The Runaway Queen

by Sophie Rodger

  He peered into the deserted kitchen, and his heart thumped loudly. Where was she? She could not have just disappeared. Where would she go? The letter was in his pocket, and he had been in the study, so even if she knew about it, she would not have been able to get it.

  The back door to the back terrace appeared to be locked. That could only leave the living room. He forced himself not to run and marched quickly to the room that housed all his books. It was his inner sanctum away from the craziness of the world. It was his favourite room in the house. It was . . . now home to an interloper who sat cross-legged, peering at a book in her hands. From the well-worn look of its spine, he could guess which one it was.

  His breathing slowed. Phew, she was here at least. Here in his favourite chair, sitting cross-legged like she had lived here all her life, and thumbing through his favourite book, which he had had since he was a teenager, as if it were hers. But she was here.

  “The Odyssey—how weirdly appropriate.”

  At his words, she looked up from the book and squinted at him. “Damon, I did not hear you come in. I got bored waiting in the kitchen so I popped in here. I hope you do not mind.”

  Long evening shadows had cast the room in patches of darkness, and he reached up and flicked on a nearby lamp. The gentle click and the warmth of the lamp instantly made him feel lighter, and he dropped into a nearby chair, wriggling into it. Yes, it was soft, but it was too soft.

  “What do you mean by appropriate?” She closed the book, and he sat forward, linking his hands together in front of him.

  “Because Odysseus took seven years to reach his homeland, that’s why.”

  “Only because he had killed Poseidon’s son.”

  “So what’s our crime?”

  “I am not sure I follow.” Her fingers moved slowly over the book, fingering the corners methodically.

  “We are becoming Odysseus. I just got off the phone with the local councilman, and the barriers that were erected along the mountain road that allows people into the village have collapsed and there has been another mini-landslide, so the main road out of Tethys has been blocked again.”

  “The mountain road? But surely . . . ” She stopped and cleared her throat. “There must be other ways of getting back to Arios.”

  He lifted his head slowly. “There are no other main roads out of here. Unless you are prepared to go on horseback through the local farmers’ fields and in the dark, that is?” He nodded slowly at the quick shake of her head. Was it his imagination, or did her hair move? Not just strands of her hair like hair should, but the whole thing. He was probably imaging things thanks to lack of sleep. “I did not think so. Besides, it should be cleared soon so we can be back on our way.”

  “Does this happen a lot here?” She shifted herself forward, holding the book in front of her almost like a shield.

  “The mountains are notorious for these things, but the recent spate of landslides so close together and around the country are due to the heavy rain, which has made it worse.”

  “Oh, I see.” Straight white teeth nibbled slowly on her lower lip, and he sucked in his gut at the small kick he felt in it. Maybe he should leave the house and go and help Marius and his crew. At least that would get him out of the house. Being with her like this, making small conversation, was not the best of ideas. The car had been one thing—it was a necessity. And besides, he had to drive so he could not focus on his feelings and reactions to her. Here, it seemed to be open season.

  “What this village needs is better investment opportunities,” she carried on, and his stomach sank as she rolled the book between her fingers making it into a cylinder. Her voice rose with excitement. “Aphrodite’s Mountain is virtually on the doorstep, and with its rich history and the legend, it can be marketed as part of a couple’s getaway package. After all, Kephelai has a growing tourist industry thanks to the sandy beaches and marine life. Why not push it farther inland as well? What do you think?”

  What did he think? That the peace and quiet and solitude he found in this peaceful mountain village would be wrecked to hell. That’s what he thought.

  He eyed her from under his brows. Her eyes were gleaming like exotic stones, and he could almost see the bubble of hope building in her chest—not that he was looking there. Someone had to bring her back down to reality, and it may as well be him.

  • • •

  “What do I think? I think that it’s an absurd idea.”

  Tia jerked back at the sharpness in his voice, and her fingers stilled around the book.

  “People have chosen to live here because it is away from all the craziness of the tourism industry, which has been promoted in other parts of the country, especially the beaches,” he carried on briskly.

  “Yes but think about how that has improved the GDP of the island, and it is more well known than before,” she cut in. It was one thing to comment on titled people in general, but she would not have him insult Georgios’s initiative that he had worked so hard for. If it were not for him and his tourism push, the soft, golden, sandy beaches and the marine life would not have been known about. Kephelai had thrived because of that.

  “The island was already well known thanks to the production of the orange blossom honey. It is well known that there is something in the soil here that gives it a unique flavour. Gives us our unique selling point as a country. We do not need additional tourism.”

  “That is an archaic view, and I do not think it is fair to tar everyone up here with the same brush. Just because you came up here to hide, it does not mean everyone else has or does not want the same opportunities as the people who live near the coast.”

  Her stomach jumped into her throat at his hissed intake of breath. Nuts, she had not meant to say that. She had not meant to go that far. But now it was out there, and she could not take it back.

  “Hide? Do you think I am hiding up here? Who do you think I am hiding from?” His voice was low, and his lips were pulled into a tight snarl over his teeth.

  She swallowed heavily. “I really do not know. That is your affair. I am thinking of ways to help the island.”

  “Help? I did not realise the island was in trouble,” he carried on softly.

  She tucked a strand of the wig behind her ear. “It is not in trouble per se. Fine, I shall rephrase. I meant that it would improve it. I have looked into this in great detail, and I cannot see how this could fail. I have crunched the numbers, and I have read the reports of migration and immigration. My ideas are sensible and logical and—”

  “And egotistical,” he cut in.

  Huh? Her fingers tightened around the book, and she forced back the desire to throw it at his head. “How can you say that? There is no ego about this. It is all about my . . . ” She stopped quickly and pressed her lips together as the word “people” popped into her brain and fizzled on her tongue like popping candy.

  “My . . . ?” He circled his hand in front of him for her to continue.

  “My, um, wish to help,” she said, the sound wheezing out like a deflated balloon.

  “Is that what you think that is? Reading paperwork on a nation and then deciding what is best? You sound like a politician.”

  “Ha! That is funny. No, I am definitely not a politician!” At least that she could say with complete honesty, wig or no wig. “And I’ll have you know that it was my . . . intention in Arios to find out what people really think of the Kephelai. So there.” Sticking her tongue out at him, she reasoned, while having merits, was not the correct practice for a future queen. “And besides, I would have thought that building the reputation of Kephelai would attract the attention you need to build your stables and get Nico Baros’s attention. Or was I wrong in thinking that was your aspiration? Maybe it was more of a fantasy.”

  A feral grin lit his face, and his gaze held hers steadily. Was it her or did the heat suddenly jump by a few, maybe ten or more, degrees? “You have no idea what my fantasies entail, princess. And as fun as they would be to expla
in, let us just say that while I intend for my stables to be the best they can be, I have other things on my agenda that need to be seen to first. My success will not come at the expense of my fellow countrymen.”

  Other things? “What?” tingled on her tongue, and Tia pressed her lips together more firmly. She should not be interested in those things. She had “other things” too. She had even put them in alphabetical order that she had then numbered as well.

  “This idea is not at the expense of anyone,” she added, dropping her feet to the floor. She needed to stay grounded, and having them tucked under her like a pixie on a flower was not exactly the professional image she was hoping for.

  “Then who would pay for it? Other than the euros that would inevitably flood in thanks to the tourism, of course? Promotion of this takes some kind of financial stimulus other than oxygen and wishful thinking.”

  It will be my money, the money left to me from my maternal grandmother. The words sat in her throat like a rock. God, he was just so . . . grrr! She could not think of a word strong enough. “You know, for a businessman, you are very pessimistic about new ideas.”

  “I am just calling it how I see it, princess. While I may be a businessman in the vein of selling my racers, I would never sell my horses to people who did not deserve them, no matter how much money they offered.”

  “It would not be selling out. It would be modernizing, improving—”

  “Call it what you will, but it all comes down to the same thing. For someone who claims to just work in a gift shop and who is not a politician, you sound very much like one.”

  “Is that meant to be an insult or a compliment, or does this hark back to your dislike and distrust of people with titles? Because, you know, not all politicians have titles.”

  His chair groaned under his weight as he shuffled forward, closing the gap between them. “Take it however you like but I am talking about people in a certain group who use their powers for their own benefit instead of helping those around them. Take the beaches. I used to hang out at the beaches with Jason and his brothers. Then, and correct me if I am wrong, but after Prince Georgios brought his cronies from around the world, suddenly the beaches were famous and crammed.”

  “That was a strong move, and it brought much needed cash flow into the country. Even you cannot deny that,” she cut in. Heat, hotter than the flames of hell, flooded through her at the memory of her brother. She could remember when he had broached the idea to his father and the lead minister. It had been a great one. One worthy of a future king; both of the older men had said so.

  “No, I cannot. But between the orange blossom honey and the beaches, why is there a need to top that? It almost seems like a sick game of competitive chess, only the people of Kephelai are the pieces,” he retaliated.

  A game? Tia shook her head. This was no game. This was her life, and as the queen of the board, it was her job to make sure her team was winning. She just was not sure who her opponent was anymore.

  Chapter 9

  Tia tapped her feet against the kitchen floor and pressed her spoon into the remaining stew in her bowl. Well, dinner had been fun. If you were into the long silences and death stares kind of fun, of course. It had been a difficult choice whether to eat the stew or to throw it over his head, but she did not want to waste Anna’s food. Not that she was doing it much justice now anyway.

  She stared at the empty seat opposite her, her stomach churning. A small part of her wanted to get annoyed at his sudden dash to the phone after it rang, while the other wanted to kiss whoever made the call that took him away from the table.

  How could she be attracted to someone who made her blood boil? It was a question she had been asking herself pretty much since they first met. Maybe it was some kind of mid-twenties crisis. Maybe it was the shock of having actually cancelled her engagement to Antoine. She was pretty sure you actually had to be in a relationship to rebound from it, and what she and Antoine had was not much of a relationship. At least not in the way she had hoped her great romance would be. But that was a teenage dream, and she was no longer that dreamy teenager.

  “So do you want the bad news?”

  At his voice, her thoughts jumped back to the present and she tapped the spoon against the bowl, placing it carefully on the side. She could not let him know what she thought of him, even though the heat from his body as he walked past made her pulse flutter just that little bit faster. “Or?”

  He exhaled heavily. “Or what? The good news? Nope, it’s just bad. That was Marius, and apparently the barriers that had come down have created an even greater mess and have blocked some of the underground pipes, which has created flooding. In short, we are stuck here. Odysseus could not have had it luckier.” He dragged his hand over his head, flicking his gaze over the food, then up to her.

  She pressed her hand over her throat, pushing back the remains of the stew she could barely eat the first time around. “Stuck here? For . . . for how long?” Thee mou! She would be discovered for sure.

  “Marius said they would be working overnight to fix it so we are looking at late tomorrow or even the next day.”

  Tomorrow she could cope with, barely, but the next day . . .

  Tia pushed aside the bowl and dropped her head on the table. She should eat more and keep up her strength but not after that. Pushing her head back up, she smoothed down her hair. “Is there really no other way except . . . ” She raised her palm up as he inhaled quickly and opened his mouth. “The horse through the fields.”

  “I am afraid not, and actually, I lied about the horse.”

  She sniffed loudly and tilted her chin up. “Oh?” It was as clipped as she had intended. Good. He was not the only one put out by this revelation, despite the annoyed frown on his face acting as if he were.

  “It would be a donkey.” He arched an eyebrow, and her fingers itched to pick up the spoon and load it with stew before making it fly in his direction.

  “How very amusing. I can clearly see how much this puts you out of your way, but I am the one who needs to get to Arios. I am the one who is miles from her home, trapped in a house with a stranger. And may I remind you whose fault it is that we are here? Yours!” Her heart was racing as fast as one of her brother’s horses, and she’d never felt more alive.

  “Mine? As magnificent as I am, even I cannot control the weather!”

  “As true as that is—your inability to control the weather, that is, not the magnificent part—you drove us here even after Anna warned us about the helicopters and the landslides. If you had let me get a tow truck as I had intended, we would not be here!”

  “A tow truck as you intended? So you had planned to break down on my land. Is that what you are trying to tell me, Tia? And out of curiosity, how is it that someone who works in a gift shop was able to afford such a brand-new car? Incidentally, you know those cars are so exclusive they are hand built and break down easily.” He had sat back up, and his body filled the whole chair, making him look like a king of all he surveyed. And he was looking directly at her.

  Well, he wasn’t her king. In fact, it was the other way around.

  “Actually, no I didn’t know that, and I got it . . . on credit,” she finished quickly.

  “You got that car on credit?” He shuffled forward and folded his arms in front of him, leaning across the kitchen table. Minutes ago, it had seemed so large, now it seemed tiny. At least, in comparison to him.

  Tia dragged a finger under her T-shirt’s collar. She really should have bought her small bag of clothes instead of relying only on the clothes she knew waited for her at the shop. “Y- yes.”

  He narrowed his eyes at her stutter, and she dropped her finger down, crossed her arms in front of her, and leaned across the table. She had seen her father and Geo mimic the body language of politicians and ministers when they were not getting their own way. It had to be worth a shot. “Besides, Damon, the car breaking is not the point. Why on earth would I want to break down in the first place—
in the middle of a field owned by a total stranger who then insisted I ride a horse back to his farm for help, which FYI I may not have been able to do anyway, before finally insisting I sleep in the barn?”

  He drummed his fingers loudly on the table. “I could have left you in your car till the next day.”

  “That would hardly have been chivalrous of you, and besides, in keeping with our Odysseus theme, even the ancient Greeks had a rule about how to treat guests. The point is, you did not leave me, did you? You insisted on taking me. And circling back to my original point, we are stuck because of you!” she finished, pushing her arms into the table and not into an air punch of victory. Her father would be so proud.

  His lashes lowered a fraction before rising back up. Her toes curled in her socks as his eyes sparked blue flames while they roamed across her face before settling on her lips.

  “Is that right? If I’m not mistaken, isn’t being chivalrous what got us here in the first place?”

  She had been right the first time. The man would even inspire the calmest of people to just go “Grrrr!!!” They were going around in circles and they were getting nowhere, unless you counted on each other’s nerves.

  • • •

  “I will concede that it was . . . thoughtful of you to assist me.”

  Thoughtful. Damon dropped his chin into his chest. Thoughtful was the last word he would use. He peered up, eyeing her from under his lashes. She had tilted her head up again as if she were the queen come to view her subjects. Hell, from the way she was talking, she even sounded as posh as royalty.

  His gaze fell onto her lips, and his blood pulsed faster around his body. How did she do that—make him as angry as a bull and yet as hot as hell? She was not shooting a look that screamed “let’s be friends,” and yet his body’s reaction wanted him to be more. It was madness. And now she was accusing him of deliberately bringing her here with the foreknowledge of getting stuck. Absurd! If anyone had planned anything, it was her.