Page 54 of A Princess for Christmas

He nodded, and Gabby took over. “You do? The ones here?” When Kai grunted in confirmation, Gabby was off. “Oh my gosh, I love them so much! It’s funny, because I have a snow globe at home of Cinderella’s castle. You know the one from Disney World?” She didn’t wait for an affirmative response. “It’s a castle in the snow, the same as one of yours that I was looking at near the entrance. Right? A castle in the snow? But yours issomuch better.”

Imogen, having come back from serving someone else, leaned her elbows on the bar. “Kai’s our resident artist.” The artist in question rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. He did all the built-in cabinetry in Marie’s suite at the palace. After her mom died and Marie took on more royal duties, she moved into a new set of rooms and did a reno.”

“I just did that as a favor because she asked me personally,” Kai said dismissively.

“How do you two know Marie?” Leo asked, belatedly realizing it was kind of a dumb question. She was the princess of the country, after all. But it seemed like they actuallyknewher.

“We went to school together,” Imogen said.

“You did? Regular public school?” He would have thought she’d have gone to some fancy private school.

“Her mother wanted her to have as normal a childhood as possible. Joséphine was from an old, noble, French family and had gone to posh schools in the States. She rebelled against the idea of Marie being shipped off to grow up away from her family like she had been.”

Huh. That made sense, given what Marie had told him about her mother.

“And the village school is small. There’s only a couple dozen kids in each grade, so all of us know Marie.” She picked up a towel and started drying pint glasses. “We actually used to spend a fair amount of time together.”

“Well, it’s nice to see that she has friends. Normal friends.” Wait. Had that sounded snobby? Maybe the king was rubbing off on him. “No offense. I mean that in the best possible way.”

“None taken,” Imogen said. “But we’re not really friends.”

“Oh.” Leo was more disappointed than he should have been by this piece of news. It was just that he liked the meddling Imogen and the gruff Kai. They seemed like good folks.

She must have sensed his disappointment, because she cocked her head and looked at him without speaking for longer than he was comfortable with. “I wouldn’t say we’renotfriends. We just don’t really see each other much anymore.”

“Maybe I’ll bring her in again before I leave town.”

“We would love that.” She tapped the bar in front of Kai. “Wouldn’t we, Kai?”

Kai grunted.

“We wouldlovethat,” Imogen said again.

Back at the palace, after Gabby was whisked off by Frau Lehman to help sample some of the recipes for Cocoa Fest—apparently they served some old standbys each year but also invented new, elaborate flavors—Leo was approached by the butler. He was carrying a sealed envelope—on a small, silver tray, for crying out loud.

But Leo’s derision disappeared when the man said, “Her Royal Highness asked me to convey this message to you, Mr.Ricci.”

She’d left a note for him. An actual physical note, which he found oddly charming, given that she could have just texted him.

Leo, if you’re not busy, will you come see me in my suite when you get back?

–M

All that talking about Marie at the pub earlier, combined with the bulk of the day spent without her, made him... miss her.Dammit.He couldn’t deny it. And worse, he didn’t even really want to. Denial felt like too much work. That feeling he’d had earlier, of setting aside his cares, of letting the fairy tale of Eldovia take over? He was ready to surrender to it. He was on vacation, after all. So he just let himself be happy to be summoned.

The door to her suite stood ajar, so Leo rapped on it to announce his presence and pushed it open.

And found her in some other guy’s arms.

Wait. No.Other guyimplied things that were not true. Implied territory. A claim where there was none. He ordered himself to unclench his fists.

Marie hadn’t heard him because she and the guy—noother,justguy—were dancing. Music was playing, and they were doing some kind of formal thing he suspected was a waltz. At least, it looked like a Cinderella-at-the-ball sort of dance. The man was older. He had graying hair, wore a suit, and was saying something to Marie that Leo could not make out.

Once more, he had to make a point to relax his fists. He cleared his throat.

“Oh!” Marie tripped over her partner’s foot and pitched forward—toward Leo. “Leo!” she exclaimed after he’d grabbed her and set her on her feet. She was pink. He wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or from the dancing.

She was wearing a dress that looked like it was made out of men’s suit material. It was gray and had a subtle checked pattern to it. It was belted around her waist and fitted snugly until it flared out and came to the middle of her calves.

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