Sucking in a deep breath, she reached for the handset, picked it up, and pressed the button to connect. "Good morning."
"Good morning, Catherine, and congratulations! My entire family sends their best wishes to you and your husband." His deep voice contained a bit of laughter. "We won't even be offended we weren't invited."
"Thank you."
"Just remember not to be offended if I don't invite you to my spur of the moment wedding someday."
Catherine laughed. "I won't. We hadn't planned to get married on such short notice, but sometimes these things happen."
"Only in countries with ancient laws and treaties that make our lives more difficult than they already are." She could almost see him lean back in his chair and prop his feet up on his desk. "I'm fairly certain we've eradicated all of those here."
A small half-smile crossed her face. "You might double check that or find a good Royal Historian who can scour records to make certain."
A chuckle came through the line. "Noted."
She hadn't told him that's what happened in Eastern Novigradia, but he could read between the lines. Unless, and until, the general public was told the exact details of the discovery, she wouldn't confirm it to anyone else either.
For the next twenty minutes, they discussed a variety of topics related to their countries and assorted incentives for tourism between the two.
"I'm proud of you, Kinsey.” The informal tone and nickname told her the conversation had switched to personal. "I know you haven't had an easy time of things, but your father has done a great job making sure you're well prepared for what's to come. You've done what you need to do to learn howto do your job and do it well. It sounds like Jacob is just the person to help you. I hope I find someone to do the same one day."
Frederick's father had passed when he was eighteen. Catherine couldn't remember who had been his regent or the exact details, but she knew it hadn't gone well. Like Eastern Novigradia, Southern Santiero required a regent until the new monarch was twenty-five, unless the monarch was already at least twenty-one. Technically, she'd been monarch longer than Frederick, but he was older than her.
"Thanks, Ricky. I appreciate it."
"Your father has been a great help mentoring me a few times," Ricky went on. "I'm grateful for him."
"He'd be glad to hear that. I know he's worried about you from time to time." Catherine leaned forward and stared at a spot on her desk.
A noise came through the ear piece. "I have to get going, Kinsey. It was good to talk to you. I'll talk to you sometime soon."
After exchanging another pleasantry or two, the call disconnected.
For the rest of the morning, Catherine did her best to work on several different projects, though she wasn't as productive as she would have liked on any of them.
Finally, the time came for lunch. She'd already set their lunches on the table and taken her seat. Rather than starting, she scrolled through a few news sites her aides had sent to her.
Once Jacob arrived, he gave her a kiss on the cheek as he had been doing for days.
She took a deep breath to start a conversation about their romantic histories, but chickened out.
Instead, they discussed several different kinds of minutia of no real import.
After Jacob cleaned their dishes off the table and put themback on the cart, he told her he was going to head back to the archives and try to get some work done.
Catherine nodded and let him start to walk toward the side door.
"Wait." She still stared at the table.
Neither said anything for several seconds.
She sucked in another deep breath, this time steeling herself to actually broach the conversation.
Instead, she said something that surprised even herself.
"I want you to kiss me."
9
