Royal Ruse - Emma Lea Page 0,27
Antonio. He could give her some extensions and do something about that awful color. And her eyebrows…I know thick eyebrows are all the rage at the moment, but there is a line between fashionably thick and unibrow.” Mother stood and smoothed her skirt. “Right,” she said decisively. “Don’t worry, I will handle this.”
Before I could say anything, Mother was stalking from the office leaving me staring after her. I did not know what she intended to do, but I did know I needed to warn Frankie. If anyone had any chance of stopping my mother in her tracks, it was Frankie. She was the only other person, apart from Effie, who would stand up to her and not be bulldozed.
I grabbed my phone and opened the text message app.
L: Warning! My mother is on the warpath, and she has you in her sights.
F: What? Why? What have I done?
L: No clue, although she said something about your hair.
F: My hair? What’s wrong with my hair?
Okay, maybe I should have thought through what I would say because I felt very much like I was walking through a minefield right now and one wrong step could leave me in pieces.
L: Maybe it wasn’t your hair…
F: Lucas Estevan Andino you tell me right now what your mother said about my hair!
L: Estevan is not my middle name, as you very well know.
F: Stop avoiding the question! What did she say?
L: Shzz grzz mrrh...you’re breaking up. I’m going through a tunnel…bszxa
F: LUCAS!
I put my phone on silent and tossed it in a drawer in my desk. I was not prepared for the can of worms I just opened up. I was being a coward, I knew, but at least I warned her about my mother’s agenda. We would only have to put up with it for a couple more weeks and then we would be halfway across the world and out of my mother’s reach. Besides, Frankie was quite capable of saying no and nothing my mother could say would change that.
Francesca
Thanks to Lucas’ infuriating text, I knew Maya Andino was coming for me, but that didn’t stop me from being surprised when she turned up on my doorstep. I didn’t even think she knew where I lived, although it would have been easy enough to find out.
“Mrs. Andino,” I said as I opened the door.
She looked me over and her mouth formed a moue of distaste. “Francesca,” she said, stepping past me into the foyer.
She looked around, taking everything in. The brownstone was immaculately decorated, and the cleaner had only just been so there was not a speck of dust to be seen.
“You have a…lovely home,” she said before looking at me and narrowing her eyes.
What as that saying about damning with faint praise?
“Is there something I can do for you, Mrs. Andino?” I asked with no small amount of exasperation.
“We need to talk, Francesca,” she answered briskly.
“My name is Frankie,” I replied, “and what exactly do we need to talk about?”
“Your image.”
“My image? What is it exactly about my image that we need to discuss?”
Maya narrowed her eyes at me. “All of…this,” she said, circling her hand in front of me to encompass my entire self.
I crossed my arms over my chest and cocked a hip. “Would you like to be a little more specific? No, wait, the better question is, what has my ‘image’ got to do with you?”
“Must we have this conversation out here in the foyer like savages?” Maya asked.
I huffed and led the way to the formal sitting room we hardly ever used. Maya sat gingerly on one of the wingback armchairs and I curled a leg under my backside as I sat on the couch. Maya grimaced at my blatant un-ladylike posture but said nothing. I may have been doing it just to annoy her, but she didn’t need to know that.
“I understand you’re a modern, independent woman, Francesca—”
“Frankie,” I corrected, but she went on as if I hadn’t spoken.
“But you are about to become a markissia and that title comes with some responsibility.”
“I don’t see how—”
“No, I suppose you wouldn’t. You Americans, you don’t understand the subtle challenges of being royal. You are loud and brash and are more concerned with your individuality than being concerned with how that individuality affects others. Lucas is about to become part of the king’s trusted circle, part of his oikos. Lucas will be a representative of the king and as his wife, so will you. You have a responsibility