“I’ll tell Malcolm to hold dinner fifteen minutes,” Nathaniel said. “Does that give everyone enough time?”
“Plenty,” Mum said. “Henry, are you coming?”
“Right behind you, love.”
But Stephen remained planted. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll wear what I have on.”
Corina stepped toward him. “I had no idea it was casual night, so don’t look at me like I one-upped you or something.”
“You could’ve asked.”
“You could’ve told me.”
“What was with that business of your first and last time to have dinner with the family?”
She scoffed, shaking her head. “You’re a piece of work. Nothing. Just a fact. Do you think I’ll ever be back here once our marriage is . . . over?” She lost a bit of her bravado, her voice breaking.
“Susanna likes you well enough.” He sighed, easing up on his suspicions and grinning at her. “Five minutes in the royal household, and you’ve turned us upside down.”
“Well, Iama Del Rey.”
Despite himself, he laughed. “For what it’s worth, you look beautiful.”
“I had fun shopping yesterday, visiting my favorite stores.”
“Susanna said the driver couldn’t find the inn.”
“He couldn’t. I had to walk out to the corner to meet him. There he was, waiting, squinting at the stores like nobody’s business, shaking his head. He jumped when I said hello.”
“I’ll have to check it out. Come by this mysterious place.”
She nodded, looking at him, then past him. “It’s a free country.”
“That it is.” Stephen glanced down at his attire. He should ease up, change, be a sport. “Tell you what, I’ll run to my apartment for my dinner clothes. I’m on the north side of the palace. I won’t be long. Tell Susanna to start without me.”
He dashed out, easy on his ankle, and slipped into the utility cart he used to cross the palace grounds, a little bit of a song, a little bit of a melody, skipping across his heart.
FIFTEEN
Here we are, miss.” Malcolm, the butler, passed Corina a red-and-white china cup and saucer, golden-brown tea brimming against a gold rim. “This china set was designed specifically for Her Majesty, Princess Susanna.”
“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” Corina perched on the edge of the couch. “May I ask, whose portrait is that over the fireplace?”
“Queen Anne-Marie as a young woman. She was a most beloved monarch.”
“I remember her from history. She stood for women’s right to vote in the mid-1800s.”
“An original suffragette.” Malcolm stood straight-backed beside the tea cart with his hands behind his back, gazing at the portrait. “The artist did her justice.”
Corina sipped her tea. She was used to opulent mansions and ornate rooms with damask curtains, but this was a royal room. Beautiful with textured walls, high, arching windows, and polished wood.
Yet the stack of newspapers on the floor by a reading chair, the iPad tucked into a chair cushion, and the wide-screen TV above the fireplace told the story of real people. Of a family. Of a home.
“I hear you studied at Knoxton?” Malcolm said.
“Graduate courses. My twin brother was a part of the Joint International Coalition headed by Brighton’s Royal Air Command. When he came to train, I came along to keep him company. He and Stephen—Prince Stephen—were friends.”
Malcolm headed toward the door as voices resounded beyond the living room doors. Corina stood when Nathaniel and Susanna entered first, arm-in-arm, looking very regal. He in a dark, very fine tuxedo. She in a deep-red evening gown.
