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Matteo had to weave around the boxes covering most of the open space in his apartment as he made his way to the kitchen. He would be glad when Christmas was over. “Anything else?”
“She graduated top of her class from Dutton, which is a prestigious private high school in Manhattan.”
Matteo wondered howthathad happened given her apparently modest background. But again, he had to check himself. People were always more complicated than their circumstances would suggest.
“She has a BA in economics from Hunter College, where she was part of the Army ROTC, and she did two years in the military after graduating.”
“I beg your pardon?” Ms. Delaney wasmilitary? He thought back to that ridiculous little argument about nothing they’d had earlier, with all the military metaphors.
“Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. It’s a U.S. military program that pays for university in exchange for—”
“I know what it is. I’m just... surprised.” Matteo cleared his throat. “Go on.”
“After she was discharged, she returned to CZT, where she’d spent a year interning while still in school, and she’s been there ever since. She did an executive MBA at Columbia part-time, finished two years ago.”
Matteo put the phone on speaker and attempted to pour himself a scotch, but the bottle was nearly empty. He ended up with less than a teaspoonful. “Boyfriend? Or”—he shouldn’t make assumptions—“girlfriend?” He assumed she wasn’t married. He would have noticed if she’d been wearing a ring—her red-varnished nails had drawn his attention several times.
“Not that I can tell.”
“So that’s it?”
“I can dig a little deeper, but that was what I could find on a quick first pass. Honestly, I don’t know what you were expecting. She’s a management consultant, not a jewel thief with an Interpol red notice.”
Matteo sighed. He hadn’t been expecting anything, not really, and ultimately none of it mattered. It was just that he preferred knowing with whom he was dealing. And since Ms. Delaney had been dropped in at the last minute to substitute for her injured colleague, he hadn’t done any homework on her. Hence the favor called in to Torkel, who had quit the palace last year to go to work for the House of Aquilla. Torkel’s boyfriend, Sebastien von Hansburg, was the younger brother of the Duke of Aquilla. Princess Marie was always laughingly accusing Matteo of having underworld connections, and while he did have a number of people, some of them tending toward the unsavory, on whom he could call for all manner of things, the true source of most of his knowledge had been Torkel.
He missed Torkel, and not only because of the man’s connections. He and Torkel had spent many a day working side by side, first in the army, and later to protect and advance the interests of the royal family. Like Matteo, Torkel understood that a life devoid of higher ideals was an empty exercise.
He shook himself out of these fruitless thoughts. “How is life in Riems? How is Mr. von Hansburg?”
“He’s well.” Matteo could hear the smile in Torkel’s usually gruff tone. “I could use your help with something, actually.”
“Of course.”
“I want to, uh... propose.”
Matteo held back a laugh. Torkel was normally so unflappable. Huge and stoic, he looked like Hollywood’s stereotype of a bodyguard, right down to the severe black suits and mirrored aviator sunglasses he favored. “That’s wonderful.”
“Indeed, but I, uh... don’t know how to do it.”
“I believe the tradition is to procure a ring,” Matteo teased.
“I know that,” Torkel said with a snappishness that would be off-putting if Matteo didn’t know him so well. “I even know what ring I want—what kind he would want. The ring is not the problem. I just...”
Matteo sobered. This was the first time Matteo had ever known Torkel to be uncertain. “You want it to be special.”
“Yes, and you’re good at this sort of thing.”
He was. At handling everything and fading into the background. From ensuring the king’s victories in parliament to giving Princess Marie the nudge she needed to marry Leo Ricci, the interloper who had been entirely unsuitable yet singularly capable of making her happy. And Matteo enjoyed his job. There was satisfaction in being able to take credit for things running smoothly in the lives of the royal family.
“I realize it’s a bit out of your scope,” Torkel said.
Matteo made a dismissive noise. “I interpret my scope broadly.You know that.” The way he thought of it was he had his official mission, and he had his extended mission.
“Indeed. How are the baskets coming this year?”
“Slowly.” Matteo regretted the word as soon as it was out of his mouth. It would activate Torkel’s guilt complex.
“I’m sorry I’m not there.”
