Page 3 of Falling for the Widowed Prince

Prince Anthony.

“I’m so sorry, sir.” She managed to get the words out without her voice cracking.

He gave her a long look she couldn’t quite interpret. “Quite all right, Ms. Woodward. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

She could tell he was trying to give her a reassuring smile, but he failed miserably. The lines of grief on his face made him look years older than she knew him to be. She hated that her conversation with Liana the night before meant she looked straight into his eyes and noticed the deep, rich brown had been colored with pain.

“The Prime Minister told me you’re doing some research into regents. Have you found anything new?”

Madeleine shook her head. “Not yet, sir. I won’t stop until I do. It’s the least I can do for the queen.”

The last thing she would do for her queen.

The prince stared at her for another second, nodded and walked away without saying anything else.

Madeleine watched his back as he turned the corner.

He would take care of everyone else.

Who would take care of him?

October 25, 2010

Five hours earlier

What exactly didone call a Prince Consort who no longer had a queen?

Dowager Prince? Prince Father?

Neither one seemed right - and he didn’t think there were many precedents in the Western world. Probably not the Eastern either - not with patriarchal societies dominating world history for as long as they had.

Maybe the ancient world.

Did Cleopatra die before her husband?

Was Cleopatra married when she died? Was she ever?

The now-former Prince Consort Anthony of Eastern Novigradia had no idea.

Staring out the window and down at his late wife’s favorite garden maze, he knew such thoughts kept him from a total breakdown.

Well, not the only thing.

Thoughts.

His children.

The people he and the queen both loved.

The new monarch.

So much now rested on the shoulders of a ten-year-old.

So young.

With such a big responsibility.

Anthony continued to hold out hope he could be named regent, protecting his eldest child from outside forces that might seek to influence one way or another.

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