gave her a strained smile and Marie regretted the interruption. Whatever had happened a hundred and ten years ago must be more important than it sounded.
‘You said start at the beginning.’
‘I did. Sorry…’ She waved him on and there was silence for a moment. Then he spoke again.
‘A hundred and ten years ago the King of Belkraine was deposed and his family fled to London. They brought with them a lot of very valuable jewels, the title deeds to property in this country, and what was literally a king’s ransom in investments. His eldest son was my grandfather.’
Marie stared at him.
She’d thought that she and Alex had shared most of their secrets over the years but he’d obviously been holding back. Marie wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that.
‘So you’re…a prince?’
He gave her a pained look. ‘Belkraine no longer exists as a separate country. I’m not sure how you can be a prince of something that doesn’t exist.’
He was missing the point. The role of many monarchies had changed in the last hundred years, but privilege and money was something that didn’t change.
‘A prince in exile, then?’
‘Strictly speaking a king…in exile. My father died in June last year.’
‘Alex, I’m so sorry.’
‘Thank you. But it’s… We’d been estranged for some years. Ever since I first went to medical school.’
‘But—’
Marie bit her tongue. He’d never spoken much about his family, but she knew that he was an only child and that his parents lived in a big house in the country somewhere. There hadn’t ever been any mention of an estrangement, and Marie had always assumed he came from a normal happy family.
Now wasn’t the time to mention that this was what Alex had allowed everyone to believe. He had no chance to make things right with his father now.
‘That must have hurt you a great deal.’
He shrugged. ‘That door closed a long time ago. I came to terms with it.’
There were too many questions, piling up on top of each other like grains of sand in an hourglass. What was Alex doing here? Why had he never said anything about this before?
Maybe she should just stay silent and listen.
Alex glanced at her uncertainly and Marie motioned for him to keep talking.
‘I didn’t expect that my father would leave me anything, let alone his whole estate. But he did. I find that I have more money than I know what to do with.’
‘How much…?’
It wasn’t good manners to ask, but money had never bothered Alex all that much. If this was a life-changing amount, then that was both good news and bad. Good, because he could do the things he’d always wanted to. Bad, because he seemed so burdened by it.
‘If you include all the assets and property then it runs into something more than two billion. Less than three.’
She stared at him. That was the kind of number that Marie would never get her head around, so it was probably better not to even try.
‘And this… You’ve done all this?’ She waved her finger in a wild circle.
‘My ancestors viewed wealth as a way to gain power and more wealth. I want to spend the money a little more wisely than that.’
It was worthy. Altruistic. Right now it was about all she recognised of the Alex that she knew. The smiling, carefree soul who was in the habit of taking one day at a time had gone.
‘Wait a minute…’ A thought struck her. Had Alex been hiding all this in plain sight? ‘Alex King?’
‘Dr Alex King is who I really am. But my birth certificate says Rudolf Aloysius Alexander König.’
Suddenly she couldn’t bear it. She hadn’t even known his name? The man she’d thought of as her friend, whom she’d dared to kiss and had loved every minute of it…
Marie sprang from her seat, marching over to the window and staring out at the street. Maybe that would anchor her down, keep her feet firmly on the ground, and then she could begin to address the question of whether this really was Alex any more, or just a stranger who looked like him.
Marie wasn’t taking this well. It was almost a relief. The small number of other people he’d had to tell about this had congratulated him on his sudden and immense wealth and started to treat him as if he was suddenly something different. It was typical of Marie that her objection to the whole thing wasn’t what he’d expected. She brushed aside the money and his royal status as if they didn’t exist. All she cared about was that she hadn’t known his name.
‘King is a translation of König. Alex is my middle name…’ He ventured an explanation.
She shook her head. ‘I thought I knew you, Alex…’
There was no point in telling her that a lot of people changed their names, or that a lot of people came from unhappy families. Marie was hurt that he’d never told her about any of it before. Maybe if she’d known his father she would have understood a little better.
‘Rudolf König was the name my father gave to me to remind everyone who my family was. I wanted to make my own way in life, Marie, and to be measured by what I’ve done.’
‘Yeah. I see that.’ She was staring fixedly out of the window and didn’t turn to face him.
‘Then…?’
‘Give me a minute. I’m processing.’
Okay. Processing didn’t sound so terrible. If Marie could come to any conclusions then he’d like to hear them, because all he’d felt since he’d heard about his father’s will was that he was being dragged back into a life from which he’d previously torn himself. Money and status had soured his parents’ lives, and it already felt like it was slowly squeezing all the joy out of his.
She turned slowly, leaning back against the windowsill and regarding him thoughtfully.
‘So…it’s still Alex, is it?’ Not Your Majesty…?’
‘You don’t need to rub it in, Marie. Who the hell else do you think I know how to be?’
Her face softened and she almost smiled. It was one step towards the warmth that he craved.
‘Sorry.’ She pressed her lips together in thought. ‘Who knows about this?’
‘A few people that I know from school. No one here. But it’s not a secret. I just don’t talk about it.’
She
