She studied the drawings and annotations Ludwig had made for renovating and repairing the destroyed building. They were very technical and detailed, to the point that she couldn’t understand some comments.
She wasn’t surprised at his knowledge of building and carpentry. He was a good banker and businessman. And it showed. What surprised her however were the number of people who had offered to join them from the surrounding neighborhoods when they announced the project in the newspaper.
She’d had to invest in some new clothes that were better suited to hard work: simple jeans, white T-shirt, and tennis shoes.
Angelica had to admit it. She was excited about getting her hands dirty, being covered in sweat by the end of the day. After what she had done already—which was not much hard work, truly—only overseeing the removal of rubble and checking material prices and buying what was most urgent—she couldn’t wait to see what she could accomplished by a day’s end.
This was unlike her typical routine where she only got to read about how her actions affected people. Now she could actually see it. And of course, she was looking forward to working with Ludwig.
But that would have to wait until tomorrow since on Wednesdays she usually received Valantín for tea and they would go over everything that had happened in Aragon and their next steps for that week. She put a shawl over her shoulders, picked up her bag, and opened her bedroom door, just to be greeted by her mother’s smiling face.
“Are you heading out?” Anchela looked at Angelica expectantly.
Unexpected visits from her mother usually led to a topic of conversation Angelica would rather avoid. She was bending so many rules at the moment, it was hard to know which topic they were going to discuss this time. “Actually, Mamá, I am. Can this wait?”
“Does it have to?” Anchela’s expression showed that she would be miffed if Angelica put her off.
She sighed and took a step backward, gesturing for her mother to enter. “Shall I ring for tea?”
Anchela shook her head and took a seat. “I won’t be here that long.”
Angelica sat down gingerly and folded her hands in her lap. “I’m all ears.”
Anchela studied her daughter for a long moment. “Valantín called me, concerned about what you have been doing these past few days. But I couldn’t allay his worries since I don’t know what you’re up to.”
She decided to skirt her mother’s questions with evasive answers. “Mamá, I want to keep this quiet.” Whatever this is.
“Which is the reason why it should be talked about. Every time you do something you want to keep quiet, it’s always something good, that could help our family.”
Angelica understood where her mother was coming from. Anchela wasn’t a political player, and she wasn’t trying to be exploitative. But her mother understood the precarious position they were in probably better than most. She had lost her husband and her best friend due to political unrest. How much more would she have to lose? Her livelihood? Her children?
Those were thoughts Angelica could not think about. If she did, she would be spun up in the middle of it and be unable to act. And that wasn’t good for anyone.
“Fine, Mamá, but I want you to respect me on this. There’s a reason why I am handling the situation the way I am. And I wish you would allow me to take care of it the way I see fit.”
Anchela tapped the armrest and looked away. “I already know what you are doing. And I can guess why. You cannot believe that anything you do is ever secret.”
“I don’t understand. What are we talking about, Mother?”
Anchela raised an eyebrow. “Your involvement with Ludwig von Kröenenberg.”
This was the part of the conversation Angelica was not going to enjoy. “Mamá, please. He is just helping.”
“And you seriously think I’m going to believe that? Servants have eyes, Angelica. They know that he’s been spending nights with you.”
Well…actually, he’s really only spent one full night here. But that wasn’t an argument she should make since he was moving in with her tonight. “He is sincere in wanting to assist us.”
“What I want to know is how sincere he is about helping my daughter, or if he is only interested in getting in her bed.”
Angelica’s cheeks grew warm and her patience was ending. “Mamá.”
“I need to know how concerned I should be. Do we have another scandal on our hands? Is he going to make an honest woman of you?”
An honest woman of me? “Don’t you mean to ask if he is worthy of marrying me?”
Anchela studied her daughter for a long moment. “I believe that if we are to learn anything from King Angus, it’s that the twenty-first century is a new world, even for us.”
Angelica frowned, not following.
“He was going to marry your sister even before he realized she had royal blood.”
“We can’t know that.” Although, Ludwig might be able to say one way or the other. They were best friends, after all.
“I have my sources. At first, I was unsure. But after thinking about it longer, I find that the idea pleases me.”
“And what idea is that?”
“That the times have changed enough that my children might be allowed the basic rights of human beings.”
Angelica hadn’t expected this and she forgave her mother for not even realizing what she was literally saying. “What are you saying, Mamá?”
“That if you really love this man, make your relationship with him honorable. But, if you do not believe that it’ll last, quit it before someone else finds out.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“But I am.” Anchela dropped her gaze, her expression softening. “I feel as though we are being faced with this kind of challenge. If we do not find a way to change with the times, the times will raise us. Our people, who we care so much about, will replace us with those who care less about them. They’ll bring in those who are easily corruptible.”
Angelica had never viewed things from this angle.
“You have been raised with the single most intent to stand firm in your moral beliefs. I’ve tried to inject in you the ability to do what you felt was right for the Aragon people.”
Valantín too. Angelica knew her mother was speaking about him as well.
“Those who might replace you will not be as formidable as you are.”
Formidable? Angelica didn’t believe anyone saw her as formidable.
Anchela rose to her feet. “I trust you to do the right thing, Angelica, whatever that might be. Your heart will tell you. You do not need me to sway you one way or the other. But,” she said, placing a hand on her daughter’s shoulder, “in the matters of your bed, make the situation honorable.”
Angelica didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just kissed her mother and bid her good day.
41
Angelica had been sitting in her office for hours already when her assistant, Malba, knocked on her door. “Security has just informed me that His Highness, the Grand-Duke Ludwig von Kröenenberg, is at the palace gates asking to see you, Your Royal Highness.”
She looked up but didn’t respond. I don’t have time right now, dammit.
“Should I say you’re too busy, Ma’am?” asked Malba when she didn’t answer immediately.
What can he want? Whatever it was, it would have to be brief. She had a meeting with her brother in fifteen minutes and Valantín was not the type of man to be put off easily. Knowing that if she didn’t allow Ludwig to entry by the normal ways, he would probably invade her rooms using his key to the tunnels, she relented, “I’ll receive him.”
As soon as Ludwig walked through the room, she was overwhelmed with the need to have him. His scent rolled over her, filling her senses. Desire ran through her, almost overwriting her intellectual need to remove him from her office as soon as possible.
He smiled as if seeing her internal struggle but bowed mockingly. “Good morning, Your Royal Highness. I hope you hav
e slept well.”
She rolled her eyes at him.
As soon as the door closed, he took a few steps toward her but remained a formal distance away. “I hope I’m not disturbing you.”
“Of course not, but…” There was absolutely no reason why she couldn’t be honest with him. “Valantín will be here any moment. When he gets here, you’ll have to leave.”
“Of course.” He tipped his head in acknowledgment. “I knew that you would be unable to go to the site today. So, I brought the reports to you.” Then he offered the folder in his hand on her but when she didn’t pick it he put it on her desk. “You’re distracted.”
Talking with her mother had done that. But it wasn’t something she wanted to talk about. “I received some distressing information.”
Before he could ask her what it was, the door opened again and Malba stepped through. “His Majesty, King Valantín, to see Your Royal Highness.”
Angelica pulled her head out of her thoughts and rose, walking around her desk to greet her brother. “Valantín.”
“Afternoon, Sister.” Valantín glanced at Ludwig, but took her hands in his, giving them a squeeze, and leaned down to place a kiss on her cheek. “I did not realize there would be others attending our meeting.”
Angelica closed her eyes and shook her head. “He was just leaving.”
“Yes, I was.”
Valantín held up a hand to stop Ludwig’s progress to the door. “I’m interested in his viewpoint on a few of the matters we need to discuss today.”
She didn’t realize there was anything on their list of talking points for which Ludwig’s opinion might prove useful. This was certainly unexpected—or not, since her mother had stopped by before. “I really think he should leave.”
Valantín shook his head and gestured toward the set of armchairs at the far corner of her office. “Nonsense. Please sit.”
This is going to be disastrous. “I’ll have Malba bring in another setting for tea.”
“Excellent.” His battles with Angelica were usually accompanied by tea, Valantín thought helplessly, as he surveyed the tray that his sister laid out in anticipation of his visit. Cucumber sandwiches with the crust removed. Scones and his favorite apricot marmalade. Once, not so many years ago, he’d enjoyed them all. Now they lay, marshaled in grim rows, testament to an ongoing war.
Whatever this was, Angelica was quite certain there was no way it could be excellent. She requested another setting for tea, which was done in minutes by her silent and ever so efficient assistant who set everything on the table between them and left them alone, closing the door behind her quietly.
Valantín took a sip of tea Angelica handed him before speaking. “Siobhan will be arriving soon, but I think the timing is bad. There’s too much going on at present to risk additional drama in the palace. We’ll need to keep her quietly occupied.”
“I think she is going to be a positive asset to this royal mess we have gotten ourselves into.”
Valantín looked at his stepsister. “I do not see how Siobhan’s presence will make things any better.”
Angelica sipped from her cup. A breeze drifted through the open doors leading to the terrace and she longed to be out there with Ludwig. “She wants to be part of our family and know Aragon. Her presence will be most welcome. She can be seen as a falling star that has been captured by the sky and put in its rightful place.”
Ludwig shifted on the seat next to her. “I can see both sides. Bringing her here, under her newly minted status, could be seen as a way to bridge the gap between the people and your family, but some might see her being used as a pawn to win them over.”
“She is family,” Angelica said flatly, looking at her stepbrother. She was coming to know—and perhaps, even like—her half-sister and she didn’t want Siobhan to be treated like some trick to their people. She belonged here, with them. It was her rightful place, whether the people of Aragon wanted to admit it or not. If she was now a Lektenstaten princess or not. “Long lost family, but family nevertheless.”
“We do not want to use her Angelica,” Valantín said gently. “But some might see it as that, to weaken their anger toward us. If you wish for her to be part of this family, we will need to tread softly on how she is seen.”
“Perhaps she could make a speech then,” Ludwig suggested. “Give her side of the story, how much she loves the country and her new husband. Show her excitement, and people will sway her way. She’s truly sweet and appealing. Only the most cynical won’t love her. And she’s pregnant. She’ll have them eating out of her hand without even trying.”
“I like it,” Valantín stated, giving the other man a slight nod. “Siobhan is going to be well-received. Perhaps we should give the people time to adjust to her new status, allow her to do her own engagements.”
“But what of her safety?” Ludwig asked. “Angus has had enough scares and he will not—”
“She will be protected as we would. And your cousin is welcome to bring his own security,” Valantín said, draining his tea.
His sister—his much younger half-sister—smiled at him. But the expression her eyes reflected wasn’t hope or happiness; it was respect. She liked that Valantín was capable of standing strongly in favor of his own position, but then also able to see another side and change his mind. He didn’t have to be right at any cost, defending a position that no longer warranted it.
“More tea?”
“No, gracias.” Valantín put his tea cup on the table between them, with a suppressed sigh. He could direct the ministers of the kingdom without blinking. He had been facing scathing editorials and the hateful protesters for months. But this quiet room, with the pleasant burbling of the fountain coming through the window. Well, it vanquished him, but not much as his sister. Her lips were compressed in concentration as if she could read in him what he was going to say. He could at most hope to achieve a scrambling, ignominious retreat. But not this time.
“So, Ludwig.” Valantín crossed one ankle over a knee and leaned back. His eyes crossed with Angelica’s—and there it was, that damnable look in her eyes that said that even after all his missteps, his opinion still mattered to her. It made him wish he’d done one thing to deserve it—before he focused on Ludwig. “Do you intend to wed my sister?”
42
Ludwig was taken aback. It wasn’t that he thought Valantín wouldn’t care. Quite the opposite. He just didn’t think he would be so upfront. “We haven’t discussed it.”
“But you are having sex with her.”
“Valantín!” Angelica slammed her hand on the arm of the chair between mortified and angry. “You go too far.”
Valantín spread his hands, looking at his sister.
His clipped question to Ludwig after his blunt declaration struck a wrong cord on Angelica. Because it had never been the tea or the cucumber sandwiches—with or without crust—that had begun this war between them.
It was himself and his lack of wife and heir. He was putting all the pressure on her. And it was not fair. Not fair at all.
“We need to discuss this, and it would be best if we spoke bluntly about it,” Valantín stated in a tone that admitted no refusal. He turned to Angelica. “Don’t you agree?”
Despite the fact that he was her brother and she was the closest flesh and blood that he had, they had never been intimate as friends due to their age difference. When she was born he was already fifteen.
Angelica still remembered the day when she had gathered all her courage to ask her big, handsome, and very brooding brother to have tea with her, Maria, and all their dolls. He had smiled, sat in the minuscule chair, and eaten a cucumber sandwich. He had stayed, even if for just a few minutes, and had asked her how school was going, congratulated her, and told her she should be a nice girl and do what she was told.
At that time, she’d thought that if only she did everything right, when she was a bit older, he would stay longer, would take her riding with him. Perhaps, he would even re
ly on her.
Now she was twenty-one, the age he had been when he had sat with her and Maria. She had done everything right and he still didn’t trust her. “I am a grown woman and quite capable of handling my own personal relationships.”
Valantín nodded, his closed expression not telling Angelica if he was upset—or worse, judging. “I simply need to know what to prepare for. Are we preparing for a wedding? Or should I be preparing to mitigate another scandal?”
At least there was that.
Angelica swallowed the lump in her throat and stared at Ludwig, her hands clasped so hard that her knuckles had turned white.
Ludwig could almost hear Angelica’s thoughts. She had only ever intended for this to be a one-night stand. She hadn’t foreseen that he would find her so endearing. Frankly, neither had he.
Ludwig had a great deal of experience letting women down gently. He did not, however, have any experience discussing his relations with his lovers’ brothers—or fathers, for that matter—especially when that person was a king. Luckily, he had experience dealing with kings. His best friend was one. “We’ve had a few discussions on where we might go with our relationship.”
“That doesn’t sound promising, especially since my dear sister told me she was having an affair with you.” Valantín reached over and grabbed a sandwich, needing the fortitude of the familiar taste. “Are you willing to marry her?”
Am I supposed to ask you officially for her hand in marriage, Your Majesty? Now? “Well…I am. But…”
Ludwig noticed Angelica wincing at the word and strangling the napkin in her hands.
Valantín cocked a brow at him. “But?”
Ludwig had not realized until now how very much her answer did matter; had not realized, until now, how boring and depressing the days, weeks, and months to come would be if she didn’t accept. “Is she?”