He shifted his weight, and realized with a glance that Francesca was no longer in the room. How long had she been gone? And why hadn’t he noticed her absence before?
“Edeena is…a friend. She’s always been a friend to you, since you were children.” Jasen hesitated. “Her father is a difficult man.”
Ari shook his head. “I don’t remember him at all.”
Jasen snorted. “I’m not surprised. In the way of many fathers, he tried to push the romance between you and Edeena, unwilling to believe that you would not immediately fall for her. And, I suspect, she would have gladly entered into an engagement with you had there been genuine attraction there, if simply to escape her father’s eternal sour mood.” He sighed. “As well as escape the curse, of course.”
Ari blinked. “There’s a curse?” he asked. “On Edeena?”
“The whole lot of them, yes,” the king replied, though it was clear his attention had been diverted. “Something to ask your mother about. A moment.”
He strode across the room and Ari watched him, feeling suddenly helpless in the gears of the machinery he’d unwittingly set in motion. Another man stepped into the breach left by his father. This man, at least, he was beginning to remember in more detail.
“You seriously don’t know half of what’s going on here, do you?” Dimitri asked.
Ari shook his head. “It becomes clearer with each new interruption, but in a word, no.” He glanced at Dimitri. “Where did Francesca go?”
“From the looks of it, not back to her guest room. I think she’s a little overwhelmed by the planning brigade.” He nodded to the queen and Edeena. “She wisely suspected she’d get pulled into ball gown duty.”
“She has friends here though, right? Nicki Clark I’ve met. But there are two others…” he frowned, the names all running together in his head.
“Emmaline Andrews—soon to be Emmaline Andris, you should know.” Dimitri nodded to Kristos. “That’s the woman Edeena was referring to. She showed up the same morning Kristos was finally going to accept his princely duties as your replacement.”
“Finally…” Ari frowned. “But I’d been declared dead months ago.”
“And your brother did his level best to make believe that was not so.” Dimitri shrugged. “He wanted to stay in the military, not to be a prince. And now—assuming you really are fit for returning to that duty, and that you want to—he can return to the GNSF.”
“That’ll make you happy, I suspect.” Ari’s eyes widened as Dimitri glanced sharply to him. “There, you see?” Ari said triumphantly. “That was a memory.”
“It could have been a supposition.”
“No, a memory. You served with Kristos in the GNSF, and you were proud of him. You’ll be glad to have him back.” Ari frowned. “But that’s just one girl. There was a fourth, right?”
Now it was Dimitri’s turn to grimace. “Lauren Grant,” he said.
“Lauren…” Ari hesitated. “That sounds familiar.”
“Grant family hoteliers, she’s the eldest daughter, rich as Midas with a temper to match.”
Now Ari focused more fully on Dimitri. “You normally don’t speak so critically of our guests.” He lifted his brows. “Another memory.”
“I normally don’t,” Dimitri said, and his voice was so dark that Ari instantly knew.
“You’resleepingwith her. This Lauren Grant.” He peered at the man he could believe was his best friend as every new minute passed. “Worse than that. You’ve fallen in love.”
“She’s a menace,” Dimitri muttered, then he met Ari’s gaze with a challenging glance of his own. “You’re one to talk. I leave you alone for one day—one! With a pretty American and by nightfall you have her fleeing from the room to get away from you.” He grinned as Ari’s gaze darted for the door. “Don’t think of leaving yet, either. You need to get Edeena out the door and your mother off to bed before you try to hunt down your Francesca.”
“She could be with her friends by then.”
“Negative,” Dimitri shook his head. “These Americans, they tend to hold their problems close to the vest when they’ve got ‘em. Not one of them is good at sharing their troubles.” He gestured to where Cyril and the others were arguing. “You go deal with them, and I’ll find your little American. With any luck, it’ll be before Edeena does.”
“She’s not my—” but Ari broke off as Dimitri laughed. The captain turned away quickly, but not before Ari could see the sheen of brightness in his eyes. He watched the man retreat through the door, raking through the newly awakened memories he had of Dimitri Korba. There were plenty of them, ranging all the way up to long, hot days training in the sun last summer. There was nothing to do with the crash, though.
For whatever reason, as Francesca had said, Dimitri had not been with him that night. It felt odd, thinking that. He got the feeling his friend never missed an opportunity to take off on an adventure with him.
In this case, of course, it was good he hadn’t. It was one thing that Ari had gone down in that plane. If he’d dragged anyone else with him, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to forgive himself.
Ari squared his shoulders, striding over to join Cyril, Jasen and Stefan before his mother and Edeena realized he remained in the room. Bad enough that he would have to navigate the tangled web of politics as he worked his way back into the family business. To have to endure the details of planning a royal ball would be enough to send him back into the streets.
