“No,” Maxence said, swallowing hard because he couldn’t explain.
“Then she got itwrong.When you’re putting someone in undercover, which is essentially what this is, you need to have these things spelled out. When people go undercover as a couple, they take a look at what each other looks like naked, or else they’re given pictures of identifying marks like tattoos. It’s too easy to get them wrong otherwise,and she did.She blew her cover with me, Max, and she blew it almost straight away, withinhours.What’s your intended outcome for this?”
“I can’t talk about it, Arthur.”
“Because someone is blackmailing you? I don’t knowhowthis lovely little farm family from the southwestern US could have anything onyouthat they would force you to marry their daughter, but what else could force you to marry her? If she’s knocked up, so what? Illegitimate children can’t inherit the throne, and you can pay her off like everyone else does. Oh wait, but then she would have seen you naked. I don’t get it, Max.”
“Arthur, I don’t want to talk about it.” Maxence really didn’t.
“I can understand how that whole Flicka situation messed you up, but you don’t have to rush into a marriage just to prove something to the world. If I were dating a girl, and then she dated and married my hypothetical older brother, and then he offed himself and she was instantly married to yet another guy, it would mess me up, too. There’scounselingfor that, Max. There’s nothing wrong with that. It can be done very confidentially.”
Max shook his head in the darkness. “I’m fine with Flicka. We’re friends now. I think we can probably even figure out how to continue working on our charities together. I’m actually better with her now than I have been for years.”
“Then, what is it? Why are you marrying this girl when sheobviouslyhasn’t seen you naked, and she’slyingabout it? If it’s just a saving-herself situation, why lie about it? Are you planning to get Monaco squared away for a few months and then get an annulment and go back to the priesthood?”
“No,” Maxence answered. “I’ve been formally laicized by Pope Vincent de Paul with no obligation to maintain celibacy. That part of my life is over. I don’t think I could go back even if I wanted to.”
“Are you going to divorce her publicly so you can abdicate? Is it just a plan to get out of the princely family? Because it’s really complicated for that.”
“I’m fine with the throne. I don’t plan to abdicate.” And yet, the rest of his life was forever.
“All right, Max. I’m not going to play twenty questions about this. If you ever want to talk to me about it, or anything at all, you know I won’t judge. After the life I’ve led, I cannot imagine judging anyone for anything. I can scramble my plane and be in Monaco within hours, and we’ll talk as long as you need to. But whatever it is, whatever your reason is for doing this,she needs to be better prepared.It’s not fair to let an agent go into the field without proper preparation.”
Maxence nodded in the dark. “Thanks, Arthur. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Arthur’s sigh whooshed out of the dark air. “I know you, Max. I know every skin cell on your back, and I know every bit of trauma you’ve ever gone through. I knowabsolutely everythingabout you. Don’t marry this girl if it’s not the right thing.”
Raw lines on Max’s back itched in the straw.
No, Arthur didn’t know everything about Max.
No one did.
Chapter Nineteen
Leaving
Dree
They stayed in New Mexico with Dree’s parents for another day of eating copious amounts of farm food and hanging out with sheep. Dree had always been the sheep whisperer, and though she had a human-based nursing degree rather than a veterinary one, her sisters took her around to evaluate some sheep that might be doing poorly.
She found an abscess on one that needed to be drained. She would require antibiotics.
A rash on another ewe appeared to be contact dermatitis and should resolve with some mild soap.
The diagnosis for the final five was that they were lazy sheep. They were perfectly healthy but had figured out that lying down meant they would be allowed to sleep in the warm barn.
Dree hadn’t realized how dry her hands had been getting until half the mammals she was hanging out with were secreting lanolin. After just a few hours of working with the sheep, the backs of her hands felt like expensive suede instead of medical glove-chapped fish skin.
The next day, the four of them decamped to the airport, riding in the rental SUV through the high desert, past burned-out shacks and dying farms.
Dree rode in the back seat with Casimir, and she read a paperback she’d picked up at home. The guys talked constantly. Maxence was more comfortable with them than he was with anyone in Monaco, and he laughed as much with them as he had with her in Paris or when they were alone. He drove while Arthur sat in the front passenger seat, reminiscing and gossiping about friends from school.
Casimir slowly inched toward the middle of the seat during the first half-hour of the drive. Then he took his seatbelt off and leaned forward between the bucket seats in front and hung onto Max and Arthur’s shoulders to make sure he was part of the conversation.
After a few minutes, he startled and tapped Dree’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. Do you want to get in here? I can lean back.”
Dree waggled her paperback at him. “I’m good. You guys are having fun. Don’t mind me.”
