“You can’t expect me to marry him.” Rosalina leaned against the railing of her suite’s terrace. Exhausted from jet lag, she knew she should be sleeping, but every time she closed her eyes, she saw Marcel and Fabiana in the closet, relived their heated exchange, and it shook her wide awake.

In the darkness, the peaks of the Tetons cut a jagged line across the star-speckled sky. Unfortunately, the betrayal felt as vivid here in Calamity as it had at home. How had she thought traveling five thousand miles away would change the scenery in her heart along with the landscape?

Well, it hadn’t. The hurt burned inside her like a lit match she was frantically trying to extinguish but couldn’t reach.

“It is essential that you marry him, darling,” her mother said. “But we certainly don’t blame you for their reckless behavior. He swears they never had a physical relationship, though I know that’s small comfort.”

“You talked to him?”

“Of course we did. While we won’t diminish what he’s done to you personally, the fall-out has dire consequences for the monarchy. You might not be ready to hear it, but he’s genuinely sorry.”

“I don’t care what he is. I’m so angry with both of them. I can’t get over the fact that Fabiana looked me in the eye every single day, while going after my fiancé. Is she a sociopath? How can she lie to my face like that?”

“I don’t know, my love. I’m devastated for you. For all of us. It’s such a difficult situation. We need this marriage. We need an heir.”

“This is the twenty-first century. It’s absurd that our line of succession falls to men. You’re every bit as capable of governing as Father.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, but now is not the time to dwell on things we can’t change.”

As soon as her parents learned they couldn’t bear more children, they’d petitioned Parliament to change the line of succession to include women, but the idea was soundly rejected. They’d seen no reason to change laws that had been in place since the fifteenth century. The People’s Party, of course, consistently voted to maintain the status quo in the hopes the monarchy would die out on its own.

A soft breeze fluttered across the meadow surrounding the hotel. It was too dark to see the acres of wildflowers, sagebrush, and tall grasses, but the night air’s perfume made her desperate to get out there and explore. Tomorrow. “It’s sexist and misogynistic.”

“Of course it is, but it’s not the point. The point is that we’ve got to keep the People’s Party from gaining seats, and the only way to do that is through your marriage to Marcel.”

“We’re educated, intelligent people. We can come up with another solution.”