The tour took fifteen minutes, and again she asked pertinent questions, her thoughtful observations backing her conduct on the project so far.
It didn’t prove anything, he told himself.
Her mother was equally as passionate about landing a fat cat for her daughter, preferably one with a title and bottomless wallet. All this...passion could be a carefully orchestrated plan.
Just like the general’s nearly successful strategy in those crucial and terrifying days after his father’s death. Just like the restless factions whose motives and whereabouts were still proving elusive to pinpoint in his homeland.
The reminder restored a little more calm, reasserting his sense and control. Enabled him to summon up appropriate dispassion when they returned to the edge of the lake, where his bodyguards, following his instructions, had set up their evening meal.
He walked past a frozen Violet to their picnic blanket. ‘Are you going to just stand there all night or join me?’
Suspicion filled her eyes as she ventured closer. ‘I... You set this up?’
‘I thought we could kill two birds with one stone. The likelihood that there’ll be anything left to eat when we return is slim. Sit down, Violet.’
Four solar lamps were positioned on each corner of the picnic blanket, providing ambient light as darkness fell.
He watched her sink down, fold her long, shapely legs beneath her before plucking a grape from a bowl. ‘You’re a prince. Isn’t it the done thing to summon a chef to prepare a meal from scratch if the fancy takes you?’
‘Of course, just as it’s this easy to arrange a picnic by a lake because I wish it.’
She’d fully expected him to deny her veiled insult, and he watched, amused, as she blushed again. He reached for the champagne bottle set in the ice bucket and worked the cork free, aware her gaze lingered on him.
‘Something on your mind, Violet?’
‘You mentioned your pilot’s licence from the air force. Why did you leave the service?’
Because the man he’d been dying to impress, the man he’d looked up to and called Father, had died unexpectedly, shattering a secret dream and leaving a nightmare in his wake. Not only had his father not been the man he’d thought him to be, his weaknesses had left the kingdom he should’ve been safeguarding in jeopardy. Only by strengthening their foundations in the eyes of the world had they kept from toppling over into the abyss the King had left by his death.
Not a subject he was in the mood to revisit right now. ?
?I served my time until I realised I could better serve my kingdom in another role.’
‘But, from that meeting with the minister, it looks like you’re still in charge?’
‘Some matters of national security will always fall within my remit, yes,’ he said, aware his voice was clipped. He ended her questioning by popping the cork. She flinched but accepted the glass he passed her.
‘You were in a celebratory mood earlier. No reason why you can’t raise a toast to your achievements this week.’
‘You say that with a straight face, yet your dry tone mocks the very thing I’m supposed to be celebrating.’
‘Let’s leave the analysis for now, Violet.’
‘Because you don’t like hearing the truth?’
‘Because I’m famished and don’t wish to invite indigestion.’
For the rest of the meal they ate in silence that drew far too much of his attention to her face, her body, the movement of her throat when she swallowed.
The moment they were done, she rose.
‘Where are you going?’
She threw him another defiant glare as she walked away. ‘To take a better look at the lake, after all. At the moment it’s a little more appealing than the company.’
CHAPTER FIVE
HE GAVE HER five minutes while the remains of their picnic were tidied away. Then Zak approached the water.