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Lady Teresa was beautiful, with perfectly clear skin, and an hourglass figure. She was a nice woman, a capable woman, a true leader. The country would be lucky to have her. She wouldn’t spill flour on the king’s coat at dinner parties. She wouldn’t destroy priceless statues.
But she also wouldn’t love Leo the way that Esme did.
That she knew for a fact.
This wasn’t how the storybook was supposed to go. But Esme wasn’t living in a storybook world. The kindergarten teacher may have won the heart of the king, but she wasn’t going to win his hand.
“The winner is Prince Alexander and Chef Peppers.”
The room thundered in applause. The Duke clapped good-naturedly, while his Beard-award-winning chef tossed his mixing spoon and stormed out of the room. Alex swept Jan off her feet and dipped her back for a kiss.
Esme’s claps paused in mid-air. Her own problems went out the window as she witnessed a new chapter in her friend’s life taking shape. Maybe a common girl’s fairytale was going to come true after all.
Jan wobbled when Alex set her back on her feet. His gaze didn’t linger on her. No, he turned and high-fived the announcer, and then made his way around the crowd. Clearly, the kiss had no effect on him whatsoever.
That wasn’t how that was supposed to go either. He was supposed to look into her eyes, and they were supposed to have a connection. The world was supposed to stop around them. Jan held still, but Alex was moving on.
“Well, that’s over,” Jan said when she made her way over to Esme.
In her hand, she held a check. It was why she’d come here, to further her career. Esme’s reason for coming had been to realize a dream. A dream that was now playing out on the television screen overhead.
In the flat screen, the words Special Announcement blared on the screen. As the words dissolved, King Leo, dressed in the same suit he’d been in when she’d left him earlier, and Lady Teresa walked onto the screen. They weren’t hand-in-hand. He had his arm at her back. And they were grinning like two toddlers who’d just found the snack jar.
“Citizens of Cordoba,” Leo began. With the sound of his voice, the entire room went quiet and gave their attention to the television. “I am sorry to interrupt your broadcast and know the Geneva Jarvis talk show is far more entertaining than your monarch.”
Polite laughter sounded from the audience before him in the conference room. It also sounded around the small ballroom the pie competition had been held in.
“As you know, Spain and Cordoba have had a long, sometimes contentious, other times beneficial, relationship for centuries. Lady Teresa of Almodovar and I have an announcement that we’ll deliver later to night. It is an announcement that will greatly impact the future of our two great nations. I hope you will join me later this evening during the Union Day Gala to hear it live.”
Leo turned to the duchess and smiled. She gave him a wink when she smiled back. Then the two turned and walked off the stage as reporters shot to their feet to ask questions which the two ignored.
The screen didn’t fade to black. No, that was Esme’s mind. Reporters came on to speculate about the announcement. The talk show host, Geneva Jarvis retook the airwaves. She and her guests wondered aloud if the announcement would be what everyone thought it would be, what was so obvious that it would be; an engagement announcement.
All Esme could think about was the look on Leo’s face. He’d been smiling. He didn’t look like his decision to turn his back on the thing had been a hardship at all. He looked excited.
“I think our adventure has come to an end,” said Jan. “You ready to go home?”
“Yeah.” Esme tried and failed to swallow past the lump in her throat. “Let’s go home.”
Esme hadn’t remembered the trek to the west wing nursery. Her mind kept playing Leo’s words over and over again in her head. Her mind looked for the loophole where she would be able to reinsert herself back into his life. Her heart searched for a way to return to his embrace.
Nothing came to her.
Inside the room, there was a rack of dresses fit for a grown princess. Esme assumed it was Alex’s doing. He’d want Jan to look good tonight after their victory in the pie competition.
Jan hadn’t even bothered to look at the gowns. She opened up her suitcase, which she had never entirely unpacked, and began shoving her toiletries inside. Esme walked over to the gowns.
She urged herself not to dream any more, not to let her imagination get away from her. There was no way she could go to tha
t gala and hear the man she’d fallen in love with pledge his life to another woman. She had to get out of there. But when she turned to find her suitcase, she found a real live princess instead.
“Esme, look at my dress.”
For the first time since she’d seen the little princess, Penelope wasn’t in muted, pastel colors. She wore a deep, royal blue that made her eyes sparkle. Penelope’s hair was done up in intricate swirls, and a small tiara crowned her head.
“Oh, Pen, you’re as pretty as a princess.”
“I am a princess.” Penelope giggled.
