Although it seemed like forever, he’d only been gone an hour when he entered the room, gathered her in his arms and kissed her senseless. “We need to go.”
“Where?”
“Victor’s house. I’ll explain on the way.”
He hailed a transport outside their new hotel. He’d wanted to go back to the Borg Stein Slot, but they claimed to be booked solid. This hotel was nice, though Francine would have been happy to sleep in the vehicle, as long as Raphael was with her.
“How did it go with Claudia?” she asked.
“Surprisingly.”
“What does that mean?”
“She didn’t want to marry me.”
“Why not?”
Raphael told her about Claudia’s offer subsequent secret infertility, Elda’s call during a gun battle and the unexpected contact from Victor’s father.
“That’s quite a lot of news. You were only gone an hour,” she said.
“Seemed like longer.”
“Tell me everything.”
Raphael took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together. “Henry Campion called me as I left Claudia’s home, confirming Roger’s mother Alvina as the culprit who’d tried to kill him. He woke up in the hospital, heard about the exorbitant bounty on Victor’s head and his subsequent disappearance from polite society.”
“Let me guess. He knew you were friends and wanted you to find his son, right?”
Raphael squeezed her hand. “Yes. I explained what had gone on and what we’d done. He was relieved and grateful. He’s also about to do a public conference from his hospital bed, explaining that he is still alive and reveal who tried to kill him and frame his only son.”
“That should instantly revoke the ginormous bounty on Victor’s head. Alvina and her family have all been arrested, including Roger, but he probably didn’t have any active participation in the plan to steal the Campion title from Henry and Victor. I suspect he’ll eventually be let go.”
“Wow. That’s huge.”
“Victor invited us over to celebrate with Elda. Henry has even told Victor he can marry Elda with his blessing.”
Raphael kissed her again. “Now that Victor is safe, we are free to do what we want.”
“It’s not like we haven’t already been doing exactly what we want to do.”
“True, but now we can do it without any disruptions or getting ready to leave the planet for the next meeting to plan our wedding and reception.”
“What aboutyourfamily?”
“What about them?”
“Don’t you want to see them before we leave? Maybe we could meet up? Chat?”
Raphael made a face, but didn’t respond.
“What does that face mean?”
“It means that I don’t want to subject you to my father again. He’s likely to be difficult where you are concerned. He won’t care that Claudia kept her barrenness a secret and turned out to be a bad match. He will simply select the next available royal on his list of appropriate marriage partners for me and begin the haranguing.” Raphael lifted one shoulder, his expression guarded with a hint of pain.
She held up her hand to show him her engagement ring. “Not even if I’m sporting this ring?” Francine didn’t care what his father thought of her. As long as Raphael loved her, she would ignore the older man and any negativity he spouted.
He gave her an endearing smile. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
