Page 68 of A Royal Kiss & Tell
Jacleen looked with alarm at Leo, then took her brother’s hand and walked uncertainly in the direction he pointed.
Cressidian glared at Leo. “I need money for their keep.”
“More money?” Leo asked, surprised. “I should think what I’ve given you thus far should suffice.”
“You think wrong, Highness. And if you don’t want to pay me fairly for their keep, I think the Weslorian ambassador would be interested in what you are doing.”
Leo arched a brow. “Beg your pardon, but are you extorting me?”
“Call it what you like. I’m just asking for their keep.”
Leo sighed. He looked at the grand house, at the marble floors and gold-plated fixtures, the crystal chandeliers. Mr. Cressidian was a very wealthy man. “I’ll have my secretary arrange a stipend.”
“A hundred pounds per head,” Mr. Cressidian said.
Leo bristled. “They are not cattle, they are human beings.”
Mr. Cressidian shrugged. “All the same to me.”
So now Leo had a castle, could hear his chickens behind the hotel, had added a young boy he’d not expected to his improbable rescue mission, was paying a very wealthy man one hundred pounds for each of them, and half the town was avoiding him altogether. He would have quite a lot of explaining to do when he returned to Helenamar.
But he still had three more women to rescue. That was going to prove to be difficult because all of Leo’s invitations had dried up. Even the gentlemen who had greeted him each day in the lobby of the Clarendon Hotel avoided him now.
He read about the parties happening around him inHoneycutt’s Gazette, parties he could no longer attend.
He was reading about one now, as it happened, and he lowered his paper to look at Josef over the top of it. “Not a single invitation?” he asked again.
“None, Your Highness.”
Leo shifted uncomfortably. There had been a time in his life here that a party wasn’t anything at all to write about in the papers if he didn’t attend it. “What of Hawke?” Leo asked glumly. “Has he responded to my invitation to dine?”
Josef was pointedly silent.
Leo had guessed Beck would be unhappy with what had happened at Arundel, but this was more than he’d anticipated. His friend had disappeared from the earth. But Caroline was still flitting from salon to salon, apparently. According to the gazette, some lady was wearing a dress she’d made, and the sleeves were unique and all the rage now.
Leo was completely obsessed with any mention of Caroline in that gazette. When he wasn’t thinking what to do with his three wards, and how to reach Rasa, he was thinking about her. He even felt unusual pangs of jealousy at the mention of suitors.Bloody hell.What a mess he’d made for himself. He couldn’t even get her brother to respond to his invitation.
He sighed and glanced at his secretary. “Well, Josef, I suppose you might inquire of the hotel if one of my chickens might be made ready for us this evening, as I’ve no place to dine.”
“Ambassador Redbane has asked for a moment, Your Highness. He has some dispatches from Alucia.”
“Oh,” Leo said, perking up a bit. “Is he here?”
“Je.”
“Bring him,” he said, eager to have some company.
Ambassador Redbane, a jovial gentleman, hailed from the southern border of Alucia—the wine region, where people were known for their hospitality.
Redbane greeted Leo enthusiastically, which gave Leo a glimmer of hope that news of him hadn’t reached intoeverycorner. The ambassador had very little for him, mainly a letter from his mother the queen, which said very little. “Not a word from Bas or Eliza?”
Redbane shook his head.
Leo studied him. “Do you know what I think, Redbane? I think we ought to have a party and celebrate my time here in England before it draws to a close.”
For the first time since he’d arrived, Redbane’s smile dimmed. He looked down at his leather pouch in which he carried the official correspondence and winced.
“Oh dear,” Leo said. “What’s that look?”
