The Rogue Security gentlemen were so vigilant about their duties as they returned Maxence and Dree to their palace apartment that they were practically twitchy.
As the proverbial storm was over, Maxence felt it would be unlikely there would be any additional attempt on their lives, and he was looking forward to going to bed and sleeping even though it was not even quite time for supper.
When they arrived at their door, three of Rogue Security’s operators entered and searched the apartment more thoroughly than usual. While four of the bodyguards took up stations outside the door, two more insisted that they would be taking up position inside the apartment for the foreseeable future.
Dree crowded close to Maxence and asked him, muttering, “They’re not going to want to come into the bathroom with me, are they?”
Maxence reassured her that some spaces were indeed private.
Arthur and Casimir had decided to walk with them to their apartment and then invited themselves in for a nightcap. Maxence poured them all a drink, making each of the glasses at least a double. He subtly offered Magnus Jensen a glass of scotch, but Magnus frowned and waved him off while scratching his ear.
Casimir and Arthur collapsed in the two chairs by the coffee table, and Maxence cuddled Dree up under his arm on the couch while they sipped the scotch on their empty stomachs. He should probably order some supper for the four of them.
Dree was rolling her hand from side to side in the fading sunlight from the window, throwing sparkles from the large diamond on her engagement ring on the walls.
Maxence snuggled her against his side more tightly. “You never did tell me whether or not you liked it.”
“It’s beautiful. I’ve never even imagined anything like it.”
“We’ll have to wait a little while. We’ll have the enthronement within a few months, and then we’ll wait for a few months after that for the wedding. We can start planning it anytime we want, of course.”
Dree looked up at him, smiling and with her eyes nearly closed as if she was turning her face to the sun, and she said, “All this is contingent on you getting my daddy’s permission to ask me for my hand in marriage, of course.”
Shock.“I beg your pardon?”
Dree nodded, still smiling smugly. “We have to go to New Mexico so you can get permission to ask me. My daddy would beso madif somebody didn’t ask his permission before proposing to one of his daughters.”
“But—I already proposed. You accepted my proposal.”
“Well,yeah.”
“And it’s not the 1600s,” Maxence reminded her.
Dree raised one eyebrow at him and kept smiling. “Yeah, I know.”
“And that’s horribly patriarchal.”
“Yeah, but, ya know.”
“And I’ma prince.I’m an actual sovereign of a country now.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And you already said yes.”
“Look,youknow I said yes, andIknow I said yes, and I guess all those people standing around us in the throne room and recording it on their cell phones and probably live-streaming it God-knows-wherealsoknow I said yes, but we can’ttellanybody until you ask my daddy.”
Maxence tried to sort some sense out of his thoroughly stunned brain. “You really want me to do this?”
She nodded.
Maxence regarded the chandelier in his apartment, which reminded him of the chandeliers in the throne room and the frescoes painted on the ceiling above them of Alexander the Great’s surrender, one of the most successful conquerors in history whose empire stretched from India to Africa.
Even Alexander the Great had known when to give up.
Prince Maxence said, “I guess we’re going to have to go to New Mexico.”
Arthur’s and Casimir’s heads swiveled toward each other, their expressions turning delighted as the situation dawned on them.
