Page 48 of Prince

Maxence asked her, “Should I have taken you out of that house in Geneva?”

Her voice rose like begging. “No,no,Max. That’s not why I called. You couldn’t have done anything more.Anythingwould have caused them to shoot us. Besides,Pierreknew where I was. He had more resources and power, and he couldn’t do anything until they moved us. They’d have shot Alina and me before his commandoes blew the door.”

His soul was shredding as he spoke. “It felt wrong to leave you. It still feels wrong.”

“You did everything you could, Maxence. You did the right things at the right times because it got us here. I’m okay now.”

“Are you?” he asked, a catch in his voice.

“I am. I married him.”

“Again?”

“Yes,again.Just in case the first one didn’t count. Or just in case Pierre’s trumped-up divorce did. And so Wulfram could give me away.”

“Oh,” Maxence said, staring as the sun’s fire licked the world outside his office window.

“And now you’re going to be the Prince of Monaco. It reminds me of when we used to talk in school about how we were going to burn down the world.Somethingwas going to happen to my brother, which I fully expected to happen because Wulfie prepared me for it every day of my life, and so I was going to be the princess of Hannover. And I offered to kill Pierre for you.”

Maxence wouldn’t joke about something so close to the truth. “We had dark senses of humor as children.”

“And now you’re going to be the prince, Max. Are you going to burn down the world?”

“No,” Maxence said. “No, to it all. I’m not going to take the throne.”

“But you’re next in line. And you’rethere.Christine said you’d returned to Monaco, and my calls aren’t going directly to voicemail anymore.”

“I’m renouncing. I’m here to settle everything so I can leave.”

“Then you’re still serious about the priesthood.”

“Yes.”Maybe not.

“I thought that might be—a retreat.”

“From what?” But he knew her answer.

Her voice was gentle. “From me.”

Outside the window of his medieval castle, fire consumed the world. “Of course not.”

Flicka said, “Maxence, we’ve been friends for a long time.”

“Yes.”

“I just want to know if we’re all right. Ineedto know that we’re all right. We’ve done so much good together, leveraging our charities to have more impact and working off of each other’s media presence. And Max, I wouldhateto lose you as a friend. We’ve been through too much together. Ineedto be able to call you. Ineedto know you’re all right.”

Dree had just come back into his office. She wheeled in the tea service to the other side of his desk and fussed with the napkins, making sure everything was perfect.

An evening ray of Mediterranean light glowed on her alabaster skin and struck fairy lights in her golden hair. She looked up and saw him staring at her. Her smile started as a little shy, but then she grinned because she’d caught him gawking.

Maxence smiled back at her and said to Flicka, “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m going to be fine.”

He hung up the phone a few minutes later.

Four cups of steaming hot chocolate stood on the solid silver tray.

Dree said, “I wasn’t eavesdropping.”