Demetri kept him close to his side and walked down the hall, back toward the way he came but then slipped outside rather than back toward the dancing.
He didn't answer Nell right away but moved to the far end of the wall and smiled at Nell. "Alex was.... someone very special to me. I told you I went to school in Paris. Well I met him there. He was a fellow student." The pained look on his face wouldn't be helped, and he was grateful for just the soft moonlight. "I loved him, and Petrov found out, threatened to tell both our families, make it all public if I didn't break it off and.... and then, Alex died. And that Russian bastard still blackmails me today," he said, lowering his voice to a soft whisper."
He turned slight away from Nell as a tear rolled down his cheek. "And I let him because I am too much of a coward to stop him."