Her eagerness seemed a sharp contrast to the way she’d been last night, on the verge of taking the first plane back to the States. Part of me wanted to know what had brought on her change in attitude. Had my “distraction” done its job?
“So,” she said, taking her eyes from the view. “I’m definitely eager to get to know Edoria.”
“But…”
“But… there’s something, someoneelse I want to get to know today.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, you.”
My stomach tensed.
“Now, what’s that look all about?” she asked.
“Nothing. Just not the biggest fan of talking about myself. Always seems self-indulgent.”
“Well, there’s nothing wrong with a little self-indulgence every now and then. Like last night.” She flashed me a wicked, sexy grin, one that almost made me want to pull the car over and ravish her right then and there.
“Last night was about taking your mind off matters and helping you relax,” I said.
Ava laughed. “Oh, so you were just doing me a favor? Part of your royal duties?”
“Something like that.” I was eager to take my mind off the subject of last night. “Anyway, you wanted to know about me?”
“Changing the subject, huh?” Ava was too damn canny for her own good. “Well, whatever gets you to open up.”
“Why do you care about me opening up?” I asked. “At the end of the day, I’m nothing more than a member of the palace staff.”
“I have my reasons. And what if I just want to get to know you better? Is there something wrong with that?”
“Fine. Whatever. Ask what you want to ask.”
“First of all, how did you and my father get so close? I mean, you have to admit that this arrangement of yours is kind of strange, right? A member of the palace staff who’s the right hand to the king?”
“Well… there’s a bit of royal history that you ought to know, I suppose, involving family matters.”
“Then let’s hear them. Starting to feel like I’m wandering around in the dark here.”
I cleared my throat and began.
“Your great grandfather, Alaric the Third. His reign was long, beginning before the First World War and ending in 1963. He died of old age and left two sons. One of these sons renounced his royal responsibilities, and claim to the throne, choosing to marry a woman from New York he’d fallen in love with during his studies abroad.”
“Romantic.”
“Perhaps. But it pruned a branch of the royal family tree, which had already been sparse over the last century. His son, Gadrien the Second, your grandfather, took the throne in his forties, reigning until the tragedy.”
“The tragedy?”
“Correct. In 1990, the royal family was involved in a terrible, terrible accident. A car containing the king, the queen, the king’s eldest son, and the king’s brother, crashed on a freeway in Greece, killing all passengers.”
“That’s awful!”
“Indeed, it was. The tragedy rocked Edoria, leaving your father at the young age of sixteen as the sole heir to the throne. Your father hadn’t been prepared for the role. What hehadbeen preparing for was a life of quiet wealth and modest royal duties—the sort of life expected of a non-heir-apparent. Your father was thrust into the European spotlight. Everyone on the continent wanted to know about this dashing young prince who would be king.”
“And that’s where you come in.”
“That’s right. I was nothing more than a royal attendant at the time, a position occupied by my father and his father and so on. The moment the coronation was complete, and your father became the new king, I knew my life was likely to take on a different shape from what I’d imagined. Your father had always been the bookish sort—his life plan had been to attend Oxford and finish his Ph.D. at an ivy league school in the states. Needless to say, his new role was something he wasn’t prepared for.”