“Well.” Not certain if she should frown or laugh, Brie looked after them. “He certainly moves fast.”

“Eve doesn’t creep along herself.” Christina tapped her foot a moment, then dismissed them. After all, she couldn’t play chaperone forever. “How busy are you?”

“Not very,” Brie told her, mentally rearranging her schedule. “Tomorrow I won’t have time to take a breath.”

“Then let’s take one now.” Christina linked an arm through hers. “Can we have tea and cookies in your rooms, the way we used to? I can’t believe it’s been a year. There’s so much to catch up on.”

If you only knew, Brie mused as she moved down the corridor with her.

* * *

“Tell me about Reeve,” Christina demanded as she plucked an iced pink cookie from the tray.

Brie ran her spoon around and around in her tea, though she’d forgotten to put any sugar in. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Everything,” Christina said dramatically. “I’m eaten up with curiosity.” She’d tossed off her shoes and had her legs curled under her. The excitement of the flight was beginning to ease into relaxation. But she’d already noticed that Brie wasn’t relaxed. She dismissed it—almost—as tension over the ball. “You certainly don’t have to tell me what he looks like.” She gestured with the half cookie, then nimbly popped it into her mouth. “I see his picture every time I pick up a magazine. Is he fun?”

Brie thought about the day on her boat, about the drives they sometimes took along the coast. She thought of the dinner parties they attended when he would murmur something in her ear that was rude and accurate. “Yes.” It made her smile. “Yes, he’s fun. And he’s strong. He’s clever and rather arrogant.”

“You’ve got it bad,” Christina murmured, watching her friend’s face. “I’m happy for you.”

Brie tried to smile, but couldn’t quite pull it off. Instead she lifted her cup. “You’ll meet him soon and be able to judge for yourself.”

“Hmmm.” Christina studied the tray of elegant cookies, lectured herself, then chose one, anyway. “That’s one of the things that’s bothered me.”

Instantly alert, Brie set down her tea again. “Bothered you?”

“Well, yes, Brie. Where did you meet him? I can’t believe you met this wonderful, clever, arrogant man last year when you were in the States, then stayed with me for three days in Houston without breathing a word.”

“Royalty’s trained to be discreet,” Brie said offhandedly, and pretended an interest in the cookies herself.

“Not that discreet,” Christina said over a full mouth. “In fact, I remember you telling me specifically that there wasn’t anyone in your life, that you weren’t interested in men particularly. And I agreed heartily, because I’d just ended a disastrous affair.”

Brie felt herself getting in deeper. “I suppose I wasn’t entirely sure of my feelings—or his.”

“How did you work it out long distance?”

“There’s a connection through our fathers, you know.” She dug back to something Reeve had said to her once, something she’d nearly forgotten. “Actually, we met years ago, here in Cordina. It was my sixteenth birthday party.”