Page 25 of Prince

Maxence smirked at Alexandre. Dree tried not to stare at Max because he got hotter when he smirked. Max said, “I heard you had gone to all the trouble to make a dynastic marriage, getting proper permission and finding a Catholic priest and everything. I wondered if you’d changed your mind about your place in the family.”

“Never,”Alexandre scoffed. “It never occurred to me that Pierre would do anything other than grab the throne with both hands. If Uncle Rainier had refused his permission, I would’ve gone ahead and made a morganatic marriage with Georgiana. I just wanted to keep my title and my house, but she’s worth more than a house in Monaco.”

Max laughed at Alexandre. “‘True love is worth more than a house in Monaco.’ We should put that on mugs and sell them in the palace gift shop.”

The vocabulary was beyond Dree. She wrote them on the pad, trying not to frown.Duc and Duchess = dynasty not morganananatic marriage, WTF.

Georgie whispered to her, “Dynastic means it’s royally legal. Morganatic means that I’m not royal, which is the case, but the only thing that matters is that his uncle said it was dynastic. Children of morganatic marriages are not quite legitimate, and they can’t inherit the title and money.”

Dree nodded. “Oh, okay.”

Georgie said, “I was pre-law at Southwestern State. Contracts are fun. All these stupid details just light my fire.”

Max looked up at Dree, a warning glance that she was interfering in royal business.

She snickered but went back to pretending to write something.

Oops.She was supposed to be writing about wool.

She backspaced over everything she’d written and wrote some notes about wool grades from distinct sheep breeds.

Alexandre shrugged. “Anyway, those quick phone calls to Uncle R and a priest mean I have kept my title, and thus I have a vote in the Council of Nobles for who’s to be the next prince. This is insane. I can’t believe there’s a contested vote.”

Georgie gestured between the two men and told Max, “Xan has been terrorizing the council for weeks. I’m just glad you got back here before ‘the cousins’ rebelled against him.”

Xan.She’d called himXan.

Dree tried not to hyperventilate.

Max lifted one eyebrow atXan.“‘The cousins?’ Did you form a cabal?”

“I had to do something. After Uncle Rainier died and your brother shot himself—”

Georgie shot a dark look at her husband and enunciated clearly when she told Max,“Our condolences for your loss.”

Maxence waved his fingers in the air and lowered his eyes, acknowledging her sympathies.

Alexandre continued, “And thenyouwere next in the line of succession. But no one could find you, so they started coming afterme.I rounded up the cousins and emphasized the importance of acting together.”

Georgie snorted. “I can’t believe how afraid they are of him.”

“They can’t form a quorum without us,” Xan Valentine said. “I held the fort, and we Grimaldi have always known the importance of holding the fortress on the headlands.”

Maxence smiled wryly and nodded. “Just so.”

Dree wrote down a list of sheep breeds. She asked, “Who’s number three?”

Oops,she hadn’t meant to say that aloud. She was, after all, just a secretary, hardly a step up from transcribing software.

Maxence turned to Dree and explained, “It isn’t a line of succession so much as an order of precedence. Traditionally, the Council nominates and confirms the next in line to the throne. In any case, the major problem is that they are likely to offer it first to me and then to you, Alexandre, and we don’t want the damn thing.”

Alexandre turned to Georgie, accidentally making eye contact with Dree for just a second before he spoke to his wife, “And the third person in line is Christine, who has repeatedly andloudlysaid that she would rather sit on a pineapple than the throne.”

Georgie whispered to Dree, “Christine is his younger sister.”

Dree wrote down,#3 = Christine, sister of Alexandre, so also M’s cousin. Also does not want.

And then she erased it and wrote,Merino wool is really good.