Frederick felt her tense, sensed her palpable effort to relax. ‘Lady Kaitlin and I are two different people, so we are bound to approach the role differently.’
He stepped forward. ‘Hey, guys, any questions for me? I’m feeling left out.’
The tactic worked and fifteen minutes later he wound the meeting down. ‘OK, everyone, fun though this is, we need to head off.’
Sunita delivered the parting shot. ‘Amil, wave to the nice reporters. That would be that one...that one...and that one.’
Not the one who had brought up Lady Kaitlin.
Laughter greeted this, and Sunita smiled. ‘Have a great day—and, as I said, the pics will be with you soon!’
Once they were alone, Sunita nodded towards one of the palace cars. ‘Hop in. We’re off to Xanos Island.’ She paused. ‘I hope that’s OK? Marcus suggested it.’
That surprised him. ‘I’d like to take Amil there. Eloise used to take us. Me and Stefan and Axel, and Marcus as well, because he and Axel were best friends.’
‘Eloise is Stefan’s mother, correct?’
‘Yes. She came after my mother, and she truly tried to be a good mother to Axel and me.’
‘What happened?’
‘Same old story. My father decided to divorce her and it all disintegrated into an awful custody battle. It ended up that she was allowed occasional visitation with Stefan, and only if she agreed not to see Axel or me.’
‘That must have been tough on you and Axel.’
‘Yes.’
The comprehension that he wouldn’t see Eloise again, witnessing Stefan’s fury and pain—it had all hurt. The emotions had been painful, until he’d locked the futile grief down, figured out that love could never be worth this type of loss. First his mother, then Eloise—never again.
‘But let’s not spoil the day—I want to make this a happy memory for Amil.’
‘Then let’s do that.’
Her smile lit the very air and he forced himself to turn away from it before he did something stupid. Something emotional.
The car slowed down at the small Lycandrian port, and minutes later they boarded the motor boat that would ferry them across. Frederick watched Amil’s curiosity and joy at this unprecedented adventure, listened to Sunita as she broke into song and encouraged the Captain to join in.
Closing his eyes, he inhaled the salty tang of the sea breeze, absorbed the sound of her song and the cry of the curlews as they soared in the turquoise blue of the unclouded
sky.
Once at the island they alighted and headed over the rocks to the beach, where Sunita produced buckets and spades and a large tartan blanket that she spread out over the sun-bleached sand. Amil sat down and waved a spade with energetic abandon and Sunita grinned as she handed another one to Frederick.
‘Right. I thought we’d try and do a sand replica of the Lycander palace—but I think the hard work may be down to you and me.’
The next hours skated by, and Frederick knew he would add this to his list of happy memories. Preventing Amil from eating sand, building turrets and digging moats, the good-natured bickering over the best way to make the walls secure, Amil walking in the sand, eating the picnic prepared by Gloria—it was all picture-perfect.
‘We need to consider Gloria for the role of royal picnic-maker as well as royal nanny.’
‘So you really will consider her? Give her a fair chance?’
‘Of course. But in return I’d like you to do something.’
Tawny eyes narrowed. ‘What’s that?’
‘Put a portfolio together and send it to a fashion design college. Or talk directly with an actual fashion house. You said to me that Gloria doesn’t need formal qualifications to do the job—maybe you don’t either.’
The sketches he’d seen the previous day showed talent—he knew it.