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‘I don’t care,’ he snapped.
‘But I do. And we’ve never really talked about it before, have we?’ she continued, as if he hadn’t spoken. ‘The subject was never open for debate.’
‘The subject is closed. Finished.’
‘But you can’t do that. You can’t veto something just because it makes you uncomfortable, Casimiro! Otherwise things just build up and up inside you. And then they explode.’
They were about to explode right now if she was not careful. He pushed back his chair. ‘I don’t intend discussing it.’
‘No, that’s right. You don’t discuss anything, do you?’ she questioned in frustration. ‘You act like nothing has happened and yet so much has. Because of Ben, you’ve been forced not only to remain as King, but to marry me—and not once have you ever told me how you feel about it. But then, you don’t “do” feelings, do you?’
‘Melissa—’ he said warningly.
‘I haven’t finished.’ She cut through his objections, ignoring the growing look of fury which had made his eyes flame like golden fire. ‘You didn’t bother warning your brother that you were about to abdicate in his favour, did you? Without even asking him whether he wanted the position.’
He froze. ‘What did you say?’
She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Oh, but it does, Melissa. Really it does. If you have been spending your time engaged in idle speculation on my brother’s thoughts—’
‘I wasn’t speculating!’ she shot back defensively—and then the words tumbled out before she could stop them. ‘Catherine told me.’
There was a long and disbelieving pause.
‘Catherine told you?’
‘Yes. She said that Xaviero thought you were about to do something dramatic. And let’s face it—you were.’
‘So you have been gossiping behind my back with the Princess?’
‘There you go again!’ she accused. ‘Shooting the messenger! We weren’t gossiping, as it happened. We didn’t sit down and talk about it—just that when we were out choosing my trousseau she mentioned they’d been slightly worried that you were thinking about abdicating.’
‘And you told them that I had?’
‘No, of course I didn’t.’
‘There’s no “of course” about it,’ he flared. ‘Why didn’t you give me this information before hand?’
‘Maybe I couldn’t see the point, since it was no longer relevant. Or maybe I was worried that I’d get just this kind of reaction,’ she said bitterly. ‘Autocratic, overbearing—’
‘Overbearing?’ he echoed ominously.
‘Well, why didn’t you bother discussing it with Xaviero first? Were you so certain he’d want to be King? So keen to take on the life you wanted to reject?’
Casimiro stared out of the windows to the gardens beyond without really seeing the bright beauty of the flower-beds. Yes, there had been times when his younger brother had envied him—because the heir to the throne was always singled out as special. But Casimiro had envied Xaviero, too—for the kind of freedom that he as King would never know. Each had wanted something of what the other had.
‘For many years, yes,’ he said slowly, almost to himself. ‘He did—especially as a boy.’
‘And lately?’
Casimiro did not know about lately. The new-found weight of the monarchy had driven all personal relationships from his life so that Xaviero had become almost like a stranger to him. But hadn’t that happened with just about everyone from the moment the crown had been placed on his head—leaving him in a powerful position of complete isolation? Wasn’t that the only way that a King could properly govern his people?
??by taking full responsibility for his kingdom? ‘He did an excellent job of being my stand-in when I was ill,’ he answered. ‘And if I hadn’t recovered then he would have continued to rule. According to my aides, he settled into the job happily.’
In spite of the tension which hung over them like a heavy storm cloud, Melissa couldn’t dampen down the flicker of hope which flared inside her. Because this was more than he’d ever admitted to her—and even though she ran the risk of angering him with her persistent line of questioning, wasn’t it better to see it through and to thrash it out? Together. To let Casimiro see that she was someone he could confide in. Because that was just as important a facet of her role as visiting schools and opening new roads.
‘Wouldn’t it have been easier to have sat down and talked to him about it?’ she probed gently.
