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“Yes, Your Highness. It is a matter of some import.”
Aleki fought the urge to roll his eyes. King Tama had always been somewhat prone to dramatics, but this was out of hand.
“Where?”
Iosefa gestured to a wooden door off to the side of the hallway. A heavy sigh wrenched from Aleki’s lips as he turned back towards Stella.
“I’ll be right back, little star. Amuse yourself by reading about how my ancestors fought off yours in the plaques beside the paintings.”
“Such fun.” She patted his bicep lightly. “Go be a prince. I’ll stand here in my princess dress and do my history homework.”
Aleki strode towards the door, frustration pulling at his chest. Throwing the door open he entered the small room, only to gasp in surprise.
“Manu!”
“Aleki!” His brother moved towards him and swept him up in a hug. At six feet two, they were evenly matched in height, but Manu’s heavily muscled frame was wider and his arms felt like iron bars across Aleki’s back.
Standing back, Aleki surveyed his brother quickly. The riot of curls that usually fell below Manu’s shoulders were slicked back, styled into two smooth braids. Like Aleki, he wore a tapa and formal shirt in grey. Light wrinkles were etched around his eyes, evidence of his zest for life. However, Aleki noted darker shadows under his eyes. Altogether, his younger brother looked wearier than he had the last time he’d seen him at Christmas.
“You’re doing well?”
“I’m doing better than you.” Manu slapped his arm. “You’re getting married? To some palagi girl?”
Aleki grinned. “You’ll love her. She’s incredible.”
“She clearly has no taste if she’s marrying you.”
“That’s enough.” Tama’s voice cut through their light-hearted ribbing, heavy with authority. Switching to their native language, he continued. “You are here for a reason, both of you. Please be seated.”
Exchanging looks, they sat facing Tama behind the room’s desk.
The king steepled his fingers in front of his chest. “Aleki, I trust from the interview you gave that you are insistent on moving forward with this foolish plan.”
“It is not a foolish plan, Father. Stella is thoughtful, intelligent and she will be an excellent mother. She is precisely the kind of woman I need by my side as I prepare for leadership.”
Tama scoffed, huffing his scorn into the air like a weapon. “And what leadership would that be, boy? You think I will turn my country over to a pair of children to squabble over as they try to make an impossible relationship work?”
“It is not impossible.”
“It is!” The king’s eyes flashed with anger. “She knows nothing of our people, our way of life. She will go back to her world and you will be the laughingstock of Polynesia. We are too close to closing the trade deal with Samoa to allow for your childish behaviour to detract from our goal.”
“What do you propose as a solution then, Father? Abandoning my child so I can serve?”
“No. That would bring shame upon us that Avali cannot shoulder. You will have to marry her and you will have to stay with her. That is the example our people expect us to set. But you cannot rule with her alongside you. Manu will take your place.”
“What?” Manu’s voice matched the horror swelling in Aleki at his father’s threat.
“I am the heir.” Aleki leapt to his feet, anger pulsing through his veins in a sticky beat. “My whole life has been in preparation for this. You cannot punish me for choosing a partner you do not agree with.”
“I most certainly can.” King Tama’s beady eyes narrowed in satisfaction. “I will announce it following your wedding.”
Aleki’s mind whirred as the implications slotted into place, looking for an escape. He can’t take this from me. It is my destiny to serve the people. Everything I have done has been for them. The climate change agreement, the tourism budget, the Samoa deal.
“The Samoa deal!” He blurted it out before he could even finish the thought.
Tama fixed him with a glare. “What about it?”
“If I can close the deal, if I can establish a long-term working trade agreement with Samoa to provide resources to the European Union as we have been aiming for for the last eighteen months, will that prove to you that I am mature enough to rule once you step down?”
His father stroked his mustache slowly. “It might.”
“With Stella as my wife. That is not negotiable.”
After what seemed like an age, the king nodded. “You have one month. If the Samoa deal is secured and signed one month from today I will agree to bless the marriage of you and the woman. But this is it, Aleki. No more chances. If you fail to secure the deal, Manu becomes my heir.”
Aleki reached out and clasped his father’s paw in his own. The anger that had bled through him morphed into adrenaline. He could do this. One month of hard work and his role would be secure. In the monarchy and in his marriage. One month from now and he would have it all.
