Caitlyn’s eyes were already wide from the excitement of standing in front of the king. They couldn’t get any rounder, so her surprise wasn’t immediately evident, even though her lips parted and she seemed like she might say something to ruin the whole plot, like, “You never asked me at all, and you had plenty of time to do it!”
But she remained silent, looking between the king and queen.
“Close your mouth, dear. You look like a codfish,” Eliana said mildly. She smiled at her husband. “Please do say something before the poor girl collapses from nerves.”
King Eldon narrowed his eyes and gestured toward her. “You have known my son for some time? For how long?”
Caitlyn’s opened her mouth again to speak, closed it, and then opened it again. “W-we met five, um, five years a-ago. In Nice.”
“An American girl in France,” the King said, as though amused.
“I was, um, studying abroad, and…” Caitlyn looked to Emrys, and he could tell that she could barely breathe from how fast her heart must’ve been beating. “W-we hit it off.”
“You hit it off with her five years ago, and you’re bringing me to her now?” the King asked.
Eliana was not so amused, however. Emrys could see that she’d put the timeline together.
“We met again at my latest premiere,” Emrys told them. “I simply couldn’t let her go again.”
Caitlyn flushed, looking up at him with a little smile. She creased her brow in confusion, but there was no resolving it for the moment. Emrys did feel guilty for springing this on her, but he would make it up to her later.
“Well, isn’t she adorable,” Eliana said dryly.
“She is indeed. I fail to see, however, what a prince of Cabeau sees in this stammering commoner,” Eldon drawled.
Emrys tensed. “Your highness,” he objected.
“It is my decision, ultimately, who my children wed. Does she have anything else to her credit besides being adorable? Someone you simply couldn’t live without?”
Emrys felt his face burning, but before his temper could get the better of him, Caitlyn picked up the sides of her dress and took a step forward.
“It probably means nothing to you, but I run my own web design business,” Caitlyn said. “Maybe Cabeau doesn’t value entrepreneurs; I couldn’t speak to that. But I make enough to have a few employees, and I manage almost a hundred accounts now. Where I’ll end up, I don’t know, but in America, we at least pay lip service to the idea that even commoners like me can and should find a way to contribute to the world.”
Emrys felt his heart in his throat. His mother was sitting very, very still and kept her eyes on Eldon.
The king laughed.
“We do appreciate entrepreneurship here. However, technology has not been a large part of our economic growth, unfortunately,” he said, leaning forward on his throne.
“Well, not every country can or should try to make money that way.” Caitlyn shrugged. “Technology isn’t good in itself. It’s expensive and is too often treated as a buzzword for increasing business without any real understanding of what that would require. I’m sure your advisors and parliament know best how and when you want to develop in that area.”
“She’s clever.” Eldon looked to Emrys. “The connections aren’t what we’d like, but she is clever, I’ll give her that. We will think on the matter, Emrys.”
“That is generous,” Emrys said, with a final bow.
***
“I’m your fiancée!?” Caitlyn hissed as she pulled Emrys into a room down the hall from the ballroom. He’d been reluctant to leave the ball at all, but after an hour, her curiosity and irritation were reaching their peak. Whatever the official protocol for the ball was, he could slip away for a few moments to explain an outright lie to the king that he’d expected her to play along with.
“Well, I can explain that.” Emrys checked to make certain the door was closed, and then returned to her side and took her hand.
“It’s a bit late to propose now. Apparently I missed it!”
Emrys frowned at her. “Please, just listen.”
Caitlyn pulled her hand away and crossed her arms. “I wait with bated breath.”
“You really do belong here, you know,” he drawled. “I was speaking to my mother when we arrived, and she incorrectly assumed that you were here as my fiancée. I should have explained right away that she was mistaken, but…”
Caitlyn sighed and let her arms fall to her sides. It was so hard to stay mad at him when he did foolish things trying to please his parents. Her own parents were just tickled pink that she’d graduated from college and gotten out of their little town. Nothing else seemed to faze them, aside from her perpetually single status.