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‘Not where people can see them, at any rate,’ he murmured, and she smiled a little helplessly. ‘I leave for the capital in half an hour, assuming you want to come with me.’
‘I do.’ She tried scrambling off the bed with a sheet still modestly attached to her person, but gave that up for a bad idea around three seconds later, and headed for the bathroom fully naked.
‘Nothing you haven’t seen before, right?’ she asked over her shoulder as if she knew full well where he was looking.
‘Right.’ Which didn’t stop him from appreciating her nakedness.
‘So do I get to be in the audience for this press conference?’ she asked next.
‘Absolutely not,’ he told her. ‘It’s a circus.’
‘I follow politics,’ she said. ‘I translate for the UN and the floor of the European Parliament. Circuses are my business.’
‘But this circus is about you.’
‘Exactly why I should be there,’ she said. ‘And if I am going to be there, where better than in the thick of things? No one knows who I am yet. I can be anonymous.’
She’d reached the bathroom and the last of her words came out muffled. He followed, the better to hear her, or see her, or maybe he wasn’t quite ready to put distance between them yet. ‘It will be televised. Watch it then.’
‘It’s not the same. Television coverage will only focus on you. I don’t only want to focus on you. I want to focus on the journalists too. The mutterings, the sideways glances. Put me in the room as an interpreter attached to some fictitious international newspaper.’ Her hand-waving became more enthusiastic. ‘I’ll take notes.’
He glanced at her, darkly amused. ‘I assume you’re expecting Sophia to stay here.’
‘Wait—what?’
‘Where else would you put her?’ he enquired dulcetly. ‘In the press gallery too?’
‘How about in a nearby room?’ she asked.
‘No. You’re welcome to come with me to the capital, Anastasia, but Sophia stays here.’
‘In whose care?’
‘Lor’s care. Which is where she is now.’
‘Why can’t Sophia come with us and stay in a nearby room packed full of security guards while you give your speech and I watch from the crowd?’
‘Because she’d be noticed getting off the helicopter and she’d sure as hell be photographed getting back on it.’
‘So?’
Ana had so much to learn about image cultivation. He barely knew where to start. ‘I don’t want to introduce Sophia in person yet. The images we want on the front pages tomorrow have already been chosen by me and vetted by press aides. I know what I want to see and I know how to make it happen. Sophia stays here.’
Ana narrowed her gaze. ‘I’m trying to pinpoint exactly which breath it was when you stopped being a…lover and started being an autocratic ass again.’
‘King,’ he said.
‘Mother,’ she countered tranquilly. ‘You don’t get to be king when it’s just you and me and we’re talking about Sophia’s movements. We get to be parents and make joint decisions.’
‘Then, as one parent to another, I’m asking you to consider my words. Your presence at the palace today can be explained away to some extent. You can be part of my advisory team. Sophia can’t. She’ll be noticed. She’s better off waiting here.’
He thought there might more argument to be had but after a moment Ana nodded curtly. ‘How long will we be gone?’
‘I can have you returned directly after the conference, if that’s your preference.’
She nodded again.
‘Stop rubbing yourself red,’ he snapped. ‘What are you trying to do? Wash me away?’
‘I’m trying to get clean.’ But the ferocious scrubbing stopped and softer soaping resumed. ‘I’m just…nervous.’
That made two of them. Not that he could let anyone see his nervousness. Not today and especially not during his inaugural speech.
‘Wear your dark trousers and the white shirt you wore the other day and you’ll fit into the press gallery easily enough. But you’ll stand at the back alongside two of my security people and when they say it’s time to go you’ll leave without protest. Are we agreed?’
