* * *
‘Amy, you’re late for your meeting.’
‘What meeting?’ she asked Pedro in surprise, looking down at him from her position on a stepladder, from where she was adjusting the portraits lining the first exhibition room. She wanted them to be hung perfectly, not so much as a millimetre out of alignment.
The museum and the palace tours had been closed to visitors all week in order to prepare for the Gala. As a result the palace and its grounds were in a state of absolute frenzy, with helicopters landing on the palace helipad on a seemingly constant basis. And the Gala was still a day away!
She’d never known the palace to be such a hive of activity. There was a buzz about the place, and information and gossip were being dripped in from so many sources, including the more serious museum curators, whose heads were usually stuck in historical tomes, that it seemed like a spreading infection.
The Orchestre National de Paris had arrived to great fanfare, a world-famous circus troupe had been spotted lurking in the grounds, the gardens had been closed off to allow even more blooms to be planted... Everywhere Amy went something magical was occurring.
The exhibition was to all intents and purposes ready for the very exclusive private tour that would be conducted after the pre-Gala lunch. Another, less exclusive tour would take place on Sunday, and the museum and exhibition would open to the public on Monday. From then on it really would be all systems go. Ticket demand had exceeded expectations.
She wanted it to be perfect—not just because of her professional pride, but also for Helios, his grandfather and his brothers.
‘Your meeting with Helios,’ Pedro said. ‘He’s waiting for you in his private offices.’
‘Oh.’ She rubbed at her lips, avoiding Greta’s curious stare, willing them both not to notice the flames licking at her face.
Helios had been as good as his word. No one knew they were sharing a bed again, not even Greta. It wasn’t just guilt preventing Amy from confiding in her friend, but the feeling that what she and Helios had now was just too intimate to share.
‘Yes. Yes, I remember.’
Excusing herself politely, still not meeting their eyes, Amy hurried away. When she’d kissed Helios goodbye that morning, before coming to work, she’d assumed that he would be flat-out busy all day. His itinerary had given her a headache just looking at it. A frisson ran up her spine as she imagined what he might be wanting from her. She doubted very much that it had anything to do with the museum.
Helios’s private offices were attached to his private apartment. Getting there was a trek in itself. She could cut through her own apartment and use their secret passageway, but during daylight hours it wasn’t feasible, not when this was an ‘official’ meeting, even if it would shave ten minutes off her walk.
The usual courtiers guarded his quarters. They were expecting her and opened the door without any questions. She stepped inside, into a large reception area. The door to the left led to his apartment. She turned the handle of the door to the right.
Talia, Helios’s private secretary, rose to greet her, a pastry in her hand. ‘Hello, Amy,’ she said with a welcoming smile. Usually immaculately presented, today Talia had a wild-eyed, frazzled look about her. ‘He’s expecting you.’
Did Talia suspect Amy and Helios had resumed their relationship? Did anyone suspect?
Amy smiled back politely. ‘How are things?’
Talia crossed her eyes and pulled a face. ‘Busy. This is the first time we’ve stopped all day.’ She pressed a key on one of her desk phones. ‘Despinis Green is here,’ she said.
‘Send her in,’ came the response.
Amy found Helios sitting behind his sprawling desk with Benedict, his black Labrador, snoozing beside him. Benedict cocked an ear and opened his eyes when she walked into the office, then promptly went back to sleep.
‘Take a seat,’ Helios said politely, his eyes following her every movement with a certain knowingness.
As soon as the door was closed and they had some privacy he rose from his chair and stepped round the desk to take her in his arms.
‘Was there a reason you made up a non-existent meeting other than to make out with me in your office?’ she asked with bemusement when they came up for air.
His hands forked through her hair and he kissed her again. ‘The French Ambassador’s flight was slightly delayed, giving me an unexpected half-hour window.’
‘It took me that long to get here,’ she said teasingly.
‘I know.’ He gave a mock sigh. ‘I suppose a few kisses are better than nothing.’
She laughed and rested her head against his chest. ‘Should I go now?’
He looked at his watch. ‘Five minutes.’
‘That’s hardly any time.’
Not that she could do anything more than share a few kisses with him in his office, with Talia on the other side of the door and the palace full of Very Important People who all demanded his time. How he kept his good humour was a mystery...
‘There’s always time for kissing,’ he said, tilting her chin up so he could nuzzle into her cheek. ‘Especially as I won’t get the chance to touch you again for at least another ten hours...’ Before she could get too comfortable, however, he stepped away. ‘To answer your original question—yes, I did have an ulterior motive for seeing you other than the insatiable need to kiss you.’
She rolled her eyes.
‘Before I tell you... I don’t want you to think I’ve been interfering.’
‘What have you interfered with?’
‘I told you, I’m not interfering. I’m helping,’ he added, with a deliberate display of faux innocence.
‘What have you done?’
His features became serious. ‘I’ve been in contact with your birth mother.’
Her heart almost stopped. ‘And?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘She has agreed to meet you in a neutral place on Monday.’
She shook her head, trying to clear the sudden buzzing that had started in her brain at this unexpected development.
‘Are you angry with me?’
‘No. Of course not.’ She wrapped her arms around him and breathed him in. His scent was so very reassuring. ‘It’s in your nature to take charge and boss people around.’
He laughed and rubbed his hands down her back. ‘I wrote to her in my capacity as your boss. And in my capacity as her Prince.’
‘It’s amazing how people are able to do an about-turn on the basis of a simple word from you.’
‘It certainly is,’ he agreed cheerfully.
‘If I were a princess I would throw my weight around everywhere.’
He pulled back and tapped her on the nose. ‘No, you wouldn’t... And I don’t throw my weight around,’ he continued, feigning injury.
She grinned. ‘You don’t need to.’ Stepping onto her toes, she pressed a kiss to his lips. ‘Thank you.’
‘Don’t thank me yet—there are no guarantees the meeting will go well.’
She shrugged. ‘Having met Leander, I have no expectations. I don’t want to be part of her family or cause trouble for her. I just want to meet her.’
‘Just...be careful. Don’t build your hopes up.’
‘I won’t,’ she promised, knowing his warning came from a place of caring, just as his interference had. If their roles had been reversed she would be warning him too.
‘Good. I’ll email you the details.’
‘Thank you.’
One of the landlines on his desk buzzed. Sighing, Helios disentangled his arms from around her and pressed a button. ‘Yes?’
‘The French contingent have landed and are expected in twenty minutes.’
‘Thank you. I’ll leave in a moment to greet them.’ Disconnecting the call, he shook his head and grimaced. ‘One more kiss before duty calls?’
Obliging him, Amy leaned closer, raised herself onto the tips of her toes and brought her mouth to his, giving him one last, lingering kiss before h
e broke away with a rueful smile.
‘I’ll see you later and we’ll do a lot more than kissing,’ he said, then strode to the office door and opened it.
‘The Koreans will be arriving within the hour,’ Talia called as he walked past her.
He shook his head. ‘Whose idea was it to have so many guests arrive a day early?’
‘Yours,’ Talia said, her expression deadpan.
‘The next time I come up with such an idea you’re welcome to chop my hands off.’
Hoping her demeanour was as nonchalant as his, Amy said goodbye to Talia. When she stepped out into the corridor Helios had already gone.
* * *
Gala day had arrived.
If Helios had been busy the day before, it was nothing compared to today. His whole morning had been spent meeting and greeting guests and making sure everything was running perfectly.
This was a day he’d looked forward to. No one could organise an occasion better than the Agon palace staff and he always enjoyed celebrating the events they hosted. He was immensely proud of his family and his island, and never turned down an opportunity to discuss its virtues with interesting people.
With his grandfather’s situation as it was, he’d expected the day to feel bittersweet, with the joy of celebrating the great man’s life certain to be shadowed by the knowledge that it would soon be ending.
What Helios hadn’t expected was to feel flat.
There was a strange lethargy within him which he was fighting against. Merely shaking hands and making eye contact felt like an effort. His mouth didn’t want to smile. He hadn’t even found the energy to be disappointed by the news that the solo violinist Talos had been working so closely with would not be able to perform due to severe stage fright.
One bright spot had been the unveiling of his grandfather’s biography, which he and his brothers had looked through with their grandfather privately before the pre-Gala lunch. To see the man who’d raised them make his peace with Theseus had warmed him. And King Astraeus had surprised them all by revealing that he knew about Theseus’s son and his plans to marry the boy’s mother, and had given his blessing.
These were all things that should have had Helios slapping his brothers’ backs and calling for a glass of champagne.
They’d gone through to the lunch together. Again, he should have revelled in the occasion, but the food had tasted like cardboard, the champagne flat on his tongue.
His fiancée, who’d arrived with her father and her brother, Helios’s old school friend, had sat next to him throughout the lunch. He’d had to force the pleasantries expected of him. When Catalina’s father, the King of Monte Cleure, had commented about the announcement of their engagement it had taken all his willpower not to slam his knife into the table and shout, To hell with the announcement!
And now, with the lunch over, the clock was ticking furiously fast towards the time when he would make his engagement official to the world.
First, though, it was time for his grandfather to have a very exclusive viewing of his exhibition. It would include just the King and his three grandsons. Above everything else occurring that day, taking his grandfather to the exhibition created in his honour was the part Helios had most been looking forward to. The biography was the culmination of Theseus’s hard work—a tangible acknowledgement of his love and pride—and this exhibition was the pinnacle of his own.
With his brothers by his side, Helios and a couple of courtiers now led his grandfather out into the palace grounds and along the footpath that led to the museum.
The joy and pride he’d anticipated feeling in this moment had been squashed by a very real sense of dread. And when they arrived at the museum doors he understood where the dread had come from.
Amy, Pedro and four other staff members closely involved in the exhibition were there to greet them at the museum’s entrance. All were wearing their official uniforms and not a single hair was out of place. This was their big moment as much as his.
Talos wheeled their grandfather up to the line of waiting staff so they could be spoken to in turn. When they reached Amy the thuds in Helios’s heart became a painful racket.
This was the first time she would meet his family. It would also be the last.
Bracing himself, he said, ‘This is the exhibition curator, Amy Green. She’s on secondment from England to organise it all.’
Not looking at Helios, Amy curtsied. ‘It is an honour to meet you, Your Majesty.’
‘The honour is mine,’ his grandfather replied with that wheeze in his voice Helios didn’t think he would ever get used to. ‘I’ve been looking forward to seeing this exhibition. Are you my tour guide?’
Her eyes darted to Pedro, who, as Head of Museum, was supposed to take the role of the King’s guide.
Sensing her dilemma, Helios stepped in. ‘Despinis Green would be delighted to be your guide. Let’s get you inside and we can make a start.’
Inside the main exhibition room the four King Astraeus statues were lined up on their plinths. The sculptor of the fourth, which was covered and ready for unveiling, awaited his introduction to the King. When that was done, and the official photographers were in position, in a hushed silence the cover was removed and the King was able to see his own youthful image portrayed in marble for the first time.
For the longest, stillest moment the King simply stared at it, drinking in the vibrant, enigmatic quality of his statue. There was a collective exhalation of breath when he finally spoke of his delight and reached out a wizened hand to touch his own marble foot.
It was a moment Amy knew would be shown in all the world’s press.
From there, the group progressed through to the rest of the exhibition.
The thought of being the King’s personal tour guide should have had Amy in fits of terror, but it was a welcome relief. She had to concentrate so hard to keep up with etiquette and protocol that she could almost act as if Helios meant nothing to her other than as her boss.
But only almost.
After the King had examined and admired all of the military exhibits, they moved through to the room dedicated to his marriage to Queen Rhea, who had died five years previously. It was heartbreaking and yet uplifting to see the King’s reaction first-hand.
Their wedding outfits had been carefully placed on mannequins and secured inside a glass cabinet. Queen Rhea’s wedding dress was one of the most beautiful creations Amy had ever been privileged to handle, covered as it was with over ten thousand tiny diamonds and crystals.
King Astraeus gazed at it with moist eyes before saying to her, ‘My Queen looked beautiful that day.’
Amy murmured her agreement. On the opposite wall hung the official wedding portrait. Queen Rhea had been a beauty by anyone’s standards, but on that particular day there had been a glow about her that shone through the portrait and every photo that had been taken.
What would it be like to have a marriage such as theirs? Her own parents’ marriage had seemed mostly happy, but once Amy had learned of her true parentage her memories had become slanted.
Her father’s infidelity, although mostly never spoken of, remained a scar. Danny knew their father had cheated on his mother whilst she’d carried him. Neil knew their father had cheated on his mother back when he’d still been talking in broken sentences. They might love Amy as a true sister, and have nothing to do with anyone who saw things differently, but their relationship with their father bordered on uncomfortable. They didn’t trust him and neither did Amy. She loved him very much, but the nagging doubts remained. When they’d still been living at home, and he’d been kept late at work, although they’d never said anything they’d all wondered if his excuses were true. And as for her mum...
To anyone looking in, their marriage would seem complete. They laughed together and enjoyed each other’s company. But then Amy thought of the times she’d caught her mum going through her father’s phone when she’d thought no one was looking and knew the pain she’d gone
through had never fully mended. Once trust had been broken it was incredibly hard to repair.
King Astraeus and Queen Rhea’s marriage had bloomed into that rarest of things: enduring, faithful love. The kind of love Amy longed to have. The kind of love she could never have when the man she loved was going to marry someone else...
The truth hit her like a bolt of lightning.
She did love him.
And as the revelation hit her so did another truth of equal magnitude.
She was going to lose him.
But he’d never been hers to lose, so she already had.
There was nothing for her to hold on to for support. All she could do was keep a grip on herself and wait for the wave of anguish to pass.
The only man she could ever be happy with, the only man she could ever find enduring love with, the only man she had trusted with the truth of her conception... He was marrying someone else. The happy ending she’d always hoped she would one day have would never be hers.
When she dared to look at Helios she found his gaze on her, a question resonating from his liquid eyes. He was as sensitive to her changes of mood as she was to his.
She forced a smile and straightened her posture, doing her best to resume her professional demeanour. Whatever personal torment she might have churning inside her, she still had a job to do.
This was King Astraeus’s big day, one he’d spent eighty-seven years of duty and sacrifice working towards. This was his moment. It was also Helios’s and his brothers’ moment too. The three Princes loved their grandfather, and this day was as much for them to show their appreciation of him as to allow their great nation to celebrate. She wouldn’t do anything to detract from the culmination of all their hard work.
Amy kept her head up throughout the rest of the tour, but as soon as it was over she fled, using the pretext of needing to change her outfit for the Gala. Thankfully all the other staff wanted to change too, so saw nothing strange in her behaviour.
Finally alone in her apartment, she sank onto the edge of her bed and cradled her head in her hands. The tears that had threatened to pour throughout the exhibition tour had now become blocked. The emotions raging inside her had compacted so tightly and painfully that the release she needed wouldn’t come.
Helios Crowns His Mistress Page 10
