on the Voltavian archives. If she met Daniel in the presence of anyone else she would address him as ‘Your Majesty’ the first time, and ‘sir’ after that, as did his courtiers.
But at night she called him Daniel, and laughed as she melted in his arms. Their loving was passionate, and full of joy, and afterwards, as he lay sleeping in her arms-for he always slept first-she would hold him protectively and wonder if this was how Liz had felt with Alphonse. And then she knew that was impossible, because no woman in the world had felt the special joy that was hers.
After the first explosion he’d accepted the fact that she couldn’t produce Alphonse’s letters with wry humour. It delighted her that he had managed to laugh about it.
‘You got the better of me,’ he said without rancour. ‘But you wait and see. I’ll get even.’
‘I’m looking forward to it,’ she teased.
When she was there he could enjoy a family evening, and even displayed a talent for playing the piano that none of his children had known about before.
They confided this to her when Daniel was out of ear-shot. They revealed also, without exactly knowing they were doing so, that their mother had drummed into their head that he was their king first and their father second. With herself, she had stressed, it was the other way around.
Daniel might regard his late wife generously but Lizzie’s thoughts were less charitable. Serena had been so possessive about her children that she’d bolstered her own position at her husband’s expense, and everyone was suffering for it now.
Once, when the palace was quiet, he showed her where he lived, and she was struck by the contrast between the magnificent bedroom where the king officially slept and the little monastic cell where he actually passed his nights-those that he didn’t spend with her.
‘Who’s this?’ she asked, looking at a small painting on the wall. It showed a man in Voltavian military uniform, but with a gentle, unmilitary face, on the verge of a smile.
‘That’s my great-uncle, Carl. Alphonse’s younger brother. He was a dear fellow, everybody loved him. There’s a story that the only reason Alphonse married Princess Irma was to clear the way for Carl to marry the woman he loved. She was the daughter of a lawyer, respectable and a lady, but this was seventy years ago, when it was unthinkable for a prince to make such a marriage. And Carl was next in line to the throne, after Alphonse.
‘So Alphonse married and had a son, and then the way was clear for Carl. He renounced his rights of succession, married his lady, and they lived very happily for fifty years.’
‘What a charming story. And Alphonse really made a dutiful marriage just to help Carl?’
‘So they say. My grandfather would never confirm or deny it. But Carl was very dear to him, and his happiest times were spent visiting the family. Mine too. They always seemed so happy. Carl was a wise man to marry where his heart led him.’
‘But he did it at someone else’s expense,’ Lizzie pointed out. ‘Your grandfather couldn’t have done the same. Nor could you.’
Daniel was studying the picture. ‘I think I could-now,’ he said. ‘I’ve made one state marriage, given my country three children. Next time I shall please myself.’
He wasn’t looking at her as he spoke-almost deliberately, it seemed to her. She drew a sharp breath at what he might be implying, but before she could reply a buzzer went to summon him to deal with an unexpected crisis. Lizzie had to leave and it was the following evening before she saw him.
He didn’t raise the matter again, and she wondered if she’d misunderstood him. Or perhaps he really had meant what she hoped, and then caution had checked him. The thought that they might actually be able to marry was too wonderful to be believed. She wouldn’t let herself dwell on it.
Their secret life was charmingly domestic, although Daniel observed that it sometimes made him feel like a character in a French farce. In the morning she was always the first up, slipping out to the sitting room where the newspapers had been quietly laid out by Frederick. Breakfast of rolls and orange juice was served in the same fashion, with Daniel discreetly out of sight behind the bedroom door. And if anyone noticed that Lizzie’s food consumption had recently doubled, nobody mentioned it.
They would enjoy breakfast together, lingering until the last moment, until he had to present himself to his court and she must go to the library, and they would look forward to their meeting in the afternoon when they rode with his children.
The morning papers came in three languages, and while with Lizzie Daniel would particularly enjoy reading the English ones, giving some trenchant opinions on what he read there.
‘You should see what they say here,’ he said one morning. ‘I know there isn’t a word of truth in it, but what can I-? Lizzie? My darling? What is it?’
She forced herself out of a sad dream and gave him a forced smile. ‘Nothing,’ she said.
‘Don’t say “nothing” when it makes you look like that.’
‘All right.’ She showed him what she’d been reading. The picture of a handsome young man, with a daredevil face, stared out from the paper. The caption read,
Daniel felt as though something had struck him in the chest. He could barely force himself to ask, ‘He means something to you, this man?’
‘He did once. We were married for a couple of years.’
‘I was eighteen and he was handsome and dashing. Auntie warned me against it, but I wouldn’t listen. I was so sure I could make him settle down. Of course he didn’t. He got bored and took off, and we were divorced. He was only happy taking insane risks. It was only a matter of time before this happened.’
‘Did you stay in touch?’
‘No. I haven’t spoken to him for years. It was all over long ago.’
‘But he’s remained in your heart?’ He was watching her face intently.
‘Not him so much as the memories of the happiness we shared. But it was a very short happiness. I was a stupid, ignorant girl or I’d have known I couldn’t change him.’
He wished he’d known that stupid, ignorant girl who’d given her whole heart to a man who hadn’t valued it. What had she been like in the flush of her first love? His longing to know that, to have been the man who inspired her first young passion, was so intense that for a moment he couldn’t speak.
‘Don’t,’ he said, tossing the paper aside and taking her face between his hands. ‘Forget him. Look at me.’
She did so, and tried to smile. But it was an unconvincing smile and she saw the shadow of fear cross his face.
‘It’s all right,’ she tried to reassure him. ‘I just need to be alone for a while.’
‘I have to go, but I’ll see you this afternoon-hell, no, I’ve got meetings all day, and tonight I have to attend the opera.’
‘Late tonight, then,’ she said.
She spent the day wandering alone in the woods, thinking about Toby. The boy she’d known had been gone even before his death; she could see that from the face in the paper. It was a hard-bitten man who looked out from the front page, and the text made it clear that he’d cared for nothing and nobody except riding his powerful machine in races. Somewhere in the background was a discarded girlfriend and two illegitimate children. The Dame had been right all along. All teeth and trousers. And selfish with it.
Toby had changed her, teaching her the value of keeping her heart to herself, and so, in his way, he’d helped to bring her to this point. She had a heart to give to the one man who mattered, because after that first fling she’d never wasted it again. Her sadness was all for Toby, who’d loved life and lost it while she was preparing to move on to a new life.
It was nearly two in the morning before Daniel came to her, and she could see in his face that his day had been wretched. Years had left him skilled in concealing his feelings, but now they burst out in the first moment.
‘Tell me the worst,’ he said harshly. ‘You still love him, don’t you? You’ve been trying to put him behind you, but you can’t.’
‘Darling, that’s not true.’
‘I think it is. That’s why you play with men so easily-because you couldn’t have the one who mattered. But who do you make love with? When you lie in my arms whose face do you see?’
Suddenly she understood. ‘No, you’ve got it all wrong,’ she said, giving him a little shake. ‘It isn’t happening
