washed the cup. Then she’d retreated to her own apartment, leaving the connecting door wide open, and switched the television on, hoping it might drown out the clamour of her own thoughts.
This was wrong. She’d been unable to say conclusively that she was entirely blameless in the business with Martin, but Hugo was different. No part of this was his fault, and yet in defending her he was the one who would feel humiliated.
Nell thought for a long time. When he came back, she’d put a stop to all this.
She heard the front door of his apartment close quietly, and hurried to the connecting door, stopping short at the threshold. When Hugo walked into the sitting room and saw her, he smiled.
Nell imagined that this was the smile he reserved for the most formal of occasions, devoid of any emotion other than the one he wanted to project. ‘It’s done, Nell. I’m going to...get some rest now.’
Normally she would have applauded the sentiment. Now, keeping Hugo awake until he’d told her exactly what had been done, and how it could be unravelled, seemed far more important.
‘What’s done?’
‘Our press officer has stopped the story. We’ve promised a press release on another matter during the next twenty-four hours.’
Things had moved faster than Nell had thought they might. But it still wasn’t irrevocable. ‘We can undo it then. I can find another way.’
He paused for a moment, just long enough for Nell to wonder whether he was reconsidering. But he was just choosing his words. ‘As I said, Nell, this is my battle too, and you don’t have to find another way.’
This was too much. Standing, yards away from each other, trading appropriate conversation. They should be past this by now, but somehow Martin had inveigled his way in between them, and Hugo no longer felt comfortable with the relationship they’d started to build.
It was obvious that Hugo wasn’t going to ask her into the apartment, but she couldn’t say what she wanted to say from the doorway. Nell took the initiative, walking over to the sofa and sitting down.
‘What did your mother mean by the Royal Agreement?’ Hugo had dismissed the idea quickly, but maybe this was an alternative.
He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t apply here. When my parents were first married, they were keen to bring up their family without the constant press attention that my father had when he was young. They made an agreement with the press, and until I was eighteen, the only news stories published about me were official press releases from the palace.’
Nell frowned. That didn’t seem to apply, but Queen Margaux had obviously thought it did. ‘There’s something you’re not telling me.’
‘My mother showed a great deal of foresight in negotiating certain extensions to that protection. My grandmother was allowed privacy during her final illness. And an engaged couple can expect the same privacy.’
An engaged couple?
What was the Queen thinking? Nell swallowed down her own objections to the plan, because it was something, anything, that would provide an alternative to what Hugo was planning to do now.
‘So your mother’s suggesting that...if we got engaged then there would be no difficulty in stopping this and other stories about us.’
‘Yes, that’s exactly what she’s suggesting. But I won’t put you through that...’
‘You make it sound as if you’re committing me to the palace dungeons. It’s not as bad as that, is it?’
The flicker of a smile crossed his face. ‘No. Not quite.’
‘Well, can’t we consider it? I don’t have to actually marry you, do I?’
‘No, you don’t. We’d have to make a show of being together for a few months, but after that we’d break the engagement off quietly... But look, Nell, your career is at stake here. There’s no point in saving it, only to have it ruined by being engaged to me.’
He had a point. Leaving her job and getting engaged to a prince might not look great on her CV, but it wouldn’t be as disastrous as having Martin’s story in the papers, and it wouldn’t hurt Hugo as much as his current plan would.
‘I don’t have to spend all my time just pretending to be engaged, do I? I could do some work with your charity, if that’s okay with you.’ He shook his head and Nell puffed out a breath. ‘This isn’t doing my ego any good, Hugo. Is it that bad to have to pretend you’re engaged to me?’
He laughed suddenly, all his reserve dissolving in his smile. ‘I’d be very honoured to be engaged to you. Even if I was just pretending.’
‘Then stop this nonsense about having to release the private details about your surgery. It’s not necessary, we can find another way.’
* * *
Nell had started to boss him around again and his resolve to keep her at a distance had melted. But at least she didn’t seem so beaten and dejected as she had when she’d recounted how she’d been treated by her last boss.
He’d begged her not to go through with this, and had told her that it was no sacrifice to allow his own medical details to be released to the papers instead, but she’d seen straight through him. So he’d called his mother, hoping that she might regret her mention of the Agreement, and talk some sense into Nell.
Fat chance. His mother had made a comment to the effect that she wished he’d make up his mind, and had gone on to embrace the idea. She appeared at the door of his apartment within minutes, and it seemed that she saw eye to eye with Nell over this compromise solution.
The details were worked out over a glass of wine. Nell insisted on giving up her employment, which seemed only sensible to Hugo. He insisted on her being involved with his work for the clinic as much as possible, so she’d at least have something to show on her CV later on. Even if that hadn’t worked out so well with his real engagement to Anna, it seemed that it could at least be accomplished in the context of a fake engagement.
‘This will work well, Hugo. You’re obviously already good friends.’ His mother’s habit of not leaving before she’d made some private comment about the situation could be trying, even if it did usually elicit her real thoughts.
‘We’re...’ Hugo shrugged. ‘Good friends doesn’t happen in the space of four days.’ Even if it did feel as if he’d known Nell for much, much longer than that.
‘You want to protect her. She wants to protect you.’ His mother turned on her heel, leaving Hugo to think about the implications of her statement.
He was too tired to think about anything very much. Nell cleared away the glasses, and thankfully skipped any examination of the healing incision on his chest. Perhaps she knew that the intimacy would be too much for him to bear tonight, when he was fighting to remain detached, now that they were alone.
He slept deeply, not remembering his dreams. In the morning, a package sent from his mother set the seal on the agreement that had been made last night, which was itself the stuff of crazy dreams.
He tore open the package and, looking inside, found a short
