the full suit of armour that was positioned beside the door they had reached before walking through, head down now to hide her burning cheeks.
Sabrina angled a sideways look at Sebastian, who didn’t even seem to have noticed. Presumably, she thought bitterly, he was used to women falling over when they saw him.
Glass houses, Brina?
Ignoring the sly contribution of the voice in her head, she walked ahead of him into the room, where her parents greeted her with an exchange of relieved looks before glaring at Chloe, who sat twirling an olive on a stick in her drink.
‘I only said she might have had second thoughts,’ her sister defended, opening her eyes innocently wide. Her eyes widened further, only not so innocently this time, as Sebastian appeared behind her sister.
Her father, his hand extended, immediately moved to greet the younger man, assuring him how delighted they were that he was able to join them.
‘And I must tell you how grateful we were that you were able to extract Sabrina here from that unpleasant situation earlier in the week.’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Dad, you make it sound as though he led a black ops rescue mission. He merely gave me a lift in his car!’
Her horrified parents turned, twin expressions of embarrassed disapproval on both their faces.
‘Sabrina!’
Wishing she had kept her mouth shut but equally unable to back down, she shrugged. ‘Well, it’s true. I could have got a taxi and there would have been less fuss.’ And no guilty secrets.
‘What has come over you, Sabrina?’ her mother asked, regarding her elder daughter with horror. ‘I apologise, Sebastian, for—’
‘No need at all. Sabrina is right—it was no bother. I was in the area.’
‘You mean you were falling out of a nightclub!’
That’s the way to go, Brina, because the hole you had dug was not deep enough.
‘Oh, the new one that everyone is talking about? Is it really as gloriously debauched as everyone said, and did Laura really dance topless on the table?’ Chloe asked, winking at Sabrina as she drew the parental fire onto her own head. But before she got a response to any of her questions Luis entered the room ahead of his parents.
* * *
Sabrina, her eyes lowered, performed a curtsy when her turn came.
The Queen, enveloped in a cloud of perfume, put a hand under her chin and while Sabrina fought the urge to snatch it away she turned her chin to the light.
‘She is so pretty. Isn’t she pretty, Ricard?’
She appealed to her husband who, after raising a brow at the presence of his younger son, was accepting the glass of champagne that had been offered him. ‘Lovely cheekbones.’
‘Delightful,’ the King responded, not looking at Sabrina or her cheekbones or, to her relief, her child-bearing hips, which were probably the only attribute in his future daughter-in-law that interested him, but staring at the glass of champagne he held.
He wasn’t holding it for long. The Queen released Sabrina and promptly removed it from his hand.
‘Doctor’s orders,’ she explained, and handed him an orange-juice-filled flute.
Aware that Luis had come to stand beside her, Sabrina turned with a smile.
‘Did you have a good journey?’ she asked, hearing the fake bright note in her voice. If she couldn’t think of something to say to him now, what would it be like in twenty years’ time? She let her eyes drift to where Sebastian stood talking to her sister, knowing there was no logic to it but blaming him for the horrid sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach anyway.
‘Pretty good considering.’
Chloe had moved away but she could still hear her sister’s laughter as Sebastian, who followed her, spoke in a low rumble, his words inaudible.
‘And did your call go well, Luis?’
‘Call?’ Luis repeated, his expression suddenly guarded, even, weirdly, suspicious...
‘Your brother said that you were waiting on an important call.’
Luis seemed to relax a little and Sabrina decided she had misread his veiled expression. ‘Oh, yes, sure, it was not really important. Sebastian must have got the wrong idea.’
When five minutes later dinner was announced the small gathering left the room. Protocol demanded that the King, with the Duchess on his arm, led the party, followed by the Queen and the Duke. Before Luis could take her own arm and fall into place behind them, Chloe slid between them, taking Luis’s arm.
‘Your bad brother has been telling me some things—’ she flung a laughing glance over her shoulder ‘—and I really don’t know if they’re true. Tell me, how do you know if he’s lying?’
‘I’m hurt at the accusation I would ever tell an untruth,’ Sebastian protested as Chloe led his brother away.
Watching the little interchange Sabrina felt a stab of something that resembled jealousy, enough to increase the level of conflict swirling in her head by several uncomfortable, confusing notches.
‘Shall we?’
Looking from the arm presented to her to his face, she gave a quick nod and placed her hand lightly on it. While the couples ahead made light conversation, in contrast they walked in silence down the hallway until they reached the dining-room doorway.
‘What is it?’ Sebastian asked, refusing to acknowledge the stab of sympathy as she stood there, her slim body in an attitude that made him think of a scared animal trying to work up the courage to move out of the headlights. Or in Sabrina’s case, he supposed, to step into the spotlight.
‘Nothing,’ she said, forcing the word through pale lips. ‘Just...just give me a minute, would you?’
The sympathy he’d held in check turned into anger as he watched her.
‘Is it worth it?’
The harsh scorn in his voice forced her gaze upwards. She felt her anger rise, hot and resentful. ‘Financial stability, a reduction in the unemployment rate, an education system that is fit for purpose...funding for—’ She took a deep breath, her expression hard with contempt when she finished. ‘Is that worth me marrying a man I respect and like? Yes, I think so.’ She let go of his arm and, chin up, shoulders firm, she walked in ahead of him.
Sebastian watched her queenly progress and felt a stab of something that he refused to recognise as respect.
TAKING HER OWN SEAT, Sabrina watched as Chloe, already seated, said something to make the normally severe guest of honour laugh. Sabrina felt a stab of envy for the social ease that came so naturally to her sister, who tonight looked
