The King's Convenient Bride / The Illegitimate Prince's Baby. Michelle Celmer
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“You’re making it? Well, I’ll be sure to bring a bottle of antacid, too. And perhaps I should put the palace physician on high alert as well. Just in case.”
Pleased that she had gotten her way, she ignored the jab. Besides, she knew as well as he did that the insult was unfounded. She had trained at one of the most prestigious culinary academies in all of Europe, and was an accomplished, gifted chef. It was a passion that had been vehemently discouraged by their parents. But Sophie somehow always managed to get what she wanted.
It both annoyed and impressed him.
“I’ll see you both tomorrow then,” she said.
He kept his face bland. “I can hardly contain my excitement.”
She only smiled.
“Is that it?” he asked.
“I suppose you noticed Madeline on Monday.”
The mystery woman Hannah had asked him about. Of course he’d noticed her. She would have been hard to miss, staring at them the way she had been. “What about her?”
“It would seem she’s back to her old tricks.”
“Forgive me if don’t shudder with fear.” Madeline was of no consequence to him or Hannah, which was why he hadn’t felt the need to explain who she was. She was nobody.
“You know how she can be. Anything to get attention.”
“And confronting her would only feed that need. She’ll get bored and find someone else to antagonize.”
“She could do some damage in the meantime.”
He seriously doubted that. “Is there anything else you needed?”
Sophie shook her head, obviously exasperated with him. “Does your fiancée have the slightest clue how difficult you can be?”
He didn’t respond.
“So, I’ll see you both tomorrow evening?”
“We’ll be there.”
She flashed him one of those cryptic, I-know-something-you-don’t smiles. One that made him uneasy. Then she was gone.
Forget Madeline. Sophie was the one he should be worried about. This whole dinner scenario seemed a bit too…domestic for her taste. Why did he suspect that there was more to this than she was letting on?
Hannah had just finished a quiet dinner alone in her suite, a meal she’d had little appetite for, when Elizabeth knocked on the door.
“You should have left hours ago,” Hannah scolded her. She may have been a palace employee, but for heaven’s sake, she needed a life of her own outside of work. It seemed as though she was always there.
“I was just finishing up a few things,” Elizabeth told her. “I was on my way out when a call came in for you.”
“Who is it?” She was hoping maybe a friend from back home. God knows she could use a friendly voice right now.
“It’s your mother,” Elizabeth said, then added, “Again.”
This was the fourth call since Hannah left Seattle. Hadn’t her mother gotten the message that Hannah wasn’t ready to talk to her? She was still too bitter and angry. It was very possible, if Hannah talked to her in her current state of mind, she might say something she would later regret. Like she had the last time they spoke.
“Tell her I’ll call her back.”
“She said it was urgent.”
She would say just about anything to get Hannah’s attention. To get her to come to the phone.
“She sounded upset,” Elizabeth added.
Hannah felt a slight jerk of alarm. She remembered the last urgent call from her mother. She had been in the university library studying for exams, so engrossed she almost didn’t answer her phone, when it buzzed in her pocket. And when she heard her mother’s distraught voice, her heart sank.
Sweetheart, you need to come home. Daddy was in an accident….
But he was gone now, and she couldn’t imagine anything urgent enough to warrant a return call. “I’ll call her tomorrow.”
Elizabeth didn’t say a word, but she had this look. Not quite disapproval, because a palace employee would never be so bold as to disapprove of anything a royal did or said. It was more the lack of emotion that was giving her away. It was obvious she was trying very hard not to react. Or maybe it was Hannah’s own guilty conscience nagging at her. Either way, Hannah knew exactly what she was thinking.
And she was right, of course. “I know, that’s what I said yesterday. So technically, today is tomorrow. Right?”
“That is true,” Elizabeth agreed.
“You think I should call her, don’t you?”
“It’s not my place to pass judgment.”
Maybe not, but Hannah was pretty sure that’s what she was thinking. And the truth was, her mother wasn’t likely to stop calling. Not until Hannah gave her the opportunity to apologize for her inappropriate behavior these past few months.
Maybe it would be best, to ease her mother’s guilt and Hannah’s, if they cleared the air. And besides, it was what Daddy would have wanted. Hannah had always been more like him than her mother. So many times her father had told her, “Your mother isn’t like us, Hannah. She’s fragile. You just have to be patient.”
But sometimes her mother could be so insecure and vulnerable it had been difficult even for her. Not that she was a bad person. She needed constant reassurance that she was loved and appreciated. At times her neediness was utterly exhausting.
“My lady?” Elizabeth was watching her expectantly.
Hannah sighed, knowing what she had to do. Knowing that, for her father’s sake, she had to settle this. “I’ll talk to her.”
“She’s on line two,” Elizabeth said. Then, ever the proper assistant, nodded and slipped quietly from the room, shutting the door behind her.
Hannah walked over to the phone, hesitating a minute before she finally lifted it off the cradle and pressed the button for line two. “Hello, Mother.”
“Oh, Hannah, honey! It’s so good to hear your voice!”
Hannah wished she could say the same, but right now the sound of her mother’s voice, that syrupy sweetness, was just irritating. “How have you been?”
“Oh, fine. But I’ve missed you so much. I was afraid you wouldn’t come to the phone again.”
“You said it was urgent.”
“How have you been? How do you like it there?”
“Everything is fine here.” If she discounted the fact that her fiancé had taken off the minute she arrived. Or that he refused to share dinner with her.
“I’ve been very busy,” she told her mother.
“Is the palace beautiful? And is Phillip as gorgeous as I remember?”
She was stalling. Hannah wished she would just say what she had to say and get it over with. “The palace and Phillip are exactly the same as the last time you saw them. Now, I’d like you to tell me what was so urgent.”
“Can’t I have a pleasant conversation with my daughter?”
Sadly, no. She had shot any chance of that all to hell with her selfishness. “It’s late, and I’m tired.”
“Okay, okay.” She bubbled with phony laughter. “I’ll get to the point.”
Thank goodness. Just apologize and get it over with already.