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‘He doesn’t know love,’ Ana said. ‘He doesn’t know how to let anyone in.’
Lor lifted her chin. ‘Then teach him.’
* * *
Love wasn’t something that could be taught, decided Ana as she walked into her room and picked up the phone. Manners could be taught. Languages could be taught. But love was different.
Her mother answered on the fifth ring and Ana wasted no time in getting to the point. ‘We’re not engaged,’ she said. ‘No matter what you heard during the press conference. Casimir was mistaken.’
‘He tried to force your hand?’ her mother asked sharply.
‘No.’ Yes. ‘I gave him mixed messages and maybe slept with him again. Marriage came up as an option, a possibility, nothing more. He needs a wife and an heir. I’m a convenient option.’ She tried to keep her voice steady as she spoke. ‘I said no.’
Her mother said nothing.
‘He wants us to remain in Byzenmaach,’ Ana said next. ‘He’s very security-conscious.’
‘And I know why,’ her mother said. ‘I made it my business to find out.’
‘What else did you find out?’ Never underestimate her mother’s talent for gathering information.
‘That he has his work cut out for him. His father divided a nation.’
‘He knows that,’ Ana said. ‘You saw the press conference? What did you think of it?’
‘I thought the water plans for the region were visionary, his olive branch to the rebels on his northern borders was reckless, and his family history tragic. His protectiveness when it came to you and Sophia made me weep with both joy and fear, for he has shown his weakness.’
‘He doesn’t want me to go back to Geneva,’ said Ana.
‘Neither do I. The damage is done. Stay where he can protect you.’
‘He’s offered me the dower house on the palace grounds.’
‘Good. I hope there’s room for visitors,’ her mother said.
‘There’s room for a football team.’ Ana stopped pacing and leaned back against the wall instead, and to hell with the gilded wallpaper. If it rubbed off, it rubbed off. Walls were meant for leaning on. ‘Mama, he’s a good man. He’s trying with me and Sophia. He wants us around. I have a ring in my pocket that he wants me to put on my finger and it’d be easy, so easy, just to do it and become part of the royal machinery that surrounds him, with all the protection it affords. I said no.’ She closed her eyes and thumped her head gently against the wall.
‘What’s stopping you?’ Her mother’s voice soothed, even as it demanded answers.
‘He doesn’t love me. I’m just convenient. A righting of wrongs and a means to an end.’
‘And you’ve slept with him,’ her mother said.
Ana sighed. ‘Resistance is non-existent. He wants, I oblige, and we both win.’
‘But you still said no to his proposal.’
Ana thumped her head against the wall again. Gently, but still… ‘I could love him. Easily.’ In a heartbeat, assuming she didn’t already. ‘I could be happy here. Sophia would have a father. There would be more children. I could keep working as a translator and keep that side of me functioning. I’m interested in Casimir’s plans for Byzenmaach and I’m not politically naïve. I could be of use here.’
‘I’m listening,’ said her mother, and that was another thing she did very, very well.
‘But he doesn’t love me, Mama, and I don’t know if he ever will. And I think if I married him and he never grew to love me, I would break. I don’t want to break.’
Not again.
‘I’m going to conquer this world,’ she continued. ‘I’m going to carve out a place in it and maybe one day…’ She took a deep breath and exposed her deepest desire. ‘Maybe one day I’ll stand at Casimir’s side, secure in the knowledge that he loves me as dearly as I love him. But not today.’
‘That’s my girl,’ her mother said.
* * *
Six hours later, Casimir walked into his bedchamber at the winter fortress and caught his breath at the sight before him. Soft lamps lit the drinks on the sideboard. Beside them sat a plate of misshapen chocolate chip cookies and a haphazard posy of flowers. The posy was an odd mixture of clover leaves, violets, crooked twigs and pretty leaves that a small girl might collect in her hand. A note sat next to the posy, with an arrow pointing towards the cookies. For my king, it said. Love from Sophia, and he felt a tiny hand reach for his heart and take hold.
