“Hugely. He was a part of my life for as long as I’ve known you and I thought he’d be the biggest part of my future.”
“I know. If I could go back in time and stop him from giving that damn speech, I would.”
She nods. “How do you feel about becoming queen?”
“It’s a job. It doesn’t define the person I am.”
Elise stares out of the window at the loch. It’s calm today. The rains of the last three days have dried up and today is a crisp autumn day with a bite in the air that suggests winter is not far away. My father’s already said this will be a hard winter. The castle has increased the food it keeps stocked, the roads have been treated and enough coal and logs have been brought in in case we’re snowed in for any length of time which is a possibility.
And a dream.
Being cut off for a few days or even a week means the media will be full of the weather and Blair and the House of Stewart will be left alone.
“How is your father?” Elise turns from the window. “His health can’t have been helped by Lennox’s assassination.” She looks at me as she says the words as if I’m somehow to blame for what happened.
As far as I’m aware, I’m not. I still have no idea if Majken’s little band of lovers were behind it.
“He’s declining.” Blair stands up and heads to the window herself, perching on the windowsill. “We don’t know how long he has left but he’s comfortable.”
“Is he helping you with the talks with William Goldsmith?”
The comment makes my hair bristle because the words are loaded with more than just a bullet.
I don’t glance over to Blair because I don’t want Elise to pick up on it, but I’m sure she’s heard the same tone.
“He is. You know he didn’t agree with what Lennox was trying to negotiate.”
“Closer ties with England. Return us back to being Great Britain again.”
“Pretty much.”
“Lennox used to talk to me about it. I miss those conversations.”
Elise seems surprised when Blair doesn’t respond.
“I miss our chats as well. About boys. Men. It seems strange not to be sitting around here in our pyjamas like we used to.” She looks at me again. ‘Back when we could have conversations in private.”
I look at Blair now. “Do you want me to go?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve asked for some lunch to be brought up here for the four of us. We’re having a banquet here in a few weeks, Elise. I wondered if you’d like to plan it. It’s in honour of Lennox and with you having been his fiancée, I thought you’d like to be involved.”
Elise smiles but there’s more than just the enjoyment at the thought of planning an event that will be sure to make the media in some way. Then her eyes change. “That would be lovely. You said four of us for lunch? Who’s the fourth?”
“Ivy. Ivy Everleigh.” Blair says the name quietly.
“Isn’t Everleigh the name of one of William Goldsmith’s advisors?” Elise is sitting up now, eyes on Blair.
“It’s Isaac Everleigh’s sister.”
She frowns. “I’ve met Isaac. I didn’t know he had a sister. How strange.”
“Some people like to keep their family lives private.” I probably shouldn’t have said the words.
“Clearly.” Elise sounds and looks affronted and for the first time I wonder how involved she was with Lennox’s political world. And what she knows.
Ivy enters with a trolley full of food, cold cuts of ham and beef, sandwiches and hot bowls of thick vegetable soup. Her hair is tied up and she looks cheerful, which means she’s spoken to her pirate.
“I come bearing gifts.” She smiles around the room. “The cakes are all for me. I’ll need the energy later.”
