taxi ride, not an emergency one.

‘You’ll take my money!’ she told him.

It was imperative to stay in control—Beth had been taught to.

There might be a wild, feisty streak that ran through her but she had long ago learnt to suppress it.

Bar once.

That lapse was the reason she was here tonight.

Beth didn’t want the sight of two nurses coming towards her and pushing a wheelchair. She handed over the money and watched as the door was opened by one of them.

‘I can make my own way,’ she said, yet her hand was now gripping the handle above the window and she was again fighting not to bear down.

‘Let’s help you out,’ a nurse said.

With no choice, Beth accepted the waiting hands that helped her out.

She was still carrying her coat and shoes yet she was shaking all over.

‘I’m Mandy,’ a nurse told her, ‘and this is Valerie. What’s your name?’

‘Beth.’

‘How far along are you, Beth?’ Mandy asked as they helped her into a wheelchair.

‘Twenty-nine weeks.’

They pushed the chair into the department and Beth could see that it was busy.

The doors to an area opened and she glimpsed a lot of staff around what looked like a very sick child and a man receiving cardiac massage.

Shouldn’t these nurses be in there, helping?

Yet they were both still with her and had wheeled her into a cubicle and were helping her to stand and asking questions about the pregnancy and how long she’d had pain for when she felt a warm gush between her legs.

‘I’ve wet myself...’ Beth whimpered, and she started to cry with the indignity of it all as they helped her up onto the trolley.

Mandy was peeling off her underwear and tights and Valerie was trying to get her out of her dress as a receptionist came in.

Why was a receptionist here when she was nearly naked? Beth wanted to ask. She was a very private person and it felt appalling to be exposed but then Mandy covered her with a blanket.

Beth saw Mandy’s worried look as she took a phone out of the pocket of her uniform and suddenly she had gone.

‘We need your full name and address,’ the receptionist said.

They didn’t seem very relevant to Beth right now.

‘Elizabeth Foster.’

‘And I need your address, Elizabeth.’

‘Beth,’ she loudly corrected, and realised she was shouting again but she hated being called Elizabeth—that was the name her parents used when they were cross.

Oh, and they’d been cross of late.

‘We need your address...’

Beth gave it.

‘You’re a long way from home,’ Valerie commented.

‘I’m in London tonight for work.’

‘We need a next of kin.’ The receptionist was still asking questions but Beth was finding it hard to focus let alone answer and she shook her head. She did not want them contacting her parents about the baby when they had been so angry and had said they wanted nothing to do with it but then Valerie spoke gently.

‘If something happens to you, Beth, we need to know who to call.’

And though she was currently upset with her parents she thought of them in the middle of the night being called with bad news and she didn’t want that for them.

‘Rory...’ Beth gasped.

He would know how to handle them.

‘Is that your partner?’ the receptionist checked.

‘No, he’s my ex but he’s a very good family friend, he knows all that’s happened, he’d know how best to tell my parents if something happened to me.’

‘What’s his phone number?’

‘It’s on my phone.’

She found the number and then watched in terror as a resuscitation cot was brought into the cubicle and plugged in.

‘It’s too soon,’ Beth pleaded. ‘Can’t you give me something to stop it?’

Surely they were going to stop the labour—she was only twenty-nine weeks.

‘It’s okay.’ Valerie put an arm around her.

‘I need to push.’

‘Don’t push,’ the nurse said. ‘Wait till the doctor’s here.’

Beth screwed her eyes closed and fought not to push. It was like trying to hold back the tide yet she did all she could to hold her baby in.

Everything was going wrong.

Every last thing.

Because she opened her eyes and suddenly there he was.

Elias.

Her one-night stand, the father of her child.

‘No.’

She actually tried to launch herself and get off the trolley and declared she was going home.

She simply wanted to run.

Yet there was nowhere to go, the logical part of her brain knew that, and so did he for he caught her hands and held her loosely by the wrists as she knelt up on the trolley with the hastily put-on gown falling over her shoulders, and she knew her breasts were exposed.

And she cared not a jot any more.

He was so calm that she actually thought he might not recognise her.

Beth knew she would never forget him.

She had never thought she would see Elias again and yet she was staring into those grey eyes that had so easily seduced her and it was all too much to take in.

He was wearing rumpled navy scrubs and his hair was longer than it had been when they’d met. Now it fell forward and she wanted to push it back from his eyes, and she saw that unlike when they had met he was unshaven.

He looked as if he had just woken up.

‘Beth,’ he said. ‘The obstetrics team is on the way. For now, though, it’s me.’

She just stared back.

‘I’m one of the doctors working in Emergency tonight and I need to examine you.’

There was no choice, Elias knew.

He was the only doctor available in a critical situation.

Not that Beth understood.

‘Oh, no!’ She shouted it out. ‘I want an obstetrician!’

Valerie squeezed her shoulder.

‘Dr Santini knows what he’s doing,’ she reassured Beth. ‘He’s an emergency registrar. Just last month he delivered a lovely baby boy. You’re in good hands, Beth.’

It wasn’t his bloody qualifications she was objecting to.

It was the man himself, the man who, as Valerie helped her lie back, was calmly putting on a paper gown and then had the nerve to put on gloves.

‘You stop to...?’ She didn’t finish but Elias got the inference.

He had intimately explored her with his fingers, why worry with gloves now? And, no, he hadn’t stopped to put on a condom.

Here, perhaps, was the consequence.

He couldn’t think like that now. He could not addle his mind with the thought that he might be about to deliver his own child.

‘We need to focus on the baby,’ he said, and Beth looked at him and saw that despite the very calm demeanour there was concern in his eyes.

Serious concern.

‘Can she have some oxygen on?’ he asked Valerie, who was trying to pick up the baby’s heart rate with a Doppler machine.

The gown had long since gone.

She was naked, scared and vulnerable.

‘Can I examine you, Beth?’ Elias checked.

She could hear the chimes going off again. They were calling for an anaesthetist now and she thought of the man being given CPR. She had heard the nurses discussing the very sick child and if more staff needed to be sent down.

It was down to Elias, she realised.

Maybe this was hard for him too, she thought, because now she knew that he recognised her, for his voice was a touch strained as he requested her consent.

She nodded and then she told him her fear and why she was so confused.

‘It’s happening so fast. Just so-o-o fast. I was fine.’

‘How long have you been having contractions for?’ Elias asked, as Mandy helped her to lie down and lift her legs.

‘I don’t know,’ Beth said, and then she remembered standing outside the restaurant and looking at her phone as she pondered what to do.

‘Midnight.’

Elias glanced up at the clock—it wasn’t even twenty past twelve.

Poor thing, Elias thought.

Not just because it was Beth.

It was called a precipitate labour, one where the uterus rapidly expelled the foetus, and, though premature babies often came faster than full term ones, this was very rapid indeed. The contractions were often violent and exhausting, and the mother presented as drained and shocked.

‘Can you give me something to stop the labour?’ Beth asked as he examined her, and then she saw Elias’s jaw grit.

‘Beth, your baby’s about to be born. There’s nothing I can give you to stop it. We want to slow this last part down as best we can. You’re not to push...’

He would try and control the delivery with his hand as a very rapid birth could damage the baby’s brain, and also he badly wanted assistance to be here when the baby was born.

He looked over to Mandy.

‘Should we move over to Resus?’ he asked quietly, because there were more drugs and equipment over there, but Mandy shook her head.

‘It’s full. We’ve got everything in here and the team are on their way.’

Elias nodded.

He had seen them at work several times. They came with everything that was required. They could turn this room into a neonatal intensive care ward and also a theatre, if such was needed for Beth.

He was very glad to know that they were on their way.

His fingers were on the baby’s head, trying to control the delivery, and, unlike the large baby he had recently delivered, this head was tiny to his hand. ‘It’s coming again,’ Beth said. ‘I have to push,’

‘No, no,’ he told her, but not dismissively, more he suggested that she could resist. ‘Breathe through it, Beth. Take some nice slow breaths.’

She was taking short, rapid ones.

‘Slow breaths,’ he reminded her. ‘Let’s try to give this little one a gentle entrance to the world.’

Another contraction was coming and she moaned through the pain and the agony of not pushing when every cell in her body demanded that she do just that.

‘It’s too soon,’ she sobbed. ‘The baby’s too early...’

‘It is what it is,’ Elias said as the pain passed.

Odd, but those words calmed her.

They were the words her father used when one of his parishioners came to him during a tumultuous time in their life. Always Donald was calm and wise. He would listen as they poured out their dramas and fears, and then those were the words he would recite—it is what it is—and then he would do what he could to help them move forward.

Her father, though, had not been able to do that with her. It had been too much for Donald to accept that his gorgeous, well-behaved daughter had run so wild, let alone offer guidance.

Now Elias did.

His voice was assertive as he told Beth what to do and she was ready to listen.

‘Keep taking some nice deep, slow breaths so that your baby gets plenty of oxygen.’

She could do that.

‘Focus,’ Elias said.

‘I’m trying to but—’

‘Nothing else matters now.’

It didn’t.

His words were for both of them, a secret conversation between them, and he glanced up as he said it. ‘Just focus on the baby, the rest can all wait.’

Their history was irrelevant right now.

He could see that the baby was a redhead like its mum, but he would let Beth find that out for herself.

Any moment now.

He looked over at the equipment that was all set up and at the cot that was now ready and waiting. The overhead lights would warm the little one and he gave Mandy a small nod of thanks because she had it all under control. She was pulling up a drug that would be given once the baby was born to help with the delivery of the placenta.

There were scissors and cord clamps waiting. There was a sterile wrap she would take the baby from Elias with. And there was a little moment of calm.

‘You’re doing so well, Beth,’ he said.

He meant it.

She was exhausted, her auburn hair was as wet as if she’d just come from the shower. Her already pale skin was bleached white so that her freckles stood out.

And yet she was calm now.

Resigned that her baby was coming, whether she was ready or not, Beth was doing all she could to take slow breaths so that more oxygen could get to her child.

Valerie had found the baby’s heart rate with the Doppler and it was strong and fast and it felt as if it was the only sound in the room.

‘Do you know what you’re having?’ Valerie asked, and Beth shook her head.

‘I wanted it to be a surprise.’

And, at the oddest of moments, she and Elias shared a small smile.

It was certainly that.

Then she stopped smiling.

‘Another one’s coming,’ Beth said.

He heard her hum, and then she hummed louder and her thighs were shaking as she fought not to push.

And though Beth didn’t push, her uterus contracted and the head was out.

The cord was around the neck but only loosely and Elias slipped it over the little head.

‘Are you ready to meet your baby?’ Elias asked.

‘No,’ she answered, yet her hands were reaching out.

He watched as the baby’s little almond-shaped eyes opened and then the baby was delivered into his hands.

It was a little girl.

‘Hey, baby,’ he said, and Beth watched as he smiled and saw that there were tears in his eyes. She was so glad that her baby had been delivered with love.

Somehow, at the scariest, most petrifying time in her life, she felt safe.

He held the baby as Mandy clamped and cut the cord. She was blinking at the world and taking her first breath, startled. Her eyes screwed closed and then her mouth opened and she let out a small, shrill cry. As Mandy went to get the sterile sheet to take the baby from him, instead Elias passed her to Beth’s waiting hands.

That moment of contact with the baby had felt such a vital one that he wanted Beth to experience it as well, as he knew it would be a while before she got to hold her again.

The baby was vigorous and had started to cry as she was born but calmed as she met her mother.

‘A girl,’ Beth said, as her baby was passed to her, and she scooped her in.

The baby lay stunned on Beth’s chest like a shocked little bird recovering from a fright. The little eyes were open as she breathed in the scent of her mother and listened to the familiar sound of her heart.

Mandy put a blanket over the two of them and held oxygen near the baby’s face as Elias came over to do the initial assessment of the infant.

He could not afford to think of her as his so he pushed that aside as he checked the baby.

Her heart rate was rapid and her breathing was too and she was pink.

It was a moment.

Less than a moment that mother and baby shared.

Yet it was such a precious time. There was a beautiful time of calm and peace as she met her little girl.

‘Oh, baby,’ Beth sobbed, and she held her little daughter to her naked skin.

All the problems that had got her to this point just disappeared as she gazed at her baby and met her eyes.

‘We need to get her over to the cot,’ Elias said.

‘Let me hold her a little while longer.’

‘Beth, I need to check her.’

He could hear footsteps running towards them as he peeled back the blanket and lifted the baby off Beth. The baby cried in protest at the intrusion as he took her to the warmed cot.

‘How is she?’ Beth was calling out.

Her one-minute Apgar score was a seven, which, given how premature she was, was good. Her muscle tone was low but that was to be expected with a gestational age of twenty-nine weeks.

Elias handed over to the obstetrics team and watched as they set up their own equipment.

Mandy had dashed off again.

It was becoming increasingly noisy outside the cubicle but Elias couldn’t think about what was going on out there now.

He stared down at the little baby and with every passing minute she became increasingly exhausted, unlike the vigorous baby that had been delivered.

He could see that her nostrils were now flaring, which was a sign that she was having trouble getting enough oxygen, and her limbs were flaccid.

‘Elias...’ Mandy put her head around the curtain. ‘I need you.’

‘In a moment,’ Elias said.

‘I have a two-year-old convulsing...’

He just stared at the baby.

‘Elias,’ Mandy called loudly, on her way to Resus.

He looked over at Beth, who was being comforted by Valerie. A midwife was looking after her too but for a brief moment she glanced at him.

‘Elias!’

His name was called again and an emergency bell sounded and there was nothing he could do for his baby.

Even if he told them that she was his, he would just be asked to step aside.

And so he did what, as a doctor on duty, he had to do.

‘I’ll be back...’ he said to Beth, but she wasn’t looking at him now. She was in the third stage of labour and about to deliver the placenta while looking over anxiously at the crowd of experts around her baby.

His.

He allowed himself to acknowledge it then.

The baby was his.

CHAPTER THREE

ELIAS HAD GONE.

She could hear him being urgently summoned and understood that he had no choice but to leave.

Actually, no, Beth didn’t understand anything.

It was twelve twenty-nine and less than half an hour ago she had been standing in the street, wondering what to do.

Now she was a mother and no one could tell her how her baby was.

She heard the odd word.

‘Surfactant.’

‘Struggling.’

‘Grunting.’

‘CPAP.’

‘I want her on the Unit,’ someone said.

Beth lay back, shivering under a blanket, as a midwife checked her blood pressure and listened to what was being said.

‘There are no cots. She’ll have to go to St Patrick’s.’

There were voices with no names and she felt dizzy as it dawned on her they were talking about transferring her baby.

‘You’re not taking her to another hospital.’ She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘It’s okay,’ the midwife said. ‘We’ll get you over there as soon as we can.’

‘I want to be with her.’

An IV had been inserted and Beth couldn’t even remember it going in.

‘Her blood pressure is ninety over fifty,’ the midwife called, then spoke to Beth. ‘What’s your normal blood pressure?’

She couldn’t answer.

Beth tried to explain that she’d been told at her checks that her blood pressure was on the low side but she couldn’t remember the numbers and there were little dots swimming before her eyes. Her lips had gone numb.

‘I’m just going to lay you flat,’ the midwife said, and Beth felt her head drop back. ‘Take some deep breaths.’

Again.

The only noise she could hear was the heart monitor on her baby and it sounded fast, though she wasn’t crying now and hadn’t been for a while.

Beth lay there trembling at the shock and the speed of it all.

A man who said he was a neonatologist came and told her that her baby was about to be transferred and that NICU was the best place for her now.

‘Can I go with her?’

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘We’ve got a lot of equipment and staff that will be travelling with her.’

‘I’ll not get in the way. I’ll just sit.’

He didn’t wait to explain further that she was in no fit state to sit.

‘Can I see her?’ Beth asked, but her baby was already being moved out and all she got was a tiny glimpse of red hair and the sight of tubes and machines and then she was gone.

It was very quiet in the cubicle after she left.

Mandy came in with another flask of IV fluid and it was checked with the midwife. ‘I’ve ordered an ambulance for you, Beth. It might be a while, though, they have to deal with emergencies first.’

Thankfully it was only fifteen minutes or so before she was being moved onto a stretcher.

The midwife would escort her and all that was left to do was thank Mandy, who gave her a smile.

‘I’ll ring before I leave in the morning and find out how your baby is doing. Do you have a name for her?’

‘Not yet,’ Beth said.

She’d had a couple in mind. Eloise was one, because it was close to her baby’s father’s name.

Beth could see Elias working away in Resus as she was wheeled past.

She was taken out into the night and loaded into an ambulance where she could hear the controller speaking over the radio.

It was a ten-minute ride through dark streets and soon she was being taken through corridors and then in an elevator up to the maternity ward. As she was wheeled along a corridor she could see signs for the NICU further along and knew her baby was there.

‘How is she doing?’ Beth asked as she was moved onto a bed.

‘As soon as we hear anything, we’ll come and let you know.’

She was told that over and over again.

Beth had never felt more scared and helpless in her life.

Neither had Elias.

At times he had questioned if he was a good doctor or there by default.

He had, of course, had the very best education at a top English boarding school.

And after his time in the military he had studied medicine at Oxford.

Everything had been, his friends had ribbed him at times, handed to him on a plate.

Tonight Elias had found out that he was a doctor.

A real one.

And a very good one at that, because somehow he’d just shoved his personal torment aside.

Delivering a premature infant when it wasn’t your specialty was scary at best.

But delivering that infant when you were sure it was your baby had had his heart racing so fast it had surely matched the baby’s rate at times.

Having then to tear himself away, having to focus on work when everything precious to him was in that room had proved agony.

Yet Elias knew that the neonatologist, even if he received a devastating personal call, would carry on working on the baby until a replacement arrived.

That was the position he had found himself in.

Oh, had Elias declared a personal interest in these two patients then the staff might have understood him stepping back.

But that would have helped no one tonight so he had pushed through as best he could.

His head felt as if it was exploding and he felt sick in his guts as he walked into Resus, where a mother was sobbing as her two-year-old convulsed.

Elias gave that two-year-old his focus.

He administered the right medication and asked all the right questions.

‘He was sick last night when he went to bed,’ the child’s mother said. ‘I thought that it was just a cold...’

‘He has a very high fever,’ Elias told her.

The little boy had stopped convulsing and now lay crying and confused as Elias sat down on the resuscitation bed.

‘Hello,’ he said to the little boy, who was disoriented and fretful. ‘Your mum is here...’ He nodded for her to come around the bed so that the little boy could see her. ‘My name is Elias, I’m a doctor at the hospital...’ And then he said what was important again. ‘Your mum is here.’

And he needed to be over there.

With his baby’s mum.

Yet he thoroughly examined the child, carefully looking at his throat and ears and listening to his chest.

He did what he had to do.

He was peripherally aware that his baby had been transferred because as Valerie came into Resus to get some equipment the doors had opened and he had seen an incubator being wheeled out.

He took some bloods and then filled out the forms for the blood work and ordered a chest X-ray for the child as he thought that he might have pneumonia.

And then he went to speak with the paediatrician but when he saw Roger, Elias asked if he could have a word.

‘I’ve just been informed about a family emergency,’ Elias told him.

Roger could see how pale Elias was and didn’t doubt that he was struggling to hold it together. ‘I’ll call in Raj,’ Roger said immediately.

He picked up the phone and did just that. ‘He’s on his way but it might be half an hour until he arrives.’

Elias nodded. ‘Thanks.’

He would have to stay until Raj got there.

The department was busy and Elias could not wait idly. He went and examined an overdose case that had just arrived.

He mixed up some activated charcoal for the patient to drink but then he saw Mandy running through an IV.

‘How’s the baby?’ he asked, and she made a wobbly gesture with her hand.

‘They sped her off to St Patrick’s.’

‘And how’s the mother?’

‘She went in a separate ambulance. Poor woman, she was down in London for work. It must be terrifying to be so far from home.’

Mandy looked at Elias and saw his grey complexion. ‘I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had bad news but you’ll still have to fill out paperwork for them before you go. They’ll need a number for the baby.’

‘Sure,’ Elias said, because the little girl would need to be added to the system quickly as she had been transferred to another hospital.

He gave the overdose the activated charcoal to drink. Her boyfriend was with her and Elias explained the importance of finishing the bottle.

‘It looks awful, I know,’ he said, ‘but it doesn’t really taste of anything. Make sure she drinks it all. Any problems, press this bell. The medics should be down soon to admit her.’

Elias moved to the nurses’ station and took out the other paperwork that was waiting to be filled in.

Elizabeth Foster.

He saw that she was now twenty-three and that she lived in Edinburgh, though when he had met her Beth had lived in Dunroath, a small fishing village on the east coast of Fife.

And she had put Rory as her next of kin.

He knew that was her ex.

Maybe they were back together?

Perhaps the baby wasn’t even his.

Elias knew that she was, though, and not just from the dates.

Beth had made a comment on the night they had met about being a ‘daughter of the manse’.

He hadn’t known what it had meant then.

He knew what it meant now—her father was a minister and very strict.

Elias guessed that these past months would have pretty much been hell for her.

He wrote up his patient notes.

Presented to Accident and Emergency department at 29/40 gestation.

And he wrote about the rapid delivery and all that had happened and that she had been transferred to St Patrick’s for postnatal care.

And then he went to the other patient that required a signature.

There were rather a lot of forms to fill in when it came to a new life.

Baby Foster.

Born 29/40 weeks gestation.

Precipitate labour, rapid delivery.

One-minute Apgar score: 7

His hand was shaking as he wrote because the ramifications were just starting to hit him.

Not just that he had become a father.

The second in line to the throne had just delivered the third in line to the throne.

The palace always announced the delivering doctor.

He could see the headlines and the chaos the press would make of the circumstances tonight.

All this he was starting to envision but not quite, because all he could really see in his mind’s eye was the sight of the baby. Her tiny head and flaccid limbs. The little tufts of red hair and that she had been struggling to breathe. How her eyes had closed and her nostrils had flared as her tiny mouth had blown bubbles.

What the hell was he doing here?

Elias was closer to tears than he had ever been in his life and panic was building as he placed his head in his hands.

‘Are you okay?’ Roger checked.

He too knew how hard it was to work when you had just been informed of a personal crisis.

‘Not really,’ Elias said, and he took a steadying breath and told himself that Beth and the baby were in good hands—but he needed to see that for himself.

Then came the words that he had waited to hear.

‘Raj is here.’

‘Thank you.’

The department was covered.

Elias walked briskly around to the on-call room and pulled off his scrubs and runners and changed into black jeans and a jumper and pulled on his boots and jacket.

Then he turned off the white-noise machine and walked out.

The man was still singing ‘I Belong to Glasgow’ as he walked through the observation room and then stepped out of the fire exit and into the night.

His baby would belong to Medrindos.

If he told his family what was happening huge wheels would be set in instant motion. There would be lawyers and background checks immediately commenced on Beth. He would be told to step back and let the palace handle things from here.

A princess had just been born and Beth didn’t even know that he was royal.

Elias had chosen not to tell her that night.

He knew it was his baby.

Not because of some instant connection or primal instinct that the child was his.

But because he had got to know Beth that night.

Whatever the palace or her family might make of their encounter, no matter how they might deem it a one-night stand, he knew what a rare gift it had been.

For both of them.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT HAD ALL gone perfectly.

George and Voula Costas had just celebrated their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on the Greek island where they had grown up and married.

The surprise party had been organised by Beth.

Months of preparation had come together and as Beth walked into her villa and closed the door behind her she was smiling as she kicked off her sandals.

The waiter had sent her home with a large cocktail in a plastic glass and she was looking forward to simply unwinding after an exhausting couple of days.

It was a hot night and she turned the fan on above her bed. She peeled off the smart linen shift dress she had worn tonight and let down her hair, shaking it loose, happy with how the night had gone.

She was just about to lie down when the phone rang.

She had known that it would soon ring.

It would be her father, calling to check how the night had gone. Or rather he would use that as an excuse to check she was safely home.

For a moment Beth had considered not answering it.

She was twenty-two years old after all.

England was two hours behind Greece and she could imagine her father pacing and waiting to make the call. If she didn’t answer, he and her mother would stress and try again. It was easier all round to answer, and, she told herself, it was no big deal, so she picked up the receiver.

‘Hi, Dad,’ Beth said.

‘How did you know it was me?’ Donald sounded surprised.

She could have answered that it had to be him because it was too late for Housekeeping and anyone else would have called her on her mobile!

Of course her father would say it was too expensive to make an international call on the mobile but Beth knew he had called her on the landline to check she was safely in for the night.

‘Just a good guess,’ Beth answered as she rolled her eyes.

She tried not to be cross. After all, it was her first time overseas and she had recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend, Rory, which had caused a lot of upset all around.

‘Your mother and I just wanted to know how the night went. Was Voula surprised?’

‘She certainly was.’

‘You don’t think she’d guessed what George was planning?’

‘No.’ Beth shook her head and found she was smiling. ‘She really didn’t have a clue.’

They chatted for a few moments and Beth actually enjoyed doing so.

Her father knew the Costases and many of the people who had attended tonight. While he might not be happy that his daughter was overseas, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t interested in how things had gone.

The call ended very amicably and Beth lay on the bed but the happy buzz that had followed her into the villa had dispersed.

She loved her parents a lot but she felt stifled by them.

Her father was a minister and, growing up, it had never proven much of a problem for Beth.

She’d had a wonderful childhood.

Seriously wonderful.

She was an only child and had been a late arrival into her parents’ lives. The manse where they lived was a happy home and had a constant flow of visitors. They often had guests from overseas stay with them, which Beth especially loved. Holidays had been spent exploring rugged beaches or camping, and her father’s position in the village hadn’t been an issue then.

Oh, she’d been warned, many times, that her actions reflected on her father and that she was to always behave. But, even during teenage years, her strict upbringing hadn’t been much of an encumbrance. Beth had enjoyed school and there had always been something to do in the evenings and at weekends.

She’d loved to read and her friends occasionally slipped her books that would have caused the most terrible row had they been found.

They hadn’t been found, though.

She’d had a close circle of friends and as for boys, possibly had she been taken with anyone there might have been a clash, but she hadn’t been particularly attracted to anyone.

Oh, there had been the occasional stand-off between her and her parents. Beth was stubborn and her temper matched her hair colour, and as a little girl she had fired up easily but she had learnt to choose her battles.

It was as she’d entered adulthood that the problems had started and small whispers of discontent had made themselves known.

In her final year of school her parents had steered her towards nursing or maybe teaching.

Beth had been excited at the prospect of studying in Edinburgh and had been hoping to share a flat with her great friend Shona.

Her father had had other ideas.

There was a close colleague of his who had been more than happy to offer her board, and naturally she would come home during the holidays and on weekends and days off.

A big row had ensued when Beth had stated she wanted to share a flat with her friend. But in the months that had followed Beth had realised that it wasn’t nursing or teaching she really wanted.

They had been a chance to leave home and that didn’t seem a very sensible reason to make a career choice.

And so she had fought to pursue the career she now loved but she still lived at home.

It was nice to get away.

Beth climbed off the bed and walked to the window, but before she pulled back one of the shutters she wrapped herself in a sarong she had bought at a market.

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