“I wouldn’t have,” Vince finally said, heaving a sigh. “I would have wanted to save them, too.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s what we do.”
“It’s what we do,” she repeated, and she drew in a shaky breath, blinking several times. “Okay, then.” She swallowed. “How do I look?”
“Like a woman capable of breaking a family curse,” he said staunchly, and she laughed despite herself.
“One day my prince will come, right?” she said, shaking her head. “Well, it looks like he’s got about five minutes.
Vince watched Edeena square her shoulders, then approach the front steps of the gazebo. If anything, the intervening few minutes while they’d conversed in the shadows had given more people time to flow out of the main ballroom and into the courtyard. The entire place had the feel of a carnival now, raucous and festive, exactly what the queen had had in mind when she’d invited such a large crowd to attend.
His sharp gaze didn’t miss the media either, lurking at the edge of the throng. The royal family wouldn’t have invited them, Vince knew. That had to be Silas’s doing, as well. Silas, who was so frightened or miserable that he’d sacrifice everything to recover the illusion of control.
He glanced again to Edeena. She wanted that control, too, craved it, but she had her limits. She would never sacrifice her family’s happiness to achieve it. She wouldn’t sacrifice anything, really, except herself. Her own happiness was always a suitable bargaining chip.
Vince blew out a deep breath. He’d be there for Edeena when this was through, that was a given. But he wished like hell she didn’t have to go through it. Wished like hell she could flip the script, be confronted with something so entirely different that it took all the attention off the men who were about to embarrass her, about to make her feel she wasn’t wanted, wasn’t special.
She’d survive, of course. Edeena knew all about surviving. But for once, he wished she didn’t have to. For once . . .
To hell with this.
Edeena held out her arms and spoke a few words in Garronois, obviously welcoming the crowd or something like that. Vince didn’t care. Now that he’d made his decision, he was single minded in his pursuit of action.
His beautiful, strong, responsible Countess was about to have a problem on her hands. Only it wasn’t at all the problem she expected to have.
The crowd was still applauding something else Edeena said when Vince reached her. Mindful of the microphone attached to her neckline, he reached out for her hands, pulling her close.
“Countess Saleri, you must hear me out first, before you make any decisions,” he said in his loudest, most urgent voice. It boomed out over the courtyard and suddenly, everything fell silent. Hundreds of people seemed to freeze in their places, no one more than Edeena.
“Vince?” she finally managed, the word coming out half strangled.
But now that he was here, Vince realized that it was the most natural thing in the world to gaze down into Edeena’s beautiful face and imagine himself making this declaration to her anywhere, whether it was on the beach back in his beloved South Carolina in front of his entire family, or on a gazebo platform in front of two hundred strangers, none of whom even knew his name.
“Edeena Arabelle Catherine Saleri, I have loved you since the moment I first laid eyes on you in America, when you traveled to my country with your sisters, hoping to help them start a new life, in a new place, with new experiences and opportunities, like any older sister hopes for her family. But you were more than their older sister,” he declared, and it was if everyone in the courtyard had stopped breathing, so silent had it become. “You were the person in their lives who, more than anyone else, was responsible for their care. Though you were barely a few years older, you had shouldered that responsibility for them since your mother died. By the time I met you, you were so used to taking care of everyone that you’d forgotten how to take care of yourself.”
“Vince, stop,” Edeena mouthed, but she couldn’t quite speak the word aloud, couldn’t quite seem to do anything but tremble in his grasp, her eyes brimming over with tears.
“You came to my home excited about anything and everything—until you heard me called a prince. Do you remember that?”
Edeena’s eyes flared in confusion, but Vince pushed on. “A prince was the last thing that you needed all the way in America, the last thing you wanted to think about. Because a prince was required for you to break the curse your family had labored beneath for hundreds of years, and though you wanted nothing more than to break that curse, you knew in a flash I was no true prince. No, for me the word was just a nickname, a harmless prank first made when I was barely more than a kid myself. The fact that the name stuck . . . well, it was a cross I could easily bear. No one much cared about princes in America.”
He smiled, looking down at Edeena with so much intensity, he could feel his own hands shake. “Little did I know that there would come a time when all I wanted in the world was to truly be a prince, to be the one person that this incredible woman had a need for. I met you, Countess Saleri, when your guard was down. You were this beautiful, rare creature whose heart was filled to the breaking point with love for your sisters, whose dedication to them was evident in your every word and action.”
He gripped her hands more tightly. “But it wasn’t only responsibility for your sisters that was important to you. It was responsibility for your family as well. The family you knew, the family you didn’t know. To break this curse, you needed to marry a prince. Or, failing that, a nobleman of your country who had the comportment and strength of a prince. Then, and only then, would your family feel safe in coming back together again, standing together as a single unit, strength building on strength. Then, and only then, would you feel like your sisters could move on with their own lives, finding loves of their own, raising families outside this curse that has hung over the Saleris for far too long. Am I right?”
At the question, Edeena seemed to come back to herself, blinking quickly. “You’re right,” she managed, and her words were strong now, resolute. “Bringing my family together, ensuring their safety, is all I really wanted to do.”
Vince nodded encouragingly, his heart swelling as Edeena’s words echoed across the courtyard, everyone in the crowd of two hundred Garronois leaning forward now.
“And here I am, not a prince,” he said, “not even a nobleman of your own country. But I’d be a fool not to pledge myself to you, Countess. I’d be a fool not to offer myself to be your husband, your partner, your friend. To help you mend the fences broken by generations of misunderstanding and pain, pain that, maybe, no one even knows the reasons for anymore. I can’t offer you anything but the strength of my hands, the sharpness of my mind, and the stubbornness of an American who doesn’t know his place among such things as counts and princes and born nobility. But if you will have me, Edeena Saleri . . . if you’ll have me, I will be forever yours.”
“Vince, I can’t ask you to do that for me.”
The statement was so calm, so measured, that it took Vince a moment to realize it was coming from Edeena. But though gratitude and something approaching joy shown in her face, she was shaking her head. “It’s too much—too much of a sacrifice for you, too much of a change. You are to be commended even for offering, but the people of Garronia, they take care of their own. I will find a way to break the curse the way it was intended.”
“The way it was intended?” Vince squeezed her hands, knowing that she was trying to find some way, any way, to let him off the hook, to close this drama out without any permanent damage. As it was, the pageantry of the evening was assured, and no one would expect her to name some other suitor in the wake of his bid.
But Vince didn’t want to be let off the hook. With each word, he realized that none of this was merely a Hail Mary attempt to save Edeena from the machinations of her father. He did love her. He did want her. And he did wish for nothing more than to be a part of her future, of her family’s future.
More than anything he’d ever wanted in his life . . . he wanted her.
And so, he did what generations of Rallises had done, no matter that they weren’t princes or noblemen or rich. He did what his own father had done all those years ago, the very first moment that he met his mother, and knew she was the one.
He dropped down to one knee, and then the other. “Edeena Arabelle Catherine Saleri,” he rumbled, “would you marry me?”
Chapter Twenty-One
The crowd erupted into a cacophony of cheers, but Edeena couldn’t concentrate on that, couldn’t concentrate on anything except for Vince kneeling in front of her.
“What are you doing?” she mouthed, as soundlessly as she could, fiercely aware of the microphone at her neck.
“Say yes,” Vince mouthed back with a grin, equally aware but somehow still maintaining the presence of mind to keep up the act.
Only . . . was it an act? If it was, it was one of genius. And yet the way he was staring at her, his entire face flushed with intensity, his eyes boring into hers as if they could see into her soul . . . surely he was merely trying to help her, trying to save her from being embarrassed.
Right?
He squeezed her hands, hard, and Edeena said the only thing she could think of, the only thing that made sense in that moment.
“Yes!” she blurted, the sense of surrealism crashing over her again. “Yes, Vincent Rallis, I’ll marry you. If you will have me in return, you will be the next . . .” she swallowed, suddenly aware of the weight of silence that had once more fallen on the world around them. “You will be the next Count Saleri.”
To her surprise, there was no more cheering in the crowd. In fact, the entire place had fallen dead silent.
All the blood drained out of her head, and even Vince was looking a little green. At her gentle tug, he rose to his feet, but he didn’t step away from her. Instead he turned with her, one hand stealing behind her back, the other gripping her hand. He wasn’t about to let her face any of this alone, she realized, and for once, she was okay with that.
In fact, if what she’d agreed to was true—was real—she’d be okay with it for the rest of her life.
Her gaze swept the crowd, and she finally spotted Marguerite and Caroline, both of them looking like they were ready to jump out of their skin. Instead, they were being restrained, not by Rob and Cindy Marks, but by the very real, august presence of the King and Queen of Garronia, who now stood on either side of them. Also flanked between them was Silas Saleri.
For once, Silas wasn’t seething with malevolence either. He looked . . . more shocked than anything.
Edeena could understand how he felt.
The urge to say something—anything—grew intolerable, and Edeena took a deep breath. As Vince squeezed her hand, silently giving her the courage to step forward again, however, there was a new movement in the crowd.
Casually, with surpassing dignity, Guillarmo Aconti strode out into the space between the gazebo and throng of people. He bowed deeply to Edeena and Vince, then turned to face the gathering.
“I am Count Guillarmo Aconti Saleri, son of Lisbet Saleri, oldest daughter of Marcus Saleri, son of Antonio Saleri, son of Isabella Saleri,” he boomed. “I bless this union and cast my lot with Countess Edeena Saleri and her new husband.”
Edeena stiffened. Guillarmo Aconti Saleri?
Another man strode forward, and she recognized him as their driver from the day in the country. “I am Count Martin Saleri,” he said proudly, holding out his arms wide as he shouted out a similarly complicated lineage, this one even longer than Guillarmo’s. “It has been one hundred years since my family has laid claim to the Saleri name. I lay claim to it today. I am honored to count myself a member of this family, and I bless this union and the strength of the Saleri name.”
Then a woman bustled forth, and Edeena blinked hard, unable to stop the sudden, irrational surge of tears that came to her eyes. It wasn’t one of the polished nobles she’d met over the course of the endless brunches and breakfasts, dinners and tea parties—it was someone she would have never imagined.
The ancient, sharp-eyed dressmaker bustled into the space opening up in the crowd, her dress a vision in black silk with a cream collar, subtly continuing Edeena’s own elaborate tea dress colors but in a style far more suited to her petite frame and mature years. “I am Magdalene Anastasia Rigotto Martine Saleri,” she said triumphantly. “My family cast its lot with the Andrises of Garronia, and it continues to be my pleasure to serve them. But I, too, bless this union. On this day above all others, I am proud to call myself a Saleri.”
After that, there was a rush of people to the front of the crowd, all of them claiming solidarity with the Saleri name as Edeena and Vince stood, their hands gripping so tightly, Edeena thought she’d go numb. Within the next five minutes, a new movement started, and the crowd parted to let the king, queen, and her father and sisters make their way to the gazebo.
Marguerite and Caro were radiant with joy, Silas still looked faintly shocked, but it was Catherine and Jasen who looked the happiest, and—Edeena was surprised to realize—clearly relieved.
Jasen took a proffered microphone. “It is with great pleasure that I also endorse the engagement of Countess Edeena Arabelle Catherine Saleri and Mr. Vincent Rallis, and heartily applaud the remarkable solidarity of the Saleri family. Apart, you have been a credit to your country. Together, you will be the pride of all Garronia.”
Another cheer went up, and the music surged forth once more, sending the party into a fever pitch as their small group lay trapped on the gazebo stairs for another moment more.
Marguerite and Caroline converged on Vince, pulling him away from her, which left Edeena staring face to face with her father.
In the privacy of the gazebo, he no longer looked shell-shocked. He looked nearly manic.
Hesitantly, Edeena reached out to touch him on the arm. “Father—”
“It’s not going to work,” he snapped, his gaze connecting with hers. “It’s close, it’s very close. But it’s not perfect. The engagement won’t hold.”
She blinked at him, her outrage all the greater because it spoke to her own insecurities. She couldn’t really expect Vince to marry her—they’d known each other all of three weeks! It was preposterous! But to have her father throw his disdain so boldly at her stiffened her spine.
“It will hold, father. The curse will stay broken, and if there’s any way for us to stamp it out forevermore, we will. You should be happy. Now you won’t have to subject your youngest child to such a ridiculous quest. Now that beautiful new baby can be born into a new dawn of the Saleri family.”
The mention of the child seemed to recall Silas to himself, and Edeena’s heart twisted in her chest at the change that came over her father. He suddenly looked like he was going to cry and she stiffened.
“What is it?” she asked, horror beginning to well up inside her. “Is there anything wrong? Please tell me nothing is wrong with Maria or the baby.”
“Nothing . . . nothing’s wrong,” he said, but his words were almost anguished. He stared down at his hands, then up at Edeena. The words he spoke next seemed to be pulled out of the center of his being with pliers.
“Your mother was a good woman, Edeena. She tried, but she never believed in the reality of the curse on the Saleris, that we were to be doomed to eternal strife unless we married into royalty. She never believed it—and when she was alive, I almost didn’t believe it either. But then . . . then she died, and everything fell apart.”
Despite her long-stoked anger toward her father, Edeena couldn’t help her hand beginning to tremble as a sob wracked his body. “For a long time, I thought I could make things right by connecting you with Aristotle, but it . . . it wasn’t working, it never seemed to work, and it should have! You were beautiful, gracious, strong, and he was an idiot not to see it.”
“We were friends,” she said gently, and Silas laughed—a laugh which at one time would have been bi
tter, but was now simply sad.
“Friends, yes. I know. But I was so sure . . . I met Maria, you and Ari were practically engaged, I . . .” he sighed. “I proposed to her. Then Aristotle disappeared, she became pregnant and instead of believing that I could finally have a new beginning, I was caught up in the horror that the Saleri curse would continue and I would be destined to lose anyone I loved.”
His voice cracked, but he soldiered on. “And I do love her, Edeena. Her and the precious child she carries. At the last minute, I decided we would have a better chance if that child carried on the fight—not you. I’m not proud of what I tried to do, to induce all these men to stand down. In truth, I suspected it wouldn’t work. But I had no other choice! You defied me at every turn, you didn’t seem to understand how difficult the curse would be to break. But everything was in place and there was no time to call off the ball. You certainly weren’t interested in listening to reason.”
“Reason . . .” Edeena echoed.
“So I did what I could to control the outcome, to control you.” He smiled ruefully, the first genuine smile she’d seen on his face in years. “I should have known it was no longer possible.”
“Silas.”
Vince turned away from Marguerite and Caro as he heard the queen’s strong, quiet, but above all, compassionate voice, and realized the queen was folding the tall, lean man into her embrace. Silas was crying, and Edeena looked stricken.
Vince moved toward her instinctively, but her sisters got there first, not realizing the scene they’d just missed as the king and queen quickly and covertly escorted Silas off the gazebo and into a phalanx of guards. To anyone else, he would seem overcome with joy at his family’s good fortune, but Edeena’s face had told a different story.
Cursed: Gowns & Crowns, Book 5 Page 20
