Crowned: The Palace Nanny by Marion Lennox Read Free Book Online Page B

towards him. She was still hard against Elsa but he’d cut through her distress.
    â€˜You’re a doctor?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜But you’re a prince.’
    â€˜People are allowed to be both.’
    â€˜My papa was a doctor,’ she said. ‘But a doctor of science. He studied shellfish.’
    â€˜Did Christos get his doctorate?’ he said with pleasure. ‘Hey, how about that. I wish I’d known.’ Still he was talking to Zoe. ‘Your papa and I used to be really good friends. He taught me where to find the best shells on Khryseis. Only I always wanted to find the pretty ones or the big ones and he wanted to look for the interesting ones. Sometimes he’d pick up a little grey shell I didn’t think at all special and off he’d go, telling me it was a Multi-Armpit Hairy Cyclamate, or a Wobblysaurus Rex, or something even sillier.’
    Zoe stared in astonishment—and then she giggled.
    You could forgive a lot of a man who could make Zoe giggle, Elsa conceded. And…a man who could make her giggle as well?
    â€˜Will you let me see what the problem is?’ he asked gently, and Zoe lifted her T-shirt without hesitation. Which was another miracle all by itself.
    And here was another miracle. He didn’t react. Zoe’s left side was a mass of scar tissue but Stefanos’s expression didn’t change by as much as a hair’s breadth. He was still smiling a little—with Zoe—and she was smiling back. His long fingers probed the scar tissue with infinite gentleness, not going near the tiny suppurating wound but simply assessing the situation overall.
    He had such long fingers, Elsa thought. Big hands, tanned and gentle. She wouldn’t mind…
    Um…whoa. Attention back to Zoe. Fast.
    â€˜What sort of medical supplies do you have here?’ he asked, still speaking only to Zoe, and Elsa held her breath.This was a question every doctor or nurse she knew would address to her, but this whole conversation was between the two of them.
    â€˜We have lots of stuff,’ Zoe volunteered. ‘Sometimes when I’m just out of hospital the nurses come here and change my dressings. It costs a lot though, ’cause we’re so far out of town, so Elsa keeps a lot of stuff here and she’s learned to do it instead.’
    â€˜Well, good for Elsa.’ And, dumbly, Elsa found she was blushing with pleasure. ‘Can I see?’ he asked.
    â€˜I’ll get it,’ she said and headed for the bathroom—and even that was a minor miracle. For Zoe to let her leave the room while a strange doctor was examining her…Definitely a miracle.
    She didn’t push it, though. She was back in seconds, carrying a hefty plastic crate. She set it down and Stefanos examined its contents and whistled.
    â€˜You have enough here to treat an elephant,’ he said. ‘You don’t have an elephant hidden under a bed somewhere, do you?’
    Once again Zoe giggled. It was the best sound. It made her feel…It made her feel…
    No. She would not get turned on because this man made a child giggle.
    Only she already was. She was fighting hormones here as hard as she could. And losing.
    It had been too long. You’re a sick, sad spinster, she told herself, and then rebuked herself sharply. Not a spinster. She glanced across at the mantel, and Matty’s face smiled down at her from its frame. Sorry, she told him under her breath. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
    â€˜You know, I’m sure I can fix this.’ Stefanos’s words tugged her attention straight back to him. ‘Zoe, if you and Elsa trust me…I think all this needs is some antiseptic cream, a couple of Steri-Strips to tug it together—see, it’s at the end of the graft so we can attach the strips to good skin on eitherside and tug it together. Then we can pop one of these waterproof dressings over the whole thing and you could even go swimming this