Page 14 of Marrying the Silver Fox

“I…I mean, have you told them that you didn’t marry the woman you thought you were going to?” she asks, biting her lip nervously. “I’m not Natalie. And I’m not going to pretend to be her either. I can’t deal with that.”

“They didn’t know who I was going to marry.”

She frowns, confused. “I don’t—how could you get engaged to someone and your family non even know who they are?”

“It’s a long story. But trust me, you don’t have to pretend to be anyone other than who you are. Just tell them that we met while you were planning a wedding, and we ended up getting married.”

It’s the truth, anyway. Or, at least, as close as I’m willing to come to the truth right now.

She nods, twisting a loose thread on her dress around her finger and pulling it off as the driver pulls up outside the large stone gates that lead to my father’s estate.

“Wait, is this it?” she asks, her eyes widening, craning her neck to get a better look at where we’ve just arrived.

I nod. There’s a creaking groan, and the gates heave open in front of us once whoever is on the security desk has confirmed that we’re the ones who have arrived.

“This…this place is like some kind of palace!” Andie exclaims, as she peers out the window across the sprawling lawn and gardens, the gravel on the driveway crunching beneath the wheels.

“It used to be.”

“It used to be?” She sounds stunned. I suppose, to someone like her, who has not lived a life like mine, it must come as something of a surprise. To me, it’s second nature.

“My father bought this place a long time ago, around the time the regime fell,” I explain. “A few people who owned property in the city, they were looking to get out in a hurry, and this place—it used to be a summer home for the royal family—was on the market. My father snapped it up and we’ve lived here ever since.”

She gapes as we make our way up the drive, and I have to admit, I find her reaction endearing. It reminds me of the luxury that I’ve taken for granted for so long, how well I would do to remember that there are people who don’t even come close to having everything that we lay claim to.

The car pulls to a halt at the bottom of the large stone steps that lead to the main building, and the driver moves to the trunk to lift out our luggage before he leads us inside.

She stands at the bottom of the steps for a second, just gazing up at the place as though she can barely believe what she’s seeing. The building is enormous, fit for royalty, and my father has been careful to keep up with the repairs and renovations without losing the historical value. He is a man who puts great stock in what came before, something he has always impressed upon Maxim and me. What came before you is what made you. You have to respect it, or it’ll find a way to make you pay.

I offer Andie an arm, and she takes it as we make our way up the stairs toward the main building. Inside, Marta, the head of the household staff, welcomes us with a warm smile.

“Marta,” I greet her, and she comes over to give me a hug. She’s gray-haired now, her face written with smile lines, a far cry from the young, severe woman who helped raise Max and me, but I’m as glad to see her now as I was then.

“You had a long journey?” she asks in her slightly broken, heavily accented English. She learned it when Max and I did, to make sure she could continue our studies when my father decided that we should be educated in the ways of the world and to prepare me for my time in the US, but since she started so long after us, she never quite caught up.

I’ve always loved Marta. She never tried to become my mother, after everything that happened, but she proved herself more than capable of filling the maternal role in our lives.

“You want something to eat?” she asks me.

“No, I’m fine,” I reply, and I glance back toward Andie, who’s standing just behind me, looking around with a stunned expression on her face. “Andie, you hungry?”

“And this must be your wife!” Marta exclaims. She rushes over to Andie, taking her hands and clasping them tight. “So beautiful.”

Andie smiles at her, still slightly nervous. “Uh, I’m okay for something to eat, thanks,” she replies. “I think I just want to get some sleep. Is that okay?”

“Of course,” Marta replies. “Let me take you to your room. This way, follow me.”

She takes off toward the stairs, and Andie does her best to keep up. I watch the two women leave, and head through to my father’s office so I can clear my head before I get some rest. I’m not sure if Andie will want me sleeping in the same bed as her, not after everything that has happened, so I’m going to give her some time to unwind by herself before I include myself in proceedings, at least.

My father’s office is just as I remember it, books stacked high on the shelves around his desk, and a large glass cabinet full of the best vodka that money can buy. I’m not usually a vodka drinker, but when in Moscow…

I pour myself a glass and flick on the desk lamp, filling the room with a low, warm glow. There are a few papers strewn over the desk, and I leaf through them briefly—nothing of great interest, just a mention or two of my father taking on new properties. I keep telling him that he should worry himself less about expanding his empire, that he’s getting old and needs the time to rest, but that would be like telling a lion not to hunt. He doesn’t have it in him to keep from doing what has come naturally to him for so long, and I suppose that’s part of what his insistence on me getting married has been about.

He will be pleased with Andie, I’m sure of it. She has a sharp way about her that I’m sure he will appreciate. He’s never liked people with no spine, those simpering types who do anything they can to get on his good side, and that’s certainly not where she sits in all of this. As much as she’s had to go along with everything I’ve asked of her, she has not done it without question, and that is something that will benefit her in this world.

A world that she has become a part of now, whether she likes it or not.

The moment Natalie chose to walk out on me, I would have done almost anything to make sure I had a ring on my finger by the end of the day, a wife at my side. It’s the only way my father is going to step back from the business, if he believes that I’m capable not just of running this place, but of providing an heir to ensure that there will be someone to pass this empire down to.