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His office was one of the few rooms in the building that was finished, but it didn’t seem much like the kind of place the Alex she remembered would like. The cream walls and tall windows lent themselves to minimalism, but Alex didn’t.
‘How long have you been here, Alex?’
‘A couple of months.’ He looked around at the sleek wooden desk that stood at one end of the room and the comfortable easy chairs grouped around a coffee table at the other end. ‘Why?’
Alex had been here for two months? And he hadn’t yet covered the walls with pictures and stamped his own personality on the space? That wasn’t like him at all. Perhaps the clinic had some kind of rule about that.
‘It just seems a bit...unlived-in.’ Marie looked around for something, anything, to comment on, instead of asking whether all that light and clear space hurt his eyes. She nodded towards the stylish chair behind his desk. ‘I like your chair.’
‘I reckoned I’d be sitting in it for enough hours, so I wanted something that was comfortable. Give it a try.’
He walked over to the wood-framed cupboards that lined one wall, opening one of the doors to reveal a coffee machine and a small sink unit.
The chair was great—comfortable and supportive—and when Marie leaned back the backrest tipped gently with her movement. She started to work her way around all the levers and knobs under the seat.
‘I love this. It’s got more controls than my first car.’
She got to her feet as Alex brought the coffee and he motioned her to sit again, smiling as if it hurt his face to do so.
‘You’ve missed a few of the adjustments. The knob on the left lets you tip the seat forward.’ He sat down in one of the chairs on the other side of the desk.
‘Oh!’ Marie tried it, almost skinning her knuckles on the stiff lever. ‘Nice one. I’m glad to see the clinic practises what it preaches and looks after its staff.’
She was just talking. Saying things that might fill the space between them and hoping to provoke a reaction. She’d never seen Alex look so worried before.
Not worried...
Burdened.
It was time to grasp the nettle and find out what was going on. She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the desk as if she were about to interview him. ‘So what’s the story then, Alex? I’m intrigued, so start right at the beginning.’
He paused, staring into his mug, as if that would tell him exactly where the beginning was.
‘A hundred and ten years ago...’
‘What? Really?’
He gave her a strained smile and Marie regretted the interruption. Whatever had happened a hundred and ten years ago must be more important than it sounded.
‘You said start at the beginning.’
‘I did. Sorry...’ She waved him on and there was silence for a moment. Then he spoke again.
‘A hundred and ten years ago the
King of Belkraine was deposed and his family fled to London. They brought with them a lot of very valuable jewels, the title deeds to property in this country, and what was literally a king’s ransom in investments. His eldest son was my grandfather.’
Marie stared at him.
She’d thought that she and Alex had shared most of their secrets over the years but he’d obviously been holding back. Marie wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that.
‘So you’re...a prince?’
He gave her a pained look. ‘Belkraine no longer exists as a separate country. I’m not sure how you can be a prince of something that doesn’t exist.’
He was missing the point. The role of many monarchies had changed in the last hundred years, but privilege and money was something that didn’t change.
‘A prince in exile, then?’
