Page 27 of A Princess for Christmas

Marie watched Daniela approach Gabby. She had the dog that had played Toto—and that had been in the taxi the other night—on a leash. They embraced, and soon they were talking easily. Dani didn’t have a child here, either, but she had an ease about her that Marie envied.

Her brooding was cut off by the appearance of Leo by her side.

“There you are. I was starting to wonder if you’d turned into a pumpkin.”

She tried not to smile. She didn’t want to be so easy for him to amuse. “I think it was the carriage that turned into a pumpkin, not Cinderella.”

“Whatever.” He hitched his head toward the center of the gathering, where Gabby and Daniela were still smiling and laughing. “Come on.”

“I don’t want to intrude.”

“Are you kidding? She would murder me in my sleep if she found out you were here and she didn’t get to say hello. Actually, no, she wouldn’t wait for me to fall asleep. She’d just do it here, in cold blood. Do you want my blood on your hands?”

“I do need someone to drive me around this weekend.”

“Follow me.” Leo cut a path for them through the crowd, nodding at the occasional parent. As they passed Dorothy, who washuddling with Glinda the Good Witch, he leaned over and spoke low in Marie’s ear. “Contrary to appearances, Dorothy and Glinda are first-class bullies.”

“Is this the source of the social trouble your sister is having?”

“I think so. She seems to want to be friends with them, but I’m not sure why. They seem awful.”

“Like the Plastics.”

“Like the what?”

“From the movieMean Girls.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

Marie was tickled that she could pull out an American pop culture reference Leo didn’t know. “The only thing to do, really, is to wait it out. Grow up and have your revenge.”

“Is that what you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean Lucrecia von Bachenheim,” he said without hesitation.

She was surprised he remembered her actual name, given that he’d been calling her Lucrecia von Whatever yesterday.

“Well, I’m not sure I really achieved revenge. I guess my revenge is more in my position, but I was born to that, so I can’t really take credit for it.”

“Did Lucrecia von Bachenheim address the United Nations yesterday?”

She was saved from having to respond, because they’d reached Gabby, but she took his point. In fact, his point made her smile to herself.

“I told her you were here but that you wanted to keep things locked down,” Leo whispered.

“Hi!” Gabby whisper-yelled. Then she started to curtsy. It wasimpossibly cute and completely unnecessary, so Marie, before she could overthink it, intercepted her with a hug. See? Shecoulddo this.

“You were wonderful!”

“I can’t believe you came!”

Marie glanced at Leo. It wasn’t like she’d been planning to come.

Leo winked at her. “She said she couldn’t miss it.”

“Gabby, you were so good!” A voice from behind Marie caused her to turn, but not before she’d caught sight of the look on Leo’s face.

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