The King's Bride

couldn’t command the King with the snap of her fingers. He tried to explain this diplomatically, but she steamrollered over him.

‘Tell him I’ve got what he wants,’ she said sulphurously. ‘That’ll bring him.’

She hung up. At the other end of the line Frederick mopped his brow.

For the next few minutes Lizzie prowled her apartment like an angry lioness, wondering how her happiness could have turned to dust so quickly. Her visit to England had been marked by two discoveries, one of which had filled her with joy and wonder. The other had filled her with such profound bitterness that she wondered how she could bear to see Daniel again, ever.

But she would see him, one last time. She would give him the thing for which he had schemed and betrayed. Perhaps she would even manage to tell him what she thought of him, although it would be hard to put the depth of her misery into words. Then she would leave Voltavia and try to forget that Daniel existed.

She looked up sharply as the door opened. There he was, smiling as though nothing pleased him so much as the sight of her, although she had rudely summoned him in a way that would once have earned his displeasure. He came towards her, hands outstretched, eyes warm. Lizzie clenched her own hands, forcing herself to remember that this man had deceived her cruelly. Otherwise she might have thought he was regarding her with love.

‘You came back quickly,’ he said, ‘just as you promised. But whatever did you say to poor Frederick to put him in such a fret?’ She stared at him, bleak-eyed, and his smile died. ‘What is it, my darling?’

‘Don’t call me that,’ she said harshly. ‘You can stop the pretence. I know the truth now.’

‘Whatever do you mean?’

‘Did you think I wouldn’t find out that you had my house burgled?’

If she’d had any doubts his sharp intake of breath dispelled them. He was pale and startled, but he knew what she was taking about.

‘It’s true, then,’ she said bitterly. ‘You did it. You ordered it. And all the time you- Dear God!’ The last words were a cry of anguish.

‘Lizzie, please listen to me. It’s not as you think.’

She rounded on him. ‘Of course it is. It’s exactly as I think. I was a fool, but I’m not a fool any more, so don’t insult my intelligence.’

The sudden silence was harsh and ugly, unlike the sweet, companionable silences that had fallen between them so often.

‘How did you know?’ he asked at last, in a voice that seemed to come from a great distance.

‘Your operatives were very good, but not quite good enough. A few things were out of place. I noticed because I tend to keep things as my great-aunt left them. I didn’t believe it at first, but when I questioned my neighbours I learned a lot. Like that they entered by the front door. That’s why nobody was alarmed. They looked so respectable.’

Her eyes were very cold as she said, ‘I wondered how they got a key to my house. And then I remembered the ball, and how you danced me along the terrace, taking both my hands so that I had to leave my purse behind. You did the “heady passion” bit very well, I’ll give you that. And you judged the

time so well. Just long enough for someone to open my purse and take a wax impression of the key.’

She waited to see if he would answer, but he stood silent, looking at her with eyes full of pain.

‘But why?’ she said at last. ‘You could have asked me for those letters when we first met in London. You thought I was negotiating. So why not come right out with it there and then? Why invite me here at all?

‘That was the question I should have asked myself a long time ago, but I wasn’t thinking straight. And why? Because of all that romantic claptrap you showered on me. There wasn’t a word of truth in it. You just wanted me in a daze so that I didn’t know whether I was coming or going, because that way you could keep me here as long as it suited you. And I fell for it. Me, who prides herself on her cool, logical mind. I could laugh when I remember how I actually lectured you about the lessons of history, but I forgot the most important one, didn’t I? Put not your trust in princes!

‘And all the time I was here your people were going through my house. You didn’t want to buy, you wanted to steal.’

‘That’s not true,’ he said harshly. ‘I always meant to pay you for those letters, but I was afraid you might have copies, or keep some back.’

‘Oh, boy, you were really thorough, weren’t you? You even tried my bank. But I don’t have a safety deposit box, as I gather the manager told you. Of course, there are a lot more banks to try. Who knows what I might be hiding in some little out-of-the-way branch-?’

‘Stop!’ he said harshly. ‘I deserve all you say of me, but let me tell you the truth-’

‘You don’t deal in truth. You’re a king; you have other priorities. You as good as warned me about that, and I ignored it because-’ She choked suddenly. He reached for her but she turned away quickly, throwing up her hands. ‘Because I’m a fool.’

‘No, because you love me, as I love you.’

‘Oh, please!’ she cried. Then her manner changed, became formal. ‘Your Majesty can abandon those tactics now. They’ve served their purpose very nicely.’

‘That’s enough,’ he shouted, seizing her shoulders and giving her a little shake. She tried to pull away but he tightened his hands. ‘No, you’re going to listen to me. I may not deserve it, but you’re going to.’

She stood still in his hands, her eyes burning. ‘Get it over with, then. It’ll be a relief to us both to be done with this.’

‘Everything you say was true about me in the beginning. I didn’t treat you well. I mistrusted you, I deceived you, I lured you here and I had you burgled. I thought you were an adventuress and that was the only safe way to deal with you. I’m not proud of it, but I thought it was necessary.

‘I was wrong. I came to realise that you weren’t as I’d thought. I called my people in London and pulled them off the job.’

‘Except that they’d already been through my house by then.’

‘Unfortunately, yes. I did what I could. I was in love with you by that time. I tried to tell you about this the day you left, to prepare you. But I lost my nerve. I prayed that you’d never find out how I’d behaved, and that you and I could make a new and honest beginning.’

‘But you planned to hide the truth about what you’d done. How honest is that?’

‘Not very,’ he admitted. ‘But I was afraid. I couldn’t face the thought of losing you.’

She didn’t relent. ‘The King is never afraid,’ she said. ‘You should remember that.’

‘I’m afraid now,’ he said quietly. ‘More afraid than I’ve ever been in my life. At one time I couldn’t have admitted to fear, but now I can. You did that for me. Now I see us drawing further apart and I don’t know how to stop it.’

‘There is no way to stop it,’ she said wretchedly. ‘And I don’t want to.’

‘Don’t say that.’ In an instant his fingers were over her lips, trying to silence the terrible words. But she shook herself free.

‘It’s too late,’ she said fiercely. ‘And you don’t have to bother any more because I’ve got what you wanted. Here!’ Near her on the floor stood a large canvas bag with two leather handles. She dumped it on the table between them and pulled it open to reveal the contents. Daniel stared at the mountain of papers within. ‘There they are,’ Lizzie said. ‘Take them, and then we need never see each other again.’

‘What-are these?’

‘Alphonse’s letters.’

‘You had them all the time?’

‘No. Only since yesterday. “Liz” gave them to me.’

‘But she’s been dead for years.’

‘No. Dame Elizabeth has been dead for years, but she wasn’t “Liz”. We’ve all been barking up the wrong tree. It was Bess all the time.

‘Her name is Elizabeth too, and people used to call her Liz for short. But Auntie ordered her to change it, because it was confusing to have a Liz and a Lizzie. So she became Bess,

and of course I never knew her as anything else. But your grandfather did. She was always “Liz” to him. Look.’

She opened her purse and took out a picture. It was about ten years old, an amateurish family shot, showing