The Ordinary King

Kate threw up her hands and pointed to his chest, blocking him from running back inside.

‘Frenzy! Simon Reynolds, you are not moving from this terrace until I know what is going on. What is it that you are not telling me?’

‘Oh. Right. Yes. A few weeks ago the principal King of my village invited me to become their Chief of Development—the Ngoryi-Fia—which means that I am now officially a royal prince of the tribal kingdom I call home. It is an amazing honour.’ Simon took one glance at Kate’s shocked face and smiled. ‘My coronation is next Saturday, if you’re still around. It could be your only chance to see a geek being crowned as King.’

‘Prince? Royal? King?’ Kate squawked, and Simon grinned at her and shrugged his shoulders as she pressed one hand to her chest in shock.

‘I know that it is hard to take in. I’m still getting used to the idea myself. We only have one royal family in Britain, while in Ghana …?’ He raised his hands in the air. ‘It is a very different story.’

‘But … how? I mean, when did all this happen?’ Kate spluttered, her head still spinning.

‘A few weeks ago. I only hope the press pick up the real story, about how much the community suffered when the cocoa business failed. The whole region needs as much sponsorship as we can get. Your company has done a brilliant job with the pilot scheme I am running, but there are a dozen villages where they need the same support.’

‘Sponsors, story, prince,’ Kate murmured, and shook her head. ‘Any more shocks you would like to spring on me? Just to get them all out of the way at once, as it were?’

Simon frowned and pretended to think. ‘No, I don’t think there is anything else at the moment. But I wasn’t joking about having to put on a united front for the media. Andy wanted to make sure that the press knew that your company were still going to fund the next phase of the pilot study. Sort of a win/win for both of us. That was the plan. If you are up for it?’

She scowled at him. ‘Oh, I am up for it. If we need to create a united front for the media then I’ll see it through.’

Then she smiled and waved at a group of hotel guests who had wandered onto the terrace. ‘Just as long as you don’t expect me to bow and scrape and call you Prince Simon!’ she hissed under her breath.

‘Not at all. We are old friends, after all,’ he replied without a hint of sarcasm. ‘And you know the sacrifices we made to make this happen.’

Kate lifted her chin. At last he had said something she could relate to.

‘Oh, I never had any doubt that you would get the job done. You made it abundantly clear that was the only thing that you were interested in when you left.’

Simon turned and focused his laser-sharp gaze on her face as she continued to smile at the other people behind his back. His voice was just low enough to make sure that his calm words were for her alone.

‘You know that my father made commitments and promises to the people and the villages. He promised that he would not let them down, and I wasn’t prepared to let all that work go to waste. It was my job to continue the work he had started and make good those promises. And that is what I’ve been doing this last three years, Katie. Building on what he started.’

‘Terrific. Then I look forward to hearing your presentation this afternoon.’

The air was fierce between them, crackling with energy and emotion, and the feeling was so intense that Kate was almost grateful when the new arrival of delegates burst through onto the terrace, filling the space with lively chatter and energy and bringing her down to earth with a smash.

She glanced at her watch, then peeked inside the lounge, which was starting to fill up.

‘You’ll have to excuse me. I need to go through the project timelines before the conference presentation starts.’

A shadow of a smile flashed across Simon’s mouth so fast that anyone else would have missed it. Strange how she remembered that little twitch at the side of his mouth so well. It was like an old friend saying hello.

‘Of course. I was hoping to report back to the tribal elders tonight about how the press events went, so it would be nice to make a start—Miss O’Neill.’

It was the first time he had used her surname. And the way he threw it down to her like a gauntlet across the face shocked her more than she wanted to admit. Three years ago she had been forced to choose between keeping her own promises and helping Simon keep the promises his dead father had made. Now he was getting his own back. And she was going to have to take it because, like it or not, it looked as if Simon Reynolds was her project leader, and her promotion depended on her ability to work with him. One to one.