Page 20 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
On the other hand, Claudine wouldn’t have consistently won those contests if she had had a history of gambling debts or sexual exploits. Her image was wholesome yet progressive, given she had been born to a pair of women.
Queen Paloma wouldn’t have any prejudice against Claudine being the child of a same-sex marriage. Nazarine had been at the forefront of adopting recognition of those unions, but Claudine was solidly middle-class, not even an heiress to a tech billionaire or some other nouveau riche family that the Queen might force herself to accept into the fold.
Her pageants meant she was well-traveled. Her on-camera demeanor was always polished and composed, her responses to questions well-constructed and intelligent, if brief and idealistic. She spoke fondly of a childhood dog and developed new talents for each pageant. She could write calligraphy, shoot an arrow into a bull’s-eye, recognize birdsongs and perform rhythmic dance.
A wife with valuable connections would be useful, given Felipe would be taking on even more diplomatic and economic duties as his father’s health declined.
Something like regret panged through him. He knew he ought to feel more than that. Vinicio had taken a month off work when he’d lost his father and he’d been a different man when he returned. Not openly morose, but somber. Felipe had accidentally overheard him comforting his mother on a call once and they’d both been crying.
The idea of being emotionally broken by his father’s illness was a foreign concept to Felipe. Their relationship had always been defined by their roles. His father had drawn a hard line between his two sons early on, brutally severing Felipe from a connection to his twin. The closest Felipe had ever come to experiencing parental doting was witnessing the Queen showering it upon Francois.
He could see now why his father had given him nothing but a dispassionate visage, though. Felipe’s detachment from his father’s illness would allow him to continue acting in the best interests of his country while their family dealt with the loss.
Nazarine had small but reliable agricultural and manufacturing sectors. Their location on a trade route in the Mediterranean made Stella Vista’s main port an important service and transfer facility for shipping companies. Tourism was also a heavy economic driver, which was why losing the pageant could be a blow to hotels and other service industries.
Nazarine had always had an excellent reputation for its boatyards and shipbuilders, too. Felipe had been pressing for the development of specialized higher education programs—marine architecture and the newer marine information technologies. That was what his trip to New York was about and he looked forward to advancing that.
Claudine’s citizenship wouldn’t hurt him there.
No, the more he thought about it, the more he saw she was a perfect fit as his queen.
Literally. Did his determination to wed her have anything to do with this lust he was nursing? Hell, yes, it did. He was trying to ignore it, but merely coming upon her in the hall had sparked rampant fantasies. Perhaps it had been seeing her in his own clothes, as though she’d picked them up from his floor after he’d ravished her. He’d found himself dreaming of loosening those clothes and taking her against the wall or sprawling naked with her beneath the eyes of his ancestors.
He shook off those distracting fantasies and sought out Vinicio.
“How is the pageant reacting to Claudine’s disappearance?” Felipe asked.
“Acute, but well-muffled panic. Some contestants were told she missed the photo shoot due to food poisoning. Others heard she had a family emergency. The police are quietly reviewing security footage, trying to determine if and when she came back from the cruise and whether she returned to the hotel. One of the Prince’s minions has asked a few of the contestants whether she seemed drunk at the party.”
“Setting it up to claim she fell into the water of her own clumsy accord,” Felipe said with disgust.
“Prince Francois was not visible at the photo shoot, either.”
“He was at the palace,” Felipe reminded Vinicio.
“He then went into unscheduled meetings with the pageant organizers. It seems likely they were discussing Ms. Bergqvist.”
“Perhaps.” Francois would be looking for a way to wrap up her disappearance as quickly as possible because he had a new goal. Felipe explained that his brother would quickly become occupied with finding a wife. “He might even shut down future pageants himself, if he’s about to become a married man.”
Felipe rose to pace off his restlessness.
“May I ask, sir, if you are also—”
“Claudine will be my wife,” he stated.
“Very good, sir.” Vinicio nodded. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Let’s hammer out a timeline beginning with my taking her to the palace to introduce her to my parents.”
“Claudine.”
He startled her again, but not as violently this time. She had been waiting for him, her statement folded in her hand while she stared out the window at the hazy shape of Stella Vista, measuring the distance between agency and responsibility. Between doing what was right for her and what was right for other women, and her mother, and the greater good.
Writing out her statement had forced her to see all the small ways that Francois had manipulated her. He was a truly terrible person who had to be stopped from preying on women, but also from preying on his brother and his country.
Was she really the woman to do it, though? Surely there were other ways Felipe could keep his twin from taking the throne?
She turned and smiled faintly as she brought him the pages.
