“No, Rosalina, he’s not all right. The vote’s in a matter of weeks. He’s waiting to find out whether the People’s Party is going to gain more traction in parliament. If they do, not only will they push their agenda to kill the monarchy, but they’ll try to take back your family’s land. Just because you’re hiding from our problems in another country doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. Your sister’s at school, you’re in America, so it’s just your parents. You need to come home and be seen with me. We need to send out wedding invitations.”

She knew that. God, it ate through her like acid. Every night she lay awake fighting her conscience. It seemed so simple to send out the invitations. It would make things easier for her parents and give the country something joyful to focus on.

It would secure the vote for the Royalists.

But she would never marry Marcel. “I won’t lie to the people of St. Christophe. I just won’t play them like that.”

“You’re not lying. Rosalina.” She’d never heard him shout. Not once. “I know that I’ve hurt you deeply, and I hate myself for it.” He took a breath that seemed to restore his composure. “But you are going to marry me. You have to.”

“Get over your embarrassment and pay attention to the deeper issues your behavior uncovered. We don’t love each other.” After the way Brodie made love to her, she fully understood that now. “And I certainly don’t trust you, so get it through your head once and for all. I’m not going to marry you. Period. End of discussion.”

“Even if the consequence is the People’s Party winning enough seats to end the monarchy? To take the land that’s been in your family for six hundred years?”

“First of all, I don’t believe for one second there’s only one solution. But, also, I don’t have to marry you.”

He reeled back, reaching out for the bannister. “You can’t mean that.”

She softened. “But I do.”

He looked anguished and scared. “Rosalina, this is my life. This is what we’re supposed to do. Every decision I’ve ever made has been driven by our future together.”

“Including the decision to sneak around with my assistant. That was the part of you that knew we shouldn’t marry, that didn’t have the courage to stand up to your father and tell him we don’t make each other happy. That, if we marry, we’ll be lonely. I hope, if you’re truly honest with him, you’ll find out your father doesn’t want that kind of future for you. I know my parents don’t want it for me.”

“But they need—”