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‘The lake is beautiful,’ Beatrice said, unusually tentative in her approach. ‘It’s like winter...’
‘Lago Lefko,’ he said.
White Lake, Beatrice thought. A mixture of Greek and Italian. She could see why it had been named as such.
It was surrounded by white willows, silver birch, even the stones around it were white, and glinted as if covered in frost. It even felt as if the temperature had dropped and she shivered slightly.
‘I almost expect my breath to blow white. Even the birds...’ There were doves in the trees and Japanese cranes on a central island.
‘The doves were introduced when my parents married.’ He pointed to the cranes, making hearts with their necks. ‘They were a gift when Prince Claude was born, and the white swans were for Princess Jasmine.’
‘And you?’
‘I beg your pardon?’
‘Were birds introduced when you...?’ She suddenly realised that he had perfectly understood what she had said. ‘Sir.’
‘Peacocks,’ he told her. ‘White, of course.’
Beatrice looked around.
‘They’re always off preening. You will soon hear them.’
He spoke politely, yet he was removed and distant. There was a wall between them that she doubted would be dismantled even on commencement of her job, for she had seen how formal his staff were.
‘So, you have questions?’
‘Yes. It was the one-year anniversary of Prince Claude’s passing last week.’
‘Indeed.’
‘And from my understanding it is now considered time for the country to look towards happier times.’ She trod gently, out of politeness and also because it was beyond anything she knew, but she did try to put her client first. ‘Is marriage something you want?’
‘It’s necessary.’
‘I understand that, but I’m trying to gauge your thoughts and—’
‘You won’t get my thoughts, Ms Taylor. Are you always this direct?’
‘I am.’ She was. ‘And I don’t see how we can have the conversations it will be necessary for us to have if I have to constantly bow and call yousir...sir.’
‘That’s your issue to deal with,’ he told her. ‘I prefer to keep things formal.’
He was awful, Beatrice decided.
‘Iwilltell you that my future wife will have her own country’s interests at hand when she makes her decision to marry me. It will be a very mutually beneficial partnership and it will be celebrated.’
‘And love?’
He managed a wry laugh at that. ‘I don’t need that sort of complication.’ He turned his head to her. ‘Would you bringyourpartner to work?’
Beatrice had never had a partner, and even though she might be delving into his private life the Prince wouldn’t be getting a whiff of hers. ‘Of course not.’
‘Or to a business dinner? Or on a business trip?’
‘No.’
‘Precisely.’
