“We’ve brought up two award-winning mixologists from London for tonight. After dinner, they’re going to be holding a competition between themselves, you know, a little entertainment.”
I’ve stopped hearing his words. Isaac is standing alone across the room, watching us. He lifts his tumbler silently and I offer a slim smile. I suspect that I’ll be spending most of the evening with William.
“Maybe you could have something similar next time you have a banquet at the castle?”
I don’t know when that will be. My father is ailing. The media have started to speculate that something is amiss given the amount of functions and appointments that have been cancelled or that my mother has attended by herself. Lennox’s plans for a conference followed by a meal have been placed on hold.
“I think we’d opt for whisky tasting.” I put the cocktail down on a small table having taken just a sip.
William notices, looking from the glass to me. “You don’t like it?”
“It’s a little too sweet for me.”
“Oh. You don’t like sweet drinks?” He looks crestfallen. “Shall I have another made up for you?”
I shake my head. “Actually, I’d like a glass of water.”
He nods, looks disappointed and asks a passing waiter for the water. If he was planning to get me drunk, he’s failed.
“I did tell you, William, that Blair prefers Scotch.”
I jump at Isaac’s voice. The man has a talent for moving like a ghost.
William looks on edge. “I also thought she’d like sweet cocktails.”
Then I realise that these drinks are for me. It’s possibly all for me. “She’s here and has a voice.” I look from Isaac to the prime minister. “And tonight I’ll be sampling the finest Scottish tap water, with maybe a whisky chaser before bed.”
William smiles and nods, keeping his gaze on me. Isaac looks away, but I can tell he’s amused.
I know his eyes. I’ve seen them before that first night at the palace. Before Antigua. Before now. The flicker of gold within them, the way they dance.
I know how they look when he’s aroused.
“Have you been to Chequers before?” William changes the subject abruptly.
“Many times. When I was a girl, the Prime Minister then had a daughter the same age so I’d spend a couple of weeks here each summer. We used to play hide and seek through the bedrooms. One summer we pretended there was a wardrobe that did actually lead to a different world through the back of it. Every time we went in it, we were disappointed.”
Claire, she had been called. She’d died aged nineteen, killed by a drunk driver. Her father had stood down from office some months later. I went to her funeral, whispered words by her grave.
“Where haven’t you been in England? I’d love to help you discover somewhere.” He was really trying hard.
“I’m not sure.” I start to go through the places I’ve been, listen to his suggestions. I smile, like a good princess should, but I don’t lie.
“I’m beginning to think you’re trying to get out of a date with me.” He laughs, lifts his glass which is his third and now drained.
I laugh back, sip my water. Pray for patience and tact. Ask myself what my mother would do.
She was never in this situation. She met a man and fell in love when she was nineteen. What he was was irrelevant. Who he was, key. The mans she fell in love with then is still the man she loves now and I know her heart is wilting each day we come closer to losing him. It’s a pain I don’t want to bear but I have to, only when I think of it, I want to cry and for my father to hold me and tell me it’s all going to be okay. That can’t happen. But I can be the person he needs me to. Him, not Lennox.
“I don’t really date.” This isn’t a lie.
He glances to the floor and then looks at me with big eyes. William is a player. I know from the little research I could be bothered to do, that he likes his women to be blonde and young, and he rarely keeps the same one for more than a few months. I also know that it’s wise for a politician to have a steady partner. To be married. A family man.
“You’re beautiful and interesting. You must have men lining up to take you out.”
I sip my water. “I wouldn’t know. I keep my private life as private as possible. Like you do, I imagine.”
He doesn’t get chance to respond as Lennox heads over, laughing and talking about a boxing match that was being shown later. William is swept away by my brother and I’m left with Isaac.
