“Amara, please. You are going to be my daughter-in-law after all.”
She blinked at the unreality of that. Then there was another Constantinides to meet as Stella stepped forward. More arresting than beautiful, the cool, blue-eyed blonde with those signature Constantinides eyes took her in with unabashed curiosity.
“So lovely to meet you,” Stella murmured, brushing a kiss to both her cheeks. “Don’t mind my father,” she said under her breath as she guided Sofía toward the ornately carved bar on the other side of the room. “He is who he is.”
Sofía kept her gaze firmly averted from King Gregorios. “It’s so nice to meet you, too. Nik has told me how close you are.”
“That I am the renegade princess, I expect?” Stella lifted a brow, eyes dancing. “And you are the scandalous American lover who destroyed an alliance. It’s a match made in heaven.”
She gave Nik’s sister a wary look as she poured her a glass of lemonade. “If it makes you feel any better,” Stella murmured, handing her the glass, “I can’t stand the countess. She is a cold fish. Nik would have been miserable.”
Sofía’s eyes widened. She wrapped her fingers around the glass. “What is that?” Stella demanded, manacling her fingers around Sofía’s wrist to twist it so she could see the sapphire. “I can’t believe Nik broke with tradition.”
“Tradition?”
“All Akathinian royal engagements are celebrated with a rare type of Tanzanian sapphire named for the Ionian Sea upon which we sit. You will be the first not to wear an Akathinian sapphire. Well, except for Queen Flora’s daughter.”
“What did she have?”
“Her eldest daughter, Terese, refused to have an Akathinian sapphire. She hadn’t been married two years when she and her husband had a huge argument. Terese took the car out and got in an accident. At the time, the queen was convinced it was because of the ring. Because she’d broken tradition. She was very superstitious.”
Right. Yet another strike against her and Nik.
“So the legend goes.” Stella waved a hand at her. “It’s foolishness. I’m so glad Nik’s not the superstitious type. I’m not wearing one if I ever marry. I’m a canary diamond kind of girl.”
Queen Amara strolled over to see the ring. “Nik has always been of his own mind. His coronation ceremony was very simple, bucking tradition. I hope he won’t deprive us of too many traditions around your wedding. We have such lovely ones.”
Nik joined them. “On that note, we’re planning an engagement party rather than a garden press conference.”
The queen brightened. “That’s a lovely idea. When will you have it?”
“In two weeks’ time.”
His mother looked horrified. “Two weeks?”
“It will be good for the people. They could use something to cheer about right now.”
“Yes, I expect it will. But so soon. How will we get everything done?”
“It’s all in motion. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
Stella clapped her hands, excitement sparkling in her eyes. “Let me help plan it. I can work with the palace staff and help Sofía with all the protocol and rigmarole.”
Nik lifted a brow. “You teach Sofía protocol? She’ll have an adviser.”
Stella scowled at her brother. “I’ll be the perfect teacher. She’ll know what’s old-school nonsense and what she has to pay attention to.”
And with that Sofía learned that Stella always got what she wanted.
* * *
Nik was still fuming as he sat down beside his father at the dinner table in the smaller, less formal dining room. He had been inexcusably rude to his fiancée. It would not continue, but it would have to be addressed later at a more appropriate time.
His attempt to steer the conversation to innocuous ground was circumvented by the sensational news coverage of his meeting with Idas today and his father’s ire. “Your stance was called aggressive,” his father pointed out. “International opinion doesn’t like it, Nikandros, and neither does the council.”
Nik’s blood boiled a degree hotter. What was wrong with his father talking politics at the dinner table? His mind hadn’t been right since Athamos’s death. “Idas was the inflammatory one,” he said curtly. “I was merely responding to him, an error, I know. It would not have been necessary had the council representatives with me had the facts at hand.”
“What will you do?” his mother interjected. “Idas doesn’t seem to be backing down. This seems like more than rhetoric.”