I was sitting in the car and he was standing outside of it waiting for me along with the foreman and George.
“Sorry,” I murmured as I got out of the car and shook hands with the foreman and then endured a manly hug and a slap on the back from George. Although, it wasn’t really a matter of enduring it at all. I genuinely liked George and the way he had accepted me and treated me like one of his own sons.
“So, we are on schedule as far as the structural updates go,” the foreman, Sandro, said. “But we are still waiting on the alembics.”
Dorian frowned at me.
“The distillation cauldrons,” I said, even though I had gone over all the equipment needs with Dorian several times.
I turned to George. “How are the growers?” I asked. “Will we have crops?”
“Maybe not as many as we’d like,” George answered, “But enough to do some test batches.”
I nodded. I knew this would be an extensive process. No one could just produce the botanicals we needed instantly. The fields and vineyards had been struggling for a while now. During the occupation of General Anastas, he’d let them go to seed and although in the years since Jamie had returned the farmers had also come back, it still took time to build up the produce.
“What about in six months?” I asked. Our goal was to have a viable product to serve during the state visit from Merveille. Prince Will was known to be a savvy investor and exporter, as was Queen Meredith’s brother, and if we could garner interest from them, then we might have a chance to get this crazy scheme off the ground.
George nodded thoughtfully. “If we concentrate on the signature flavor, then yes, I think we could produce a reasonable product by then.”
“Good,” I said, some of the tension leaving my shoulders.
The upcoming state visit was the first step in getting Kalopsia legitimized among the world nations. Sure, Merveille was not a major player on the world stage, but they had a workable and innovative monarchy that I knew Jamie and Meredith wanted to emulate.
“Will you and the lovely Francesca be married by then?” George asked with a gleeful smile. He loved Frankie, all the people in the village loved her.
“We, ah, we haven’t set a date yet,” I said, my heart clenching. We hadn’t set a date because none of it was real, despite my attempts to move us in that direction.
“I will make you and Francesca your own signature raïda,” George pronounced, and it made the clenching of my heart twist harder. “To serve at your wedding.”
From George’s lips to God’s ears, I thought as I shook hands with him and then the foreman.
“I need you to help me with something,” I said to Dorian on the ride back to the palace.
“I’m already helping you with something,” he replied, not looking at me.
“Don’t be deliberately obtuse,” I snapped.
Dorian sighed like I was handing him the world to hold. “What do you need help with?”
“I need to spend some time alone with my fiancée,” I said.
I hated having to enlist Dorian’s help, of all people, but he was friends with Frankie and he was one of the people she used to shield herself from me.
He turned slowly to look at me and raised his eyebrows.
“Don’t be gross,” I growled. “We’ve both been so busy that it’s almost impossible to spend any time together and then there’s you and Sophia taking up her time. Is it too much to ask to have some alone time with the woman I’m going to marry?”
“It’s not too much to ask,” Dorian replied. “But my question is, why would you need my help to make it happen? Is the lovely Francesca avoiding you for a reason?”
For as self-involved as Dorian appeared to be, he was far too observant. He had to have noticed that Frankie dragged him along whenever I tried to have a private conversation with her. He’d never said anything and hadn’t appeared to be bothered by it, but he was for certain tucking the information away. Probably so he could use it against me at another time.
And he was right, and that sucked.
“Why would she be avoiding me?” I asked, feigning innocence.
He didn’t believe me, and he frowned at me to drive the fact home.
“Have you upset Francesca?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.
“Seriously?” I asked, staring him down. “You think I would hurt a hair on her head? I’ve loved her for years and I would die before I ever did anything to hurt her.”
He glared at me for a minute more before sighing. “She has been acting strangely lately.”
“I think it’s because she’s stressed. Jamie still hasn’t given her the interview she needs for her research and time is running out.”
“You’re going to let her go home to finish her degree?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
“I don’t ‘let’ Frankie do anything,” I said. “Frankie wants to finish her Ph.D. before we get married and I fully support her decision. So yes, she will go home in a couple of weeks to do just that.”
Dorian snorted. “No woman of mine would leave me indefinitely to do something so inane as finish a university degree.”
“Yeah, well, maybe that’s why you don’t have a woman in your life.”
“Who said I don’t have a woman in my life?” he asked with an oily smile. “I have several, in fact, and none of them have any intention of leaving me for some dusty old university.”
“Then maybe you need to choose a better caliber of companion,” I replied as the car pulled up in front of the palace.
“Maybe you’re right,” he murmured as I slid out of the car.
“So will you help me?” I asked as we walked up the stairs and into the palace.
He sighed. “I will help you, but you will owe me.”
I rolled my eyes. “What do you want?” I asked, prepared to do just about anything to finally get some alone time with Frankie.
“My price is yet to be determined,” he replied with another of those slick smiles.
“Whatever,” I said, waving his comment away. My desperation had reached such levels that nothing Dorian asked of me could possibly make me say no. “Tonight,” I said. “After dinner.”
“Fine,” he sighed.
I fidgeted through dinner and barely ate anything. If Frankie noticed, she didn’t say anything. I doubt she noticed, though, because her attention was on everyone else and never once on me. She barely looked at me, let alone made eye contact, and she answered my questions with the least amount of words as possible.
If I was the type of person to get angry and blow my stack, I would be close to doing just that. But I wasn’t that person, so I wasn’t angry, if anything I was hurt and disappointed.
Was that what Clarissa meant when she said she wanted passion in a relationship? Was I too polite? Too willing to compromise? Too…nice?
Nice. The kiss of death for a man. There was a reason the cliché ‘nice guys finish last’ was a thing.
I looked across the table to where Dorian sat. He confessed to having more than one woman in his life, and I believed it. He was discreet, but he definitely had the playboy look about him. And he wasn’t nice. Dorian was as far from nice as you could get. He was arrogant and selfish and stuck-up and callous. And yet, the women seemed to love him.