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Soon they had passed through the capital and were out in the verdant countryside, with Agon’s mountains looming before them. Helios found a road that took them up Mount Ares, the rockiest of Agon’s mountains, past goats casually chewing grass by sheer drops, taking them higher and higher until they arrived at a clearing.
He turned the engine off and clicked the stand down to keep the bike upright before helping her off.
She looked at him, laughing as she properly noticed for the first time that he’d ridden with her up a mountain in a pair of handmade black trousers, black brogues, now covered in dust, and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up that had probably been as crisp as freshly baked pie earlier but was now crumpled and stained.
‘Your clothes are ruined.’
He shrugged, his eyes sparkling. ‘I couldn’t care less.’
Taking her hand, he led her to a flat grassy area and sat down, enfolding her in his arms so her back rested against his chest and her head was tucked beneath his chin.
‘When I was a child my brothers and I would race to the top of this mountain. When we’d all reached the summit we would come down to this clearing and eat our picnic. This spot has the best view of the sunset on the whole of Agon.’
The sun was already making its descent, causing a darkly colourful hue to settle over the island.
‘How did you know I was here?’ she asked eventually.
‘Your museum told me you’d gone to a funeral. I guessed.’
‘But how did you know what plane I was on?’
‘Do you really need me to answer that?’ he said with bemusement.
She smiled to herself, tightening her hold on his hands, which were still wrapped around her waist. And then she remembered why she had come to Agon today.
‘I’m so sorry about your grandfather,’ she said softly.
He kissed her head. ‘He was ready to go.’
‘I wanted to call you.’
‘I know you did. And you were right not to.’
She sighed. Now that she had come to her senses, reality was poking at her painfully.
‘How did you manage to sneak out without your bodyguards?’
‘Simple. I didn’t tell them what I was doing. The palace was so busy with the wake it was easy. Talia will have told them by now.’
‘She knows you came for me?’
‘Yes. So does Pedro.’
‘How long do we have? Here, I mean?’
‘As long as we want.’
‘But you’ll be missed,’ she said with another sigh, thinking that, however wonderful it was to be sat in his arms again, she would be dragged away from him again soon.
She was here now, though. A short interlude. Two lovers snatching a few minutes together to watch the sunset. One final sweet goodbye.
‘I have done my duty by my grandfather today. And, matakia mou, he would want me to be here with you.’
‘He would?’
‘My grandfather was a great believer in two things—duty and love.’
Her heart gave a little skip at his words, a skip she tried frantically to dampen.
‘Please, Helios, don’t say things like that. It isn’t fair.’
He caught her chin and turned her face to look at him. ‘How can the truth not be fair? You are my whole world. I love you.’
‘Please, stop,’ she beseeched, clutching at his shirt. ‘Don’t speak of love to me when you will be marrying Catalina—’
‘I’m not marrying Catalina,’ Helios interrupted, castigating himself for being foolish enough to believe Amy was a mind reader who would have known the truth from the minute she’d seen him from her plane window. ‘The wedding is off.’
Her eyes widened into huge round orbs. ‘It is? Since when?’
‘Since about three hours ago, when I realised I couldn’t live another day without you. Catalina and I had a talk.’ Knowing Amy would be concerned for the Princess, he took pains to reassure her. ‘She will be fine. She’s as good a woman as you always told me, and I promise you we have her blessing.’
‘But...’ Nothing else came. Her mouth was opening and closing as if her tongue had forgotten how to form words.
He pressed his lips to hers, inhaling the warm, sweet breath he had believed he would never taste again.
‘I love you,’ he repeated, looking at her shocked face. ‘It’s you I want to marry. Just you. Only you.’
‘I want that too. More than anything in the world.’
‘Then why do you look so sad?’
‘Because I know it can never be. You aren’t allowed to marry a commoner.’
He took hold of her hand and pressed it to his chest. ‘Listen to my heart,’ he said quietly. ‘I knew I had to find a wife when my grandfather was given his diagnosis, but I put it off and put it off because deep down I knew it would mean losing you. My heart has been beating for you from the very start.’
