Inara swallowed and gave him the truth. ‘Why do you think? Because it’s important to you, and what’s important to you is important to me.’
He said nothing. He just stared at her, his expression utterly impenetrable.
‘You said your reign was your memorial to your family, your legacy,’ Inara went on, needing to say it. ‘And I don’t want to be the weak link in that legacy. I want you to have a queen you can be proud of, because let’s face it... You didn’t exactly choose me. You got stuck with me.’
Some intense emotion flickered over his face, but it was gone before she could name it. He looked away, then abruptly pushed himself off the couch and walked over to one of the long windows that looked out over the formal gardens. He stood there tensely a moment, then said, ‘That’s true. I didn’t choose you. But I wouldn’t say I was “stuck” with you.’ He turned around, his gaze suddenly fierce. ‘You’re not a weak link either. I’m already proud of you.’
The warmth in her chest felt like the first touch of sun after a long, cold winter.
‘But I haven’t done anything except forget people’s names, smash glasses and run away.’
‘You’ve done something.’ His gaze intensified. ‘You’re here. You did your best to learn and, even when it doesn’t quite work, you’re still here and you’re still trying. That’s tenacity, Inara. And resilience and courage. And queens need all of those things.’
The sun rose higher inside her, warming her straight through, thawing something that had been frozen in the centre of her soul.
He meant it. He was proud of what she was doing.
She opened her mouth to thank him, but then he said suddenly, ‘This protocol and etiquette you’re learning is nonsense. And we’re wasting your talents. Numbers are your strength and Aveiras can benefit from it.’ He gave her a narrow look then strode back over to the couch again. ‘I should be introducing you to our finance minister and you and he can talk economics.’
Inara hadn’t done much with economics but it couldn’t be worse than what she was doing now. ‘I thought you needed someone to do all the social engagements and be gracious and talk to people.’
‘Yes, but I can do that. The people stuff is my strength.’ He gave her a sudden brief smile, like a shaft of sunlight glinting through cloud. ‘This is a partnership. We share the load.’
Her heart throbbed in her chest and impulsively she reached out to him. ‘You really mean that?’
He glanced down at her hand then took it in his, threading his fingers through hers. Warmth travelled up her arm and into her heart, making a home for itself. ‘Yes, I mean that.’ He looked at her. ‘You have many skills, Inara. We were just focusing on the wrong ones.’
Her heart warmed. Everything inside her warmed.
‘Maybe that’s what happened with you too,’ she said unthinkingly. ‘Your father should have concentrated on the things you did well, not the things you didn’t.’
He stilled, like a man carved from stone. ‘And what things do I do well?’ The words were so determinedly neutral that she could tell this was important to him. Strange. She hadn’t thought her opinion would matter too much to him.
‘Well, you are good with people. And you’re very protective. You notice things. You’re observant. And you’re very patient. You care about your subjects and your country, all the people you’re responsible for. Their well-being matters to you.’ She took a breath and smiled. ‘You have serious green fingers. You’re also extremely good at kissing—which not many people know about you, I don’t think. Or at least, they’d better not.’ Another pause. ‘You also have a wicked sense of humour and when you smile the whole world stops.’
He stared at her, and it seemed as if he might say something, but he didn’t.
Instead, after a moment, he gently removed his fingers from hers and walked away without a word. Leaving Inara sitting there with the warmth of his touch lingering on her skin, while a cold thread wound through the warmth in her heart.
Cassius dealt with a few last pressing issues then turned his attention to the grand ball he was in the process of organising in order to formally introduce and welcome Inara as Queen. This one was to be even more formal than the one he’d held a couple of weeks earlier, as this one would not only include heads of state from other countries, but an appearance on the balcony of the palace where the people could welcome her.
The balcony appearance was a grand tradition in Aveiras; it had to be done and possibly was both the easiest and the hardest of the formal occasions. Easy because it required nothing but standing there and waving, hard because the Aveiran people weren’t shy when it came to voicing their displeasure if they didn’t like something.
And Cassius wanted them to like Inara. He wanted them to welcome her. She wasn’t the kind of queen his mother had been. She was...different. But over the past week he’d begun to think that different might be a good thing. Since he’d stopped the etiquette and protocol lessons, and all the other nonsense, replacing it instead with meetings with his finance ministry and the various economic branches of his parliament, she’d blossomed.
Money and numbers bored him to tears, but not her. She’d taken to it like a duck to water, involving herself in all aspects of Aveiras’s economy, using her clear, logical brain to work on some of the country’s thorny financial difficulties, and then pointing out several new ways they could fill the treasury. She had a gift not only for numbers, but for money and the financial markets, which would benefit Aveiras considerably.
He’d continued to oversee her progress, and for the past week the only feedback he’d had about her was glowing praise of what a brilliant thinker she was, how perceptive she was when it came to economics and how she had the potential to revolutionise the country’s fiscal policy.
His finance ministers loved her, and he knew he shouldn’t take pride in seeing her walk by him, sometimes deep in conversation with a small group of ministers and advisors, but he did. Especially when it was clear her stylists hadn’t caught her in time and she was dressed in one of her floaty dresses with her hair loose over her shoulders.
Sometimes he’d even stand in the corridor, waiting to see if she’d notice him as she swept by, but most of the time she didn’t. And neither did his ministers. It amused him that they’d be so deep in conversation they didn’t even notice their king. However, he was less than amused when Inara didn’t notice him. Which was new. Most of the time he found the constant attention from people tiring, but apparently that didn’t extend to her.
Cassius frowned as he went over the plans for the ball, not seeing them as his mind drifted once more to his wife. His pretty little fairy of a wife who couldn’t care less about clothes or balls or appearances, who could balance a budget in seconds and who was as hungry for him as he was for her when she came to him every night.
He’d told her a week ago, when he’d found her red-eyed and miserable in one of the formal sitting rooms, that they were a match, and even though he hadn’t thought so initially, he was beginning to see the truth of that now.
When he’d looked at her that day, the feedback about her from his consultants filling his head, he’d seen himself all those years ago trying to sit through endless lessons about things that hadn’t interested him, cudgelling his reluctant brain into retaining dates and names and arcane, pointless protocol. Trying and always failing.