Secrets of a Prince (The Princes of New Sargasso #3) - Carol Moncado Page 0,62
managed to refrain.
Kari talked about it from time to time, mostly just said that it was going well, and she was very pleased with the stories she’d read and didn’t know how on earth they were going to pick a single winner. Kari had prayed the winner would be completely obvious.
She’d been practically dancing around for several days, saying the prayers had been answered. Rosie tried to find out more while the three of them had lunch a few days earlier, but Kari had remained mum on the details, saying even she didn’t know the identity of the winning author.
As she finished getting ready for the day, Joss wrapped his arms around her waist. “How are you feeling?”
“Nervous.” Her stomach had been full of butterflies for days. She woke up with them, though sometimes they settled as the day went on. Sometimes they didn’t.
“Are you going to the announcement?”
Minnie nodded. “Kari asked me to be there.”
He pressed a kiss to the top of her shoulder. “I wonder if that’s a sign.”
She shook her head. “No. She asked me a couple of weeks ago. Just the other day, she said she didn’t know the identity of the winner yet. So, on the very off chance I did win, three days ago she didn’t know it was me. Or she lied really well. Rosie is going to be there, too.”
“Caleb and I are going to try to be there. I know Gid will be, obviously. Not sure about Zeke or the folks. Lydia will want to be but not sure if she’ll be able to go.”
“I’d love it if you could be there. I’m afraid my disappointment will be apparent when they announce someone else.”
“Isn’t that person going to be there?” Joss let his arms drop and stepped to the side to brush his teeth. “Or is it just an announcement and that person will be watching at home or be at work and their phone will blow up with text messages?”
Minnie leaned closer to apply some mascara. “I have no idea. Kari’s been fairly tight-lipped. There’s not much online about it either. Just that the announcement is at ten this morning.”
“Did you order breakfast?”
“Ugh. No. I’m too anxious to eat.”
Together, they walked down to their offices. The row of three offices belong to Rosie, Caleb, and Joss, but around the corner was another one for Minne. Her office also had a door to Joss’s. She tried to get some work done on a fundraiser for The Literary Council, but she had a hard time focusing.
A knock on the door surprised her. “Come in,” she called.
The door opened, and the king walked in. Minnie scrambled to stand and curtsy, but he waved her off.
“How are you this morning?” He took a seat across from her.
In a few seconds, a thousand thoughts flew through her head. Did she tell him? Did he already know? “I’m anxious for the announcement.” She glanced up at him then back down at her computer keyboard. “I entered the Trilunium writing contest. I have no idea how well I might have done, but Joss loved it. The odds of me winning are slim but still. And I know if I were to win, I won’t keep the proceeds from it. They’ll go into The Literacy Council or something, just like the settlement will if I pass without a daughter.”
That’s what she had decided when Joss left it up to her. He understood her need to have funds of her own, funds that he had no say in what she spent them on, if anything.
If they had a daughter, she would never have to wonder how to find the money to get out of a bad situation like Minnie now suspected her mother did.
The king chuckled at her pronouncement. “I wondered if you’d tell me. I’ve known for a long time, but Kari doesn’t, at least not to my knowledge. She and I have talked about it enough I think she would have said something if she did.”
“I don’t want to know if you know something about the results,” she warned him.
“My lips are sealed,” he promised. “But I did want to talk to you about something else.”
Her stomach knotted. “My father?” The story about framing her had checked out, and she’d been cleared months ago, but the whole thing still stressed her out.
A very different kind of stress than the other stress she’d been feeling all morning.
“Yes. His trial was held last week. He was found guilty and