She sat down opposite him, her jumpsuit at least hiding more of her than her pyjamas had done.
‘So if we’re not going out, maybe we could use this opportunity to learn more about each other.’
‘Like what?’
‘You were married, right?’
‘Yes.’
‘And you loved her?’
‘Of course I did.’
‘And she loved you.’
‘Princess,’ he said, his voice thick. ‘Where is this going?’
‘But she did, right?’
The words felt like they’d been wrenched from his soul. ‘She did.’ Not that he’d been able to honour that love, not in the end.
She seemed to contemplate that for a minute. ‘What did that feel like—to have someone love you so much?’
‘It was—perfection.’
‘I love that,’ she said. ‘That is everything every person wants.’
And Theo knew exactly where this was going before she’d even uttered her next words.
‘Because that’s what I want. To feel someone to love me so much and me love him that it’s perfection.’
‘It’s a worthy goal,’ he said, intentionally keeping his distance.
‘My father promised that I could marry for love. I was never going to accede to the throne, so he promised me that I could make my own way. But how am I to find that love, how am I ever to feel that same feeling, if my brother is to marry me off to someone I don’t love. Someone I could never love?’
Her voice was rising. ‘Princess—again, you’re becoming over melodramatic.’
‘You don’t believe me,’ she said. ‘You don’t believe what my brother has in store for me.’
‘There are no indications.’ He’d had nothing back on his request for information but given the threadbare Wi-Fi and the weather, that was hardly surprising. Then again, maybe it was because there was nothing to find.
‘No indications? What are you waiting for? Of course he’s not going to “give you indications”. He needs you onside. He needs you to deliver the goods. And that’s all I am to him. The goods. The ticket out of his massive debts.’
He said nothing. Given the lack of any evidence, there was nothing to say. She sipped her coffee and he assumed she was done.
He was wrong.
‘My brother has always had a mean streak,’ she said, flopping into a chair, rubbing her forehead with one hand. ‘It was always tempered when my parents were alive, but even when they weren’t around he’d find ways to bully me. I thought once he acceded to the throne, he’d have enough on his plate to worry about and he’d forget about me. But I was wrong.’
Theo looked up. A bully? There had been something in the dossier that had hinted at the Prince’s authoritarian personality, and his strong need to control, but this had been painted as unsurprising, given his station and the leadership role expected of him. But could there be something darker behind it?
‘Did he ever hurt you? Physically, I mean.’
She sniffed. ‘No. Not me. Nothing that would show. But I had a six-month-old puppy called Coco. My parents had given her to me for my twelfth birthday.’
Chills skittered down Theo’s spine. ‘What happened?’
‘I couldn’t find her one day. I called and called but she didn’t come. And then Rafael appeared, holding Coco. It was wrong. Coco hated Rafael, she growled whenever he was around. But now she was crying. Whimpering. And I could see that one of her legs was just hanging. Limp. She fell down the stairs, Rafael told me, and then he smiled. And I knew—I just knew that he’d done it. My parents believed him—maybe they just wanted to believe him—because my father visited me that night while Coco was being cared for in the veterinary hospital. He hugged me tightly and told me that he was sorry for how the way things were. He told me that things would be different one day. He promised me—’ She pulled her legs up onto the chair and wrapped her arms tightly around them.
