Mum had rheumatoid arthritis and Aunty Cath owned six cats. That’s a bit of a restriction where adventuring’s concerned.’
‘When did your mother die?’
‘When I was twenty. Two years after Aunty Cath. A year after the last cat.’
‘And then you met Max.’
‘So I did,’ she said diffidently. ‘And he was great.’
‘But an invalid?’
‘Not when I first knew him. We had almost a year when he was in remission-we thought he was cured.’
‘Did you marry him because you loved him?’ Nick asked before he could help himself. ‘Or because you felt sorry for him?’
Somewhat to his surprise, she answered seriously. ‘You know, it was a whole lot of things,’ she said. ‘Max was twenty-six, and seemed older because he’d been ill. He was so pleased to be well again. It was just lovely-he wanted to try everything, do everything. And his family…We’d hardly even been a family, and after Mama and Aunty Cath there was no one. We went up to Yorkshire the first Christmas after we’d met, and it was such a welcome. The whole town, one big family. It was like coming home again. It was only afterwards that I felt…’
‘Felt what?’
‘Look, if Max had lived it would have been fine,’ she said, sounding defensive again. ‘But Max was larger than life. He had to be, he had too much living to do. The village had pooled together to get him the best medical treatment money could buy. As a community it was a huge commitment, and they loved him. When he died, well, there was only me, and they sort of transferred their loving to me.’
‘And you’re tired of loving?’
‘A little bit,’ she admitted, and sipped her champagne and smiled ruefully. ‘I wouldn’t mind a bit of adventuring. Me and Hoppy.’
He smiled back. Her smile was infectious even when it was rueful.
‘And you,’ she said curiously. ‘What about your childhood? Erhard told me you’re devoted to your foster mother.’
‘Ruby’s great.’ But his words were curt. He didn’t like people enquiring into his background. The knowledge that Ruby’s macrame class had been infiltrated gave him an odd feeling. Like he was exposed.
‘Hey, if we’re going to be married I need to know stuff about you,’ she said. ‘And you asked first.’
‘So what do you need to know? How I like my toast buttered in the morning?’
‘Butter your own toast, big boy,’ she said, but she chuckled. ‘No, but you know the sort of thing. I’d hate to find out that you have a fiancee and twelve kids.’
‘No fiancee. No kids,’ he said a bit too hastily. ‘I’m sure Erhard would have told you if I had. But what about you? Did you and Max want kids?’
Her face closed, just like that.
‘No.’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.’
‘That’s three sorries in as many minutes from a lawyer,’ she said, awed, and he thought she was changing the subject.
He went along with it though.
‘I guess three sorries mean I’m at your mercy.’
‘You know, I’m very sure you’re not.’ She smiled, but absently, and went back to hugging Hoppy. And looking out the window. Conversation over.
He left her to it, if reluctantly, retiring into a pile of documents he needed to study. Even though he was taking a month off there were things he couldn’t delegate. And time on planes was work time.
So he studied. Or he tried to study. Rose’s nose stayed against the window. It was a very cute nose.
‘What are you looking at?’ he asked at last, but she didn’t look around.
‘Mountains.’
‘Surely you’ve seen mountains before?’
‘I used to see these peaks from the distance when I was a child.’
‘You never went there?’
‘Mama was an invalid. And my father…’ She shrugged. ‘He took Julianna.’
‘But you’ve travelled?’ he said, startled, and she shook her head.
‘Only when we came to London. My mother was English, you see, so when my father sent her away she went to Aunty Cath. Then we were a bit stuck. But then, when I was twenty, Aunty Cath had a life-insurance policy-not very much, but enough. She’d stipulated I use it to travel. Mum seemed well, and the cats were all dead.’
Then she grinned. ‘Hey, don’t look sympathetic yet-we had some truly weird cats, and their collective age when they died was about a thousand. Anyway, Mum only had herself to look after and she was enthusiastic that I go. I had ten weeks’ university holiday. Every holiday since I was fifteen I’d worked, trying to help. But this time it all seemed to fit. So I took a deep breath and flew to Australia, intending to backpack along the east coast. But the airline contacted me before I even reached Sydney. My mother had had a heart attack. Apparently she’d been having chest pain and hadn’t told me. She’d seen specialists and still hadn’t told me. She was dead before I got home. I used the last of Aunty Cath’s nest egg to bury her and went back to university.’
He felt his own chest tighten. ‘Didn’t your father help?’
‘You’re kidding?’ she said harshly. ‘Of course not. He and Julianna stayed far away. Anyway…’ She took a deep breath and moved on. ‘How about you? How did you get to be an international lawyer?’
‘Hard work.’
‘If there was no money, you must have wanted it a lot.’
‘I did.’
‘Why?’
‘I’m not sure,’ he said, hesitating. She had him off balance. He’d not been questioned in such a personal way since…Well, since Ruby had sat him down after his secondary school results had come in, looked him straight in the eye and said, ‘Tell me you don’t want to be a lawyer because of the money?’
Was Rose asking the same question? Maybe she was.
‘I don’t really know,’ he said, with the same reluctance he’d shown when Ruby had asked. But he’d been seventeen then. Now he was thirty six, and he’d had time to think his response through. ‘I suspect it was a lot to do with my childhood. I felt helpless then-being taken from foster home to foster home. So I wanted security. Yes, I wanted a job where I could be in control. But there was also the issue of who my mother was. I knew about her royal background. It fascinated me. The only thing I had was a knowledge that the royal family of Alp de Montez was somehow my family. International law…Well, my job’s helped to answer questions and make me feel as if the world is a smaller place.’
‘Good answer,’ she said, and she smiled.
‘And vet science?’
‘I always wanted a dog,’ she said. ‘And I was really fond of Aunty Cath’s cats, even though they were collectively insane. Maybe that’s a dumb reason for choosing a career, but there it is. I didn’t have any wish to link internationally-even with Alp de Montez.’
‘You’ve kept the language up?’
‘I practiced with Italian and French language tapes while I was at university-just for fun, because it seemed a shame to lose it. How about you?’
‘My mother must have spoken the language when I was tiny. I hardly know how I got it, but it’s there. I learned French and Italian at university as well. I gather the language of the Alp countries is a mishmash of both, so it seems we’ve both kept a little of our backgrounds.’
‘Yeah, we’re both royal,’ she said absently. ‘Um, there’s snow on these mountains. And dots. Lots of colourful dots. Ski slopes?’
‘These are the best ski-slopes in the world.’
‘Do you ski?’
‘Yes.’
‘On these mountains?’
‘Sometimes, yes.’ International ski-fields were a good base for meeting the people he needed to know.
