Chapter One
ROSAMUND SCANNED THE STUDY, antique bookcases rising to a frescoed ceiling.
Up there haughty gods stared down at her from puffy clouds.
She didn’t need to look up to know how disdainfully they frowned at her.
This had been her father’s study. She’d spent too many hours here being told the many ways she didn’t measure up.
She’d reminded him too much of her mother, more interested in people than rules. But her father was gone. Now it was her half-brother sitting behind the royal desk.
She turned to meet eyes so like their father’s that for a second she was flung back to the last time she’d seen the old king. Even on his deathbed there’d been no rapprochement, despite her attempts. Any faint hope that he had, at some level, loved her, had shrivelled.
She should have known better.
Rosamund blinked. Leon’s eyes were the same colour but he didn’t wear their father’s habitual scowl.
She saw shadows beneath his eyes that spoke of tiredness, and reined in her impatience.
‘Leon, I’ve already explained I can’t have a security detail from the palace.’
‘Can’t or won’t?’ His frustration was clear. ‘It would be a temporary measure only.’
That was what her father had said when she was seventeen, yet the situation had lasted until she was twenty-one, legally an adult, and finally able to refuse it.
Four years of having not just a single discreet guard but a group of burly, hatchet-jawed men who were as unobtrusive as a diamond tiara in a dole queue. They’d shadowed her so closely she’d had no private space. No wonder they’d scared off even her friends.
Which had been the idea. After the scandal her father hadn’t focused on keeping her safe but ensuring she didn’t embarrass him again.
She’d naively fallen for a charming, handsome man only to learn he just wanted her as a stepping stone to power.
When she ended things he’d retaliated, leaking salacious stories to the press with damning photos, some not even of her but carefully doctored.
That didn’t matter to the king. She’d damaged the royal family’s reputation. He’d never forgiven her.
Her skin prickled at the humiliating memories. Of being continually surrounded by men who treated her like a prisoner rather than someone needing protection. It had been a very public, very deliberate punishment.
‘It’s not feasible. I have an aversion to oversized thugs being privy to my personal life.’
‘If you’re averse to thugs, you shouldn’t have got mixed up with Brad Ricardo.’
Rosamund rolled her eyes. She’d tried to explain she wasn’t mixed up with the man, but no one wanted to listen. She should have known better than to try. The palace never listened.
‘I have no intention of seeing him again.’
‘He might have other plans. You don’t think a man like that might view you as unfinished business?’
Not in the way everyone thinks!
She remembered Ricardo’s eyes when he realised what she’d done. That dark stare had been like a honed blade, threatening to eviscerate her.
That night she’d acted on impulse but she couldn’t regret her actions. She’d met people like him before, so engrossed in their own needs they’d take advantage of anyone who got in their way.
‘He and I aren’t even on the same continent. I’ve got no plans to return to the States soon.’
This time the silence held a different quality. Not mere frustration but something that made her nape prickle.
‘Leon, what aren’t you telling me?’
‘He’s threatened you, and a man like him has a long reach. He has contacts in Europe.’
Her stomach curdled. She’d told herself his threat had been bluster but never quite believed it. That was why she’d abruptly ended her American stay.
‘You’re saying he’s dangerous? Physically dangerous?’ There was a pause as if he decided how much to tell her. ‘Talk to me, Leon. I have a right to know.’
‘The authorities in America are investigating him.’
Rosamund sank back in her chair, a shiver working its way down her backbone. She’d known the man was poison, but a criminal? ‘For what crimes?’
‘Embezzlement and assault.’
Her shiver became a shudder and she wrapped her arms around her middle. Embezzlement didn’t surprise her. She’d seen how plausible and charming he could be in pursuit of money. As for assault…she’d told herself that malevolent stare he’d given her didn’t matter. Now she wondered.
‘How bad was the assault?’
Leon looked grim. ‘Bad.’
Rosamund opened her mouth to ask for details then decided she didn’t want to know. ‘If the police are investigating, Ricardo will have more on his mind than me.’
Her half-brother wasn’t convinced. ‘The assault charge won’t proceed. The victim refuses to testify for fear of reprisal.’
A lead weight dropped in her stomach. She’d known Ricardo was bad news, but this…
Leon pressed on, his expression stern. ‘Ricardo doesn’t yet know about the big embezzlement investigation. If they prove the case he’ll be imprisoned for years. Your protection would be for a short time while the police investigate. After that, hopefully he won’t be a problem to anyone.’
It seemed far-fetched that the man could harm her in Europe. But she couldn’t forget that venomous look, the blood-chilling words he’d spat at her.
‘How short a time?’
‘A week or two.’
Rosamund shook her head. ‘I’ve got important public engagements coming up.’
Engagements she couldn’t attend with a mob of the palace’s anything-but-discreet minders surrounding her. It would make a mockery of the events and detract from their purpose.
Her chest squeezed. Being guest of honour at the festival to honour her mother’s remarkable career would be a double-edged sword, a proud moment and an emotional trial. But she had to attend.
The world had known Juliette Bernard as a gifted actor before she married a king. To Rosamund she was the one person who’d loved her unconditionally. She’d been her role model, a beacon of warmth against the king’s cold, judgemental presence.
‘I know you have engagements, Rosa.’ Leon’s use of the rare diminutive surprised her. As did the unfamiliar note almost of apology in his voice.
She tried to recall when he’d last called her that. When she was a little girl, she supposed.
She didn’t loathe Leon as she had their father. They simply led separate lives. In fact they didn’t really know each other. Leon was so much older, the son of the king’s first wife, so that when Rosamund was born he’d been away at boarding school.
Now he lived in Cardona’s royal palace while she had an apartment on the far side of the city. But for the last several years, while their father was alive, she’d spent more time out of the country than in it and Leon was always busy with royal duties which usually didn’t involve her.
‘I know how important the festival is to you. That’s why I’m not suggesting you cancel, though you’d be safer here.’
She stiffened, gripping the arms of her chair. Her father had been dictatorial enough to prevent her leaving the kingdom on at least one occasion. ‘Go on.’
‘I’m offering a compromise. Instead of a close protection team from the palace, you’ll have one companion. Not an official bodyguard but someone I trust and know can keep you safe.’
She stared suspiciously. ‘Not a bodyguard?’
‘Definitely not. He’s a businessman these days, but he has the necessary skills to keep danger at bay.’
Rosamund’s eyebrows rose. ‘Some businessman. What does he do, run a karate school?’
Leon’s lips twitched. ‘He’s more of a policy advisor.’
She knew the type. She’d seen them with their briefcases and frowns, buzzing around the royal offices. Yet he must be more than that for Leon to suggest him. She was about to ask for more detail when something clicked.
‘You’ve already arranged this, haven’t you? Without asking me.’
Leon shrugged and spread his hands. ‘You refused a security team when my secretary contacted you. But I can’t let you go without any protection.’
She frowned. Her father had washed his hands of her. It felt odd to have someone watch out for her. ‘That’s a lot of trouble to go to, locating someone able to blend in and intervene if there’s trouble.’
Serious eyes met hers and she felt a dart of shock as she read Leon’s concern. ‘I don’t want you hurt, Rosa. You’re my sister.’
A lump lodged in her throat. He wasn’t worried about the outcry if something happened to a member of the royal family. He was concerned for her. His sister, not merely his obligation. It wasn’t what she’d expected when she’d been summoned to the palace.
She’d barely ever spent time alone with Leon. She wasn’t used to tenderness from her family, not since her mother died years before.
‘I…’ She cleared her throat. ‘What arrangements have you made?’
Seeing relief spread across his features, Rosamund knew she’d accept his plan. He’d taken the trouble to find a compromise she could live with. That was unprecedented. The palace never compromised. And he’d done it because he cared.
She silently vowed that when she returned to Cardona, she’d spend some time with the brother she barely knew.
‘He’ll meet you off the plane in Paris. There’s just one condition.’
‘Go on, I’m game. What is it?’
‘The only way he can reasonably be by your side all the time without appearing like the bodyguards you detest. As far as the public’s concerned, you’re a couple. That will explain why he’s at your side at every event. Just don’t say anything to dispel the idea and there’ll be no questions raised.’
A pretend lover? ‘But—’
‘That’s the deal, Rosa. You’ve got no idea how difficult this was to organise.
But he’s agreed, on condition he calls the shots.
Any hint of danger and he’s in charge.’ The warmth she’d seen in Leon’s expression vanished, leaving him looking almost as stern as their father.
‘So, Rosamund, will you take it or leave it?’
You should have left it. You should have said no and walked straight out the door. He wouldn’t have barred you from leaving the country. Probably.