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‘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 he 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.
