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“You’re making it sound as if I’m issuing proclamations,” Massimo said. “I’m just asking for as close to a normal life as possible.”
One of the other lords put his hand over his heart. “Are you talking about living like a commoner?” He gave me a hard glare. “Your wife put these thoughts in your head.”
“She doesn’t need to learn about palace protocol. She’s pregnant and doesn’t need any extra stress.”
“We’ll keep her as your consort, then, a princess instead of a queen.”
“Do you want to be a principessa, cara?”
“Why not?” I asked. “If it’ll help them accept me, sure.”
“So my wife will be my princess. I’ll agree to be crowned. But we will not be living here.”
A cacophony of voices filled that room. Massimo silenced them by banging his fist on the wood table.
“We will not live in the palace. We will live like commoners.”
“Impossible,” his uncle said.
“I would not feel an instant of remorse giving you the crown, my uncle, if you only you hadn’t suffered a traumatic brain injury after being thrown from a horse and renounced your claim to the title in favor of your young son.”
“Who grew up to be a waste of space,” growled one of the lords.
Massimo motioned for him to be silent. “So those are my terms. I’ll be your king, but I’ll do it my way.”
The lords looked at each other. They were clearly unhappy, but I got the feeling that Massimo was going to get his way.
“You need to attend state functions,” his uncle said.
“Done. Anything else?”
They all looked at each other.
“Listen,” Massimo said. “We all know that you’re the ones who do the real work. My father was a figurehead. Other people do the day-to-day stuff. I’ll still be around for photos and shaking hands.”
“People would kill to be surrounded by opulent wealth,” one of the lords hissed.
“I’m not one of them,” I said, my voice even and calm. They looked at me as if I’d appeared out of thin air. “I’d prefer to live a normal life, as normal as I can make it, and I want to raise children who aren’t sequestered in a palace hundreds of years old. I’m American,” I explained. “I’m not used to this.”
“You can learn,” his uncle interjected quickly.
“She won’t have to.” Massimo shook his head. “My word is final. I’ll accept your terms. The kingdom will run as it always has, just with a king who is perpetually on a business trip.” He stood up. “Thank you for coming.”
It was a signal to leave. As they left the room, Massimo slipped his arm around my waist and gazed into my eyes.
“I would do anything for you,” he told me.
“I love you,” I told him.
He kissed my mouth softly. In it, I could taste the promise that he’d made to me.
Epilogue
"Ouch!" I yelped.
Giggling, my little girl ran away. She was dressed in a frilly pink dress for her birthday. Despite looking like a tiny princess, she had the mind of a criminal mastermind.
"You can't get me!" she sang as she ran, tossing a defiant look over her shoulder. Because she didn't look where she was going, she tripped on her giant stuffed unicorn, which was about the same size as she was. My heart was in my throat, sure that she'd wipe out, before her father caught her before Pasquelina could fall on her face.
