“No, absolutely not —”
Princess Anne threw her head back and laughed. It resembled Vidal’s laughter when he was enjoying a joke at someone’s expense, and it filled the drawing room. She laughed until she had to press two fingers to the corner of one eye. When she brought them away she was still laughing, and her warmth had come back into the room.
“Oh, my darlings. Oh, the two of you.” She shook her head. “I am going to enjoy this very much indeed.”
Chapter Eleven
Vidalwoke to the sound of Mercè sighing. He stretched one arm above his head, let the silk of the sheet slide down his chest, and considered the ceiling for a long moment before he remembered that he was supposed to be furious.
Mercè sighed again, more pointedly this time, and pawed once at the duvet in the region of his ribs. The message was unambiguous. Vidal swung his legs out of bed, reached for the robe thrown across the chaise, and knotted it at his waist as he crossed the room to let her out.
His bare foot came down on paper. A neat stack had been slid under the door during the night. Mercè, who had reached the door ahead of him, sniffed the top sheet and then looked up at him.
“One moment,mi amor.”
He bent and picked the papers up between his finger and thumb, the way one might pick up a suspicious envelope.
It was five pages long and at the top of the first page was a perfectly centred heading.
COHABITATION PROTOCOLS — INTERIM ARRANGEMENT
Residence: Mayfair, London W1
Parties: HSH Prince Vidal of Cardona / Major H. R. Beauchamp
Effective: 0700 hrs, date as above. Under review weekly.
Vidal carried the sheaf of papers back to the bed, arranged himself against the pillows and began to read.
1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1.1The purpose of this document is to establish a framework of mutual respect and operational clarity for the duration of the undersigned’s joint occupancy of the above residence. It is understood by both parties that the arrangement is temporary and that the usual separation between principal and seconded attaché cannot be maintained under current circumstances. The undersigned are both of the view that, in the absence of that separation, a shared understanding of boundaries will contribute to the comfort and dignity of both.
Vidal almost laughed. The comfort and dignity of both. Beauchamp had written that sentence in the middle of the night in complete earnestness, and Vidal was going to have to have the page framed.
2. BEDROOMS
2.1Each party’s bedroom shall be treated as private space and shall not be entered by the other party under any circumstances, save in the event of a medical emergency, a security incident, or fire.
2.2In the unlikely event that entry is required for one of the reasons listed at 2.1, the entering party shall knock and identify themselves before crossing the threshold, save where the natureof the emergency precludes such notice.
Examples:
active bleeding
cardiac or respiratory distress
smoke ingress, and
