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His thoughtfulness, so unexpected, made her stomach swoop as though she’d fallen from an aeroplane. ‘I’m honestly fine,’ she promised. ‘Really, I am.’
He nodded, a glint of admiration in his eyes as he released her hand. Remembering all that she’d been taught, she stepped from the car, concentrating on keeping her long skirt down for modesty, her head up, her eyes on the crowd, no dramatic facial movements that a camera would snap and a paper would publish for the fact it was unflattering. She also concentrated doubly hard on not falling flat on her face, which was harder than it sounded whilst wearing stiletto heels and what felt like miles of tulle and silk.
She’d been told they weren’t to hold hands, nor to show any sign of affection. It was a protocol thing and, given their strange and somewhat dysfunctional relationship, she hadn’t blinked at the instruction. So when he stepped from the car and put an arm around her waist, holding her to his side, she glanced up at him.
He smiled brightly, his even white teeth set in curving lips, a chiselled square jawline and every feature a stand-out, his dark eyes casting a spell over her, and she smiled back at him. Then he bent down and pressed a small kiss to the tip of her nose. The crowd went wild.
He lifted his head up but kept an arm wrapped around her waist in a way that she would have called protective, except the flames of desire that licked at her side were so much more dangerous than any other threat or fear she might feel.
He guided her to the crowds and she received gifts from the children who were lined up at the front. Dozens and dozens of cards, flowers, bears, and each one she admired and appreciated, before handing it to a protocol officer, hovering in the background. At the steps of the palace, Leo and Liana met them, having pulled up and made their way straight to the entrance.
Liana straightened Leo’s shirt and then passed him to Matthias. With their son held in one handsome arm and the other around the waist of the woman he would marry, they stood there, smiling at the assembled crowd.
The smile on Frankie’s face was dazzling, but it was a forgery.
Sadness for this man swarmed her chest, making her heart split and her mind heavy. She didn’t want him to have suffered as he had. She saw now the depth of his grief—it was as much a part of him as his bones and blood. It had redefined his outlook on life. And love?
Matthias tilted his head towards her and it felt as though an elastic band was snapping inside her chest, her heart exploding out of its bracket.
He might not love her—he might not even be capable of love.
But if her sense of compassion for him taught Frankie anything it was that somewhere, somehow, without her permission, she’d done something really stupid.
She’d fallen in love with her future husband.
* * *
If the outside of the palace was mesmerising, then inside was just as much so. E
normous marble tiles lay in the entranceway, white and imposing, and a marble staircase rose from the centre. A harpist was playing as they strode inside, and more noise sounded, this time from within the palace. ‘The party is on the rooftop terrace,’ he said.
‘Okay.’ She nodded, but her mind was still exploding from the realisation she’d just had. She couldn’t love him. No way. She was, surely, just getting lust and love mixed up, as she had back in New York. She barely knew him.
Yet somewhere along the way she’d fallen in love with a man who’d proudly proclaimed his disdain for the whole notion of love. He saw it as a useless impediment to life in general.
What a fool she was!
‘You are okay?’ he queried again, carrying Leo on his hip as though he’d been doing it all Leo’s life.
‘Uh huh.’ She nodded unevenly, not daring to look at him again.
‘Please, Frankie, do not be worried about Leo’s safety. I will protect him, and you.’
She jolted her gaze to his, nodding. If only he knew what the real cause for her silence was!
They walked up the sweeping staircase in silence. She realised as they neared the top that Matthias had been right about something—she now barely noticed the servants that were standing on every second step, all dressed in formal military uniforms.
At the top landing, four guards stood, two on either side of enormous wide wooden doors, each carved with striking scenes that she’d have loved to have stood and studied. The doors themselves looked ancient.
As the family approached, the guards bowed low then saluted, all in perfect time with one another.
‘Police!’ Leo squealed, and one of the four guards lost control of his stern expression for the briefest of seconds, relaxing his lips into a spontaneous smile before focusing himself.
The tallest of the men took a large gold sceptre and banged it slowly three times against the wooden doors; they then swept inwards as if by magic.
The terrace, though filled with hundreds of people, was absolutely silent, and space had been left in the middle of the assembly—a corridor of sorts.
With his arm around her waist once more, Matthias guided Frankie forward. The group of people was silent. Frankie and Matthias were silent.
