The Royal Heir - The Valtoria Diaries 2

The elephant's doodahs

"Sounds like you got off lightly then," Olivia sneered as she placed down her cutlery. "It was a full-blown pantomime in Lythikos. We even had someone standing in for you, saying things you definitely never said."

Rick finished his mouthful of steak, and nodded. "Yes, Drake did tell me about that. Obviously I have read the book in its entirety, and before anyone else did, so I daresay Maxwell wouldn't have considered pulling that prank on me anyway. I wish I'd been there for Drake's reaction, though."

"It was definitely worth it," she said, but she seemed a little distant, her gaze on the flickering candle on the table between them, her thoughts perhaps drifting to how that particular evening had ended.

"So tell me more about this stand-in Rick," he enquired. "Was he as handsome and commanding as me?"

She tensed up. "I didn't like him. Did you have a Q&A at the end of your signing?"

"No," Rick said. "Madeleine was adamant about me not participating in anything like that, so the publishers decided not to go ahead with it."

She frowned, as she always did whenever the subject of Madeleine came up. Then she took a sip of her wine, and looked back at him. "Well we did, and your stand-in decided to grill me about how come I was sloppy enough to let Anton abduct me in the first place."

He laughed. "Well, you were at a wedding. You had probably had a few drinks. Did the great Olivia Nevrakis dare to let her hair down?"

She tensed up again, and he saw her hand shoot to her side. He'd really said something wrong.

"Olivia.." he sighed, reaching a hand across the table.

"I never told you what he said to me," she explained. "Anton's little lackey. He said you were hurt. He said you were asking for me."

Rick sighed, observing the pain in his lover's eyes. "Olivia, if you hadn't been taken in by them, things could have been a lot worse. Things happened the way they did, yes. But I'm not sure Jen and Maxwell would've got out of that cell without your help that night."

She nodded, seemingly in acceptance. "I know they wouldn't have."

"And for what it's worth, if something had happened to me that night, whether I were to articulate it or not, yes, I would've wanted you there."

That seemed to placate her, she smiled, and crossed her legs.

"I'm just glad you were there for the others on the night of the car accident," he told her. He felt guilty himself for staying at the palace; it seemed likely that the distribution of people in cars might have been different had he been in attendance, security arrangements would have been more robust, perhaps his friends' lives might not have been put at risk.

"I didn't really do much," she admitted. "Apart from shout at reporters, well, those that hadn't already run a mile from mad Maxwell."

Rick nodded. "It takes a lot to make him angry. When he snaps, it's not a pretty sight."

"Still, it was Walker who did the most," she said reluctantly, perhaps not wanting to give Drake too much credit. "From what I gather, he pulled everyone out of that car before it caught fire. Hana was trapped, he got her out just in time."

Rick sighed. "I gather he helped Maxwell get Jen out first."

"Yeah. Obviously. The baby. I'd have done the same." She smirked. "Although, I heard a rumour that Hana might be pretty high up on Walker's list of priorities at the moment."

Rick raised his eyebrows. He'd spoken very briefly to Drake about developments, and although he had little to share, he still didn't intend to overshare. "I think they might finally have figured out that they could be good together."