Both Astrid and Francesca look at me as though I’m speaking another language.
“What are you talking about, brother?” Francesca asks.
“I…err… Wonder Woman?” I reply uncertainly, my previous confidence in my ability to make a joke vanishing in an instant.
“Frederic,” Mother warns.
Francesca wraps her arm around Astrid. “Don’t listen tohim. I think you look vintage and divine without a hint of Wonder Woman.”
“I didn’t mean to—” I begin only to receive a glare from my sister that silences me.
Well, that’s the last time I’ll try to make a joke.
“You don’t seem to realize how lucky you are,” Francesca says. “Astrid’s a one in a million and I predict you will fall in love with this gorgeous creature before the week is done, and then get married and have oodles of gorgeous babies.”
Love and babies? I swallow. Trust Francesca to be as subtle as a royal pheasant.
Astrid shoots me a shy smile that makes my chest heat.
I adjust my collar in a vain attempt to cool down.
After I introduce Astrid to a seemingly endless stream of Ledonian aristocrats, we’re seated at the long table. Tonight, it’s been decorated with frost blooms, Elkevik’s national flower, entwined with the red rose of Ledonia, to symbolize our union.
Astrid is seated between my father and the Duke of Monterossi. I’m seated directly across from her, next to Lady Letizia Florence and the Finance Minister to my left, which means I have a perfect view of Astrid for the entire dinner. Astrid and her pretty blue pools for eyes. Astrid with her captivating smile.
Astrid, the woman I insulted by calling her Wonder Woman only moments ago.
I should stick to polite formality. Years of experience tells me how to pull it off, no matter what emotions are simmering beneath.
The first course of many is served and the Finance Minister tells me all about his adjustments to his fiscal policy. Ordinarily, I’d be interested in such aconversation. It matters to him and it matters to the country. But tonight I’m finding it surprisingly hard to concentrate on what he’s saying, and I find my eyes sliding to Astrid more often than not.
“She’s really quite charming,” Lady Letizia murmurs at my side.
“Who?” I ask, even though I know exactly who.
“Your Princess, of course.”
Myprincess?
“Ah, yes. Yes, she is,” I agree as I return my attention to my meal.
“You know, you’ve barely stopped looking at her since you sat down.”
I have no defense. It’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been watching how easily she speaks with my father and with the lord at her side. She listens to people’s stories and she treats them like they actually matter. She laughs at their jokes and offers some of her own. She comes across as unencumbered, so light and joyful, like nothing matters in the world other than right here and now.
She needs to enjoy it, because when she’s married to me that sense of freedom, of joy, will be stomped on by the responsibilities we will both hold. Being a member of the Ledonian royal family means you have to follow certain rules and certain ways of doing things. When she becomes my wife, she’ll need to accept that.
Astrid is now making my father and the duke laugh as she tells him a story involving goats. How does shedothat? She only met my father this afternoon, and the duke is usually so boring one is in danger of falling into a coma. Somehow Astrid has them both captivated, and they’re smiling at her as though she’s their favorite daughter.
She’s charming them all.
“She’s utterly gorgeous,” Lady Letizia says, pulling my attention.
I don’t need to ask her who she’s talking about.
“She’s very pretty.”
“And she’s genuine. She’s managed to put that old goat in a good mood.” She nods in Duke of Monterossi’s direction.
