‘I was fifteen when my family died,’ he said dismissively. ‘I had already been “raised”.’
‘You think you were a grown man at that age?’ Her heart hurt for the teenager he’d been.
‘I was in school, at Port Kalamathi,’ he said, his eyes shifting to the window. ‘I went back to school and stayed there until I was eighteen.’
‘Boarding school?’
He nodded.
‘And then what?’ She wished she didn’t feel this curiosity, but how could she not wish to understand?
‘I joined the military.’
This didn’t surprise her. From the first moment she’d seen him, she’d felt he was some kind of real-life warrior. A Trojan, brought back to life.
‘And did you enjoy it?’
He paused, apparently analysing that question before answering. ‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
His smile was tight. ‘Tolmirós is a peaceful country. We do not fight wars. Our military training is the best in the world, yet we rarely have cause to require our soldiers.’ He shrugged. ‘I learned discipline and self-reliance.’
‘I can’t help thinking these are qualities you already had in spades.’
He shrugged. ‘Perhaps.’
There was silence, except for the whirr of the engines as the pilot brought the plane lower and lower, over the dozens of small islands, including the one they were to land on.
‘How do you get from one island to the next?’ she asked.
‘We have a huge ferry network. Look.’ He pointed and now she saw dozens of boats moving in the water. ‘See the way the islands seem to shimmer?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘Tolmirós is referred to as the Diamond Kingdom. Each island is like a gem in the midst of the sea.’
She nodded, the magic of that description settling against her chest. The plane dropped lower and lower and it almost felt as though it might land in the ocean. But then land emerged from the depths of the sea and, beyond it, a runway, pale grey, lined with bright red flowers. The plane touched down with a soft thud and instinctively she looked to Leo. He lay where he was, fast asleep, and her heart gave a little tug.
Matthias was watching her; she could feel his gaze and it dragged on her like a tangible force. Slowly, of their own volition, her eyes raised to his.
Her breath locked in her throat; her body was frozen. Her very soul was arrested by the sight of this man she’d lost her head to three years earlier, a man who was so much more than that. He was a king, a ruler of a country, and all that implied.
Hadn’t she detected that latent power in him, even when they’d been together back then? Hadn’t she known he was someone to whom command came easily?
There was an intensity in his expression, a look of hungry determination, and her pulse raced hard and fast, her heart struggling to keep up with her blood’s demands. When he spoke, it was with a contained sense of strength.
‘Did you really attempt to find me?’
The question was so quiet she almost didn’t hear it, like catching a swirling ribbon on a hazy night.
‘It was impossible,’ she murmured.
‘I intended it to be so.’
The words were sharp in her sides. ‘You had an easier job of forgetting me than I did you,’ she said simply.
He looked as though he was about to say something, his expression taut, but then he turned away from her, his eyes roaming towards Leo.
The little boy was waking now, twisting his chubby, robust body against the flat chair, starfishing his legs out so that Frankie smiled unknowingly.
‘Mama?’ The plane was still moving forward but they’d landed, and Frankie unbuckled her belt and stood, crossing the aisle and undoing his seat belt. He wriggled into a sitting position, from which she plucked him onto her hip. ‘Where we?’