Chapter Twenty-Seven
She Is Not A Tattoo Artist
Dree
After Rogue Security ferreted out the bad apples from Monaco’s Secret Service, they were given a severance package to relocate, and surveillance confirmed that they had indeed relocated.
The palace breathed a collective sigh of relief.
That storm, at least, had passed.
Dree could walk around outside the palace walls with friends as they explored shops nearby and looked for wedding ideas with only one or two Rogue Security guys standing guard over her.
She usually went on these excursions with Chiara or other admins she’d poached from the palace staff pool on Chiara’s recommendation. Chiara was the lead wedding manager.
Dree tried not to hyperventilate at the thought of how fast it was approaching.
When they shopped, Chiara meticulously examined fabrics and took cross-referenced notes at Monaco’s haute couture designers’ studios, which were hidden in the upper reaches of the Metropole shopping center or tucked away on back roads with inconspicuous signs. Her explanations about why a particular fabric or clothing cut or bauble were preferred were incoherent gibberish in Dree’s ears, but she wastrying.
If Dree was going to be the Princess of Monaco, she was going to need to understand crap like that. People were going to betaking her picture.
The first time they walked into the Metropole shopping center, Dree was convinced they had accidentally walked into a five-star hotel or maybe some other palace. Golden and mahogany marble formed the floors and walls. Crystal chandeliers blazed above the sweeping grand staircase that led to the upper floors.
Everything in that shopping center was drastically overpriced to a little farm girl from New Mexico, so she decided to believe the numbers on the price tags were in pesos.
There was a shop calledBillionairein that shopping center. It wasobviouswho they were marketing to.
They were, of course, marketing to the upper-middle class tourists who were blowing their vacation budgets. Real billionaires shopped by appointment in designer boutiques or at the private, members-only store at the Monaco Yacht Club.
But Chiara and Dree were shopping in some of the upper-end stores because the princely family of Monaco supported local businesses.
As usual, Dree was fussing over things that she had no control over and didn’t understand. At that moment, the fussed-over thing was yet another type of high-end silk for the bunting that would swag between the private boxes for foreign royalty up front near the altar.
“But surely we can’t afford hundreds of yards of this fabric,” she said to Chiara.
Chiara’s low voice was soothing. “Have you seen the budget for your wedding?”
“No! If I had, I might be able to make better decisions.”
Chiara uttered a completely incomprehensible number.
Dree dropped the raw ivory silk. “Are you serious?”
“And that doesn’t include security, the budget for which is nearly ten times the budget for the actual wedding.”
Dree’s heart fibrillated in her chest, and she grabbed the edge of the elegant table they were standing over to steady herself.“Whatis it all going for?”
Chiara whipped out her oversized computer tablet and swiped open files. “While Monaco has a small army, police force, and Secret Service, we will also be utilizing military from France and Rogue Security. The courtyard of the palace will be arranged thusly, with these security checkpoints for people arriving from the outside and lighter security for people emerging from the palace.”
Dree took the tablet from Chiara’s hands. “There are a whole lot of chairs on this.”
Chiara nodded. “The number we agreed on.”
Dree scrutinized the schematic line drawing. The altar would be placed where the two curving staircases from the upper parapet converged at ground level. Kneelers for her and Maxence would stand in front of it. The priests had enough space to move around back there.
The courtyard around them was sectioned into six roughly equal wedges. A choir and an orchestra were placed in the seats that would have an obstructed view of the wedding because they were partially behind the staircases. The middle four sections were to be filled with chairs and red carpets.
Red circles designated sniper positions.
