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But Amadeo was beyond caring. Some things were more important than the monarchy. ‘I’ve told you already, I’m familiar with the car and I know the track like the back of my hand.’
‘You’ve not driven this car on it, oranyracing car!’
‘I’ve used the simulator.’
‘It’s not the same thing!’
The test car, which an army of mechanics had been busy doing last-minute safety checks on, was ready. Lowering himself into it, his body wrapped in a spare racing suit, he listened carefully to the chief mechanic’s instructions then rammed the helmet on his head.
He switched the engine on and slowly drove it out of the team’s garage to the start line.
The news must have spread that the King of Monte Cleure and the heir to the Ceres throne were to race, for the crowd that would usually have dispersed by this point were still in their seats. The television crews had kept their spots too. Let them broadcast it. The more people who witnessed Dominic’s humiliation, the better.
Moments later, Dominic appeared from a neighbouring garage in a car with yellow livery, his huge bulk squeezed into a race suit of similar colour.
The red light went on.
Amadeo turned his face to his rival. Even with his helmet on, he could feel Dominic’s enmity.
He smiled grimly. King Pig’s malevolence had nothing on the revulsion and contempt Amadeo felt for him, an excuse of a man at the forefront of a culture of cruelty, violence and misogyny that had made his wife’s life a misery from birth.
Elsbeth’s left hand was crushed in Clara’s, her right in her mother-in-law’s. The eyes of all three were glued to the Queen’s television screen before them and the two racing cars, one white, one yellow, waiting side by side for the light to turn green. Marcelo paced the room on his phone, trying to calm Alessia, who was in Madrid with Gabriel.
The light turned green.
Amadeo streaked away, leaving Dominic for dust. Elsbeth knew next to nothing about motor racing but even she could see he was a natural at it, seeming to know when to take it easy and when to put his foot down, reaching speeds so fast her heart accelerated in fright.
She breathed a little easier and imagined the thrills he must be experiencing in this moment, his lifelong dream finally being realised.
What had made him abandon all the rules and protocol about his safety and behaviour to race like this?
‘He’s bloody amazing,’ Marcelo observed in awe as Amadeo finished the first lap fifteen seconds ahead.
All three women nodded without taking their gazes from the screen.
Halfway through the second lap though, and his lead started to slip. The radio communication between Amadeo and the team crackled into life and Amadeo’s smooth, irritated voice was broadcast to the world. ‘There’s something wrong with the accelerator. It’s not responding to me.’
Another voice came through but the only words Elsbeth made out were ‘...pit lane’. The blood was pumping too loudly in her head to hear anything else.
Dominic was fast catching him.
Amadeo moved to the right-hand side of the track as they approached the final bend before the pit lane. Dominic was now right on his tail.
It happened without warning. Right at the bend, Dominic accelerated past him...but he didn’t pass. He swerved and rammed into the side of him.
The noise was ear-piercing.
A cloud of smoke filled the screen, through which a car could be seen flipping in the air and landing vertically, front down, before flopping forwards like a domino.
Elsbeth stared in frozen horror, the shrill yet roaring noise deafening her.
It was only when she felt a tap on her cheek and blinked to find Clara kneeling before her with tears streaming down her face that she realised the deafening sound was her own screams.
There was a banging in Amadeo’s head, as if a dozen hammers were smashing into his brain. There was a metallic taste in his mouth too. What the hell had he been drinking?Whenhad he been drinking? And why could he smell fire? And where was that whooshing noise coming from?
He tried to lift his head but couldn’t move his neck. His legs wouldn’t move either.
‘Don’t move.’ The calm voice sounded distant.
