The Baby Dilemma

“You want to have a healthy child. Don’t wait too long to start your prenatal care, and don’t take any medication unless you’ve cleared it with your OB first!”

“I won’t. Goodbye.”

Kellie couldn’t get out of his office fast enough.

She hurried down to the car park and drove back to the café. It opened for lunch in half an hour. She needed to get busy going over the dinner menu.

Her family didn’t know she’d been to the doctor. Until she’d made a decision about what to do, she didn’t want to tell them what she’d learned. At the moment she was still trying to absorb the news with all its ramifications.

In order to avoid conversation, she parked behind the restaurant and slipped in the rear entrance which was used for delivery people. Luckily the other chef and the serving help were working at a steady pace. There was no unnecessary talk, especially on Fridays which brought in the large weekend crowds of tourists on their way to and from the Cascades.

Her grandparents did the cashiering while her mom ran the dining room. That left Kellie in the kitchen to hide her grief over an untenable situation. But by four o’clock that afternoon her head was splitting.

She told the other chef she needed to quit for the day. Excusing herself, she went up to her room and called Dr. Cutler’s office for an appointment. The receptionist fit her in for the following Friday.

When Kellie explained about her headaches, the nurse came on the line and told her of one painkiller she could take that wouldn’t hurt the baby.

Kellie thanked her for the information and hung up. She’d already tried it, but she’d received no relief. The only thing to do was go to bed and hope she could sleep it off.

To some degree her solution worked. A short nap seemed to stave off the worst of the pain.

Over the next seven days while she waited to find out if Philippe’s solicitor had responded, she would excuse herself to lie down as soon as she felt a headache coming on.

After her appointment with Dr. Cutler on Friday, Kellie made the decision to tell her family about her condition. As soon as they closed the restaurant for the night, she would sit down with them.

“Kellie?”

“What is it, Roy?” she asked the college age waiter who’d come in the kitchen for the steak dinners she’d put under the warmer.

“Someone’s out in front wanting to speak to you. The woman said she’d wait until you had a break.”

“I’ve already had mine for today. Who is it?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen her before or believe me, I would have remembered.” He smiled. “It was Lee something. Her last name started with an M, but I can’t pronounce it.”

Kellie didn’t know a woman named…wait a minute— No. It couldn’t be that Lee, the wife of Philippe’s best friend, Raoul.

While Kellie had lived in the apartment with Philippe, Prince Raoul Mertier Bergeret D’Arillac, ruler of the French-Swiss cantons and his new twenty-six-year old American bride who was the same age as Kellie, had still been out of the country on their honeymoon.

Though Kellie had never met either of them, she’d seen the news clippings of their royal wedding among the things in Philippe’s desk. He also had hundreds of photos and various videos of Raoul and his friends out climbing.

If the prince and his wife had taken up residence in Neuchâtel since Kellie’s flight from Switzerland, they couldn’t possibly be here. Could they?

“Hey— Kellie— What do you want me to say?”

His question brought her thoughts back to the present. “Roy—did her last name sound like Mertier?”

He nodded. “That’s it exactly!”

Kellie’s legs started to shake.

If Lee Mertier of all people was in The Eatery dining room, then the only reason she would be here was that something terrible had happened to Philippe. Maybe his injuries were worse than Claudine had made them out to be.

“Tell her to meet me in the foyer. I’ll be right there.”

“Okay.”

As soon as he left the kitchen with the dinners, Kellie told the other chef she needed more time off. After washing her hands in the sink, she hung her apron and hair net on a peg in the back room. On trembling legs she made her way through the kitchen and dining room to the restaurant lobby.

The reality of the lovely, vital woman with short silvery-gold hair and violet eyes who turned in Kellie’s direction surpassed her image of the princess in the newspaper photos. Yet in jeans and a knit top, Lee Mertier looked completely down to earth and approachable.

As Kellie hurried past a line of customers to reach the other woman, she was so terrified to hear bad news about Philippe, she could hardly breathe.

“Princess?” she said in a shaky voice.

“Call me Lee.” She flashed her a sweet smile. “I knew you had to be Kellie. You’re more beautiful than the picture Philippe carries around with him.”

“Maybe he did once,” she said in a tortured whisper. “I was about to tell you no news clipping could do you justice.”

“Thank you.”

“Please—” Kellie struggled to keep her emotions under control. “I know you wouldn’t be here if something weren’t seriously wrong with Philippe. Were his injuries from the car accident more severe than his sister led me to believe?”

Shadows darkened Lee’s eyes, increasing Kellie’s fears. “He’s not dying, so let me put your mind at rest about that.”

“Is there something wrong with the baby?”

“Kellie?” she said quietly. “Can we go someplace to be alone and talk?”

“Yes. Of course. Forgive my lack of manners. I—I admit I’m scared to death.”

Kellie opened the door to the stairway, urging Lee to follow her up to the living room of the house.

“Please sit down. Can I get you anything?”

“No, thank you.” She found a place on the end of the couch. Kellie took a chair opposite her.

The other woman spoke first. “I know my presence has alarmed you, but after discussing it with Raoul, we agreed this wouldn’t work over the phone.”

“Did your husband come with you?”

“No. I left him hosting an international bankers’ conference he’d already put off once before.”

“But you’re barely home from your honeymoon, aren’t you? To think you had to leave him to fly this far—”

“My husband loves Philippe like a brother. He’d do anything for him. I’m pretty crazy about your husband myself. The problem is, he’s not the same man who introduced me to Raoul in Zermatt. All traces of the dashing Frenchman who lost his heart to you have vanished.”

Kellie’s head was bowed.