‘We are. So are you going to stand there dithering for much longer or are you going to come up here and take your seat? Everything is ready for take-off but if we don’t leave soon we will miss our allocated slot.’
‘I’m not going anywhere with you.’
He couldn’t have reversed that brutally unyielding decision in the space of less than twenty-four hours, could he? And yet if not then why was he here?
The slightest of adjustments in the way that he stood gave away the hint of a change in his mood—for the worse.
‘So it really isn’t a matter of life or death that I go to Mecjoria and look into the situation for the accession after all?’
As he echoed the description she’d given him, he managed to put a sardonic note on the words that twisted a knife even more disturbingly in her nerves. She didn’t know why this was happening, she only knew that suddenly, for some reason, he seemed prepared to toss her a lifeline, one that she would be the greatest fool in the world to ignore.
‘All right!’
Not giving herself any more time to think, Ria pushed herself into action, flinging one foot on to the steps and then the other, grabbing at the rail for support, almost tumbling to the ground at Alexei’s feet as she reached the top.
What else could she do? She had spent last night wide awake and restless, going over the scene in his house again and again, berating herself for failing so badly, for driving him further away rather than persuading him round to her side. She had cursed herself for bringing her father into the discussion, seeing the black rage and hatred simply thinking of him had brought into his eyes. She had even reached for her phone a couple of times, wondering if she rang him that he might actually listen, and each time she had dropped it back down again, knowing that the man who had turned his back on her and told her to leave so brutally had no room in his mind or his heart for second thoughts or second chances. Today she’d faced the prospect of going back home knowing that everything was lost, and with no idea how she was going to face the future.
And then suddenly this...
‘I don’t understand.’
She was gasping as if she’d run a mile rather than just up a short flight of steps, but it was tension and not lack of fitness that caught her round her throat, making it impossible to breathe.
But Alexei was clearly in no mood to offer any explanations. Instead with a bruising grip on her arm he steered her out of the sunlight and into the plane where she blinked hard as her eyes adjusted to the change in light.
Once she would have been the one with access to a private plane. Not for her sole use, or even that of her family, but she had sometimes travelled with a member of the royal family, or accompanying her father in his official role. But it had never been like this. The Mecjorian royal plane had been as old-fashioned and stiffly formal as the regime itself, reflecting the views of the old king. This one was a symphony of cool calm, with pale bronze carpets, wide, soft seats just waiting for someone to sink into their creamy leather cushions. Everything was light and space, and spoke of luxury beyond price; and the impact of it hit like a blow, making her head spin.
Once again that unanswerable question pounded at her thoughts. Just why—why—would Alexei want Mecjoria, a small, insignificant, run-down Eastern European country, when he had all this? Why would he even spare a thought for the place or the chaos that would swamp the inhabitants if he refused the throne and let it pass to Ivan?
With his hand still on her arm, the heat of his palm burning through the soft pink cotton of her top and into her skin, the power and strength of his body so close beside her was overwhelming and almost shocking. In spite of the fact that he was so casually dressed, he carried himself with the sort of power that few men could show, making her heart kick hard against her ribs in a lethal combination of physical response and apprehension.
‘Take a seat.’
Ria was grateful to sink down into the enveloping comfort of the nearest seat, her legs disturbingly unsteady beneath her. The air seemed suddenly too thick to breathe, the roar of the engines as the pilot prepared the plane for flight too loud in her ears so that she couldn’t think straight or do anything other than obey him. She was on her way to Mecjoria and, for his own private reasons, Alexei was with her. That and the powerful thrust of the plane as it set off down the runway was more than enough to cope with at the moment.
‘Fasten your seatbelt.’
Alexei was clearly not going to take the trouble to enlighten her on anything—not yet anyway, as he took the seat opposite her, long legs stretched out, crossed at the ankles—and settled himself, ready for take-off.
She was dismissed from his thoughts as he turned his head, focussing his attention through the window to where the green of the grass on the side of the runway was now flashing past at an incredible speed as the plane raced towards take-off. Another couple of minutes and the wheels had left the ground, the jet soaring away from the ground and up into the sky. The impact pushed Ria back into her seat, her head against the rest, her hands clutching the arms of her chair. Unexpectedly, unbelievably, she had another chance and she was going to take it if she possibly could.
But that added a whole new burden of worry to the nervousness she was already feeling. Just for a moment her thoughts reeled. Had she done the right thing coming here? Was she justified in putting her own family, her own personal needs, first like this? It was true that she feared the consequences if Ivan took the crown. She dreaded the thought of what it meant for her personally if she had to follow her father’s plans for that event, but how did she know if Alexei would be any better? The memory of the stories of his life in London that had been reported in the papers back home came back to haunt her. There had been one where he had been caught unaware, his hand half-lifted to his face to escape the flash of the camera. But he hadn’t been quick enough to conceal the fact that he had obviously been in a fight; that his eye was blackened, his nose bloodied.
And of course there had been his neglect of his poor little daughter. A neglect that he hadn’t even tried to deny. Was she right in bringing such a man back to Mecjoria—as its king?
But he was the rightful king. That was the one argument she was totally sure of.
The plane had reached its cruising height and had straightened out of the steep climb but Ria’s stomach was still knotted in that unnerving tension that the fast ascent, combined with her own inner turmoil, had created. She had a dreadful feeling of no going back, knowing that she could only go forward—though she had no idea where that might lead.
‘Would you like a drink? Something to eat?’
It was perfectly polite, the calm enquiry of a courteous host as a slightly raised hand summoned an attendant who jumped to attention as if she had just been waiting for the signal.
‘Some coffee would be nice.’ She hadn’t been able to eat any breakfast before she left for the airport. ‘We do have almost five hours to fill.’
‘I don’t think you need to worry about filling time on this flight,’ Alexei told her. ‘We’ll have plenty to keep us occupied.’
‘We will?’ It was sharp and tight with a new rush of nerves.
In contrast, Alexei looked supremely relaxed, lounging back in his seat opposite her as he nodded.
‘You have...’ he checked the workmanlike heavy watch on his wrist ‘...four hours to convince me that I should even consider taking up the crown of Mecjoria and allowing myself to be declared king.’
‘But I thought—I mean—you’re here now. And we’re heading for...’
The words shrivelled on her tongue as she looked into the cold darkness of his face and saw that there was nothing there to give her confidence that this was all going to work out right.
‘I’m here now,’ he agreed soberly, dark eyes hooded and shadowed. ‘And we are on a flight path for Mecjoria—for the capital. This plane will land there, if only to let you off so you can go and talk to the courtiers who sent you. But that does not mean that I will disembark as well.’
His tone was flat, emotionless, unyielding, and looking into his eyes was like staring into the icy depth of a deep, deep lake, frozen over with a coating of thick black ice, bleak and impenetrable. He had made one tiny concession and that was all he was going to let her have—unless she could convince him otherwise.
‘Our estimated time of arrival is five in the afternoon, Mecjorian time. You have until then to persuade me that I should not just turn round and head home as soon as we have let you disembark.’
He meant it, she had no doubt about that, and a sensation like cold slimy footsteps crept down her back. The thought of being so near yet so far curdled in her stomach. The attendant appeared with her coffee and she took refuge in huddling over the cup as if the warmth from the hot liquid might melt the ice that seemed to have frozen right through to her bones. Just when she had thought she could relax, that Alexei was heading for Mecjoria, and taking her with him to return home—if not in triumph then at least with some hope of success and a more positive future for the country—suddenly he had shown that he had been working on a totally different plan.