“James, just go in there and get this over with.”
Dammit. All right, fine.
Normally, I handled such situations with cordiality, if nothing else. Tonight?
Fuck ’em.
I sat as far away from Valentina as I could. Unfortunately, the table wasn’t that big; with the entire family here, we filled it. Helena sat at my right side, Royce on the other, leaving Valentina and Victor facing us. Not ideal, but with the parents at either end of the table, there wasn’t much I could do about the seating arrangements.
The first course of a light butternut squash soup was served. Quite delicious, and I tried very hard to focus on it and nothing else.
Valentina made that virtually impossible.
She batted her dark eyes at me while cooing, “My, Victor, you could have mentioned how handsome your brother is.”
I just threw up in my soul.
Helena intervened smoothly. “Yes, I’m fortunate in that all of my brothers are handsome. It must be our mother’s beauty shining through.”
Beatrice tittered and smiled at her daughter. “You’re so sweet. I trust you’re comfortable in your rooms, Valentina?”
They made polite chitchat and I eyed the door longingly. I felt relatively sure I could make the hallway before anyone caught me. Dignity could go hang.
It was fine. If she started something, there was a very good carving knife right there in front of me on the meat platter. I could snatch it up and stab her in the heart. My blood tingled with anticipation, fingers twitching. Just a little stabbing, to make her pay for what she’d done to me.
Try as I might to resist, I did steal a few glances at her. Valentina had always favored black, which was in high contrastto her fiery red hair, but apparently her penchant for wearing black had started out younger than I’d realized. No cruel laugh lines had formed around her mouth yet, her skin too young for that. Her oval-shaped face still had hints of baby fat in the cheeks, which her makeup did nothing to disguise.
Strange, how she looked so young but not innocent.
Or was it my own history with her coloring my perceptions?
I felt a poke in my ribs and blinked at Helena. “What?”
“Our father is speaking, pay attention.”
Why? Disassociating seemed a much safer tactic. Resigned, I turned to look at Patrick. “I’m sorry, say again?”
He frowned at me. “Is there something on your mind? You’re strangely distracted tonight.”
I was mentally plotting my exit strategy, so sorry. Either that or murder. Couldn’t decide. “Yes, well, I have a lot on my plate. Was there something…?”
“I thought it would be nice if you perhaps took Princess Valentina on a tour of the city, showed her the projects you’ve been working on.”
Such a blatant showing of his hand. I looked him dead in the eye. “No. I will not entertain her in any capacity. She’s not my guest but Victor’s.”
“Don’t be like that.” Valentina gave me that sickly, honey-sweet smile I loathed. She lifted her napkin to delicately dab at bloodred lips, her kohl-lined eyes batting coquettishly. “I’d love to get to know you better.”
The flirtation was so blatant even Victor frowned. Then he leaned in and hissed something in her ear. She didn’t do more than flick her eyes in his direction before resuming her smile at me.
I suspected someone had spilled the beans and she knew very well Victor wouldn’t get her the throne. Perhaps she’d overheard as Patrick and Beatrice laid into Victor and gotten the score thenand had now switched tactics. Unfortunately for her, I had no intention of playing along.
For some reason, I’d believed many of her behaviors at twenty-one years old were something she’d cultivated as a young adult. This was an erroneous assumption on my part, as she was doing the exact same methods of flirtation, with the same poise, at fifteen. Where had she learned how to act this way?
Valentina was not dissuaded. “I understand you were instrumental in rescuing people and putting the city back to rights after the seawall failed. It’s very impressive considering how new you are to being a prince.”
Victor gave her another glare. “All he did was get the council’s approval.”
“Odd for you to say, considering you failed to do even that in five years,” Helena snapped back. “Also, weallwere hands-on with the rescue effort, Royce included.”
