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“The princes all experienced loss early.” The queen had died, and it had probably been the beginning of the end of Prince Evengi’s reign.
He’d abdicated to his adult son after a near fatal heart attack almost two decades ago.
His willingness to do so had always impressed Jenna. While Prince Evengi had been a king who ultimately had refused the idea of a constitutional monarchy, he was not a man who put tradition and royal duty above all else.
He’d preserved his own life for the sake of his children.
The fact he’d lived long enough to woo and then marry Nataliya’s mother, the former countess, was just one more reason that choice had been a good one.
“He and Solomia are coming to visit next month,” Emma said, showing their thoughts had traveled down a similar path. “Will you come for dinner again? I know they’ll want to see you.”
“Of course, but right now I think I need to go searching for your sons.”
“They’re going to be thrilled it took you this long to find them,” Emma said with warm humor in her tone.
In fact, it took Jenna another several minutes of searching before she discovered the boys tucked into what she would have thought was an impossibly small space behind storage boxes in an under-stairs closet she’d peeked into twice before the third time going to the far back on a hunch.
She took their teasing over dinner about how poorly she’d done finding them in good humor.
Mikhail, especially, reminded her of Matt. Jenna doubted she could ever be angry or even annoyed with the twelve-year-old.
“You’re a fabulous auntie, you know?” Emma said when the boys had left the table. “They adore when you come to visit.”
“They do.” Konstantin managed to infuse his tone with a surfeit of disbelief.
She made a face at him. “Your sons have good taste.”
“They have never been treated to the edge of your tongue.” Konstantin’s expression said he wasn’t particularly worried he had.
“Sharp-tongued? Our Jenna?” Dima teased. “I don’t believe it.”
“Yes, well, you weren’t the prince expected to marry her best friend as the result of in her words, a draconian contract that any adult man with an ounce of respect for women would never have signed.”
“I did say that.” Jenna grinned cheekily. “And I stick by it.”
“She signed it too.”
“She was a teenager, and she was under pressure.”
“So was I.” It was an old argument, and the prince didn’t seem to be taking it any more seriously than she was.
“You weren’t a teen,” Emma said. “But you were under pressure. I love your dad, bless his heart, but he knows how to administer a guilt trip.”
“He’s a professional at them,” Dima agreed ruefully.
Konstantin nodded vehemently. “So, how have you remained single with nodraconiancontracts on your horizon?”
“That contract caused a lot of grief for you, Emma and his grandson, not to mention for Nataliya. It didn’t take much to extract a promise from Father not to try anything of the like with me.”
“I hear abutin your voice.”
“But I have agreed to allow him and Solomia to introduce me to what he deems appropriate women.”
Jenna’s stomach plummeted, though she could not have said why. She wasn’t looking for long-term with Dima, and she for sure didn’t want to join the royal family for real.
Emma flicked a quick glance Jenna’s way, looking a little worried, though Jenna didn’t know why she would. “You agreed to let him matchmake for you?”
“Not matchmake, introduce. I have no intention of getting married anytime soon, and I’m definitely not going to start dating a woman of his choosing.”
