Up for Heir - Stella Starling Page 0,98
me to dance. We’ll need to discuss the Ladysmith incident later. Ta!”
“His cat,” Leo whispered to Edvin as Wren dragged Thom away and the queen looked for all the world like she was trying not to smile as she watched the two of them leave.
Edvin bit back a grin. So the palace cats did get up to all sorts of shenanigans.
“There was an incident, Mother?” Leo asked, already sounding amused.
“Minor unpleasantness with that von Tarr person,” the queen answered with a dismissive wave, making Edvin startle.
Von Tarr was that horrid reporter they’d run into once, wasn’t it? He glanced around, his hold on his glass of Zasfer tightening to a white-knuckled grip.
Leo frowned. “Ida von Tarr is here?”
The king’s eyes twinkled. “Not anymore. Wren can fill you in later, but let’s just say that we may need to knight Ladysmith for her… participation.”
The queen hid a snorty little laugh behind her hand, almost making her seem like just a regular person, but then she turned the full force of her attention on Edvin and… right. Not regular at all. This was Queen Aubrey, emphasis on the “Queen.”
“Edvin Blom,” she said with an intimidating smile.
(Well, okay, basically just a regular smile, possibly slightly reminiscent of the Mona Lisa, but given that it was on the queen’s face, and also currently directed at Edvin, “intimidating” definitely fit, too.)
Edvin nodded even though it hadn’t been a question… then he realized that fact and swallowed hard, trying to remember how to speak… and then he inexplicably decided that downing the rest of his Zasfer for courage was the way to go, but—not surprisingly—that proved to be a mistake, not least of which because he immediately started choking on one of the floating blueberries.
“Okay, darling?” Leo asked, patting Edvin’s back until he could breathe again and then pressing a kiss onto his temple.
“Happens to me all the time,” King Alphonse said with a kind (but also pretty freaking intimidating) smile… lying through his royal teeth, if Edvin were to guess.
It was still nice of him, though.
“Your M-M-Majesties,” Edvin finally managed to croak out, his face so hot that they probably thought Leo had gotten himself engaged to a raspberry or a pomegranate or… or some other variety of red fruit. “Um, hi.”
…had he just said “um, hi”?
Why yes, yes he had.
When Leo had mentioned introducing him to the king and queen, Edvin had pictured it as some kind of formal presentation over at the elaborate dais at the far end of the ballroom, complete with Edvin mangling any and all necessary protocol to the embarrassment of them all. And true, it was comforting to realize that even if Leo’s parents weren’t quite regular people, at least they were the kind of sovereigns who would mingle and participate in a celebration like this instead of simply preside over it from on high, but still… “hi”? That had to be a faux pas. Leo, however, just twined their fingers together and smiled down at Edvin the same way he always had, as if he wasn’t embarrassed by Edvin’s complete lack of social graces at all, and made decidedly informal introductions that were, quite honestly, way more Edvin’s speed.
“Mother, Father, this is my fiancé,” he said. “Eddie, my parents.”
“Mr. Blom, it truly is a pleasure,” the queen said, giving him a warm smile that, okay, maybe wasn’t so intimidating after all. Or maybe that was the Zasfer speaking? “Alphonse and I look forward to getting to know you better in a less formal setting, but first—” she turned her attention to Leo, pinning him with a look that was one part admonishment from a mother and about a billion parts royal decree, “—I believe we have an official announcement to make.”
She inclined her head toward the dais, and oh Lord. Okay. Fully fledged intimidation factor back in play… although maybe, if Edvin was being honest, mixed in with just a touch of excitement, too.
Because this was it. The moment Leo would officially tell the world that Edvin was his.
Chapter Twenty
Leo
In a perfect world, perhaps there would have been more time to have someone coach Eddie in all the dreary protocol of formal events, or somehow better prepare him for the pomp and circumstance that every sneeze from the royal family seemed to require, but the truth was that Leo preferred an authentically adorable and slightly bumbling Eddie on his arm to the kind of polished aristocrat that the suitable-marriage-candidate list he’d been given had been full of. Not,