Free The Man's Outrageous Demands by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

at that moment. Her lips thinned and her blue eyes flashed but she didn’t continue. “I’ll talk about it later,” she said and stepped over to the sherry cart to pour herself a drink.
    “Your majesty,” Sam said and bowed first to the king, then to the queen, Max and Marabeth. “I can quickly brief you now so you can continue with your family dinner without me intruding,” Sam was saying.
    The queen waived his papers aside. “Please don’t go into that right now. You can discuss it over brandy later. What would you like to drink?” she said graciously, immediately understanding that there was something going on between her daughter and this man that Max had picked up on already.
    Sam looked back at Marabeth and shook his head. “Really, I don’t want to intrude,” he said.
     
    “You’re not intruding at all,” King Stephan said and patted him on the shoulder, guiding the taller man over to the bar. “What would you like to drink?” he repeated.
     
    Sam requested a bourbon and the waiter immediately poured some into a crystal glass. He turned and watched Marabeth while the rest of the family discussed their day.
    It was Marabeth’s turn to talk about her day and she shrugged her shoulders. “Nothing spectacular to report from my end. I just hung around the palace today. Sam? What wonderful mischief did you get into today?” she asked and all eyes turned towards Sam.
    He wanted to smile at her not so subtle jab. But he didn’t. He kept a straight face and shook his head. “I can’t believe nothing interesting happened to you today, your highness. Surely you ran around causing havoc and mayhem.”
    Marabeth shook her head but the fire got brighter in her eyes. “Not today. But I’ll be ready to do so tomorrow. It was a very calm and boring day. Just one confrontation that I can barely recall now,” she said and shrugged her shoulders delicately.
    The queen raised her eyebrows at her daughter’s obviously provocative behavior but was still trying to determine what was going on. She could feel the tension between these two people and wanted to understand what was causing it. “What confrontation was that?” she asked. “And who won?”
    Marabeth shrugged her shoulders delicately. “Like I said, it was nothing of significance and the war has not yet begun. Only a minor skirmish which wasn’t enough for anyone to declare a win or a loss.”
    Sam raised an eyebrow at her statement. “Surely nothing you are involved in has so little significance?” he countered.
     
    “You give me too much credit,” Marabeth shot back. “Most of my appointments are very staid and laid back.”
     
    “Probably not. What kind of life would that be if you only had staid confrontations?”
    “That’s what I was trying to convince someone this morning. But that person just refused to be reasonable about the situation. Hence, my very long, very uneventful day,” she sighed.
    A waiter appeared in the doorway and formally announced that dinner was ready.
     
    The queen and king both looked at each other and smiled, understanding what Max had been about to tell them earlier before Marabeth interrupted them.
     
    King Stephan offered his wife’s arm, his eyes twinkling. “I understand, son,” he said behind him. To his wife, he chuckled. “How long, my dear?”
     
    Natasha turned to Sam and smiled, “Sam, would you mind escorting Marabeth to dinner? Max, I need you to phone Ana and ask her to confirm her due date, please.”
     
    The queen took his offered arm and pondered the question as they walked into the room. “Three months?”
     
    King Stephan chuckled again and shook his head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”
     
    “Six months?” the queen said, already making plans in her head.
    “Longer? I think that might be dangerous, given the circumstances,” King Stephan said and glanced back at his daughter, barely containing his laughter as Marabeth glared at Sam as he walked over to her