A Prince At Last!

“I have news, but I’m not certain how good it is,” Luc replied.

“Don’t mutter, Luc,” Dowager Queen Simone instructed him tartly.

Standing before the two of them made him feel like a bug under a microscope. As for the dowager queen, he’d never met anyone quite like her.

Thin and regal, she possessed a presence that filled the room—and considering they were in the huge Throne Room, that was no small feat. At age seventy-five, she had her short dark hair meticulously maintained so that not one hint of gray or white showed.

Aside from her attitude, her eyes were the most memorable thing about her. They were a piercing blue, not as dark as his own, more the color of a light sabre. They certainly had a way of slicing right through a person who irritated her, which he’d apparently just done.

Queen Celeste had tried to convince anyone who would listen that Dowager Queen Simone was “dotty.” And, while the older monarch had forgotten some details of the events that surrounded her son’s early marriage, there was no denying that in most cases the dowager queen was still as sharp as a tack.

She was eyeing him with honed intensity. “Those English schools taught you how to enunciate properly.”

“I could speak in French or German or Italian, if you prefer, ma’am,” Luc retorted.

She waved his words away with an imperious wave of her wrinkled but still elegant hand. On her left hand was the elaborate diamond ring that her husband, King Antoine, had given her upon their engagement over fifty years ago. She’d outlived both her husband and her only son due not only to her strong constitution but also to her iron will. “English will suffice.”

“Please be seated, Luc,” the prime minister said with a much more inviting wave of his hand.

Luc sat on the Louis XIV chair as if it might collapse beneath him. This sudden attack of nerves was so unlike him. He’d been dealing with the prime minister and the dowager queen for months without any problem. But that had been when he’d been an employee, when he’d been head of the country’s Security Force. It was a job he enjoyed, a job he knew how to do, a job he was very good at.

Damn. He should have asked Juliet to come with him when she’d offered. She’d know what to say. While she was shy around large groups of strangers, she had a way of disarming people with her quiet smile and sincere empathy.

“Well, Luc?” The prime minister looked at him encouragingly. “Have you found the missing heir?”

“I believe so, yes.”

“You believe so?” Simone said. “You mean there is some room for doubt?”

“No. I found the birth certificate for Katie Graham’s child, a son.”

“A son.” The prime minister almost applauded with delight. “Have you located him?”

“Yes.”

“I told you Luc would succeed,” the prime minister said.

“What is this son like? Is he someone suitable? He’s not living in some American trailer park, is he?” Dowager Queen Simone demanded. “Someone who would be a disgrace to the throne and the de Bergeron name?”

“I don’t believe he’d be a disgrace, no,” Luc replied. “Naturally he’s somewhat stunned with the news.”

The dowager queen leaned forward eagerly, her thin hands resting on her gold-filigree-topped cane. “Where is he?”

“You’re looking at him.”

She blinked her laser eyes at him. “I don’t understand.”

“Katie Graham was my mother.”

Luc could relate to the look of astonishment on the prime minister’s face. He’d felt that way himself when he’d first heard the news. He still felt that way.

The dowager queen’s expression was harder to read.

“If you knew Katie Graham was your mother, then why on earth did you spend the past few months searching for her son?” the prime minister asked.

“I knew my mother as Katherine Dumont,” Luc replied. “I had no idea about her…colorful past. It was only as I began the investigation that I started putting the pieces together. Even then, I didn’t believe it could really be true. When I went to my father—the man I believed to be my father—and confronted him, he gave me the key to a safe deposit box that my mother had requested I open should I ever question my heritage. It’s all here.” He opened the manilla envelope he’d brought with him. “The entire paper trail—wedding certificate, my real birth certificate, not the one my mother had Albert Dumont falsify.”

“Falsified birth certificates seem to have reached epidemic proportions around here lately,” Simone noted tartly.

Luc flinched.

“Not that we’re accusing you of any such behavior,” the prime minister hurriedly assured him.

“I can understand your skepticism,” Luc said. “I considered not sharing this information with you at all, just pretending I never found it.”

“Why would you do something like that?” the prime minister asked.

“Because I’m not any happier about this…situation than you are,” Luc said in a clipped voice.

“You misunderstand me.” Simone put her thin hand on his arm. He was surprised to feel it trembling slightly. “Is it really possible? Could you be…my grandson?”

“According to those papers I am. Even so, I’d still like to get corroborating evidence from an independent source before we proceed any further.”

“You sound as if you’re not happy with this news, Luc,” the prime minister said. “I can tell you that I, for one, cannot think of a more honorable man to take the throne.”

Simone was looking almost gleeful. “You know what this means? It means that awful Celeste won’t get her grasping hands on the throne. Her baby is due any minute now, and if it’s a boy, well, then our ship would have been sunk.”

“I don’t think Queen Celeste will take the news about Luc very well,” the prime minister noted.

“As I said,” Luc interrupted them. “No one but the three of us and Juliet is to know about this news just yet.”

“Juliet?” Simone raised a perfectly penciled eyebrow. “So you told Juliet. Before you told us?”

Luc refused to squirm in his seat. He was a former Interpol agent, he was not a schoolboy being reprimanded by his headmaster.

“Yes, I told Juliet before I told you.” The set of his jaw communicated his aggravation. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“I fear it would do me no good if I did,” Simone replied. “I’ve always liked Juliet. She’s a wise little thing. So what did she advise you to do?”

“She didn’t advise, she listened.” Luc’s pointed look indicated it was something that the older woman could learn to do better.

Simone smiled and leaned back in her chair with satisfaction. “Yes, you will do well as the king. Quite well indeed.”

“I want you both to swear you won’t tell anyone about this information until we can get it confirmed,” Luc said. “And the situation with Rhineland also has to be addressed.”

The prime minister paused in his close inspection of the material Luc had handed him. “The birth certificate is registered, and the rest of the documents appear legitimate.”

“I know someone from Interpol, someone very discreet, who will do some follow-up work,” Luc said.