Marion Lennox - Wanted - Royal Wife and Mother

He was right. King George’s commitment to his people had possibly been the difference between submission or victory.

But Matty was too young to make such a call. He was her son. He was five years old.

He was her prince.

And so was Rafael. Somewhere out there was Rafael. With…his people? While she stayed here like some Cinderella, hiding in her attic. Being no one.

Not even brave enough to put on a dress.

All these thoughts took no more than seconds-seconds while her frightened mind came to terms with what had happened and what now must happen.

She wheeled away, taking the stairs at a run, across the forecourt to the stables. Tamsin would no longer be here but other horses would. The road would be impassable for cars. She had to ride.

She might be a nuisance in the village. She couldn’t see how her presence and Matty’s presence could make a difference. Her reasons for staying separate from the royal household might still hold true.

But Matty…Prince Mathieu…and Prince Rafael, Crown Prince and Prince Regent of Alp de Ciel, had decided otherwise.

What was their royal princess to do but support them?

She hit mud at the first bend after the castle and her mare reacted with alarm, seeing the damage before she did. She’d been looking ahead, not at the road, and the horse edged sideways, rearing in fright.

She looked to where the horse was looking and looked again.

There was seeping, oozing mud in the woodlands on the higher side of the road. The road was still clear but it looked as if a flood of mud-laden water had slopped down the mountainside.

The horse-a mare whose name above her stable door decreed she was Gigi-must have come this way often. She knew it was different now. She whinnied in nervousness as Kelly settled her and forced her to keep on.

They slowed. Matty was somewhere ahead but the road now had patches of silt, with small stones and bigger rocks in their path.

How fast would Matty have come? Where would he go?

And where was Rafael?

There was no other road than this. She had to follow it.

Where was everyone?

‘Come on, Gigi. Come on, girl. You can do it.’

The horse flattened her ears, but responded to her reassurance and picked her way on.

And then they were at the outskirts of the village and fear was starting to wash over in waves that made her tremble. She was frantically trying to suppress it. Horses sense fear and she had to keep Gigi calm. But…But…

The road ran through the foothills of the mountains. Above and beyond, she could see rough, jagged and newly formed scarring, a mass of ripped earth as if a great chunk of the hillside had slipped from its moorings.

There was silence as they approached the township. The mare was whinnying in fear and it took all Kelly’s skill to keep her from turning home.

She couldn’t go home. Somewhere ahead was Matty. He’d be moving faster than she was. He wouldn’t have an adult’s fear that the horse might slip on loose rocks; that he might be thrown.

He was heading for the village. Heading to his people. Was Rafael before him?

And then she rounded the final curve in the hills before the village, and as she did she drew in her breath in horror.

The full extent of the slip could now be seen. It was a great gash on the hillside, starting as a thin wedge maybe a mile above, reaching down to a slash of tossed earth maybe half a mile wide. It was as if a great chunk of the earth had simply slid out from where it should have been and lurched its way towards the village.

The village…Dear God, the village.

She could see massive destruction. Huge trees uprooted, cast aside by the power of the earth.

Houses…

What had been houses.

She put her hand to her mouth, feeling ill. She wanted to stop. She wanted to block it out.

She forced herself to look.

There were people. From here they were in the distance, like ants over an anthill, looking insignificant, moving aimlessly, or simply standing on the great mounds of tumbled earth.

She saw a red coat-a sliver of crimson on a horse…

Matty.

Sick at heart, she motioned her mare forward. ‘It’s okay, Gigi. It’s okay.’

Only of course it wasn’t. She could see from here…

Houses crushed. Roads impassable…

She pressed on. The ants became people, tearing at their houses, working furiously. The mud was everywhere. They didn’t notice her as she passed-tragedy was everywhere.

Matty…

She reached him. He hadn’t seen her approach. He’d stopped in the middle of the road. He was still on his horse, staring before him, his eyes wide with terror.

There was another horse beside his. He was holding the reins in his hand. He looked crazily small so near such a great creature.

The horse was Blaze. Kass’s stallion.

How had Blaze reached here?

Rafael?

‘Matty,’ she whispered and the child turned to her, his face devoid of all colour. She had him, reaching across to take him from his horse, hauling him into her arms whether he willed it or not. He came but he was still enough of a horseman-enough of a prince-to keep the reins of both the other horses in his hand.

Before them were people, men and women, attacking a vast mound of debris with their hands. The silence was broken by sobbing.

A sign on a flattened gate told her what horror they were facing.

A school. Crushed.

‘Matty,’ she whispered into his hair and he crumpled against her, his face soaked with tears.

‘My Uncle Rafael,’ he whispered against her breast. ‘He’s gone in there. He’s gone in there and the stuff moved on top of him and no one can get him out.’

K ELLYhad spent the last five years on the goldfields. She’d panned for gold and she’d dug. Sure she’d been a research historian, she’d spent hours at her desk, but she could handle a spade with the best of the men.

She also knew the basics of mining. She’d researched every shaft dug back at the theme park and they were authentic. She knew what the miners had done to make themselves safe a hundred and fifty years ago, and she knew what they’d had to do to make the tourist mines even safer now.

She handed Matty to the care of the women. She took a deep, steadying breath, looked at the heap of sludge they were facing and decided they risked more people being buried alive the way they were going.

The school house was built against a cliff face. The sludge had washed down the mountain from the other direction. In most places it had swept over and onward, but here the cliff face had stopped it, so it had mounded up in a vast heap, completely obscuring the school buildings.

It was one vast, unstable mass. To dig in without shoring it up as they went was the way of disaster. She rolled up her sleeves and started issuing orders.

Amazingly, the men listened. Amazingly, they did what she said.

Matty couldn’t dig but he wouldn’t shift from where he was. The older people in the town would have taken him into one of the undamaged homes but Matty refused. He stayed, taking care of the horses. Wanting desperately to dig himself if only his elders would let him.

The damage in the town was awful, Kelly learned as she worked, but not as catastrophic as she’d first thought. Yes, houses were crushed, but the landslip had started high up. The tremors had been felt before it had hit, and most people had been outside. The mass had moved slowly, giving people time to run to higher ground.

Two elderly couples had been killed instantly when their houses had crashed around them. There were injuries-people had been hit by the sliding mud-but the worst of the rush of earth had been over before it had hit the town.