Page 4 of Falling for the Queen Mother

She had also been at the last one, in Dellisole. He and a few others had been quietly called in to help with the potential crisis they needed to keep out of the news.

But this one...

He sat in his rental, parked in a lot down the street from the palace gates and wondered how early "no later than nine" could be. For the moment, he had nearly ninety minutes until it was "no later than nine."

Showing up half an hour early might be acceptable. An hour and a half likely would not.

Maybe a cup of coffee and a pastry would take his mind off all of it until a bit later in the morning.

A nearby cafe offered a place for him to sit and do just that. At least he tried.

Instead, his mind kept drifting back to the moment the night before, just before the Queen Mother left his suite. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what he'd planned to say but when she'd looked up at him with those big blue eyes...

Nathaniel had been almost overcome with the desire to kiss her.

He hadn't of course, and he'd probably been deluding himself that she wanted the same thing, but he could have sworn he'd seen the same thing in her eyes.

His tablet sat on the table in front of him in a futile attempt to keep his mind occupied. Instead, the first three articles he'd seen had something to do with the Southern Santieran royal family. Queen Victoria, the new queen consort of Dellisole and lifelong princess of Southern Santiero, would be traveling to her home country soon for the holidays. King Frederick and Queen Elise would be embarking on their first joint foreign tour in a few weeks.

And the Queen Mother had been seen entering the resort for a meeting with... well, they didn't know who the meeting was supposed to be with, but everyone thought it was an odd place for her to be and speculation abounded about a tryst with a secret lover.

He had only met her the one time and only for a few minutes but Nathaniel could safely say that didn't seem like the kind of thing she would do.

Eventually, the alarm on his watch told him he could safely head toward the palace.

Taking a final drink of his coffee, Nathaniel cleaned up his table and did just that. The guard at the gate examined his identification closely, conferred with the other guard on duty, made a phone call, then eventually waved Nathaniel through. An electric cart appeared in front of him. Despite being given no instructions, he decided the most logical thing to do was follow it. A moment later, he came to a stop under the portico to the side of the palace.

It wasn't the main entrance. He wasn't certain what, if anything, that might mean.

Probably nothing more than this entrance was closest to where he'd be going.

Once inside, an aide met him then led the way to the executive office wing. They passed a couple of sentry desks where assistants were seated to ensure no one went further than they were supposed to. They simply nodded at Nathaniel and his escort as they passed.

They took a left onto a less ornate hallway than the one they'd been in. He suspected the king and queen had their offices in the other section while those farther down the Order of Succession or Order of Precedence would be in this other area.

As expected, he was told to take a seat in an outer office. He didn't have to wait long before he was instructed to enter the main office. The door led to a well-appointed office, but much smaller than he would have expected from a queen consort, even a widowed one. Once inside, he found Queen Mother Alaina standing near a window.

"Good morning." This time he led with a bow, as he should have the night before.

"Good morning." She nodded her acknowledgment. "Please, join me?" She motioned to the chair next to her.

Nathaniel walked to her side but didn't sit down until she had.

She sat on the edge of her chair with her legs tilted to one side and crossed at the ankles. "Can I offer you some tea? Or would you like a pastry?"

"No, thank you. I just came from a cafe where I had one and some coffee."

After a quick nod, she moved back in her seat. Her back still didn't touch the cushions behind her, but she wasn't on the edge anymore either.

"Can you give me more information about why you're in Southern Santiero?" She reached for her own cup of tea and took a sip.

"Of course, but first, I'd like to thank you for ensuring Emilia was taken care of. I received a call last night saying as much."

"My pleasure. I understand why you wouldn't want her, or anyone else, to think you were planning to take advantage of her in some way." She gave a polite tilt of her head. "It's much more seemly for another woman to make arrangements for her and her child. I would hate for it to come back on either of you at a later time."

"It is much appreciated." It bothered him that such measures were necessary, but he understood the reason why. He opened his attaché case and pulled out a file folder. "This is a picture of a portrait from the early history of Dellisole. This is the one that disappeared. We're not sure when the switch was made, but the forgery was made no earlier than the mid-1900s."

The former queen took the photo and studied it. "What made this portrait worthy of forging?"