“She is reacting, I am informed, to remarks made about her son and his fiancée. She wanted to set the record straight that Angelique was not the woman kissing you in the photos that emerged some months ago from Paris. Angelique has always been faithful to King Kasim. Is that true?”
“I couldn’t say whether she’s been faithful, but I’m told I was with Trella.”
“You were told?”
“They’re twins.” He shrugged, not bothering to feel awkward discussing his sex life with his grandmother. She had had “The Talk” with him herself when he was an adolescent, explaining in no uncertain terms that royalty did not produce bastards and had offered explicit tips on how to prevent such a thing.
“That particular twin is pregnant.” She used her most imperious tone. “A source intimately connected to her family has stated you were with her at an appropriate time for conception. Did you take precautions?”
“Of course.”
The condom broke. Are you on the pill?
Yes.
“She would have told me if there were consequences.” Tension gathered in the pit of his gut. He didn’t know which one of them he was trying to convince. “Any woman who sets out to trap a man does not hide it for six months. Even if it was an accident, there’s no reason to keep it from me. She might be pregnant, but it’s not mine.”
Her brows went up in regal disdain. “Perhaps you should confirm that.”
As if that hadn’t occurred to him? “Of course,” he said. Dutifully.
“Because it would be a shame if this were to cause any delay in our schedule.” She intended to step down the minute he was married. To Patrizia.
“Understood.”
* * *
It was hot in Innsbruck, despite the elevation and the calendar showing the last days of summer. But maybe the heat was caused by this extra human she was carrying.
Trella lifted her face into the gentle breeze, enjoying the sweet scent of it. She was six months along and felt it, even though she wasn’t showing much. Her mother had possessed the same tall, model-slender figure and had barely shown with twins until the very end. This was only one and with the right clothes, she barely looked pregnant.
She needed that ambiguity. Prince Xavier’s texts had devolved to the two-word kind.
Call me.
She had ignored the latest, received this morning, exactly as she’d ignored every other text and call she’d received from him, the first immediately after he’d met Angelique in Berlin, and most recently after she’d been exposed by her sister’s soon-to-be mother-in-law as the twin in his arms at the ball in Paris.
She had her reasons. That’s what she kept telling herself, even though it was pure emotion that drove her and that emotion was cowardice.
“They’re blocked by a service vehicle,” her guard, Benita, said of their car, lifting her gaze from her phone to continue her scan of the street. “Let’s wait inside.”
Benita was as tall as Trella and had a mannish demeanor when she was on the job. No nonsense, no makeup, hair scraped into a bun, communications terse.
Trella didn’t mind. She wasn’t the most cooperative principal. To her occasional chagrin, she was a high maintenance person in every way. Acknowledging that about herself didn’t stop her from saying, “I’d rather stay out here.”
The day was gorgeous and she would be on bed rest soon. She wanted to enjoy the outside world while she could.
“Killian said—”
“I know. Take extra precautions.” She scoffed at a lot of things, but not security reports. “I spoke to Sadiq. He’s the one who discovered the hack and restored all the firewalls. No one even knows I’m here.”
Except the handful of people inside the building who had just taken selfies with her. They were no doubt posting those as she spoke. She was a celebrity, whether she liked it or not. It was only a matter of minutes before lookie-loos began pulling over, wanting their own photo with a Sauveterre, especially the elusive pregnant one.
“My gut doesn’t like it.”
“Because Killian trains you to be overprotective.”
Benita had tried to cancel this trip as soon as the security bulletin had come through. Trella wasn’t sure why she had insisted on making what amounted to a house call for a joint venture she wasn’t sure she would pursue, but she had.
Ah, she knew why she had come. For starters, her sister had been doing this kind of thing on her behalf for years. It was yet another burden she had placed on her twin and it was her turn to pay it back, now that Angelique was starting her life with Kasim.
Oh, her sister was in love. It was as majestic a sight to behold as the timeless sparkling peaks around them. Trella was deeply happy for her, but so very envious.