Page 57

“It was intended for you.”

She grins and starts toward the door.

Elle follows her, moving carefully up the steps. I stay close enough to catch her if she loses her balance, although I don't touch her.

She notices. “You don't have to hover,” she says quietly.

“I am walking up the stairs.”

“Very suspiciously close to me.”

“You were hit by a car yesterday.”

“I remember. I was there.”

I look at her. She looks back with those dark eyes, and I have the ridiculous urge to smile.

Instead, I open the door for her. “After you.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Viktor laughs behind us.

I decide not to ask what he finds so entertaining.

Galina has prepared the suite in the eastern wing, close enough to Anya's rooms that she can visit without crossing the entire house, but far enough from the main family bedrooms to give Elle some privacy.

I have already instructed the staff that she is not to be disturbed unnecessarily.

Anya, naturally, considers this instruction a personal challenge.

By the time I finish a call with Sergei and go upstairs, she has shown Elle her room, introduced her to three stuffed animals, and apparently explained the entire history of her mathematics book.

I find them in the sitting area outside the guest suite.

Anya is sitting cross-legged on the carpet with a notebook open in front of her, while Elle sits in an armchair with her injured leg stretched out on a footstool.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

Anya looks up. “Elle is teaching me Fibonacci numbers.”

I look at Elle.

She smiles. “Your daughter has excellent taste in recreational mathematics.”

“I wasn't aware there was such a thing.”

“There is, but apparently you have been depriving her of it.”

Anya nods solemnly. “Papa, did you know that if you add the two numbers before a number, you get the next one?”

“I didn’t know that was how you intended to spend your afternoon.”

“Elle says maths is everywhere.”

“She's right.”

Elle looks pleased. “See? We agree on something.”