The Most Powerful Of Kings - Jackie Ashenden Page 0,36

she and another girl raced around the playground, the two guards loitering at a discreet distance, and determination settled in her heart.

This little girl needed more than that. She was passionate and giving, with a bright, sparky spirit. And though she might be motherless, she wasn’t fatherless. She still had a parent. That was who she needed, not a large contingent of guards and nannies. Not even a stranger like herself to ‘manage’ her behaviour.

No, she needed her father.

Does he even know how to be one?

Emotion coiled inside her, bittersweet and raw, because she suspected she knew the answer to that. Adonis was a mountain and mountains were distant and icy. They protected and yet they sat apart. They did not bother themselves with the people who lived at their base.

Anna turned away from the children playing and glanced behind her, at the mountains, the ones that reached high above Itheus, all rocky crags and sharp edges. She looked at the palace that had been built into the side of them, as sharp and as dark as the king who ruled it. A medieval fortress, closely guarded and well defended.

Like his heart.

Did he even have one? Well, if he did, he needed to open it. For his daughter’s sake. And there probably wasn’t another person in the entire world who would dare demand that he do it. No one but Anna.

Prince Xerxes had his own daughter to look after and the army of servants and guards would never dare challenge the king. But Anna would.

And if it gets you sent home in disgrace?

Then at least she would have tried. Nothing would change if she didn’t try.

The day was such a success that the king relented and allowed Anna to take Ione to the playground a number of times in the days following, and even to the swimming pool in Itheus, rather than the palace’s own pool. But he still refused all requests for Anna to speak to him directly. He was always in meetings or away from the palace, or undertaking public duties or some other thing that meant she couldn’t talk to him.

Even after her ‘probation period’ of two weeks was up, and nothing further was said about her returning home to England, Anna wasn’t granted a personal audience.

So, yes, he was avoiding her. Which was ridiculous, not to mention puzzling. Because why would he? Sure, they’d had sex, but he’d told her to pretend it had never happened and that was exactly what she was doing. Could he not do the same? Or was he genuinely busy?

Either way, it annoyed her. She wasn’t sure how long she would be kept on here, and, although Ione seemed to be less disruptive whenever Anna was around, she was still prone to inappropriate tantrums and reckless behaviour. And Anna thought that wasn’t going to get any better until His Royal Majesty deigned to spend more time with his daughter, though where that would leave Anna herself, she wasn’t sure.

One thing she was sure of: Ione had come to trust her and she wasn’t going to let the little girl down by not at least making an attempt to talk to the king.

No one else could do this. Only her. And it mattered because she didn’t want to see Ione grow up as she had, in the company of distant people who cared for her, but only in a detached way. Who only saw her as a collection of behaviours that needed managing, a future monarch in Ione’s case, and not as an actual person.

However, it wasn’t until nearly four weeks after she’d first taken Ione to the playground that Anna eventually spotted her opportunity.

The king was giving a special function for dignitaries from various European countries and, since it would be the first time he wouldn’t be closeted away and guarded assiduously, she’d have the perfect opportunity to approach him. He could hardly send her away or drag her from the room in front of all his assembled guests—not that she’d interrupt him and demand he speak to her while he was talking to others, of course. She’d somehow get herself into the ball, even though she wouldn’t be invited, and then wait for an opportunity. And there would be one, she was certain of it.

Over the past few weeks she’d amassed a few items of clothing, purchased from the salary the king paid her, but a ballgown wasn’t one of those things. However, Princess Calista came to her aid, finding