The Marcelli Princess

Were there any names they weren’t going to call him? “I will not stand here and be insulted.”

She inhaled again. “Then take a seat.”

He glared at her. “As if your life is so perfect.”

“I’m twenty. I’m allowed to make mistakes. What’s your excuse?”

“What was the mistake? Etienne?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Have you told him?”

“No, I just broke up with him. No big.”

He studied her. “You are not wounded by your parting?”

“Wounded by our parting? You might want to think about communicating in a way slightly more relevant to this century, your highness. As for Etienne, no, I’m not wounded. I wanted him gone and now he is.”

Which sounded correct, but in Rafael’s experience, young women did not heal so easily from relationships.

“You were sleeping together?”

She frowned. “Get personal much?”

“If you were sleeping with him, then you should miss him.”

“Thanks for the news flash.”

“Why don’t you?”

“I never really liked him.”

Kelly immediately looked as if she wanted to call back the words.

“Why would you sleep with someone you don’t like?” he asked.

“Don’t you have a grovel appointment with Mia?”

“I am early.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are avoiding the question.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Why would you sleep with…” He nodded slowly. “Because your parents wouldn’t approve of him.”

She took a step back. “Whatever. I have to go.”

He didn’t take the hint. “So you wanted them to be upset. I have seen you with your parents. You have a good relationship with them, so you are not trying to upset them out of spite.”

“I would never do that,” she snapped. “Now just shut up.”

“I will not and you can’t make me.”

“That’s mature,” she muttered as she crushed out her cigarette, then picked up the butt.

“How is your dancing?” he asked.

“What?”

“You are doing well with the company?”

“Of course. They like me. I’m a hard worker. I’m moving forward with my career.”

There was something in the way she said the words. Something brittle and filled with pain. He felt he was close to the truth.

“Most girls your age are in college,” he said.

“I’m not a girl, you sexist pig, and so what? Why would I want to spend my day studying in some stuffy classroom when I can be on the stage? Do you know what a rush that is? Do you know how many really cute guys send me flowers after every show?”

He could relate to nothing in her conversation and yet he knew exactly what she felt. Perhaps because he had lived his whole life in a state of duty-doing what was expected rather than what he wanted.

“You must have spent a lot of time working at your ballet,” he said casually.

“Well, duh. Of course. Hours and hours. Francesca used to joke that we should get some kind of frequent flyer miles for all the times we went back and forth to the studio. She was great, staying with me through class and really encouraging me. My dad was just as proud. He…” She glared at him. “Why are we talking about this?”

“Because you feel guilty.” He felt triumphant, knowing he had found the key. “You thought this was what you wanted and your entire family sacrificed to make it happen. Perhaps not with money, but in time and effort. Perhaps the younger children had to give up time with their mother. Now you have what you vowed you always wanted and you hate it. You’re acting out in the hopes that you’ll so anger your parents that they will insist you quit and come home. You might even want them to punish you by sending you to college.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “You’re wrong!” she yelled. “You’re wrong and you’re stupid and you’re a liar.”

With that she turned and ran away. Rafael watched her go and knew he was right.

“What on earth have you done now?” Mia asked from the entrance to the rear of the house. “Was Kelly crying? Were you mean to her? I swear, Rafael, you’re really an amazingly useless human being.”

He turned to her. “Kelly is upset because I discovered her secret.”

Mia didn’t look convinced. “You’re not exactly someone any of us want to confide in.”

He walked toward her. “You’re right. She didn’t think she had told me anything significant, but she did. I recognized the symptoms. She is bound by duty.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “Oh, please.”

“She isn’t happy dancing. She regrets her career choice, but because of all the sacrifices her family made for her, she feels too guilty to tell them. She’s acting out, hoping to shock her parents enough so that they will punish her by bringing her home. She may even want to go to college.”

Mia moved back into the house and he followed her. “You know I’m right,” he said.

“I do not.”

“Think about it. How unusual is her behavior? Hasn’t it come on fairly quickly? The drinking, Etienne. She admitted she doesn’t even like him. What twenty-year-old sleeps with a man she doesn’t like?”

Mia leaned against the kitchen counter. “Maybe,” she admitted. “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.”

“I have solved the problem of your niece, Mia. Admit it. That should be worth something.”

She glared at him. “This isn’t a barter economy.”

He eased toward her, enjoying the fire in her eyes. “Of course it is. You have something I want and I have something you want.”

“You have nothing I want.”

He touched her arm. She wore a sleeveless summer dress and he brushed his fingers down her bare skin to her elbow. He was close enough to feel her shiver and see the goose bumps that erupted.

Interesting. All her fury had not burned away her desire for him. He was pleased, because he still wanted her as well, but that wasn’t what he spoke of.

“I wish to have a relationship with my son,” he said. “You wish that as well.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it. He had suspected she wouldn’t be comfortable saying she didn’t want him to be close to Daniel. What mother stood in the way of a boy and his father bonding?

“You’re still a pig,” she said.

“So Kelly informed me. The women of your family are not afraid to speak their minds.”

“We’re good at it.”

“I have noticed. Come. We will go see Daniel in his play and you will think about what I have said about Kelly. In time, you will admit I was right. I am not as insensitive as you think.”

“Don’t push it,” she grumbled as she collected her purse.

“I will not.” He held open the door. “I have a surprise. I bought a new car so that I would fit in with the other parents.”

She stepped out and stared at the massive SUV. “That’s the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. You think it’s inconspicuous?”

“It does not have diplomatic flags. And see? Oliver and Umberto are driving in a different car. No one will notice them. We are just like everyone else.”

“Oh, right,” she muttered as she walked over to the SUV and eyed the high step. “We’re the walking, breathing definition of normal.”