‘I know,’ said Greta softly. ‘But learning you were here probably came as a big shock to her. She’ll change her mind.’
‘What if she doesn’t?’
‘She will,’ Greta insisted. ‘Now, turn your computer off. We’ve a night out to get ready for.’
‘I’m not going.’
‘You are. A night out is exactly what you need.’
‘But Helios will be there.’
‘So what? This will be your chance to let him see you having a great time and that you’re completely unaffected by your break-up.’
Amy gave a laugh that came out as more of a snort than anything else. Thank God for Greta. Without her cheering friendship and positive attitude life on Agon would be unbearable right now.
Was it only four months ago that she’d arrived on this island full of excitement for what the future held? With a handsome prince as her boss and the opportunity to find the woman who’d given birth to her?
Now she was stuck here for another five months, and she would have to watch the handsome prince marry his princess and her birth mother wanted nothing to do with her.
She wished she’d never come to Agon.
Greta rubbed her arm in solidarity. ‘Let’s get your dress and go back to my flat. There’s a bottle of ouzo waiting for us.’
‘But...’
‘Are you going to give that man so much power over you that you’d give up a free night out with all your friends and colleagues?’
Amy sighed and shook her head. Greta was right. She’d spent the past four days hiding away, mostly holing herself up in the museum’s enormous basement, on the pretext of categorising artefacts, desperate to avoid bumping into Helios. And she’d been successful—other than one brief glimpse of him in the palace gardens she’d not had any dealings with him. Of course he was incredibly busy, with the Gala being only ten days away.
‘Maybe he won’t come,’ she said with sudden hopefulness.
‘Maybe...’ Greta didn’t look convinced.
But the thought of him not coming made her feel just as rotten as the thought of him being there.
If he did come, she had to pray he didn’t bring the Princess as his guest.
To meet his future wife in the flesh would be one wound too many.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE MAIN REASON Helios had chosen Hotel Giroud for the staff night out was because his staff deserved to enjoy themselves in the most exclusive hotel on Agon. The fact its gardens led to a private beach was a plus.
Owned by Nathaniel Giroud, an old friend from his schooldays, it was the sister establishment of Club Giroud, the most exclusive and secret club on the island. The hotel was only marginally more inclusive, provided one had the funds and the connections. The quality of Helios’s connections went without saying, and of course he had the funds, more than he could ever spend. He didn’t begrudge spending a cent of his money on the staff who worked so hard for him.
He took his museum staff out twice a year: once at the beginning of the summer season, and once right at the end. Although the events weren’t compulsory everyone attended, even those curators and conservators who would live in the museum basement if he’d let them. Most of his museum staff were a breed unto themselves, deeply dedicated to their work. He’d never imagined he would desire one of them.
And yet he had. He did.
During what was possibly the busiest time of his life, he couldn’t flush Amy from his mind. Even after the news his brother Theseus had given him a couple of days ago he couldn’t rid himself of her. Here he was, wrestling with the bombshell that Theseus had a secret child, a Kalliakis heir, and still she remained at the forefront of his mind.
It was taking everything he had to keep away from the museum. There was far too much going on for him to spend any time there, but knowing Amy was within its spacious walls meant the place acted like a magnet to him.
There were only ten days now until the Gala, and he had a mountain of work to do for it. He was determined to make it a success for his grandfather and for all his people.
On Agon, heirs traditionally took the throne at the age of forty. His father had died a few years short of that age and so his grandfather—without a word of complaint—had abandoned his retirement plans to hold the throne for Helios. His grandparents had sacrificed their dreams of travelling the world and his grandmother had put aside her thoughts of returning to her first love of performing as violin virtuoso. Those dreams had been abandoned so they could raise their orphaned grandchildren and mould them into princes the whole of Agon could be proud of. They had sacrificed everything.
There was no person on this earth Helios respected more or felt a deeper affection for than his grandfather. He would do anything for him. And, out of everything, it was marriage he knew his grandfather wanted the most for him. King Astraeus the Fourth wanted to leave this world secure in the knowledge that his lineage would live on and that the monarchy was in safe hands.