Page 16 of A Royal Kiss & Tell
“Oh dear, I do beg your pardon!” She laughed and smiled so sunnily that, for a moment, Leo forgot she’d bumped into him. “How clumsy of me! I stumbled over my train. Oh!” She jerked the train around and, with one hand, reached behind her, he presumed, to fasten it. “I really do so admire the Alucian gowns, but the trains arebeastlyto wear.”
Once again, she had approached him without the slightest hesitation given that she was interrupting his conversation with Lady Eulalie. Once again, she was smiling and speaking to him as if they were fast friends. It was beyond his comprehension how the sister of a revered English baron could have so little care for proper etiquette. Not that he was devoted to proper etiquette and the rules that governed courtiers in this palace, but on this occasion, to bump into him and interrupt a conversation with another woman was too much. “Lady...” He paused, struggling to recall her name. His memory, he’d noted, was not helped when he overimbibed every night.
“Caroline,” she happily finished for him. “Caroline.Caroline Hawke? I am Lord Hawke’s sister.”
Ah, yes, LadyCaroline. “Yes, of course. Lady Caroline.” He inclined his head. Where was her brother? Better yet, where was the footman with champagne? Really, Hawke ought to keep a closer eye on his sister. Leo intended to ask her to fetch her brother, but she was leaning a bit to her right to see around him, her smile pointed at someone or something else. He realized then that she and Lady Eulalie had made eye contact. Lady Caroline was like a bird hovering, her head darting back and forth trying to get a good look at Lady Eulalie behind him. This was not how this meeting of his future wife was supposed to go, but Leo had neither the energy nor the desire to stop it. He sighed and said, quite reluctantly, “May I introduce you to Lady Eulalie of Wesloria.”
“A Weslorian!” Lady Caroline said with great enthusiasm. “How do youdo? I’ve hardly met a single Weslorian. Yes, of course, there’s your bit of green. I’m surprised I didn’t spot it straightaway. I’m very observant, generally speaking. What an interesting habit it is for all Weslorians to wear a patch of green, isn’t it? I suppose it’s a bit like the Scottish and their tartan. I wish England were so inclined. We should wear ribbons to signify we are English, preferably yellow, as that is the color of happiness, and frankly, it goes well with my skin coloring. But I suppose the color of the ribbon would be left to the queen, wouldn’t it?”
Leo didn’t know what to say to the steady flow of words that came from the lady’s mouth. Neither did Lady Eulalie, as she was staring dumbfoundedly at Lady Caroline. No doubt she’d been raised, like all ladies, to believe that a woman should be demure in the presence of gentlemen and a prince.
“Lady Caroline Hawke of England,” Leo added unnecessarily. “As no doubt you just heard.”
Lady Caroline curtsied. When she did, Leo saw that everyone’s attention had turned to the dais because Bas and Eliza were coming down. The orchestra began to play an Alucian native dance.
“Verypleased to meet you,” Lady Caroline continued, rising from her curtsy. “Your gown, if I may say, isremarkable. I should ask for the name of your modiste, but I will be leaving for England soon, and quite honestly, I think my brother would have my head if I spent as much as a single farthing on another gown.” She laughed gaily, as if her brother’s displeasure at her spending habits was a lark. “Isn’t the ball lovely? The whole day has been such a delight and I’m very much looking forward to dancing. It is my absolute favorite thing. Iadoreit. Do you, Lady Eulalie? Do you, Your Highness?”
Lady Eulalie blinked. “Ah...” Her gaze flicked between Lady Caroline and Leo, as she obviously tried to assess the acquaintance between them.
Leo needed to dispatch this beautiful bother before she set all tongues wagging. But before he could consider how to do that, Lady Caroline said, “I recall you dancing at Kensington, Your Highness. Quite an admirably high kick you’ve got.”
Had he danced with her there? He’d had too much whisky that night, too, as was his unfortunate habit, and he didn’t recall it clearly. Perhaps that explainedwhy she thought they were so familiar. Well. For the second time today, he desired very much to kick his own arse.
“The duke and duchess are starting their dance,” Lady Eulalie said.
Bas and Eliza had taken their places beneath one of the dozen enormous crystal chandeliers in the space the crowd had formed around them. Lady Caroline smiled with delight—and then gasped. “Oh dear, hertrain,” she moaned, and actuallyleanedagainst Leo as if to share a secret. “Do you see? It’s undone on one side. I’m sure she doesn’t know—oh! There is Hollis. Hollis will set it to rights. Hollis takes such good care of her, really. So do I, for that matter. I can’t imagine what she’ll do once we leave her, can you? She said she will have a lady’s maid, but it’s not the same, is it? Alas, we must return to London. I have my many friends, as you know, and Hollis, well...” She looked at Lady Eulalie. “Her father needs her desperately. He’s blind.”
Lady Caroline was astonishing. He hardly knew men as free of spirit and tongue as she was. He had never met a woman who wore her eccentricities with such confidence.
She wasn’t paying any attention to him now, as all eyes had turned to the royal couple. The music began, and Bas smiled encouragingly at Eliza as he led her into the first steps of the dance. Poor Eliza’s fair face turned as red as the cardinal’s robes, and she kept her gaze on Bas’s feet as she tried to match his movements.
“Lord, she’s as awful as I feared,” Lady Caroline said without the slightest compunction. “It’s really not her fault. Either one is born a dancer, or one is not, wouldn’t you agree?” She looked at him for an answer.
Leo said nothing. He would not dare criticize Eliza so openly.
“I’ve known more than one lady who has been given any number of dance lessons and can’t retain the steps,” she continued, and winced apologetically. “Eliza tries very hard, but it’s almost as if she can’t hear the music.”
“Oh dear,” Lady Eulalie said with a smile she could not contain.
Lady Caroline blinked as if she’d just realized what she was saying. “Oh! You mustn’t mind anything I say. If Eliza were standing here, she’d be the first to admit her poor dancing. She finds it rather amusing.”
She should certainly not remark so openly about a royal duchess, and by her given name at that. Evenhewasn’t so irreverent. He felt a strange responsibility to defend his new sister-in-law. “If you would allow, Lady Caroline, I think you meant to sayHer Royal Highness.”
Instead of demurring as he expected, perhaps even apologizing, Lady Caroline’s lovely green eyes rounded impossibly larger. And then she laughed. Chortled, really. “I meantEliza, of course!”
Apparently Leo still had a bit of stodgy princely blood running through his veins, because he was appalled. Eliza was the future queen of Alucia, and Lady Caroline obviously didn’t fully understand that meant that even she was to afford her friend the respect she was due. If she wanted to call the duchess by her given name behind closed doors, that was one thing. But in a public setting? It could not be tolerated, and he believed he was doing Lady Caroline a kindness by intervening. He turned more fully toward her, so that his back was to Lady Eulalie. “I have no wish to embarrass you, Lady Caroline,” he said softly, “but I would have hoped that someone might have explained things to you before now.”
The light of the dozens of candles in the chandeliers above them sparkled in her eyes. “What things?” she asked as her gaze wandered his face and settled, somewhat disconcertingly for Leo, on his mouth.
“Your friend is the future queen of Alucia. As such, you must show her the respect thatallher subjects must show her.” He arched a brow to emphasize that point. Part of him couldn’t believe he was having to say these things. Certainly he had never been one to defend or promote royal decorum. But he’d never been confronted with such an obvious breach of decorum, either. “That would include how you address her...particularlyin public.”
Lady Caroline’s mouth dropped open for a sliver of a moment. And then her eyes narrowed into brilliant slits of ire. “I do beg your pardon,Highness. I understand perfectly that Eliza will be the future queen, but I am her dearest friend and I don’t think it is for you to say what I call her.” One of her feathery brows arched high above the other, daring him to disagree.
Her redress absolutely stunned him. And, on some level, bloody well impressed him.Thatwas some cheek for you. But it could not be tolerated, not in this palace, so he glared down at her so that she would not mistake his displeasure. “You should not address the duchess as anything other thanYour Grace, and you most certainly should notaddressmein this manner.”
Amazingly, she gasped as ifshewere the one who had suffered an insult. She squared off against him and lifted her chin. “Do you call your brotherYour Graceand scrape and bow before him?”
“Of course not. He’s mybrother, and I myself am a royal prince, lest you’ve forgotten.”
