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He shrugged. ‘That chance passed me by. I had no time. I concentrated on what I needed to assist the Prince in the best way I could. History, politics, marketing, communication...’
‘No wonder you’re so busy. You must have a heck of a job description. What does the private secretary of a prince actually do?’
Of course he wasn’t Alessio’s private secretary any more, but she didn’t need to know that—not right now. Let her believe that he remained in his role a little longer. It did give him a certain gravitas which ‘disgraced count’ lacked. How could Lucy ever trust him if he disclosed how untrustworthy he’d become?
‘Anything His Highness asks of me, so long as it’s legal.’
‘If he asked you to...to marry the daughter of a bitter enemy to bring peace between nations?’
‘Lasserno has no bitter enemies, but if he asked...’ Stefano nodded. ‘In centuries past, members of my family have been married off to serve the principality’s interests. It made Lasserno powerful and made my family increasingly wealthy and well connected. No one complained.’
Lucy’s eyes narrowed, her mouth tightening to a thin and stark line. ‘That’s...that’sappalling. It doesn’t sound like a best friend and employer relationship but more of a...a hostage situation.’
She seemed to grow taller, as if filled with incandescent outrage on his behalf. He’d never had anyone to support him like this. He’d always supported others. His siblings... Alessio in his role as Shield of the Crown. The burden had become a heavy one. Yet a sensation wound through him that seemed all too soft for his life right now. Almost like relief that there was someone who might think ofhim. Put him first for once.
He shut it down. Whilst he wanted to thank her for her spirited defence, those kinds of feelings led him nowhere.
‘My mother and father were the product of such an arranged marriage and it was successful.’ At least if politicking and building on the family’s name, fortune and brand were any measure. As parents... Well, that was another matter. ‘What about yours?’
She wrapped her arms round her waist, turned and looked out through the bank of windows to the cold and grey view beyond. ‘Desperately in love once, apparently. Now getting bitterly divorced.’
‘So love is no guarantee?’
She gave a small and savage laugh which opened the door to more questions if he cared to ask them. ‘Oh, trust me, I’dneversay it was.’
He could press...ask her about the cynicism that seemed to surround her again. Once, he would have. But now the only questions he should be asking were about her family. Her grandfather.
But he didn’t have it in him to do so in this moment. Not when she seemed so lost.
Later.
He had time.
‘Don’t worry, Lucy. Alessio married for love. And I’m sure he’d allow the same for me, if I believed in it any more.’
‘So what you’re telling me is that all this is okay and you’ve never wanted to do anything else?’
He’d never thought of it—not even as a boy. From his first memory, his course had been set. His friendships managed. Everything that he’d done had led him to being the man he was today. Yet somehow he’d still failed.
Lucy made him question the role he’d been born into. But if he began to ask those questions they might never stop...might lead to conclusions that his life and most enduring friendship had been a lie. A hostage situation. And if that were the case, and he was now free, what was he doing tracking missing gemstones?
He had no answers to that question, which sat like an uncomfortable weight in his gut. ‘I’m the Count of Varno,’ he said. ‘Shield of the Crown. This is my life, which I must return to.’
‘Then I won’t take up any more of your time,’ she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
He didn’t like the suspicion that Lucy believed she was being dismissed. He wanted her smiles, her laughter. Not these brittle and hard edges that seemed to have invaded their conversation.
‘Tomorrow, if you like, I can take you on a proper tour.’
‘That would be lovely.’
In the meantime he’d board up his weak points and slip himself back into the Count of Varno’s costume. ‘For now, do you think you can find your way back to familiar areas of the castle?’
‘Don’t worry about me. I think I know where I’m going. I’ll be fine.’
Lucy turned and looked at him, her golden eyes intense and assessing. And as he left the room, to return to the work pressing down upon him, he couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that whilst Lucy was fine, she believed he wasn’t.
CHAPTER SIX
