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‘Not always. I had an interesting conversation with the Princess the other day and I had no idea how to respond,’ he said, his eyes fixed on a bee busily divesting a flower of nectar. ‘She’s being pressured to marry.’
‘Poor Arrosa, I can just imagine.’ Elixane was the same age as the Princess and despite the family rivalry the girls had been friends of a sort growing up. ‘You’re in the Senate, you know what that bunch of dinosaurs are like. They still think a woman needs a man’s steadying hand. I don’t envy her. She’s got an uphill battle with that lot.’
‘She recognises that. She’s not afraid, but I think she feels it would be easier if she wasn’t facing them alone. She...’ He coughed, the words feeling as ridiculous as he knew they would sound. ‘She asked how I felt about being the Prince Consort.’
‘Shewhat? Sheproposed?’ Elixane’s voice rose to shrill frequency and Akil winced. ‘Toyou? I didn’t know you two were that close.’
‘We’re not, and no.’ Akil wasn’t sure exactly what had happened in that conversation, but he was sure about that. ‘She didn’t propose exactly. It was more of a sounding me out, I think.’
‘And you said how flattering but no thank you.’
‘I didn’t say anything.’ He hadn’t had a chance to formulate any kind of response before Arrosa had blushed furiously, made an excuse and left.
‘My brother a prince. That would bring Papa hotfooting it home from Switzerland. But it’s ridiculous, of course. Please let me be there when you tell him you had the chance to marry into the royal family and turned it down.’
Akil didn’t answer and Elixane’s voice tightened. ‘You are turning it down, aren’t you?’
‘I don’t know. Not yet. I’d be a fool not to at least consider it, Elixane.’
‘But, Akil, you don’t love her. You barely know her!’
‘I’ve spent some time with her recently and I like her. Respect her. Besides, love isn’t necessary for a happy marriage.’
‘Love doesn’t guarantee a happy marriage but it sure as hell helps. You can’t base your decisions on the disaster that’s our parents’ marriage. They didn’t love each other. They were infatuated and that’s a whole different ball game.’
‘Love or infatuation, it’s undeniable that everything they wanted and needed in a marriage was incompatible and I will never make that mistake.’ Never raise children amongst the hostility and unhappiness of a toxic marriage. ‘If I marry, then I need a politician’s wife, someone diplomatic, intelligent, with shared goals. Why not Arrosa? Being part of the court rather than parliament would be a different kind of politics but together we could achieve great things.’
‘At what cost?’
‘There’s always a cost to power, Elixane. You just need to decide what you’re willing to pay.’
‘I haven’t seen Arrosa for years,’ his sister said after a long pause. ‘We were friendly but not close. She’s not close to anyone as far as I know, but I liked her. Like her. She’s nice.’
‘Yes,’ Akil agreed. ‘She’s nice.’
‘And that’s enough?’
Akil leaned against a tree. ‘It’s a hell of a lot better than not nice,’ he pointed out. ‘Look, we both want this country to move beyond ancient feuds, we want a modern democracy.’
‘And marriage is the only way to achieve that?’ Akil could hear the scepticism in his sister’s voice. ‘It’s the twenty-first century.’
Akil couldn’t help his wry smile. ‘In the rest of Europe maybe, but you know as well as I do that for over half this country it might as well be the seventeenth century.’
‘You know what I think you should do?’
‘Do I want to know what you think?’
‘I think you’re insane and you shouldn’t give this any more thought, but if this is something you are really considering then you should get to really know her. Don’t make any decisions either way until you’ve spent some time with the woman, not the Princess. Make sure this marriage is something that you both can live with.’
Another fat bee buzzed past Akil’s ear before landing on a climbing rose. Akil watched it move from flower to flower as he considered his sister’s words. He didn’t know what he felt about Arrosa’s surprising proposition or if she had even meant it. Spending some time with her when they weren’t working on bills and treatises might be the way to find out if they were compatible. ‘You may be right.’
‘IknowI’m right. You might think that you don’t have to fall in love with her, but you have to admit that you need to know that you can live with her.’
Elixane’s words hung in the air until a beep reminded Akil that he had a meeting to get to. ‘Look, I’ve got to go. Thank you.’
‘Call me if you need me. Any time.’
And with that she was gone. Akil pocketed his phone, frowning. His little sister was annoyingly right. If Arrosa had meant those softly spoken words—and if he was truly considering agreeing—then they needed to see if they could live in harmony. His parents’ marriage was an example of everything he didn’t want: thwarted passion, disappointment, anger and resentment. He wanted civilised, compatible and mutual respect. Maybe it was time to stop thinking and talk to Arrosa, discover if she had been serious and then decide what, if anything, that meant for him.
