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‘But you miss him?’
She nodded. ‘I really do.’
‘You know what I think?’
‘I think you’re about to tell me.’
‘I think I am going to say to you what Akil said to me and to Zorien.’ Clem still didn’t call their fatherDad, maybe she never would. ‘Secrets only have power while they’re secrets. Once things are out in the open, they can’t be used against you. Look, I was thinking we need to help Sally out over the next couple of weeks. She’s besieged by reporters; it’s impacting on the café and it’s scary for Alice. Let’s invite her and Jack and all the kids here.’
‘Here? To Asturia?’
‘Here to the estate. There’s plenty of space in the château itself, thanks to all those unused apartments. Your parents are never here, you don’t use your rooms and there’s the grounds to explore and soldiers on the gates. It’s the perfect place to ride out the media interest safely. And with you and Jack in close proximity, well, who knows? At least you’d get a chance to see if there is anything real here.’
Arrosa could see the sense in everything that Clem said, and she should have thought about how to help Sally negotiate the press herself. She did have plenty of room. There were several unused guest apartments in the old medieval Artega palais—and with her villa a mile away, even though it was in the estate grounds, she and Jack wouldn’t be forced into proximity. ‘But if Jack comes to Asturia everyone will think we’re an item and we’re not.’
‘Well, either we keep it a secret, fly him in quietly and hope no one sees or let them think it. Legitimise the headlines and get rid of the speculation. Seize control of the narrative. Maybe there is more there than a summer fling, maybe not. Either way, you steer the story and get some more time together.’
Arrosa bit her lip. Clem was making sense except... ‘He won’t come. School’s started and the whole thing will be too disorientating for the girls.’ Plus, she suspected he was too proud to seek shelter from her. He probably blamed her for setting this circus on him.
‘Want to bet?’ Clem slid her phone over. It was playing a British news channel showing helicopters circling over Jack’s house, photographers at his gate. ‘It’s October now, nearly half-term, so they wouldn’t miss more than a couple of weeks, and I can’t imagine they’re finding it easy to concentrate with all this going on. Call him and ask him to come. I think he’ll say yes.’
‘Daddy, Daddy, it’s like a fairy tale.’ Clover circled a suit of armour a little warily, as if unsure whether it really was inanimate or not. ‘This is a real castle!’
Jack had to admit that Clover had a point. It had been late afternoon when the private plane had landed in Asturia and he had glimpsed mountains and valleys, seas and flower-filled villages as the plane had circled before landing. They had been transferred directly into a limousine before being driven through a back gate and straight to the Artega family estate. Soldiers had checked their ID at the imposing gates and then they had been driven for what felt like miles through parkland, woods and formal gardens until they’d reached the old château, graceful with its turrets and spires and carved stonework. It had been a visceral reminder that, although he might now have wealth, he and Arrosa came from worlds apart.
A housekeeper had taken them through the receiving hall and up a grand staircase to an apartment as elegant and well-appointed as any top hotel, where dinner had been served to the by now weary travellers. It hadn’t taken Tansy, Clover and Alice long to recover themselves, although he suspected he’d worn an identical shell-shocked expression to Sally throughout the five courses accompanied by some excellent wine, thanks to the juxtaposition of the morning spent escaping the baying photographers and their present situation with candlelight and silver service.
Since Rosy’s summer adventures had hit the headlines, it had been an intense couple of days although, to his relief, both girls, even Tansy, seemed to find the whole experience a huge adventure. He’d worried she might feel betrayed by Arrosa’s secret but instead she viewed it as impossibly romantic.
It wasn’t his first brush with the tabloids and gossip columns, thanks to Lily’s bohemian lifestyle and tragic death, but nothing had prepared him for the shock of being in the sightline of the world’s media. He could understand Rosy’s need for time away now, her determination to keep her stay secret—and her insistence her life wasn’t for sharing. Who would willingly put themselves in this position?
‘Alice and I are meeting up with Clem this morning to explore. She says she’s only walked in a quarter of the grounds at most. Imagine having a place so big you can go for a walk in your own grounds. Apparently, we can swim in the lake as well. Can you believe how warm it is for mid-October?’ Sally looked a lot more relaxed this morning. Jack just wished he felt the same way. ‘Do you want me to take your girls so you can work—or do you and Rosy have plans?’ She sipped her coffee, a demure expression on her face as she waited for his answer.
‘She’s not Rosy here, she’s Arrosa.’ Jack poured himself more coffee and surveyed the sumptuous spread of fresh fruit, pastries, cheeses, meats and bread, but despite the tempting smells he had little appetite.
‘She’s the same person.’
Jack looked around at the silk curtains, the antique furniture, the high ceilings with ornate mouldings, polished wooden floors and vast amounts of gilt. This was a guest apartment—a guest apartment with four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, a dining room, morning room, formal sitting room and snug. What were the royal apartments like if this was a guest suite? What would it do to a person to be raised amongst all this?
But she didn’t live here, she had moved out at twenty-one. And Sally was right. She was still the same person. A person who he was supposedly friends with. A person he had made love to the last time he had seen her.
‘If you don’t mind having all three?’
‘Not at all. Don’t feel you have to hurry; Clem and I have a lot of catching-up to do and it will be nicer for Alice if she has friends to play with.’
The girls were delighted with the plan to spend the day exploring, swimming and visiting the stables and getting to meet Clem, who had taken on mythological status in their eyes as she was a real-life actress—Tansy—and a long-lost princess—Clover. Jack let that one stand, he wasn’t up to explaining illegitimacy laws and royalty to a six-year-old, leaving him free to follow the path leading to the lake, where Rosy’s house was situated. He didn’t allow himself to think about how she hadn’t been there to meet them, nor how formal she had sounded when she’d called and asked him if he would accompany Sally and Alice to Asturia for a few days until the interest in them died down. Nor did he want to think about how much he’d missed her over the last few months, how often he’d considered picking up the phone, only to remind himself there was no point. Now here he was, in her country, in her grounds, walking to her house.
To his surprise her cottage was charming rather than grand, a one-storey whitewashed villa by the lake, surrounded by a beautiful garden. He took a deep breath and let himself in at the gate and walked down the path. It didn’t feel as if he was calling on a princess, there were no visible guards, no servants, but he had no doubt that every step he was taking was being tracked. Before he could knock on the door it opened and there she was.
Jack had no idea why it was a shock that she looked exactly the same—what had he expected, that she would open the door in a ball dress and a crown? It might have been easier if she had because with her hair loose, wearing a green maxi dress cinched in at the waist, she looked like the Rosy he had fallen for, not the Princess he’d said goodbye to three months before.
‘Hi,’ he said, hovering a few steps away, not wanting to complicate things by touching her, kissing her, not trusting himself not to if he got within touching distance.
‘Hi. Do you want some coffee?’
‘Sure.’
‘Come in then.’
