Nando sounded quite pleased with himself.
But Maxim was clenching his jaw with so much force that he feared his molars might crumble. “Not her,” he barked.
Nando’s footsteps faltered, and he shot Maxim a searching look. “Why not?”
“Because you scarcely even know her,” he forced out instead of blurting the embarrassing truth, that he wanted Lady Tansy for himself.
“I’ve spoken with her on several occasions now,” Nando corrected him, frowning. “She is quite intelligent and kind. I have no reason to believe she wouldn’t make an excellent wife.”
Maxim was absurdly jealous of the time his brother had spent in Lady Tansy’s company without his knowledge. What had been said? Had he made her laugh? Ye gods, if he had touched her…
“You cannot dally with the princess’s lady-in-waiting,” he snapped, hating the idea.
“I don’t wish to dally,” his brother countered. “As I said, I think that perhaps the time has come for me to settle down with a wife. It would certainly cause you fewer problems, and I’m of an age that I ought to do so. I thought you’d be happy, brother.”
He was happy with the notion of Nando no longer causing him headaches with married women and irate husbands andevery other nonsensical scrape in which he’d found himself over the years. However, there were hundreds of unattached females at court who would be eminently more suitable choices.
Specifically, who would not beher.
“I am pleased you are expressing a desire to take on more responsibility,” he allowed grudgingly. “However, the lady-in-waiting of my future wife can’t marry a prince of the realm.”
“Why not?” Nando asked, a bit petulantly.
“Because I said so,” he snapped. “Find someone else. Anyone but her.”
Nando stopped marching and spun to face Maxim, his expression one of mulish stubbornness. “You may be the king, but you can’t command me. I’ve a free will. I can court whomever I want.”
“Yes, you may,” he agreed tightly. “Just not her.”
“I’m afraid you’ll be destined for disappointment, then, Your Majesty,” Nando said bitterly. “Because I’ve decided that Lady Tansy is the only woman I want.”
With that pronouncement, Nando stormed away, rather like a petulant lad who had just been denied a favorite toy. Maxim watched him go.
It would seem they found themselves in the same predicament, he thought grimly.
Because Lady Tansy Francis was also the only woman he wanted.
And therein very much lay a problem that was somehow even larger and more frightening than the men who’d wanted him dead.
King Maximilian hadn’t returned.
But another visitor had.
One who had climbed the tree beyond Princess Anastasia’s window just as she did each night when she escaped her confines to roam the city in search of her brother the exiled prince. This visitor was a man who claimed he had come at the directive of Archer Tierney.
One who had a message for her.
Tansy held the hastily scrawled missive in the meager candlelight, her heart leaping into her throat as she read for the third time the news that it contained.
Princess Anastasia had been wounded.
She was being attended by a physician, but her injury had rendered her unable to return this evening. Tansy inferred that meant the princess couldn’t climb the tree. Which meant her injury was significant enough to impair her movement.
“Mr. Tierney says I’m to await your response,” the man whispered, hovering at the periphery of her vision.
Her hands shook as she extracted a fresh sheet of paper and dipped her pen into the inkwell, scratching out her reply.
My loyalty, as always, is to Her Royal Highness. I’ll do my utmost to keep others from discovering her absence, but I recommend three days at most before suspicions rise, though sooner if at all practicable.
