Alexandra stepped closer to the window and gently moved the thick velvet curtain aside. When her father had stood to leave, giving her a cursory pat on the shoulder as he muttered goodbye to her, her aunt had stormed after him as if she’d waited all night to give him a very forthright piece of her mind. Which had left Alexandra in the dining room with her cousins, who were slowly starting to talk and joke with one another in the way she remembered, their voices no longer hushed now that there were no adults near.
‘What are they saying?’ Belle asked, coming to stand beside her.
‘I think your mother is giving him a telling-off,’ Alexandra whispered, leaning so close to the glass she almost had her ear pressed against it. She could see her aunt standing with her hands on her hips, illuminated under the outside light, and her father trying to back away from her. ‘She seems very cross with him.’
‘Come with me,’ Belle said, taking her hand. ‘It’ll be much easier to hear if we hide behind the front door.’
Alexandra scurried along with her cousin, still holding her hand as they pressed themselves against the short bit of wall beside the front door, which had conveniently been left ajar. Belle smiled at her, and Alexandra found herself smiling back, one of the first smiles she remembered sincethatday.
‘You’re treating her as if she’s a possession you no longer want, Nicholas. She’s your daughter, in case you’ve forgotten!’ her aunt roared. ‘Not to mention that she’s a young girl grieving for her mother. She needs her father.’
‘She most certainly doesn’t need me,’ her father blustered in reply. ‘She’s far better here with you.’
There was silence for a moment, and Belle patted her hand. ‘Alex, we can be like sisters while you’re here. You know you’ll always be made to feel welcome here, don’t you? We’re all so happy to have you, and you’ll have the room beside mine.’
‘Thank you,’ Alexandra whispered in reply, swallowing away her tears but so thankful for the kindness being extended to her. She wished she could tell Belle just how much it meant to her, but the words simply wouldn’t come.
Belle leaned in close to her again as if she were about to speak, but the argument thundering back to life outside again made them both freeze to the spot.
‘And where exactly do you plan to go, Nicholas? To Rome, with the royal family? Or are you going to be travelling abroad as a bachelor?’
He cleared his throat, and that seemed to anger her aunt, because her voice increased in volume. Alexandra knew that he should be referred to as a widower, not a bachelor, which made it abundantly obvious that her aunt was trying to anger her father.
‘Where are you going, Nicholas? If I’m to take your daughter in, don’t you think I at least need to know where her father intends on residing? Where we can find you if the need arises.’
‘I shall be visiting the King in a professional capacity, and then travelling to the South of France, but I see no reason why you could possibly need to know my whereabouts.’
Belle tightened her hold on Alexandra’s hand then, at the same moment as Alexandra squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she hadn’t heard her father’s cruel words. He was discarding his daughter, and he was using their temporary exile, and his new life as an unmarried man, to enjoy the South of France for the rest of the summer. There was no hiding that he was happy to be without her. She doubted he’d even considered taking her with him.
‘What happened to the charismatic, loving man who my sister married all those years ago?’
There was a long pause, and Alexandra could almost hear the silent pain that rested between them. She’d heard the stories of how her father had courted her mother, how impressed he’d been with the beautiful woman who’d been in command of horses that would test the abilities of the most capable of men. But she’d also heard whispers that her mother had been too good for him, that he’d used her connections to the royal family for his own personal gain, that he’d taken command of her mother’s fortune the moment her parents had passed away. And she knew too that if her father had married for love, he couldn’t have carried on so easily after her mother’s death, as much as she wished it were different.
‘I shall check in on Alexandra periodically, and I shall ensure she has funds enough to—’
‘We don’t want your money, Nicholas! You know perfectly well that’s not what this conversation is about, and if you don’t, then you’re more fool than I thought.’
‘You’re acting as if my family hasn’t just had to flee Greece!’ her father declared. ‘The King was forced to stage a coup against the government, and—’
‘My husband has ensured that I’ve stayed very much up to date with what is happening in your country,’ Elizabeth said calmly, which seemed to infuriate her father even more. ‘I’m terribly sorry that the monarchy isn’t receiving the respect it deserves, but Nicholas, in case you’ve forgotten, you’re not the King—you are one of his advisers. And in case you’ve also forgotten, you had already decided well before this unfortunate turn of events that you were going to send your daughter to me. Please don’t pretend otherwise, for it would only be insulting to both me and Alexandra.’
Belle pulled her away then, as her mother’s furious footsteps echoed towards them, the conversation clearly over, but they didn’t move quickly enough. Her cousin kept moving, but Alexandra stopped and waited to be discovered, not wanting to show defiance on her first night in her aunt’s home. She’d been eavesdropping, and she wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.
But if she’d been about to tell her off for listening, the tears shining in Alexandra’s eyes must have stopped her, for her aunt merely opened her arms and she fled into them, needing her affection more now than ever before. Elizabeth’s hold was firm, as if she never wanted to let her go.
‘My darling girl,’ her aunt said, stepping back just enough so that she could gently wipe Alexandra’s tears from her cheeks. ‘I intend on loving you as if you are my own child, do you hear me? You will find only love and kindness in our home. I just wish you hadn’t had to hear any of that.’
Alexandra nodded, and her aunt tucked her fingers beneath her chin and lifted her face so that they were looking into each other’s eyes.
‘Your mother meant the world to me, second only to my own children. Your father might not be grieving her in the same way that you are, but I want you to know thatIam. I feel her loss as keenly as if one of my limbs had been ripped from my body, and that means you can come to me whenever you need to cry or talk about her. I will always be here for you, my love,always. You’ll never be alone again.’
Alexandra nodded again, as a fat tear escaped and slipped down her cheek. She had never not loved her aunt, but now she truly saw her as her mother’s sister, as the only woman who could ever come close to replacing her mother in her life. As someone grieving her mother as deeply as she was herself.
Her aunt took another step back, but not before taking Alexandra’s hand.
‘Do you play the violin?’
Alexandra shook her head.
