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‘I think Sophia’s going to be a geneticist,’ Ana murmured, given all the questions she’d asked about eye colours today. ‘Have you eaten?’ Not that it was her place to ask, but it was as good a question as any. A regular question without any ulterior weight to it. ‘Lor’s been baking all day.’
‘I’m not hungry,’ he said, but he went into a side chamber and returned shortly after with a bottle of whisky. He knew where the tumblers were and enquired, with the tilt of the bottle, whether he should fill a glass for her.
‘No,’ she said.
‘Something else?’ he asked as he poured himself one.
‘I’m fine.’
‘What have you been doing today?’ he asked next.
‘That’s really what you want to talk about?’
‘Yes.’ A weary smile crossed his lips and softened her heart. He looked to their daughter, the wolfhound and the puppies. ‘Talk to me of carefree things.’
‘We baked with Lor and made Turkish delight.’
‘My favourite,’ he said.
‘So Lor said.’ Ana knew a lot of things about him that she hadn’t known before this morning, including the fact that dead King Leonidas had been a good king, a merciless opponent, an indifferent husband and a hard father to please. ‘Then we saw falcons and horses and hand fed them both. Then there’s the bathhouse,’ she added, and was rewarded with the glimmer of a smile.
‘You found it?’
‘Oh, I did,’ she said reverently.
‘You liked it?’
It was a Roman gladiator’s bathhouse built of marble, with steaming hot pools of varying temperature and a waterfall. A soaring domed roof added majesty. ‘I want to take it with me when I leave.’
‘You’re not the first to want that.’ His gaze drifted to Sophia again. ‘I know we need to talk about what I have in mind for you both. I should be free of my most pressing commitments by Wednesday at the latest.’
It was Saturday night.
‘Cas.’ As beautiful as this place was, she couldn’t just abandon the life she’d built on the off-chance that the new king of Byzenmaach could schedule her in. ‘I need to understand what you want from us now, not next week. I need you to prioritise our custody talks. Can you do that for me? Because I guarantee that if you can’t do that I’m going to assume that you will never put your daughter’s needs first.’
He met her gaze squarely. ‘Tell me what you want going forward.’
‘Ideally? The security threat you spoke of gone, full custody of my daughter, and my life in Geneva to resume.’
He nodded. ‘I’m working on the first, no to the second, no idea about the third. Like it or not, your daughter is a part of the royal family of Byzenmaach now and, by extension, so are you. Complications will ensue.’
‘I want to meet with you tomorrow to talk about a way forward for us all,’ she continued doggedly, keeping her mother’s words of negotiation firmly in mind. ‘I want to talk about the kind of compromises we may both need to make. No lawyers. Not yet. Just you, me, a problem to solve and our goodwill.’
‘I have meetings all morning.’
‘Or…you can toss my current goodwill back in my face and we can embark on a very public, very bitter custody battle. Then we can get all the lawyers involved,’ she murmured. ‘UK lawyers. Human rights lawyers. Your lawyers. Keep in mind that when it comes to eviscerating reputations I have a great deal less to lose than you.’
Those fierce tawny eyes of his narrowed. ‘Where’d you learn to negotiate?’
‘The UN.’
He smiled mirthlessly and lifted the glass to his lips for another hit. ‘Right.’
‘I’m not nineteen and naïve any more, Casimir. I can’t afford to be. And you’re not twenty-three and running from your responsibilities. Or are you still doing that?’
‘Ana, leave off. You’ve got your meeting tomorrow. I’ll make time.’
‘Thank you.’ It didn’t feel like victory. Instead, it felt a whole lot like kicking a man when he was down. She sipped at her drink as he studied his daughter and the puppies as if they were puzzle pieces he couldn’t quite place. And this time when he spoke he didn’t look at her.
