LITMIR.BIZ

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women from your past with an eye on what you have to offer now.”

      “Unsuitable women? Well, yes, there have been one or two of those….”

      “No one now?”

      “No.”

      His last meaningful relationship had been with an American woman, part of the same family practice residency program as himself. Elin would have been “suitable.” Like Jodie, however, she hadn’t wanted him to return to Aragovia, and they’d parted in mutual anger. He’d heard she was now married to someone else.

      Since then, his work as a doctor and the changing situation in his country had kept him too busy to think of relationships, suitable or otherwise.

      And then there was baby Alice’s situation. He had talked with Feldman for a long time, yesterday.

      “Jodie talked about you,” Michael Feldman had said, with a reserve that Stephen hadn’t missed. “She didn’t want anything to do with you at one stage, and certainly nothing to do with a place as obscure as Aragovia. Her father never believed there was any future for your family there.”

      “No. That’s why he left, in the fifties. My father felt differently.”

      “What’s the situation there now? The place is controlled by Russian mafia, isn’t it?”

      “It was. Or by a couple of offshoots of it. But that’s changed now. There is high hope for the future of the country.”

      “You should be thinking of your future, and just get out.”

      Stephen hadn’t known how to answer that. He had earned a great deal of respect in his country over the past few years, through his medical work there. He had almost lost his life in defense of its heritage, and he had firm hope that his devotion to Aragovia would soon be rewarded. He wasn’t planning to “just get out.”

      And yet Dr. Feldman was right about Jodie and her attitude. Stephen’s friendship with his cousin had soured, in the end, as a result of their sharply diverging views. Should he admit any of this to Suzanne? Should he tell her the full truth?

      No, not yet. Definitely not yet.

      His talk with Michael Feldman had continued in a more instructive vein. He’d learned about Suzanne and her claim on Alice. He’d learned about Suzanne’s mother, Rose, too. Feldman had told him that, as the child’s grandmother, her claim was stronger.

      And he had begun to perceive a strategy, one which would please his advisers on all fronts.

      It wasn’t the first Stephen had heard of Rose Chaloner Brown Wigan, nee Norton. His father’s brother, Alex Rimsky, had confided in him, some years ago, in a way that some men would only confide in a male relative.

      “Jodie is my biological daughter, Stepan.” His accent was thick even after more than thirty years in the United States, and he used the Russian form of Stephen’s name. “She was the—how should I put it?—product of a brief and regrettable liaison just before I met Lisette. Jodie doesn’t know it. We told her from the beginning that she was adopted, and that is also true.”

      “Complicated!”

      “Not really. The adoption was conducted through official channels, when her natural mother gave her up at birth. You see, Lisette knew that she was unable to bear a child of her own. There was an operation for medical reasons years before. And Rose Norton did not want a child.”

      “That sounds very cold.”

      Alex had shrugged. “She was young and beautiful and selfish, and she had big plans for her life. Devil knows if she ever attained her dreams! They were so unrealistic. But then, who knew that I would have such success? Certainly, Rose did not believe it possible. She saw me as a poor, futureless immigrant, who had briefly captured her sensuality. I have no idea what became of her.”

      And Alex Rimsky had died last year, without ever learning more about Rose, just a few months after the death of Lisette.

      The deaths of her parents had affected Jodie deeply, Michael Feldman had told Stephen yesterday. During his final illness, Alex had told his daughter the truth about her origins. This had set her on a quest to find her birth mother. She had also become desperate to have a child of her own, although she was single, and had chosen artificial insemination through a reputable clinic.

      A strong-willed, charismatic woman, Jodie had succeeded in both goals—becoming pregnant and finding Rose. This was when she’d learned she had two younger half sisters, through the first of Rose’s three marriages. The elder of those sisters was the woman who sat opposite Stephen now, thanking the waitress politely as their order arrived.

      He liked her already. She wasn’t beautiful, but she had a presence about her—a quiet glow that was more attractive to his eye than shallow, model-perfect looks. Those green eyes were so warm and bright against her fair skin.

      Her medium-dark hair waved so softly against her cheeks. It was a little untidy at this stage of the day, betraying the fact that she had a lot of other things on her mind. Her clothes were neat and pretty, though—tailored pale gray pants, a short-sleeved cream knit top and a delicate little necklace made of tiny beads and stones. The figure beneath the clothes was, on his closer inspection, more lushly curved than he had realized at first.

      Her full, sensitive mouth seemed to draw his gaze, and she had a faint sprinkling of tiny golden freckles on her nose. The determined jaw told him that he shouldn’t underestimate her because of this youthful look. She wasn’t a woman he’d be able to manipulate at will. He was going to have to handle it carefully.

      Her love for baby Alice was obvious. It was shaded into the glow of her eyes, sketched into the shape of her mouth. It captivated him and confirmed that he was on the right track in what he planned to do. First and foremost, beyond any question of politics and destiny, a baby like Alice needed love.

      “Suzanne Brown is itching to adopt Jodie’s baby,” Dr. Feldman had said. “And it’s clear that she cares. But she’s being unrealistic. She’s not the child’s closest blood relative, and her circumstances are precarious at this stage. She’s not married, not involved with anyone, and I believe very strongly in two-parent families.”

      “Yes, I can understand that.”

      “I was never in favor of what Jodie was doing, setting out to have a baby on her own. Perhaps I should have told her my views on that more clearly. At that stage, though, I thought it wasn’t my concern. It is now!”

      He had finished with a helpless shake of his head.

      Stephen had said little in response. He wasn’t yet prepared to reveal his agenda to anyone. Feldman didn’t seem to believe in the future that Stephen hoped for.

      Maybe no one here believed that it would really happen.

      Stephen did, and he would have leaped to resume his title and the throne, as his people wanted. The only problem was, he wasn’t the rightful heir…

      He picked up a French fry and slid it into his mouth, barely tasting the salt or the crisp heat. Food seemed irrelevant at the moment. He flicked the little pink bootie in his left hand from one finger to the other and let it finally come to rest on his thumb. The thing was so tiny that it fitted there perfectly.

      There was no point in hesitating any longer. Suzanne was halfway through her burger and she was watching him with her huge green eyes, waiting to hear what he had to say.

      “I have a proposition for you, Suzanne,” he said slowly. “We both have Alice’s best interests at heart. Am I right in thinking you would give almost anything to be able to bring her up as your own?”

      “Of course I would,” she answered. “I love her. It’s the only thing I want, right now.”

      “Then I think we should get married.”

      Chapter Two

      “I

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