Cesar’s look grew cynical. ‘Were you planning to write more articles to fund this expansion?’
‘No! Of course not! How can you even think that?’
‘I’m curious as to how you intended to support yourself going forward.’
‘I thought selling my paintings might help.’ That sounded so lame now. How did she know anyone would buy them? So far she’d had a commission from her brother and the sniff of a promise from Cesar. That wouldn’t be enough to support her retreat.
‘How much do you need?’ Cesar asked bluntly.
‘I don’t want a loan,’ she said. ‘I’ll find the money.’
‘You have a money tree?’
‘I’ll listen to any suggestions you care to make, but I won’t sit on my hands while you go into battle on my behalf.’
‘It’s time to accept that you can’t carry the world on your shoulders. I’m sure your brothers would be only too eager to help you if you didn’t push them away.’
‘I haven’t pushed them away. It takes them all their time to speak to me.’
There was silence for a while and then Cesar reflected, ‘I guess it must have been hard as a teenager in a household of over-protective brothers.’
‘You have no idea,’ she agreed, relaxing enough to smile as she thought back.
‘I think I do,’ Cesar argued. ‘My sister was left without a father, and when my mother recovered from her grief she was...distracted, shall we say? I was in the Special Forces, and it was only when Olivia alerted me to trouble—and, believe me, Olivia seeks help from no one—that I left the army to save the throne from an unscrupulous man. So I’m not exactly out of practice when it comes to dealing with problems. I’d go as far as to say I’m your best hope.’
Maybe her only hope. ‘Okay, but we do this together or not at all.’
‘Too many chiefs,’ Cesar cautioned.’
‘You’re not suggesting I leave it all to you?’
‘It’s not a suggestion,’ he assured her.
‘Not my way either,’ she said, firming her jaw.
Cesar went to stare out of the window. ‘My mother grieved long and hard for my father,’ he said without turning around. ‘Years passed and then she took a lover. Howard Blake’s press were all over it. I was still in the army when the palace made an announcement that this man from nowhere, no history, no relatives, no obvious experience to make him a suitable candidate to support the Queen in her duties, planned to join her on the throne.’
‘As your mother’s equal?’ Sofia asked with surprise. ‘I didn’t realise it went that far.’ The throne should rightfully pass to Cesar, and she could only imagine how he must have felt, or how delicately he’d had to handle the situation without upsetting his mother, who must have been very vulnerable at the time. That, as well as protecting Olivia from a scandal, made her wonder if Cesar ever spared a thought for himself.
‘What’s your plan?’ he asked as he swung around.
She didn’t want to talk about herself, or what she was going to do. She wanted to talk about Cesar so she could try to understand this deep and complex man. In short order, Cesar had lost his father, found himself head of a prominent family, and been thrown into the turmoil of fixing his mother and sister’s lives. He could only do that by pushing his feelings aside. Joining the Special Forces might have given the wild youth an anchor, but he’d been forced to give that up. Cesar’s recent life seemed to have been one of constant sacrifice, and now she was throwing up yet another hurdle.
She understood his mother’s reasons. Grief could throw anyone off kilter. Sofia had always tried to live up to what she believed were her dead parents’ expectations of her, but this time, like the Queen, she’d gone too far. If she’d called a halt when she’d built a small retreat with limited places, none of this would have happened. But so many had applied to go there. How could she choose who could stay and who to turn away?
‘So what next, Sofia?’
Cesar was waiting for her answer. He had the world on his shoulders already, and now he expected her to load him down with more.
‘Sofia?’ he pressed.
‘I plan to turn my fledgling investigative skills on Howard Blake,’ she revealed.
‘Hoping he has an Achilles heel?’ Cesar guessed.
‘I have to hope so,’ she confessed. ‘But it’s more than that. I want to understand his jealousy towards you and the way he’ll stop at nothing to destroy you, even using me.’
‘I can’t argue with that,’ Cesar admitted. ‘I’ve thought the same thing myself.’
