Page 54 of My Trojan Horse Majesty

His smile tells me I’m right. “I quickly discovered that while she pretended to like me, she never had eyes for anyone other than Alexei Romanov.”

“Wait,theAlexei Romanov? From the family that was killed in the Russian Revolution. . .” My eyes widen. “Don’t tell me he’s from then, too. The one you had an election against? Are youbothfrom the early nineteen hundreds? He’s the real Alexei Romanov?”

He looks exceedingly annoyed—far more irritated than I looked when I said Katerina. “Alexei beat me back in the nineteen hundreds, but I defeated him earlier this year. The people chosemeas their new ruler.”

“But. . .” I frown. “I still don’t understand how?—”

Two men approach our table, and they aren’t carrying trays of food. When Leonid looks up, he doesn’t look worried. He does, however, look irritated.

“How did you find me?” His eyes flash.

Both men bow their heads. “I’m pleased to see you’re alive and well.” The man turns toward me, bowing his head again. “I’m Boris Yurovsky.”

“And I’m Mikhail Kurakin.” The other man drops his head toward me as well.

“Why are you bowing to me?” I ask. “I’m not—” I shake my head. “I’m nobody.”

Mikhail’s eyes widen. “I’ve never seen His Royal Majesty take a meal with any other person until today.”

Take a meal? It’s clear that English is not his first language, or probably even his second. “Well, you aren’t seeing it today, either. Our food hasn’t arrived yet.”

As if I prompted it to come, two men emerge with platters full of food.

“It’s here now, though,” Leonid says. “You two can wait for us outside.”

“But what if they’re hungry?” I ask.

“I hear there’s a hot dog place around the corner.” His expression is flat.

I laugh. “Corn dogs,” I say. “That was a corn dog place.”

Leonid shrugs. “I don’t care. You can wait for me outside.”

Both men bow and pivot on their heels.

“How many men did you bring?” Leonid asks.

Mikhail pauses, looks over his shoulder, and says, “Only twenty.”

And then they’re gone.

I have a feeling that life is about to get even stranger for me, because not two minutes later, a half-dozen flashes from the corner of the room alert us to the presence of reporters.

“Well, shoot,” I say.

Leonid snorts. “You can say that again.”

Chapter15

Izzy

We do manage to eat a pretty nice dinner. I’m shocked that Leonid’s able to eat both the salmon and the swordfish.

“You’ve had me eating hay for days,” he says. “There’s something to be said for the lean look, but much more of that and I’d move from lean to emaciated.” But it’s clear from the way his eyes sparkle that he’s not actually upset.

Having seen him with his shirt, er, well,allhis clothes off, I can attest to the fact that he doesn’t look like he’s starving. He looked. . .just right.

“Why are your cheeks pink?” He glances around. “Don’t worry about the cameras. My people will make sure none of the photos we don’t approve are used anywhere. And if they are, our hackers are great at shutting things down.”

---