Eva and I spent the next few days doing nothing but indulging. We indulged in midnight skinny-dipping in the crystalline waters of the Indian ocean, under a canopy of stars. We ate seafood so fresh it put the best restaurants in the Capital to shame. We lay in bed until past noon, talking and laughing as the tropical breezes caressed our bare skin. But mostly, we indulged in each other. There was no point at which either of us felt we'd finally had our fill. Before I met Eva, I don't think it ever occurred to me that it was possible to be so close to another person. We made love multiple times a day, our desire endless, and even when we weren't making love, we were always close, always in contact.

There was a quality to the attention we paid to each other, too. A kind of close-listening, a character study of a real, live, flesh and blood human being. I watched her the way I've never watched anyone before, noticing everything from the subtle changes of tone in her voice, depending on what we were talking about, to the way she dug her toes into the sand or bit the tip of her thumb when she was flirting with me. And Eva watched me, too. Her sweet, feminine attention made me feel more like a man than anything else ever had. 'Prince' is just a word. Eva showed me with her actions, with her whole self, that I was her man – her Prince, her King – regardless of what titles the world had bestowed upon me.

When I called my sister one night, having snuck away on the pretext of arranging an excursion for Eva and I, she didn't sound entirely surprised when I asked if it would be possible to have our grandmother's ring flown out to the Seychelles. It turned out it wasn't possible, which is what I'd suspected, but Charlotte was surprisingly philosophical.

"Are you sure?" she asked me, before we hung up. "Killian, are you really sure?"

I didn't get impatient with her, the way I might have in what felt like a previous life. She had to ask, it made sense that she did. But I was sure. Surer than I've ever been. "Yes," I replied simply. "I'm sure."

"OK. Well then I'll hold back on the congratulations until she says yes, but good luck little brother. It only took you twenty-nine years, but I do believe you're becoming a grown-up."

I laughed. "Yeah, well, better late than never – right?"

When I got back to the house, Eva was asleep on the bed on her back, her smooth, mahogany limbs adorably askew. I sat down next to her, intending to watch her sleep, but she stirred at once.

"Killian?"

"Yes, it's me. It's OK, you don't have to get up."

"Did you set it up?" she asked, rubbing her eyes. "Are we going to the – what was it? The other island?"

I shook my head. "I'm afraid we're not, lovely."

She sat up, rousing herself out of her slumber, and looked at me. "We're not? Why, what happened?"

My heart was pounding and my mouth was dry. I had the little, woven sea-grass ring that I'd managed to create earlier that day tucked in one sweaty palm. "Nothing happened, because I wasn't trying to arrange any excursion."

Eva broke into a slow, confused smile. "Well then what were you doing, Killian, you mysterious beast?"

I looked into her eyes, my body thrumming with adrenaline. "I love you, Eva. Every time I think it's the happiest day of my life, another one comes along that beats it. Since I met you, I mean."

She grinned and leaned in to hug me but I held her off. "Wait. I'm not finished yet."

"Well what is it?" she asked. "You've got a strange look on your face, Killian. What's going on?"

"Do I look strange? Ah, well, that's probably because I'm so nervous I can hardly breathe."

"Nervous?" she exclaimed worriedly, sitting straight up. "About what? What's wrong? Is something wrong? Is –"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure? Because you sound strange, too. Have you been reading the news? Did you hear from your father? I hope nothing bad happened with –"

"Woman," I chided, "will you stop asking questions for one second? I'm trying to propose here."

"Well I just thought –" Eva stopped talking suddenly and her eyes got very big. "What did you – Killian, what did you just say?"

I grinned. "You heard me. You're lovely, Eva James. Not just on the outside, on the inside too. How lucky am I that the most beautiful person I've ever met also happens to be the best? There's no need for a big speech, is there? Because the truth is, it's very simple. Making you happy makes me happy. I don't want anything out of life except the privilege of living it with you. You're the center of it all for me, Eva, and I love you. Will you marry me?"

I got off the bed as I spoke, kneeling down on one knee and looking up at my girl as she giggled, then began to cry, then put her hands over her face. "Killian," she gasped, finally. "Killian – I – oh my God. Oh my God! Are you really –? Is this –?"

She was beside herself, laughing as she cried, her hands fluttering around her face as she blinked back her tears. "Yes," I told her. "Yes, I am asking you to marry me. I want you to be my wife, Eva James. Will you?"

There was a longer pause, one which had me almost jumping out of my skin as my mind raced with possible negative responses. Maybe it was too soon? Maybe I'd miscalculated her feelings for me? Maybe she thought she was too young, or that she didn't want to rush into anything? But she put my heart at ease a moment later, sliding off the bed and wrapping her arms around me.

"Yes," she whispered in my ear. "Yes, Killian. Yes, yes, yes."

We stayed there, kneeling on the floor, holding each other tightly for a long time. She was shaking a little. Eventually I pulled away and took her hand, pushing the little vine-woven ring onto her ring finger. "This is just temporary. You will have my grandmother's ring – there was just no way to get it out here. Don't worry, it's not some ugly thing."

"I don't care," she replied, looking down at her hand. "I don't care, Killian. I don't care if it's ugly, or big, or small, or old, or new, or made of vines."

She looked down at her finger and then up at me, grinning and sniffling. "I can't believe this. I'm sorry for babbling, but I just – oh my God, I have to call my parents! I have to call my aunt in –"

"There will be time for all that," I told her. "I think it's best if we keep this on the down-low until I can speak to my staff and advisors back in Rhenland. Who knows what my father is going to decide, but either way this is going to be major news and I want it handled properly."

"Oh," Eva nodded. "Yeah, of course. I didn't even think. It's not every day that a girl gets engaged to a Prince, is it?"

I moved in to kiss her again and she suddenly held a hand up. That time, I actually recognized the look on her face. As she raced to the bathroom I looked over at the cabinet. The cabinet in which I'd stored the five pregnancy tests I'd requested from the doctor a few days previously, when Eva's nausea made me think of Charlotte's.

When she came back, looking sweaty and uncomfortable, I gestured for her to sit down beside me. "How are you feeling?"

"OK. I think. It's worse today. Maybe it's a good idea if you take me to the doctor, this is lasting longer than it should, isn't it?"

I shrugged. "I don't know about that."

"Really? When I get a stomach flu it's usually pretty quick."

"Yeah, but what if you don't have a stomach flu? I mean, you're fine, right? Other than feeling ill? You don't have a fever or chills or any of that?"

Eva shook her head. "No, nothing like that."

"Well then," I said, getting up and taking the little plastic bag out of the drawer and bringing it back to where she was sitting. "I think it might be time to take these."

She took the bag from me and looked inside, pulling one of the plastic-wrapped testing sticks out. "What are these? Pills?" She held one up, reading, and then turned her face up to me. "Killian...no. Where did you get these?"

"You're feeling sick a lot, aren't you?" I asked. "My sister – my pregnant sister – is feeling sick a lot, too. You don't seem to have a cold or a flu. And we have been having unprotected sex for awhile now, you know."

Eva blinked. Then she looked back down at the pregnancy test and back up at me. "But I can't be pregnant!"

"Can't you?" I asked gently. "Why not?"

"I – I – I don't know," she stammered in response. "I didn't even think about it."

I kissed her on the cheek and leaned in. "Didn't you? Because I could probably say the same, that I didn't think about it. But I did. Even that first time, it was there in the back of my head. I knew there was a risk. I did it anyway. So did you."

We sat there for some time, quietly. It was as if I could hear the thoughts whirring inside her head. Eventually she looked over at me. "You're right. When I say I didn't think about it I mean I never really stopped and made a decision, you know? But I knew it could happen – how could I not have?"

"Well, there's only one thing to do," I nodded down at the test in her hand. "Do you want me to come in with you?"

Eva smiled. "I don't know if I'm ready for you to watch me peeing, Killian."

"Well we're going to be married, we're probably going to have to get used to that kind of thing."

"Are we?" she asked, a worried look on her face. "Getting married, I mean? What if they're – I mean, what if I'm –"

"What? Are you asking me if I'm going to change my mind if you're pregnant?! Eva, what are you thinking, that's ridiculous. We're engaged now – no backing out. If we have a baby now or a baby in ten years, we're going to be together. Nothing is going to change that."

In the end, she wanted to take the tests alone. I didn't push, because I'd had a few days to get used to the possibility that she might be pregnant – she'd only had a few minutes. If she needed to be alone, she needed to be alone. Less than two minutes after going into the bathroom, though, she came rushing back out.

"I can't, Killian! I can't look at them. I just left them on the counter. I'm – I think I'm freaking out a little, to be honest."

I took her in my arms, determined to be the steadying presence she needed. Then I kissed the top of her head. "We'll look at them together, how about that?"

"OK. Yes, that sounds better. OK."

"How long do we need to wait?" I asked.

"I have no idea!"

"Alright. Come here, Eva. It's OK. We'll just wait a few minutes out here."

So we lay on the bed holding hands and looking up at the ceiling, not talking. After five or ten minutes had passed she propped herself up on her elbow and caught my eye. "What do you want them to say?"

And as soon as she'd asked that question, I knew the answer. I'd known it for days, it just hadn't sunk in yet. I wanted those tests to be positive. I wanted Eva James to have my child. I wanted it on that bone-deep level that can't be reasoned with or rationalized away. But I also didn't want her to be upset, or to think I would be upset, if the result wasn't what I wanted. So instead of answering I pulled her to her feet. "Why don't we find out if we even have any reason to freak out first?"

So we walked into the bathroom, where five little plastic tests were lined up beside the sink.

"You look," Eva urged me. "I can't."

I bent down and peered at them and one by one, as my eyes focused on each stick, five tiny pink plus signs appeared in front of me. I looked again, not quite believing my own eyes.

"Well?!" Eva pleaded.

I straightened up and closed my eyes against the emotion welling up in my throat. Then I opened them again and looked the woman I loved in the eyes. "You're going to have my baby, Eva."

My voice cracked on the 'Eva' – I couldn't hold it back. She put one hand on the bathroom counter to steady herself and shook her head, laughing.

"I'm sorry, Killian, but there's no way. There's no way this is happening. All of it – not just this. Are you telling me I just got engaged to a Prince and found out I'm having his baby on the same day? I'm sorry, just – no. This can't be real."

I took her by the shoulders, unable to wipe the big, stupid, face-cracking grin off my face and forced her to look at me. "It is happening, though. It is. They're all positive. We're having a baby. And we're getting married. Holy shit. Holy shit!"

Eva put her head in her hands, still not giving me any signal how she really felt about her newly discovered status as a mother-to-be, and then turned to me, looking both shocked and – thank God – pleased. "Look at you," she whispered. "Are you happy? Is this what you wanted?"

"YES!" I shouted, before proceeding to do a little dance around the bathroom. "Yes. I just didn't want to say it before we knew, because I didn't want you to be upset if the result was negative. But they're positive!"

All of a sudden, she burst into tears. I took her in my arms. "Eva – Eva, what is it? Are you – were you hoping for different results?"

She shook her head, trying to compose herself, and then took a deep breath. "No. No, Killian. I was just scared – I was scared you would think I was trying to rope you into something you didn't want, or manipulate you or some –"

"Eva," I said, cupping her pretty face in my hands. "Look at me. I would never think that of you. Never. Where would you get a silly thought like that?"

"So," she started, still slightly apprehensive. "You're glad then? This is a good thing?"

I laughed. "Look at me. Is this the face of an unhappy man? Are you crazy?!"

Instead of answering, she just clung to me, burying her face in my chest. I led her out onto the deck and we stood beside each other, gazing out at the sea, both of us in shock. Happy shock, but shock nonetheless.

"You know what, Killian?" she asked me a few minutes later.

"What, baby?"

"I'm happy. I'm so happy I think it's scaring me a little. Like, what did I do to deserve this? I'm scared something bad is going to happen, you know? To balance it out."

"Don't," I instructed. "Don't do that, Eva. That's not how it works. Nothing bad is going to happen."

"Killian?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm having a baby!"

That was the moment she finally gave herself permission to give into it – to the emotion of the day. "You are," I told her. "You're having my baby. And we're getting married. I love you more than anything or anyone else on earth, Eva. And I never, never want you to doubt that."

She threw her arms around me and I held her for a long time. What a day. What a week. I never knew I had it in me – the capacity to feel so much joy and so much love at one time. And it was all down to her. It was difficult to even think about that, sometimes – what my life could have been like if Eva James from Oshwego hadn't walked out in front of my motorcade what felt like a million years ago. But she had, and the puzzle pieces of our lives had fallen into place, as if driven by some mysterious force I couldn't comprehend.

I stayed awake that night, long after Eva had dozed off beside me, watching her sleep and marveling at her, at what it felt like to have her next to me, to know she was mine, to know she had my baby in her belly. Even when I tried to sleep, I couldn't. I was too wired. My phone chimed at about three in the morning and I grabbed it and took it out onto the front deck before it could rouse my beautiful wife-to-be. It was Charlotte.

"Hello?"

"Killian. Hey. So, our mother wants to talk to you."

"Uh," I replied. "Well, I'll be back in the Capital in a couple of –"

"No, I mean right now. She's on the other line."

"She's what?"

"Right now, Killian. She didn't think you would take her call, so she asked me to do it."

"Fine, put her through."

Charlotte paused for a second. "You sound funny. Is everything OK?"

I chuckled. "Everything is fine, Char. Everything is – it's more than fine. It's excellent. I'm just trying to be quiet because Eva's sleeping."

"Oh, alright. Well I would ask you what's up but the Queen is waiting. I assume this has something to do with our grandmother's ring? And that I'll hear all about this when you get back?"

"You will. I'll call you."

"OK. I'm putting mother on. Have a good night."

I should have been apprehensive about talking to the Queen – because I always was. But that night, I wasn't. Telling them about Eva had freed me. My mother could say what she liked. I wasn't going to be rude to her, but I wasn't going to make a single decision, ever again, based on what she or my father wanted. From now on it was about Eva and I – what she wanted, what we wanted.

The line went dead and then I heard a click.

"Killian?"

"Mother?"

"Yes, hello. I hope it's not too late."

Well, she didn't sound too upset. That was good. "No," I lied. "It's fine. Is there a problem? Because I thought I made it clear to you and dad that I wasn't going to be –"

"Oh, Killian," my mother sighed. "That's not why I'm calling. I know there's not going to be any changing your mind now. You've always been like that, you know. Even when you were very small. Easy going most of the time but when you made up your mind, well, watch out world."

"Mm-hm," I grunted, still anticipating a lecture.

"Anyway, I'm calling because your father and I would like to invite you and Eva to dinner. At St. Stephen's. In three weeks."

I opened my mouth to reply and found no words willing to come out. What were my parents up to? What was this? My mother must have sensed my doubt.

"It's not a trick, Killian. It's also not approval, so don't mistake it for that. It's a gesture. Your father and I understand you feel strongly about this girl, and we'd like to meet her."

"Uh – OK," I replied. "Sure. Um, yeah. Dinner. Yes. I'll ask Eva but I'm sure she'll be fine with it."

"Good. We'll see you then. Good night."

We hung up. It may not seem like much but I knew it was huge. It was, as my mother said, a gesture. A sign. They were willing to meet Eva. That was excellent news, because I knew that Eva herself was going to be a much more persuasive argument for our relationship than anything I could possibly say. It meant we were going to have to keep our news under wraps for a few weeks, because if my parents were willing to open their minds, even a little bit, to the idea that I had a say in my own life then I wanted to honor that and avoid blindsiding them.

I looked out past the beach, to where the moonlight was dappling the waves. Just like that, I thought to myself. Just like that, and everything's changed.

Our lives are defined by our roles. Son. Brother. Prince. I was still all of those things, but there were new signposts on my life's path now – still technically in the future but visible now, real. Husband. Father. I'd never given much thought to these new roles, because the assumption that they would just happen, as if by magic, had been all around me since I was a very young child. It had all seemed so theoretical, so separate from who I was as an individual. And Eva James had changed all of that. No longer were those words – husband, father – dry or academic. Now they were as present and real as Eva herself. And I wanted them. Even the promise of them made my chest swell with pride and love. Not just husband, but Eva's husband. Not just father, but father to our baby.

It was enough to make me want to rush back inside and shake her gently awake, to look into those dark, pretty eyes of hers and tell her again: I love you, I love you, I love you. But I didn't do that, because my life wasn't all about me anymore. And that's exactly how I wanted it.