Playing the Royal Game

‘But that’s what you want?’ Hope finally sparked. ‘Surely.’

‘If I break our engagement, I will have to step aside and Matteo will be next in line—but that is not going to happen.’ He stood and watched as her mind raced through the labyrinth and sought escape, but he blocked every exit. ‘I was born to be king, and I will not give it up, no matter what my father says. But now that I am back in Santina I will assume my full duty as Crown Prince. As my fiancée, you will ensure that there will be no repeat of last night, there will be no more embarrassments, no hushed arguments in palace corridors. You will do me proud.’

‘Then how—?’ She floundered. ‘If I’m busy being perfect, how can we expect the people to change their minds, especially if this is the only way you will still get to be king as well as break off our engagement?’

‘They will.’ He said it with certainty, such certainty, but it did not appease.

* * *

She forced her way through an awkward formal lunch, tried to be polite and focus on conversations, but she was too bewildered by the turn of events to pay much attention to the fact that a fair proportion of both her own and Alex’s family were missing. If anything she was relieved, for if she saw Angel now it would be impossible not to break down and confess it all.

Her father gave her a warm hug at the end of a very long day. ‘I’m so proud of you, Allegra.’ He shook the king’s hand and for an appalling moment it looked like he might kiss the queen, but Bobby gave her a brief smile instead and thanked her for her hospitality and then looked over to Alex. ‘Look after her, or you’ll have me to answer to.’ It was affectionately said, but not well received.

‘Of course I will look after her.’ It was rare guilt that tightened Alex’s throat, for unlike Bobby, he knew this father really was kissing his daughter goodbye, was handing her over to him, to his family, to the people. Of course Bobby would see her again, just never like this. For as Allegra insisted on walking out to the limos with them—her high heels noisy on the marble floor, her voice just a little too loud, her stance a touch too familiar as she thanked a servant—Alex almost missed her already, missed the woman who had walked into that bar and forced his attention, missed the woman he had held this morning in bed, before everything had changed.

Somehow he had to explain things to her, but the subject was closed for now. He saw the shimmer of tears in her eyes as the limos departed and then she pleaded a headache and went to bed. The lights were off and her back was turned when Alex came in.

‘Allegra?’ He was not going to sleep on the sofa and he knew she was awake, for no one lay so rigid in a bed if they were asleep. ‘I know you’re awake.

‘For now we need to set a date,’ he continued. It really was not open for discussion and it burnt in her stomach so much that she started to cry. ‘I will stall it for as long as possible—my father was talking a couple of months. I will try for Christmas.’

‘And hope in the meantime the people change their mind about me—and then you can appease them by dumping me. Oh, darling, you do say the nicest things.’ Despite her sarcastic tone, it hurt that he didn’t deny it. ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’

Alex didn’t know what to say. He realised that pointing out that he had paid her a million pounds to take part in this charade would not help matters right now. ‘You need to be more affectionate. There were comments after lunch today—we are supposed to be madly in love after all.’

He moved towards her, attempted to comfort her the only way he knew how, in the language he best spoke where women were concerned. His arm moved around her body, drawing her to him. He did not fully understand her tears—yes it would be different and yes it must be a shock, but in his world, he was a prize, the one every woman wanted.

‘Allegra, even if it is not how you intended, surely it is better this way. You have everything you could possibly want.’ He thought of her old life: losing her job, the tiny bedsit, the demands of her family. Here she had no financial concerns and would be shielded from her family’s dramas—the palace would see to that. He could feel her skin warm beneath the lace of her nightie.