Waiting by the car to open their car door was Alexis Villiers, Byron’s personal bodyguard. Alexis was not quite as tall as Byron, with collar-length dark hair. She was stern, with a military bearing, and never smiled. Amelia had the feeling she didn’t quite approve of her, but maybe that was just her imagination.

Standing at the car behind was Bhaltair, whom Byron called Bhal and described as head of her personal guard. Bhal was an extraordinary looking human being. Amelia was sure she was over six feet tall and built like a warrior ready for combat, but unlike Alexis always had a nod and a smile for Amelia. Her dirty blond hair was short and messily styled on top, with one strand of long braided hair hanging down. There was something about her that just seemed out of step with this time and place.

Alexis and Bhal, unlike the others, wore long black military-cut leather jackets, with epaulets and silver buttons which Amelia guessed denoted some sort of hierarchy.

Alexis held open the car door, and Byron helped Amelia into the car. When the door closed, she watched Byron talk in earnest fashion to Alexis before walking around to join her in the car. Alexis gave a signal to those in the car behind and got in the front seat.

Lots of Byron’s life was strange if she thought about it for too long, but she chose not to dwell on it. Byron was here, and they were going on holiday.

Byron took her hand and kissed it softly. “Are you ready for an adventure?”

Amelia smiled and nodded enthusiastically. No, none of the strange little things mattered.

* * *

They travelled fifteen minutes out of London to a former Royal Air Force base, now solely used for private planes. Byron’s limo drove through the entrance and straight onto the private runway area. Amelia gasped as she saw a huge airplane sitting on the tarmac. When Byron had mentioned a private plane, she’d imagined a small jet with a few seats, but this was huge full-sized 747. Where the airline’s branding would normally be, along the side and tail, it read Debrek International Banking Group.

Amelia looked at Byron and said, “That’s yours?”

Byron smiled. “It belongs to the family, but I am the head of my family, so yes, it is.”

Although she had known Byron for six months, her life was still largely a mystery to her. Byron never volunteered any information about herself or her family, Amelia always had to ask, and when she did she didn’t get very fulsome answers.

Before Byron suggested this holiday together at her family home in Monaco, she had begun to worry that Byron was married and hiding a wife and family somewhere. She had done as much research as she could on the internet on Byron and her business, but there was virtually nothing. The Debrek International Bank was one of the oldest and most successful private banks in the world. The bank was established in Venice in the fifteenth century, when the aristocratic Debreks settled there, but that was about all she knew.