‘I believe it’s a small price to pay for absolute certainty.’
‘I don’t.’
Zak felt Violet’s gaze on him. He glanced at her, registered the relief in her eyes before she broke eye contact to fiddle needlessly with her phone.
‘But... Your Highness.’ Alvardo paused, and Zak got the notion he was measuring his words. ‘I’m of the opinion that this could get out of hand very quickly if not immediately dealt with.’
‘Then redouble your efforts to turn may be into concrete evidence. The Montegovan people have been through enough without causing ripples with unfounded rumours. Maintain surveillance without engaging and report back to me when something changes.’ Until then he’d make his own investigations, double check the general’s report.
With his mother’s recent but as yet unannounced intention to step down from the throne in favour of Remi, the situation would need extremely careful monitoring. The last thing Montegova needed with its recent history was another shaky period. ‘That will be all.’
The general rose, gave a grave bow and left the room.
Zak noted Violet’s heavy silence as he escorted her back out to the car.
It wasn’t until they cleared Midtown traffic and were heading towards the Upper East Side, where the fundraiser was being held, that he turned to her.
‘Ask your questions. I can see you’re about to burst from the effort of maintaining your silence.’
She pressed plump lips together for a short moment. ‘Is there really a threat to your country?’
He shrugged. ‘There’s always a threat. The trick is to separate the salient from the white noise, as it were.’
‘But what the general said...it all sounded urgent.’
‘Alvardo is a defence minister. He believes he wouldn’t be doing his job if he didn’t advocate fire and brimstone at every turn.’
She frowned. ‘Are you sure? It seems a little more than that.’
‘Probably because it is,’ Zak confirmed, then wondered why he was giving her this leeway, letting her into secrets that might come back to bite him.
‘And you’re happy to go along with such dire predictions? Are you really okay with such blatant...warmongering?’
‘I’ve learned to look beneath the surface, always. He makes his reports. I investigate further where I need to. The truth of the situation always comes out in the end.’ He couldn’t stem bitterness that stemmed directly from the secret his father had kept for over twenty years, only to have it explode in their faces even before the dirt had settled over his final resting place. But his statement was also aimed at Violet, more specifically at the plans she’d concocted with her mother.
He glanced at her, noted how her lashes swept down and away, pretending interest in the passing scenery outside the window. Si, Lady Violet Barringhall, like her mother, clearly thought they were pulling the wool over his eyes with this stint at his trust.
‘And do you think this situation requires serious investigation? Are people really plotting to bring the kingdom down?’ she asked after a moment with wide-eyed interest that appeared genuine. But then her interest would be genuine, wouldn’t it, if she had aspirations of elevating herself from Lady to Princess?
Zak shrugged with an ease he didn’t feel deep down. ‘There are those who believe the era of the monarchy is long past. That the people should dispense with the royal house altogether.’ He gauged her reaction. While her expression looked a little troubled, there wasn’t the cutting desperation he’d expected at the possibility of her coveted position evaporating before her eyes.
Perhaps she was a better actress than he’d initially credited her with being.
‘And what do you say to that?’
Centuries-old pride and the warrior’s clamour of his forebears drew only one answer from him. ‘My ancestors didn’t carve out a kingdom through blood and battle only to hand it over to a disgruntled few who believe they know what’s right for my people. Montegova isn’t ruled by a power-hungry figurehead who merely sits on the throne and collects taxes at the end of a fiscal year. My mother and brother are both active members of parliament. Their votes are just two among many that operate under a system of check and balances agreed by law. As the current head of the monarchy, the Queen has certain rights, granted, but she’s not above the law. Whatever injustices are felt should be addressed through the legal system, not through uprisings.’
‘That’s easy to say, though, some would say. Didn’t your ancestors stamp out dissension when there were bloody revolutions?’
He allowed himself a smile that didn’t quite unfreeze the chill in his chest, not when the memory of how close to chaos Montegova had come a mere decade ago echoed through him. ‘Precisely. So why follow the same tired route when we can forge new ones? Innovate, don’t imitate, isn’t that the saying?’
‘Why are you pretending to be flippant about this?’ she asked.
Zak tensed, despising the extra layer of disgruntlement her incisive observation triggered. ‘Perhaps I’m wondering what your motives are. Your task was simply to take notes. Why the sudden interest in Montegova?’ he tossed back at her.
She floundered momentarily before her composure snapped back into place. ‘I work for you, for the time being. Is it really so strange for me to take an interest, considering
I have an affiliation with Montegova? Or have you forgotten that my mother is half-Montegovan?’