‘Yes.’
‘At least you’re honest.’
Was it his imagination or did she actually look intrigued rather than critical or outraged? Belatedly his radar kicked in. April was a reporter—of course she was intrigued. She was probably converting his words into some sort of headline right now. Lycander’s Lothario says, ‘Let’s get physical!’
Note to whatever brain cells he h
ad left: this woman is an adversary.
‘Yes.’ He gestured to the table. ‘Anyway, we seem to be off track. Now we’ve established that this isn’t a date I think we should get started.’
‘Agreed.’
But to his escalating annoyance it wasn’t as easy as all that. Even as he busied himself with the pouring of wine, the choice of food, he knew the simple movements were overhung with an insidious curiosity as to what it would be like if this were a date. Would they clink their glasses in a toast to each other? Accidentally entangle their feet under the table? Pop morsels of food into each other’s mouths?
For an instant his gaze lingered on the lushness of her lips and he wondered if he was losing his grasp on sanity. Not once in his life had he felt the temptation to feed a woman a morsel of pâté on sourdough bread, and he sure as heck wasn’t starting now.
Time to get back on track and recall that this was emphatically not a date, or anything resembling it. It was a negotiation table. ‘So. To business. I’ll keep it simple. Will you drop the story?’
Her body tensed as if in acknowledgment of the fact that they were now down to brass tacks—that the interlude, whatever it had meant, was over.
‘It’s not that straightforward.’
‘Yes, it is. Frederick is a good ruler and he needs time—he needs to be given a chance, exactly as the majority of those teenagers you met yesterday believe.’
‘They also said they would only believe in the monarchy if it wasn’t founded on a lie.’ April shook her head, looked down at her plate and spread more pâté onto a slice of bread, as if to distract herself. ‘But if what Brian Sewell told me is true then Frederick’s ascent to the throne is based on a lie. So I have a solution. I’ll tell you what he said, and if you tell me he is lying I’ll drop the story.’
April sipped her wine and then met his gaze full-on. Her directness brooked no quarter.
‘Frederick should have been in the car the night Axel died. He bailed out from that function to go and party and Axel took his place—even though Axel pretended it was all his idea.’
She paused as she studied his face, and he focused on maintaining an expression of calm interest.
‘Is that true?’
‘I’ll take the Fifth.’
‘So it is true?’
‘I didn’t say that. But what I will say is that even if it were true, hypothetically speaking, it wouldn’t matter.’
‘The truth always matters.’ Her voice was absolute in its conviction. ‘The bottom line is that Frederick chose pleasure over duty and his brother paid with his life. The people deserve to know that.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if he lied to them once he could lie to them again.’
Time to change tack. ‘For a start, the truth isn’t that black and white, cut and dried—whatever cliché you like. Frederick did attend a party the night of Axel’s death. But it was a business function to celebrate a business deal—not some wild celebrity shindig. Frederick founded Freddy Petrelli’s Olive Oil, and the deal took his company into the global arena. Axel was heir to the throne—Frederick had no interest in politics at the time. So I’m not sure your “pleasure over duty” theme will hold water.’
‘Then what is all the fuss about? Why would it have been covered up in the first place?’
‘Because Axel was Lycander’s hope for the future—the Golden Prince who would take Lycander back to prosperity and fairness. At the time Frederick was pretty unpopular—he was seen as being like his father because of his party lifestyle. Bottom line is that the people would have preferred Frederick to have been in that car, and they loathed the idea that he was now heir to the throne. The throne was already rocking; if they had known he should have been in the car the monarchy could have been overturned.’
‘So, hypothetically speaking, you agree that a cover-up was the right way to go?’
‘It is what Axel would have wanted. Whatever it took for his vision of Lycander to be achieved and for the monarchy he believed in to remain stable.’
That was what had driven Marcus to step forward to offer Frederick his support, even when his own grief was at its height.