Page 37 of Cursed

She realized Vince hadn’t responded, however, and she looked up, blinking as she realized his stare had not wavered. “Vince?”

“Don’t get me wrong, Edeena. I want nothing more than to travel with you, anywhere, any way. But if I get you back in the car again with the promise of a road trip off this island and it’s just the two of us, I can’t be responsible for stopping. The next thing you know, you’ll look up and we’ll be all the way to the Grand Canyon, and I still won’t want to let you go.”

His words were calm, almost matter of fact, and of course he was joking, but Edeena couldn’t stop the blush that flared in her cheeks. Vince saved her from having to respond by easing open his door, and she followed suit, smoothing down her dress as he grabbed her new tote bag and shopping bags out of the SUV.

By the time he reached her, handing her a bag, he was once again smiling and professional, and she found herself wondering if that exchange between them had actually been spoken, or if her fantasies were playing out in her mind.

She didn’t have time to consider it any longer, however. The door at the top of the grand staircase burst open and Marguerite came storming out, looking credibly distraught, even for Marguerite.

“Edeena!” she cried, beckoning with her hand. “Thank God, hurry up! Father is on the phone! He seems to think we’re all coming back tomorrow!”

Vince stepped into the house with the bags that Edeena had dropped as well as the ones he’d been carrying, his attention drawn to the back porch where he could hear Edeena’s voice, loud but calm, speaking in a language that sounded a lot like Greek and yet clearly wasn’t. Prudence met him at the door, gesturing him off to the side parlor.

“What happened?” he asked, his mind racing through the possibilities. “Is there a problem with the family?”

Prudence’s lips twisted sharply. “Not exactly,” she said. “Silas was primarily calling to see if Edeena had had a chance to open the package he’d sent her most recently.”

Immediately Vince remembered Rob’s text from the day before. “More files,” he said.

“More files, yes. Files and a letter demanding Edeena’s summary return for her engagement ball.”

“Engagement . . .” Vince looked at Prudence in horror, but not surprise. Nothing that happened with these women anymore would surprise him, he decided. “How is that possible?”

“Apparently, there are more edicts set forth about a woman’s twenty-seventh birthday in Garronia than we first believed. Edeena doesn’t become her father’s property to marry off until after her birthday, but he’s allowed to begin taking steps ten days prior.” Prudence made another face. “Spinsterism was very much frowned on in the early days of Garronia. You were by no means expected to produce an heir out of hand, but by God, you were to be in the right position to do so if the need ever fell to you.”

“And because we’ve reached that window of opportunity . . .”

“He’s exercising his paternal right to be a horrible, odious man. Never mind that he virtually left Edeena to raise her sisters alone except for when he needed them to execute command performances for the king and queen.” She babbled on, fluttering her hands. “The queen is Silas’s cousin by marriage, a lovely woman. Treated the children like her blood relations.”

“But she can’t do anything to stop this?”

“Apparently, no. I’m afraid I’ve let my knowledge of royal conduct lapse, but I contacted another cousin the moment Silas first called—which was ten a.m., by the way. We told him Edeena was out speaking to the real estate agent, which mollified the cretin, but then he called again at eleven, and just now again.”

Vince checked his watch out of habit. “Noon. He would’ve continued calling every hour, wouldn’t he?”

“Most likely. The poor younger sisters are in a state. Neither of them had any idea that the files Edeena was perusing were potential candidates. She always was one to try and hide the truth from them.” Prudence’s lips tightened. “Her poor, sweet mother felt so badly about escaping as often as she did, but she always assumed she’d be able to make it up to the girls, that she’d be there for them as they grew into young women, ready to launch into the world.”

“She didn’t worry about the curse?”

Prudence shook her head. “She didn’t worry about much of anything, I’m afraid. Marguerite takes that from her. And, truth be told, she was a bit of a force of nature. Who’s to say that Ari and Edeena wouldn’t have found their way to each other, had her mother still been alive?”

“Ari,” Vince said gruffly, tamping down the surge of completely inappropriate jealousy at Prudence’s words. “That’s the Crown Prince?”

“Yes. Recently engaged to an American, to the shock and consternation of Silas. I think this entire curse business has quite sent him around the bend.”

Caroline appeared in the doorway, looking wan. Vince realized that there was no more sound of conversation from the other room. “He’s hung up,” she said, but she looked miserable.

“And?” Prudence asked, giving voice to Vince’s own question. He’d rather not descend on Edeena without knowing the worst.

Caro lifted one shoulder. “She simply kept agreeing to whatever he said—yes, yes, yes. I don’t even know what she was agreeing to, but by the end of it he’d stopped shouting.” She glanced at Vince, her expression turning grimmer. “She’s flying out tomorrow though.”

“Tomorrow!” Prudence protested, and she bustled forward past Caroline, her flowing powder blue day dress rustling as she swept into the hall. Caroline gave Vince a small, sad smile.

“She’ll do it, too, no matter what Prudence has about to say. I think she’d meant to all this time.”

“Do what?” Vince asked. Caro turned, beckoning him to follow, and he fell into step with her.

“Edeena has always had it in her head that one of us would need to beat the curse or all of us would be subject to Silas’s madness on the subject for the rest of our lives. She of course took it upon herself to be that person, but though she and Prince Aristotle grew up practically in each other’s back pockets, they didn’t care for each other that way. Still, whenever she would research the viable princely candidates in the world, she’d simply get depressed. So there was no point in pursuing that until she had to. Then Ari died, and the whole country was plunged into mourning—

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