Best Friend To Royal Bride. Annie Claydon

advise on the practical aspects. It’s your vision that matters, and your knowledge of what this community needs.’

      ‘Is that your way of saying that you don’t understand “poor people” and I do?’

      She crooked two fingers to indicate quotation marks. There was a touch of defiance in her tone, and it would be very easy for Alex to say that the thought had never occurred to him.

      ‘I think you understand some of the issues that people who live in this neighbourhood face. I want to formulate policies that are appropriate and which are going to work. If you want to boil that down to understanding poor people then be my guest.’

      She grinned. He hadn’t given her the expected answer, but it had been the right one.

      ‘I think I could help…’

      ‘I don’t want you to help. This is a full partnership and I expect you to tell me what’s wrong with my thinking.’ He could trust Marie to do that. Their friendship was founded on it.

      ‘It’s a big step for me, Alex. I need to think about it.’

      ‘Of course. Take as long as you like.’

      Alex knew that Marie wouldn’t take too long; she was nothing if not decisive. If she said no then that would be the end of it. But if she said yes then maybe, just maybe, she’d save him from being the man his father had wanted him to be and make him into the one he wanted to be.

      By the time she got home Alex’s email was already in her inbox, with a full job description and a detailed brief of his plans for the clinic appended. It took a while to read through it all, and Marie didn’t finish until the early hours. She decided to sleep on it.

      But sleeping on it didn’t help, and neither did extending her usual running route around the park to almost twice the distance. Neither did staring at the wall or surfing the internet.

      She wanted the job—very badly. It would give her a chance to shape policy and to be part of a bold initiative that promised to be a real force in helping people to live fuller and better lives.

      But Alex…

      Before she’d kissed him, before she’d known that he wasn’t who he’d said he was…

      That wasn’t entirely fair. Thinking back, he’d never actually said anything about who he was. If it hadn’t occurred to her to ask if his father was an immeasurably rich king in exile then maybe that was a lapse in imagination on her part.

      But it still felt as if she’d kissed a man she didn’t really know at all and had let herself fall a little in love with him. A future working closely with Alex seemed fraught with the dangerous unknown.

      By Sunday evening she’d distilled it all down. There was no doubt in her mind that this was her dream job, but there were three things she wanted to know from Alex. Could he forget the kiss? Why hadn’t he told her who he was? And what did the clinic really mean to him?

      They were tricky questions. She had to find a way of asking indirectly, and after an hour of scribbling and crossing out she had three questions that might or might not elicit the information she wanted.

      Marie picked up her phone and typed a text.

      Are you still awake? I have some questions.

      Nothing. Maybe he’d taken the evening off and gone out somewhere. Or maybe he was asleep already. As Marie put her phone down on the bed beside her, it rang.

      ‘Hi, Alex…’ She panicked suddenly and her mind went blank.

      ‘Hi. Fire away, then.’

      She’d rather hoped that she might ask by text, as that would give her a chance to carefully edit what she intended to say.

      ‘Um…okay. Have you interviewed anyone else for this post?’ That was the closest she could get to asking about the kiss.

      ‘Nope.’

      Marie rolled her eyes. ‘That’s not much help, so I’m going for a supplementary question. Why not?’

      He chuckled ‘You’re asking if I offered you the job because we’re friends? The answer’s no. I need people around me who I trust and who are the best at what they do. If I wanted to meet up with you I’d call and ask if you were free for lunch.’

      Okay. That sounded promising. Alex had drawn the line between professional and personal, and if he could take the kiss out of the equation then so could she.

      ‘Next?’

      Marie squeezed her eyes closed and recited the next question. ‘That Christmas, at medical school, when we all went home for the holidays, what did you do?’

      He was silent for so long that Marie began to wonder whether he’d hung up on her. She wondered if he knew how much this mattered, and why.

      ‘Okay. I’ll play. I stayed in my flat and watched TV all day.’

      Marie caught her breath. He knew, and he’d answered honestly. ‘You could have come to ours. You just had to say you were on your own.’

      ‘You’re really going to take that route, Marie? You’d have been too proud to let me bring as much as a box of mince pies with me. And you’re wondering why I was too proud to admit that I was going to be on my own?’

      Marie could understand that, even if she was sorry that he’d felt that way.

      ‘Next question. And tell me you’re not going to let me down by making this an easy one.’

      Marie felt her ears start to burn. But that was Alex all over. He could be confrontational, but there was always that note of self-deprecatory laughter in his tone that made it all right.

      ‘Do you think the clinic’s going to save you, Alex?’

      He was silent for a moment.

      ‘Nice one. Those aren’t the words I’d have used… But the inheritance is a responsibility, and I know from bitter experience that it’s the kind of thing that can subsume a person. I want to hold on to who I am. So, yes, I guess I am hoping that the clinic will save me.’

      These were the answers she’d wanted. And there was only one thing more to say.

      ‘It’s a great project, Alex. And, yes, I’d really like to take the job.’