A Throne for the Taking (9 page)

Together we can do what’s best for Mecjoria.

Whatever else was between them was personal—
this
was for the country’s future. And at least on that she and Alexei were in agreement. But it—with her involvement—had taken away his freedom, the life he had lived up to now. His existence would never be the same again, and knowing the position she was in now, with her own freedom given up to secure peace for the country, Ria felt she understood that on a much deeper level than when she had got on a plane here at this same airport to go and try to persuade him to do just this.

So when he paused at the foot of the step, stopping before he actually set foot on Mecjorian land—his country—she spotted it at once. She was there so close behind him that they were almost touching, his sudden hesitation making her almost slam into him from behind. And when he half-turned, dark eyes meeting hers just for a moment, and he held out his hand to her, she moved forward quickly, putting her fingers into his without hesitation or uncertainty. She felt the power of his touch close round her, holding firm and strong, and welcomed it as she walked down beside him, stepping onto Mecjorian soil together.

It was only when she looked back at that moment later, when it was played over and over on national TV, seeing it from the view of the reception committee of government ministers and army top brass lined up beside the red carpet waiting to greet Alexei, that she saw it properly. Saw how clearly it demonstrated that she had made her choice even before she had actually done so rationally within her own thoughts. That she had cast in her lot with Alexei, and without ever saying so had agreed to the future that he had decreed for both of them.

CHAPTER NINE

T
OGETHER
.

The word seemed to have taken up permanent residence inside Ria’s head, mocking her with the memories of the day they had arrived in Mecjoria and the thoughts she had let herself consider then.

Together.
She had let herself believe that Alexei had meant that there was a together in all this. That she and Alexei were working to the same ends. That her role as his fiancée might mean that she would actually be by his side, that they could be partners in this.

That he might actually need her just a little bit.

But it seemed that, having announced their engagement and presented her to the court, to the country, as his prospective bride, he had lost interest. There had been the moment when they had set foot on the red carpet, when the army officers, the dignitaries, had moved forward, bowed, saluted, address him as ‘Your Majesty’ and she had known that this was after all coming true.

Then Alexei had acknowledged their greetings, shaken hands, all the time holding on to hers so tightly that his grip felt like a manacle around her wrist. She had had to move with him; it was either that or create an ugly little scene as she tried to break away. She had to endure the fusillade of camera flashes, the frankly curious and assessing stares of everyone who was there—the ones who knew of her father’s fall from grace, his imprisonment, her own loss of any title and status at the court as a result.

And then, at last, just before they headed for the waiting cars, Alexei had finally announced the reason why she was there.

‘Gentlemen,’ he had said in a voice that carried clear and strong in spite of the wicked breeze that was swirling round them now. ‘Let me present to you my fiancée—and future queen—the Grand Duchess Honoria Maria Escalona...’

And with that her place in all this was fixed, settled once and for all. Her title it seemed was restored to her, her place in society reinstated. But she was trapped even more tightly in the web of intrigue and plotting that had created this situation in the first place. The speed and conviction with which it had happened made her head spin.

But once they were back in Mecjoria it seemed that everything she had been anticipating hadn’t happened. Nothing might have changed for all the difference it made in her relationship with Alexei. He didn’t even seem to want her sexually any more. She had been convinced that he would press home the advantage he’d made it clear he knew he had while they were on the plane. But it appeared that as soon as he had her on his side for the future of Mecjoria and had introduced her as his fiancée, so putting her firmly in the limelight and in the place he wanted her at his side, he seemed to have lost interest.

She had been settled in a beautiful suite in the huge, golden-stoned palace high on the hill above the capital. A far more beautiful and luxurious suite than she had ever enjoyed on her rare visits there in the past. Her clothes, her personal belongings, had been brought from her home and delivered to her room, and she had been left to settle in.

Alone.

Later she had been sent a series of instructions—details of where she was expected to be and when. There were dinners, receptions, public appearances. There had been a whole new wardrobe provided for these events too with visits from top couturiers, fittings for every sort of dress, shoes, jewellery imaginable. She was now dressed more glamorously than ever in life before. But then she was used to this. It was how it had always been with her father. What was different was the way that, once he had let her know where she was to be, Alexei left everything else up to her. Her father had wanted more control than that. For each event she had been given a series of commands disguised as strict guidelines, as to what she was to do, when she was to appear, what she was to wear, the subjects she should read up on in order to be able to talk about. Alexei made no such demands; and she valued the confidence, the trust, he put in her that way.

She had performed her duty at Alexei’s side, smiled when she needed to, made polite, careful conversation with everyone she was introduced to, walked with her hand on his arm, eaten the meals put in front of her. She had executed her role of the apparently devoted fiancée to perfection, and then returned to her room.

Alone.

But there had been one special duty that he had entrusted to her. One that he felt that she was the best person in the country to carry out.

‘We need to broadcast the story of the discovery of the proof of my parents’ marriage,’ he told her. ‘Everyone is asking questions, making up the most impossible stories.’

Between them, they had come up with a version that came close enough to the truth. A story that involved the missing document being discovered in some long-unopened files. There was no need to detail Ria’s father’s involvement in it, Alexei had conceded, obviously not wanting his new fiancée’s name blackened by any connection with Gregor’s plotting.

‘You’ll be able to get close enough to the truth when you say how you discovered it, and it will explain why you came to England to contact me,’ he told her as he escorted her to the TV studios from which she was to broadcast the details the press wanted.

She knew it was all show, just part of the masquerade they were putting on, but all the same she hugged to herself a feeling of delight at the way that Alexei left her to herself to decide what to say and how to say it. She knew he was watching in the background, scrutinising every move she made, but he had trusted her and that was what mattered. And at the end of the interview, when all the cameras were turned off, he had put his hand on her shoulder, drawing her close to drop a kiss on to her cheek.

‘Thank you,’ he had said quietly, his breath warm on her skin. ‘The mention of the way that your visit to London meant we had the chance to renew our friendship from when we were here in Mecjoria all those years ago was inspired. It was just what was needed.’

Ria nodded agreement, swallowing down the way that ‘friendship’ covered such a multitude of sins. ‘And with any luck the romance story will grab the headlines more.’

Her instincts proved right. The ‘fairy-tale romance’ between the new king and the daughter of one of the oldest families in Mecjoria was what caught the headlines. For every appearance Alexei made on his own, the interest was trebled if the two of them were seen together. The flash and crash of cameras on every occasion was like an assault, and the coverage in every newspaper made it seem as if there was no other subject under the sun.

Alexei hadn’t allowed her to make any contact with her family. Her mother might have packed up her clothes for delivery to the castle, and she had included a brief note, just a card, to thank Ria for her success in bringing Alexei to Mecjoria, but that was all. And nothing more was allowed, it seemed. There might be murmurs of curiosity as to where Ria’s father could be, but as her mother was known to be ill and had retired to the family’s country house to recover it was rarely taken any further than a comment. And when it was, then the next walkabout by the ‘fairy tale’ couple pushed the query well away from the front page. Her family would be in touch, there would be news about her father, when the time was right, Ria was told.

But when would the time be right?

She had never managed to snatch more than a few moments’ conversation with the man she was engaged to and even those were necessarily casual and uncontroversial because of their public setting, with hundreds of listeners in to every word they said, a phalanx of photographers lined up to record their every move. At the end of the day Alexei would smile, give her a kiss on both cheeks, one more on her mouth that their audience was waiting for, and walk away, back to the council rooms or his office, to discuss the next steps in the preparation for the coronation, leaving her alone.

And wanting more.

He might be able to switch off so completely, to concentrate on what mattered most to him—but she couldn’t. She spent long, sleepless nights alone in the huge soft bed in the luxurious gold and white room, unable to settle. She was lonely, side-lined—frustrated. It was too painful a reminder of how she had once felt, all those years before, when she had been just an adolescent and she hadn’t truly understood what these feelings were, where they came from. Now she was a grown woman, experiencing adult feelings for an adult male, and she knew exactly what they meant.

She wanted him. In every way that a woman wanted a man. She wanted him in her life, in her bed...inside her body. So much so that she ached now just thinking of it. Sighing, Ria tossed and turned, hunger buzzing along her nerves. She had never thought when she had agreed to go and find Alexei, talk to him, that she would open this whole Pandora’s Box of memories. She had thought that she could face him as an adult, face down the hurt of past times. That she could persuade him to set her country free from the threats that surrounded it, and put herself on to a new path into the future as a result.

Instead she had thrown herself into a whole new volcano of sensual reaction, taken the lid off a set of feelings that, developed and matured by time, were now too big, too powerful to ever go quietly back into the box no matter how hard she tried.

But had she got it so terribly wrong? Was the truth that he was using her, using the desire she had been unable to hide, to make her do as he said, act in the way that benefitted him most? She had been manoeuvred into this position, playing the role of his fiancée, only to be frozen out on any more personal level. So was she really just a pawn in the game of dynastic chess he had set out to play with the country’s future—and with hers? Just a way to cement his position as king or did he want something more from her?

‘Oh why do I have to feel this way? Still!’

Turning restlessly on fine linen sheets that suddenly seemed as rough as cheap polyester against her sensitised skin, Ria pummelled her pillow, desperately trying to find a comfortable spot that might help her relax. Outside, the dark of the night was filled with a heavy, oppressive warmth, the low, rumble of thunder circling against the mountains and across the valley towards the castle. The long voile curtains waved in the breeze, as restless and unsettled as her thoughts. But it wasn’t the heat outside that made her body burn but the flare of feelings deep inside.

Alexei had declared openly that he would never love her, but she had thought that he had responded to her at least as a woman. That he had wanted her as much as she did him. She had told herself that she wouldn’t ask for more. She hadn’t thought that she might have to settle for so much less.

Knowing that sleep was impossible, Ria tossed back the bedclothes, swinging her feet to the floor and reaching for the pale blue robe that lay at the foot of the bed, a match for the beautiful silk nightdress she was wearing.

When it had been delivered, along with the other new outfits she was expected to wear for her official duties, she had thought that there was perhaps a secret message in the garments. That they were meant for the time when she and Alexei would get together and finish what they had started in London and later on the plane journey here. She had waited six long nights, the pretty blue nightgown had become crumpled with wear. But not any more.

‘Six nights is long enough!’

She wasn’t going to sit here any longer like some unwanted spare part. She wasn’t thirteen any more, trained to be compliant, doing as her father said.

She didn’t even have to do as Alexei said; not unless she wanted to.

Tightening the belt of the blue robe around her waist and pushing her feet into soft white slippers, she marched towards the door and flung it open.

‘Madame?’

The instant response, in a quiet, respectful male voice, startled her. She had forgotten that Alexei had warned her of the need for security following the unrest that had resulted from the problems over the accession to the throne. Drawing herself up hastily, she directed a cool gaze at the security officer.

‘His Majesty asked to see me.’

‘Of course, madame. If you’ll just follow me...’

The problem was, Ria acknowledged to herself as he led her down long high-ceilinged corridors, that now she was committed. How would this man react if she suddenly declared that she wasn’t going to obey the summons she had claimed after all?

But they had reached their destination before she had time to think things through, her guide stopping by another huge carved wooden door, rapping lightly on it and then standing back with a swift, neat bow.

‘Yes?’

The door was yanked open and Alexei stood in the doorway, tall and devastating, more imposing than ever.

He had discarded the dinner jacket he’d had on earlier that evening but he still wore the immaculate white shirt, now pulled open at the throat with his black bow tie, tugged loose and left dangling around his neck. His hair was in ruffled disarray, as if he had been running his hands through it again and again, and he held a crystal tumbler with some clear liquid swirling about at the bottom of it.

‘Madame Duchess...’

His voice was dark with cynicism, no warmth of welcome in it.

Without thinking, Ria reverted to the formality of etiquette she had been trained in and dipped into a neat curtsey, holding the blue skirts of her robe out around her as if they were some formal ball gown.

‘You asked to see me, sir.’

I did?
She could see the question in his eyes, the way the straight black brows snapped together in astonishment, but luckily his sharp jet gaze went to the man behind her and obviously caught on. He nodded and stepped back, opening the door even wider.

‘I did, duchess,’ he responded with a grave formality that was at odds with the twitch of the corners of his mouth. ‘Come in.’

It took all Ria’s control to move forward, walk past the security guard and into the room. Just at the last moment she recovered enough composure to turn and switch on a swift, controlled smile.

‘Thank you,’ she murmured.

Then she was inside and the door was closed behind her, leaving her alone with Alexei.