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‘Cas?’ Ana murmured.
‘What?’ He sounded entirely too grateful for the interruption. Lost, for once, as opposed to entirely too much in charge of his world.
‘You’re making it worse.’
‘I know,’ he said, a proud man, utterly undone by a small girl.
Ana smiled.
‘Not funny,’ he muttered.
‘Oh, come on.’ It was a little bit funny. All that towering helplessness in the face of butterflies and evil frogs. ‘Thank you for inviting us to lunch. Great idea. We could do this again tomorrow.’
His eyes widened in dismay. ‘I, ah, may have other stuff on.’
‘What kind of stuff?’ asked Sophia.
‘Kingly stuff,’ he offered.
Ana grinned. Oh, this was good. ‘Do tell us more. Are there donkeys involved?’
She knew with absolute clarity the moment when he fell. When he stopped being a man of duty and surrendered utterly to absurdity. ‘No donkeys,’ he said. ‘Unless you’d like one?’
‘I’d like one,’ Sophia said, and Ana smiled beatifically. This was too easy. The man needed more practice if he intended to take on her and Sophia both.
‘Right,’ he said. ‘Right. A live donkey?’
Both Ana and Sophia nodded.
‘Just checking,’ he said. ‘I really do need to go and rule…something.’
‘Enjoy,’ she said. ‘And thank you once again for our lunch invitation. Did you have fun? Even with clothes on, I had fun.’
CHAPTER SIX
ANA FOUND HIM in the library later that afternoon. The large walnut table that ran the length of the room like a spine had been covered in newspaper clippings and photographs, some of them yellowed with age. He smiled when she came in and once more she sensed a deep weariness in him that he kept carefully hidden.
‘Am I interrupting?’ she asked.
‘I don’t mind. It’s time for a break anyway.’
‘That’s what Lor said. She said you were back from your meeting and sent me to woo you with talk of coffee and something called Borek, which apparently you like.’
‘Pastry,’ he murmured. ‘Predominantly with a meat filling, although you can use anything. Meat pie.’
‘Simple tastes.’
‘Borek is never simple.’ Given enough prompting, this man would play. She kept catching glimpses of the man she’d once known, and that man had been irresistible, never mind his secrets.
‘Lor says they’ll be hot from the wood-fired brick oven in ten minutes.’ Lor liked to do things the traditional way here. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Choosing a photo of my sister to release to the press tomorrow, and seeing what they’ve already got so that I can better predict what will be regurgitated once they get wind of Sophia. Are there any photographs of Sophia online?’
‘No.’
‘Good. That’s good.’
Ana stepped forward to take a better look at the photographs spread out on the table. She’d read the newspaper articles about his sister’s death when she’d first researched him but she hadn’t revisited them in years. She picked up an informal photo of his sister in what looked like this very library. The resemblance to Sophia was uncanny.
‘The press release I read said your father refused to negotiate with the kidnappers.’
‘Correct.’
‘What did they want?’
‘Water.’ Casimir hesitated, as if warring over what to say next. ‘There were plans afoot to build a dam in the mountains. It was a good plan for its time but, as always, there was opposition. Villages to be relocated, environmental studies to be done, water distribution rights to be negotiated with the mountain tribes to the north—a proud, fierce people who didn’t always suffer my father’s rule in silence. My father had been meeting with them. Trying to appease them.’ Casimir’s lips twisted in mockery. ‘That was his interpretation, anyway. He invited their leader to the palace to continue discussions. I remember meeting the man.’
‘What was he like?’ she asked softly.
‘Kind.’ The word seemed wrenched from Cas’s mouth. ‘Kind to a small boy who had forgotten his place and barged into his father’s library unannounced. In my defence, I did not know they were there. All I wanted was a book on birds for Tomas. Anyway—’ Cas shook himself as if trying to remove the memory from his soul ‘—my father and this man fell out and my father refused all water rights for the mountain tribes. Negotiations ceased. Petitions from the north went unread. My father’s advisors tried to soften his stance, to no avail. My father was a proud and unyielding man. No one could sway him. People say he brought what happened next upon himself.’
