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“This isn’t our home.” Alex waved his fork around the room. “It’s a hotel. And you know Giles had vetted everyone at the school before we even stepped out of the car.”
Leo looked to the back entry way to the kitchen which led to the sleeping quarters. Down the hall, his daughter, who had been offered the chance to see a Broadway play and declined, was entertaining a teacher and the joys of parts of a whole.
“What was this teacher like? Did she seem the social climbing type like our hotel heiress out there?”
Alex looked back into the dining area and cringed. “No, nothing of the sort. I mean she was attractive. That all-American kind of cute. You know, girl-next-door.”
Leo saw where this was going. Alex had likely invited this woman over because he was hot for teacher as the song went. “If you invited this woman over for a fling, just don’t make out in front of my child. Get another room, will you.”
“She’s not my type. Too many brains in her head.”
“Great. Then you can spend the evening entertaining our guests.”
“You mean meet my new sister.” Alex poked his head around the corner as Lady Teresa came in. “She’s quite the looker. I hear she’s smart, accomplished, good breeding record, and royal blue blood. She’s perfect for you.”
“Yes.” Leo nodded as he watched Teresa take off her coat to reveal a perfectly proportioned figure below her brilliant mind. “She’s perfect.”
“Well, don’t make out with her in front of my niece or anything.”
Leo gave his brother a playful shove. They both entered the dining room as the servers placed the food on the table, and the meal began in earnest. With his other business dealings done, Leo sat next to Lady Teresa. She wore the same cinnamon scent as earlier. Her blue eyes held his, showing genuine interest, as he spoke.
“I went to school in the states,” she said. “Harvard.”
“Oxford,” said Leo. “I understand you like water sports?”
“Nearly made the Women’s Olympic Team in sailing. I understand you’re a pretty good fencer?”
“Not good enough to make the Olympic Team.”
Her head tilted back ever so slightly, and she laughed. She hadn’t thrown her head back and giggled. She placed her hand lightly at her chest and didn’t give him a whack on the shoulder. No, she was well raised in the proper decorum of a royal woman.
“We have a lot in common,” Lady Teresa said. “We’re both blue bloods. Our family businesses could benefit the other for industrial purposes. You know what that means?”
It would be the height of ill-breeding for Leo’s mouth to hang open. Which is what his jaw nearly did. But because he was well trained, he clamped his mouth shut and smiled politely.
“It means wedding bells,” she continued.
Leo’s jaw wrenched open, and a series of choking sounds escaped. He reached for his glass and took a sip to help recover.
“Forgive me,” said Lady Teresa. “I’m pretty blunt.”
“No, I appreciate that.” Leo sat his drained glass back on the table.
“Let’s make a pact to be honest with each other,” she said. “I’m an old crow by nobility standards. I’ve sown my oats, as I’m sure you did before your first marriage.”
Leo chose to say nothing. Certainly not that his wife had been his first and only lover.
“I’ve had great accomplishments on my own. I still have goals to meet. I know the value of a good partner in business. I can see the value of a partner in life. A girl can’t do better than a king.”
“I thought all little girls dreamed of princes.”
“I’m a grown woman,” said Teresa. “Being of noble blood, I didn’t grow up believing in fairytales. In fact, my mother banned the books from the castle so that I would only ever imagine my true duties.”
Isabel had done the same when Penelope was born. She’d said she wanted her children to be realistic about royalty. Not have fanciful dreams that the law and tradition would not allow.
“I grew up in a castle with no dragons or witches,” Lady Teresa continued. “I did have two evil stepmothers after my parents’ divorce. But,” and here she paused for emphasis, “I don’t believe in divorce. Once you make a merger, you stick with it and make it work.”
On that, Leo agreed. There had never been a divorce in Cordovian royalty. Infidelity, suspected murder, sure. But not a single divorce decree in all the country’s ancient history.
