Annie West - Royals Untamed!

He wondered what she was doing. Annabelle screwed up her face and shook her head. There were no pink or purple clothes.

Ruby just smiled, as if this was something she did every day—which she did. She held each doll higher. ‘Oh, I see . Silly me. Blue or red, then?’

Annabelle came over and picked the doll wearing the pale blue dress and pointed towards her own.

Ruby nodded. ‘You like blue, then?’

She gave Alex a secret smile. Every little thing she did was part of Annabelle’s assessment. Every other person who had come to see her had been much more rigid in their processes, wanting Annabelle to do certain things at certain times. Being three was difficult enough. But Alex had been made to feel as if Annabelle was being difficult or uncooperative. She didn’t seem that way with Ruby.

Annabelle took her dolls and walked over to the ornamental fountain with all three.

‘I think they’re all about to go for a swim—costumes or not,’ murmured Ruby.

She seemed perfectly relaxed out here. She picked up a ham sandwich and started to eat. He reached in and pulled out his favourite. Tuna. Hardly royal. Probably not the thing that most Prince Regents would eat. But this had been Alex’s favourite since he was a child.

The tension between them wasn’t as high as it had been in the room when they were alone. But then again, they hadn’t been on display there. He kept wondering if there were any unseen eyes watching what should be a private affair.

‘She knows her colours. For a three-year-old that’s good.’ Ruby was watching Annabelle again.

‘You can tell just from that?’

She shook her head. ‘Oh, no. I’ve done a few other exercises as well.’ She leaned forward and pulled her knees up, wrapping her dress around them. ‘Listen...’ she whispered.

Alex sat a little straighter, straining to hear what Ruby had heard above the constant trickle of water from the fountain.

There it was—floating across the air.

Ruby touched his arm. ‘She’s humming. She did that the other night with me.’ She gave a tiny shake of her head. ‘I know that one of the reports about Annabelle questioned whether she could even make sounds. But she can. You’ve heard her laugh. You’ve heard her squeal. And she can communicate with sign language. She’s choosing not to speak.’ A frown marred her complexion. ‘I’ve just got to figure out why.’

Her eyes were fixed on Annabelle playing with her dolls. This was all so easy for Ruby. Annabelle was just a patient. She didn’t have the same investment, the same emotional connection that he did. She didn’t have the same frustrated feeling that there must be something else he could do. She was a professional with a puzzle to solve.

‘You make it sound so easy.’ He couldn’t help the way the words sounded. He’d forced them out through gritted teeth.

But Ruby didn’t react. She just kept looking at Annabelle. ‘I don’t think it’s easy, Alex. I just think that you—and I—are going to have to be patient. That’s the only way this can work.’

Her eyes met his. For a second he wasn’t quite sure what she was talking about. They were talking about Annabelle, right? Because those words might sound as if she were talking about them instead.

‘What’s your first memory, Alex?’

‘What?’ He was surprised by her question.

She smiled at him. ‘I can honestly say the first thing I remember is from around age seven. I was on holiday with my mum and dad in Boulogne in France. I can remember walking about with cases because we couldn’t find our hotel. Then my father thought it would be interesting to go and watch the fishermen.’ She gave a shudder. ‘Watching fishermen gut their fish was not something I wanted to see as a seven-year-old.’ She turned and smiled at him. ‘That’s my first real memory.’

He sat back a little, unsure where this was going. ‘I can remember having to sit very still for a long, long time. It was at some awards ceremony and my father glared at me every time I moved. I hated the shirt and tie I was wearing because it felt too tight.’

She nodded. ‘What age do you think you were?’

He shrugged. ‘Around five, I think.’

She lifted her hand towards Annabelle. ‘Here’s the thing. Science tells us that the first three years are the most important for a child’s brain development. It’s the first time we’re supposed to form memories—but I can’t remember anything from back then. The experts tell us that young children’s memories change over time, replacing old memories with new ones. So I’m looking at Annabelle and wondering what she remembers.’

‘What do you mean?’ This was starting to make him uncomfortable.

She interlinked her fingers. ‘The brain has connections—hard wiring. Children’s brains are like a sponge—they take in everything all around them. Children are born to learn. By their first year seventy-five per cent of the hard wiring is in place.’ She pointed at Annabelle again. ‘By age three ninety per cent of the hard wiring is there.’

She ran her fingers through her hair.

‘Under the age of two, lots of their development depends on attachment. I wonder if Annabelle’s speech issues could actually be down to the loss of her mother.’

‘What?’ Alex shook his head. It was something he hadn’t even considered. ‘But she was only eleven months old when Sophia died.’

Ruby nodded slowly, ‘Exactly. A baby recognises its mother’s voice in the womb. Once it’s born it puts the face and voice together. It responds to those. You said that Sophia was a good mother and spent most of her time with Annabelle?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, she did.’

‘Then for eleven months Annabelle’s hard wiring was formed all around her mother.’

Ruby sat back, letting what she’d said sink around him. She seemed to know when she’d said enough.

She wasn’t apportioning any blame. She wasn’t being confrontational. She was being logical. She was giving him information and letting him think for himself what it might mean.

He sat quietly. Ruby was relaxed and Annabelle seemed happy. She was busy trying to drown all her plastic dolls in the ornamental fountain and probably block the pumps from here to eternity.

No matter what Ruby had just told him it was comfortable. It was relaxed.

The sandwiches disappeared quickly, followed by some little cakes at the bottom of the picnic basket. Ruby didn’t feel the need to chatter and fill the silence. She was entirely happy to lie back on the blanket and watch Annabelle.

This was something he never got time to do any more.

There was always something to be signed, someone who needed to talk to him urgently. An email or a letter to write. A dignitary to entertain. A celebrity to pander to in order to bring extra publicity and business to Euronia.

Where was the time for Annabelle in all that?

Where was the time for him?

He never got time to be just a father. He never got time to be just Alex. Did anyone in the palace even think of him as just Alex?

He watched as Ruby moved, crawling on all fours, ignoring her dress and bare knees, creeping across the red stones to meet Annabelle and start splashing her with water from the fountain.

Annabelle shrieked in delight and ran around the fountain. It was the finest sound he’d ever heard.

Two minutes later Ruby had the pink plastic ball and was throwing it over the top of the fountain to Annabelle at the other side. But that was soon too safe—too ordinary. Within a few seconds they’d both climbed on the wall at each side of the fountain and were throwing the ball to each other while balancing precariously on the low wall.

He should intervene. He should tell them to stop being so silly. Last time they’d had to replace the blue tiles in the wall of the fountain it had taken for ever. He couldn’t even remember the cost.