‘So you’re marrying the Sultan to escape?’
‘In the short term, yes. In the longer term …’ She hesitated and then gave a shrug. ‘The Sultan is a powerful man, and I know he’s turned Zangrar around in the past few years. If anyone can help me solve Rovina’s problems, then it’s him. His father and my father were friends. I just hope that’s enough to persuade him to help.’
‘Your uncle intends to prevent you from becoming Queen? This is the reason you believe he has tried to have you killed?’
It felt completely alien to confide in someone, and she sat for a moment, trying to find the words.
‘I know it, Karim.’ It was easier to talk in the semi-darkness. ‘It started off as a campaign to discredit me with the public. He thought that if he made me look bad enough then no one would want me as ruler. My wild image was orchestrated by him. Starting with those awful photographs of me topless.’
‘The photographs were fake?’
‘No.’ Alexa curled her legs under her. ‘They were real. It was the first and last time in my life that I allowed myself to trust another person. Let’s just say that he was an actor, and he was good at his job. I was so lonely, and to have someone pay me attention …’ She gave a short laugh. ‘Not that that is an excuse for being stupid and gullible, I know.’
‘You were manipulated?’
‘My uncle paid him to be caught in a compromising situation with me. They both did very well out of it. The actor’s career took off, and the photographs were published again and again all over the world as an example of how I’d gone off the rails. Anyway, although the public was shocked, they still supported me. Perhaps they were tolerant because I’d lost my whole family. I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t like William. By then they could see that he had no commitment towards Rovina as a country. He just used his position to enhance his own lifestyle. Either way, he obviously decided he had to work a little harder. And that was when I suddenly became so accident prone.’
‘Your car accidents—’
‘On both occasions, someone tampered with the brakes.’
The breath hissed through his teeth. ‘You are sure?’
‘Yes. I was just angry that I let it happen twice. After that, I stopped driving, or I borrowed cars at short notice.’
‘You didn’t try to escape? Drive over the border?’
‘I was watched all the time. I was lucky if I managed to get beyond the palace walls. When I was little he locked me in.’
Karim muttered something under his breath. ‘And that is why you hate locked doors?’
‘Yes. Silly, really. It’s just a psychological thing. I like to know that I can get out if I want to. He only did it when I was little. As I grew older I was a little harder to contain. He wanted me dead, but if he couldn’t have that then he wanted me where he could see me. It became a game of cat and mouse. I’d disguise myself and find different ways of slipping out.’
‘He always caught you?’
‘He has supporters. Greedy people, like him, who are interested in themselves and not Rovina.’
‘The speedboat accident?’
‘Not an accident.’
With a driven sigh, Karim ran a hand over the back of his neck. ‘The time you were removed unconscious from a nightclub?’
‘I was drugged. I wasn’t even in the nightclub at the time. They staged the photographs, but by then most people just assumed I’d gone off the rails because of my parents’ death. “The rebel princess” they called me.’ She laughed. ‘I sort of grew into the role. I had to, in order to stay alive.’
‘You had no one to protect you?’
‘You have to remember that most people just thought what you thought—that I was a bit of a wild child. No one really understood what my uncle was capable of.’ Alexa felt a lump in her throat. ‘Every time I allowed myself to trust someone, it proved to be a mistake, so I stopped trusting. It was safer for everyone if I just lived my life alone.’
‘Why did you not tell me any of this before now?’ He sounded angry and she couldn’t blame him for that.
He’d just been shot because of her.
‘I did try telling you my uncle was following us.’
‘But you didn’t give me details, did you?’ Karim stretched out a hand and lifted her chin so that she was forced to look at him. ‘You omitted all the facts that would have given your story credibility.’
‘I wanted to tell you,’ Alexa murmured, ‘and several times I almost did. But you have to understand that in my situation not talking is the only thing that keeps you alive. For the past sixteen years, I haven’t been able to trust anyone. I disciplined myself to stay silent, and I can’t suddenly change that.’
Karim let his hand drop, clearly struggling to absorb the enormity of what she was telling him. ‘If William is willing to go to those lengths to keep the throne for himself, then there must have been times when you’ve wondered whether he could have played a part in your father’s death.’
She stared into the semi-darkness. ‘He had my parents killed.’ Somehow the eerie silence of the cave made her statement all the more dramatic.
Then she heard him draw breath. ‘I can see how it would be easy for you to believe that, given the way he has treated you, but—’
‘I was there.’ She turned her head to look at him and in the dim torchlight his arrogant profile looked hard and forbidding. ‘I saw it happen.’
‘You witnessed the explosion that killed your parents?’
‘It was meant to kill me, too. We’d been staying at our country house for the weekend. Just as we were about to leave I remembered that I’d forgotten my doll.’ Her heart-rate trebled, and suddenly her palms felt sweaty and her mouth was dry. This wasn’t something she talked about. She never talked about it. ‘I went back to the house and the car exploded.’
Another long silence followed her shaky declaration, and suddenly Alexa found herself just longing for him to comfort her, as he had during her nightmare, but he sat still as if her words had somehow rendered him immobile.
Finally he spoke. ‘You are sure your uncle was involved?’
‘Well, I had no way of proving it, of course—but, yes, I’m sure. I saw him immediately after the explosion.’ She gave a shiver. ‘I’ll never forget the look on his face, Karim. He wasn’t sad or even shocked. The only time he looked shocked was when they found me and brought me to him. And even though I was so young I just knew that he’d intended for me to die, too.’
‘You were eight years old.’
‘He wanted my whole family dead. He hated my father. Hated him for everything he had. And I was terrified,’ Alexa confessed. ‘To begin with I tried to talk to people, but they just thought I was hysterical. I’d witnessed my parents’ death, after all. Then someone I confided in just disappeared. Although I was young, I realized that talking to anyone was dangerous.’
‘I can’t believe he intended to harm you. You were a child.’
‘But a dangerous child.’ Alexa’s chin lifted. ‘My father’s child. Rovina is in my blood, and my uncle knew it.’
‘You were impossibly young to find yourself so alone.’ Karim shook his head in disbelief. ‘I’m surprised it didn’t break you.’
Alexa was silent for a moment, remembering how terrified and lonely she’d been. ‘There were days when I was desperate for someone to just hold me and tell me that everything was going to be all