Secrets of a Prince (The Princes of New Sargasso #3) - Carol Moncado Page 0,39

about his investments or anything else.”

“Were there any new people around beforehand?”

She shook her head. “No. I was to occasionally be seen but never heard.”

“No dinner parties where you were to dress extravagantly and play the hostess to business partners?” the king pressed.

She shook her head then stopped. “Once. But it was about a year before everything went south. I don’t know that it has anything to do with any of this.”

“Tell me about it anyway.” He clicked his pen. “Everything you can remember.”

Minnie leaned back in her chair. “Wow. Let me think. There were about ten people there. The guests of honor were a middle-aged couple I’d never met before. Maybe late-40s or early-50s. There were several younger, single men. I was supposed to flirt with them, tactfully if there is such a thing, but not get involved or attached in any way. There were three other couples, I believe. One young and two older. And the main guy.”

“Would you recognize any of them?”

She thought about it. “Maybe? There was something weird about the main guy. I never could put my finger on it.”

His father scratched a note on his paper. “Weird how?”

Minnie shook her head. “I’m not sure. It was like he wasn’t quite comfortable in his own skin. He had a mustache, but kept touching it. Not in the kind of way someone usually does, but like it was unfamiliar.”

“Do you remember his names?”

She leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table, her brow furrowed in thought. “It was kind of like a common name, but not at the same time. Not Robinson or Robertson, but something like that. Robison maybe?”

His father nodded and sighed. “As I suspected. Robison is another of the pseudonyms of Kari’s parents. They wore disguises from time to time as well. It appears that your father was involved with them, but until now, we couldn’t confirm it. Would you be willing to testify in court about what happened that night?”

Joss watched as Minnie’s eyes went wide. “Would I what now?”

15

Testify against her father? Or against the other people who were there that night?

“I’m not sure what you mean, sir.” She shifted anxiously in her seat.

“Just about what you saw that day.”

“You mean against my father?” The mere thought of being in the same room with him made her nervous.

“Not specifically, but it depends on how he was involved in the schemes. If he’s simply a victim, there’s no issue. If he was involved on a deeper level, then it may involve testifying against him.” He made another note on his pad.

Her stomach churned. “I never thought about the idea that he was involved as more than a victim.”

“It’s not definite,” the king told her. “But it is suspected that he was involved.”

“I don’t know what to say. I had no idea that was even a possibility.”

It all churned around in her head as she tried to grasp at what the king implied.

“Let’s not worry about it at the moment. I’ll have the investigators set up a meeting with you. Once you’ve had a chance to discuss it with them, we’ll decide the best course of action.” He pushed away from the table. “Since this took significantly less time than we had designated, why don’t we go have breakfast with the family?”

Minnie would much rather stay in Joss’s apartment, and not have to face the rest of them, but it didn’t seem like an actual request.

“That would be lovely.” She stood up as both of them did.

“I’ll handle the introductions and explanations when we arrive,” the king told them. “If you want to go into more detail later, you can. If not, you don’t have to.”

Together, they walked toward... somewhere. Wherever the family ate together.

Probably the monarch’s quarters. Until the night before, Minnie had never been anywhere but the ballroom and the office and the routes to and from them.

Sure enough, when they walked through the next set of ornate doors, it was into a homier area than she’d ever seen in the palace. A moment later, they entered an area too cozy to be the formal dining room.

There were “good morning” type comments as the king motioned for everyone to remain seated.

“I’m sure you all know Lady Waterford, or - more accurately - Princess Minerva, who prefers to be addressed as Minnie.”

Minnie wanted to hide behind Joss, or perhaps in Auverignon, as mouths gaped and eyes blinked.

Joss’s arm slipped around her waist in a supportive motion. He ushered her to two