“Or something,” Fran muttered as they slowly crept their way up to the front of the line. She saw a collection of people at the top of the small flight of stairs, and her heart sank.
“They’re waiting for us,” she said morosely. “We are going to have to endure a receiving line.” She grimaced as Nicki groaned. “I thought once in a lifetime was going to be enough for that.”
“Uh-huh. You two have entirely the wrong attitude,” Lauren said, opening her clutch to take out a thin compact. She checked her makeup, then critically surveyed both Fran and Nicki. “You both are beautiful, you both have been the source of endless speculation, and you both have been called to make a command performance today. You can totally pull this off, trust me. I’ve had lots of practice.”
He could not believethe circus this supposedly private ball had become.
“Where are they,” he gritted out as he watched the sinuous line of limos snake its way up the drive to the Visitors’ Palace’s front doors. “Since when are we supposed to greet guests without them?”
Beside him, Kristos shrugged. “What’s your problem? Mom wanted to do something to Emmaline’s dress at the last minute, and dad got caught up with Cyril. It’s a dance. You served as primary host for these for the last three months before you—you know. Before.”
“I did?” Ari winced as a sudden stab of pain clamored through his mind. He’d not had one of those flashes in a while, but tonight, every time he turned around something was setting him off. “And I enjoyed it?”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Kristos grinned. “But you didn’t complain about it like a ten-year-old.”
Ari sent him a withering glance. “Why do I feel like you’re rewriting history?”
“Probably because I can.” Kristos’s smile broadened. “In fact, the more you can’t precisely remember, the better my life is going to be, I suspect.” He glanced back to the line of cars coming up the drive, and straightened.
“Okay, this is where it’s going to get a little dicey. Chin up.”
“Dicey how?” Ari pivoted as well and scowled as yet another black limousine coasted to a stop in front of the palace. The back doors swung open, and two attractive girls stepped out, their hair and skin slightly fairer than typical Garronois women, but the thick accents in their bright chatter proclaiming them as natives.
There was no mistaking the next woman to step into the glowing lights of the reception carpet. Edeena Saleri looked resplendent in a ball gown of deep rose pink, the color perfectly setting off her flawless skin and long flowing dark hair. “Remind me again, there was no trouble between us?” Ari said. “I get the most incredible headache every time I see the woman.”
“She’s not the one who gives you a headache,” Kristos said, his voice low enough not to carry. “It’s him.”
The car’s final passenger emerged, and it was all Ari could do not to falter back a step. As it was Kristos widened his stance so that his right leg was right behind him, bracing his hip. “Easy there,” he muttered. “He’s an ass but you defanged him once already.”
“Explain,” Ari said tightly as the three girls fussed over the old man, arranging themselves to his apparent preference—the two younger women in front, himself and Edeena following behind.
“Silas got the idea you should marry Edeena, which was funny since you guys were already friends but not that kind of friends. More the kind who would knock each other into the ocean and throw dirt at each other.”
Ari snorted, and Kristos continued quickly as Silas and his entourage began strolling purposefully up the red carpet. “You let him know you weren’t interested, and neither was she, but there were hard feelings.”
“Edeena?”
“Not her so much. But there’s that curse.”
That was the second time he’d heard of it, but he’d not followed up. “Whatcurse?”
“Caroline and Marguerite, you’re here!” Kristos said, grinning as the two women reached them. “I didn’t think we’d be able to pry you away from the beach.”
“Father insisted,” the first young woman pouted, apparently Caroline. Ari couldn’t place her at first, then she beamed at him, her entire face lighting up. “And we missed you so much, Ari! It’s so much better that you’re not dead.”
Ari caught her embrace before she leveled him, her hair smelling like honeysuckle and roses and another flower he couldn’t quite place. It was the scent of the flowers that awakened his memory most forcefully, but there was no pain here. He simply remembered the girl.
Marguerite was easier. Her eyes dancing, she didn’t hug him but dropped into a proper curtsy, mock-glaring at her sister until Caroline did the same. “Sorry,” Caroline whispered, also with mock chagrin, and both young women dissolved into giggles. They were Kristos’s age, Ari knew, but seeing their laughing, carefree faces made him feel a thousand years old.
The girls shifted to the side and Edeena stepped up, moving slightly ahead of her father. “Ari,” she said, her expression much more tense and maybe a little desperate. Ari stepped toward her and took her outstretched hands in his, drawing them up to his lips in a formal, almost courtly manner.
“Edeena,” he said, allowing his voice to be filled with rich warmth. “You look beautiful, as always.”
The relief that flooded her eyes gratified him. He’d said the right thing. He had no interest in marrying the woman—he knew that to the core of his being—but he could make her way easier tonight under the hawkish glare of her father.
When he turned to Silas, however, Ari nearly blacked out.
“Count Saleri, thank you so much for coming!” Kristos said brightly, his words overloud as Edeena’s grip on Ari’s hands became more urgent. She nearly crushed his finger bones, in fact, the pain clearing his head as a sharp counterpoint to his own fogged thoughts.
