Page 70 of Royal
He didn’t look up at Dree. Proposing marriage in the middle of the Sea Change Gala had been unwise. Pressuring someone with an audience wasn’t fair unless one was absolutely sure one’s intended wanted a public proposal. He’d been rash.
He certainly shouldn’t compound his error.
“Are you sure, Maxence? You seemed so adamant about the priesthood,” Lady Valentina fussed.
Maxence stole a glance at Dree.
She was biting her lower lip, but she was smiling.
He winked at her.
She grinned back. Her blond hair was still a tousled mess and curling at the ends as it dried. She was holding her pen poised above the paper where she was taking notes, because that’s what she was needed to do.
Dree Clark was a precious alloy, an amalgam of beauty and sweetness and sheer toughness Max hadn’t believed could exist. He loved everything about her. She nursed people back to health until she was falling-over exhausted, rode a motorcycle through the Himalayas, and escaped from kidnappers instead of falling apart.
He trusted that if she’d gotten away from her captors that morning before he had, she would have parachuted out of an airplane onto that damned cargo ship with a knife clenched between her teeth.
She would be an amazing chatelaine for Monaco. If something happened to Maxence, Dree could hold thePalais Princierfortress above the harbor against their enemies attacking from the sea, so to speak.
He loved—
—her.
Why not make it public?
Maxence rested his arms on his knees and shrugged at Lady Valentina. “It’s the oldest story in the world, my lady. I’ve fallen in love, and I want to marry her.”
Lady Valentina was still glaring at him. “She’s not one of your cousins, is she?”
“No,” Maxence laughed. “We wouldn’t want problems like the Habsburgs had.”
Valentina’s expression visibly relaxed. She said, her tone as high-brow as an opera critic, “It seemed sordid to say anything while Pierre was alive, and then it seemed unwise when Marie-Therese was the leading contender for the throne, but she was blackmailing Pierre about his natural family because his unlawful wife was Protestant. She wanted Pierre to marry her instead of Flicka von Hannover.” Her voice dropped to a snarl.“But the Grimaldi do not marry their cousins.”
“Indeed,” Max chuckled.
Lady Valentina Martini said, “But you have someone in mind.”
“Oh, yes. Absolutely.” He did not dare look at Dree now. To do so would pressure her again.
Lady Valentina’s pale eyebrows pinched to the middle of her forehead. “And—it’s a girl? A young lady?”
“An absolutely beautiful woman. As kind as she is good. As charming as she is honorable.”
A few people around the room were side-eyeing Dree, who was still sitting behind Maxence, taking notes. He had no idea whether she was making faces or pointing to her own head or crawling off the stage to get away, because he could not look back there. The people looking between Maxence and Dree, some of them with wide eyes and growing grins, might have been near the dance floor last night at the Sea Change Gala and witnessed his ill-timed proposal.
Lady Valentina clenched her hands together at her stomach while Lola still patted her shoulder. “When will you reveal her to the public?”
“When she is ready to reveal herself.”
Behind Maxence, a pen clattered to the floor, and paper swished.
He twisted where he was sitting and looked up to find Dree waving to the crowd. “It’s me!” Dree piped up. “Hi! Here I am! Pleased to meet you.”
Maxence held his hand out to Dree, and she joined him farther forward on the stage. “My friends and family, may I introduce Ms. Andrea Clark of New Mexico, the United States. We’ve been seeing each other for some time. I hope you’ll be seeing more of us soon.”
Dree said, “Wow, you said it correctlyagain.”
Lady Valentina’s eyes had widened, and her open mouth was pulling at her papery skin. “Your secretary? And anAmerican?”