Page 11 of The Duke's Virgin

But I felt giddy now.

In an effort not to point at everything and everybody, I had my hands shoved into my front pockets as Aeric led me through yet another security checkpoint.

He was clearly a familiar figure here, and after a few seconds to look me over and check the pass he’d arranged for me, we were waved on through.

In moments, we were in the thick of things, surrounded by people rushing around, dressed in everything from suits to dressy casual to colorful jumpers…although I doubted the guys in the jumpers would appreciate the termjumper. Coveralls, maybe? Uniform?

Uniform seemed apt, I decided as Aeric led me deeper into the midst, and I started seeing matching ones here and there.

“If I’d known you’d be this gleeful, I would have brought you to a Formula One race years ago.”

Looking over at my cousin, I grinned. “I wish you would have. This is going to befun.”

Somebody caught Aeric’s attention, and I lapsed into silence, crossing my arms over my mid-section as I tried to fade away into the background. It wasn’t hard. Nobody knew me here, and Aeric was Monaco’s Crown Prince. His security guards were roaming around in a loose grid, and as the man who’d haled Aeric approached, I could see the bodyguards drawing in closer, but in such a subtle way, nobody was likely to notice unless they knew to look.

Aeric dismissed them with a casual wave of his hand, and they all fell back.

“Felix. Good to see you.” Aeric half-turned to me and gestured. “May I introduce you to Stacia? She’s visiting from America. An old family friend.”

I’d asked him to keep quiet on the family connection, and after some teasing, Aeric had agreed.

Felix’s eyes slid my way, a glint of speculation in them. “An old friend?”

“I’ve known her since she was in diapers,” Aeric added dryly.

The speculative glint died, which pleased me, and Felix went back to talking to my cousin. “Once you both get settled, maybe I could steal you for a few minutes and…”

I tuned him out and wandered a few feet away, peering through the crowd and trying to see through the packed bodies. I thought that might be one of the cars.

I was about to move closer when Aeric said, “We don’t cheer for that one.”

“We don’t?” Confused, I blinked up at him, then glanced around. “Where’s Felix?”

“Off looking for another patron.” He waved a hand. “I told him I was at your disposal for the day, and he seemed to think his…project needed immediate attention so I told him I couldn’t help.”

“What kind of project?”

Aeric rolled his eyes and leaned in before answering. “Who knows? He’s a friend of my father’s, but Felix is getting more eccentric. Father’s finally figured that out and has his staff fielding the more ridiculous requests. I’m not going to become the stand-in. I do know that one of his pet projects had something to do with…” He paused, a line forming between his brows as he thought. “Oh, yes. He wanted funding for the Association for the Preservation of Old French.”

“Old French.”

“Yes.”

I blinked. “Nobody speaks Old French anymore. Nobody writes it. Anythingwrittenin Old French will be old enough that it must be preserved, so it’s not like you can just flip open an old copy of…” I searched my brain, trying to think of something. I couldn’t.

“Precisely.” Aeric took my hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm. “Old French was all but gone by the fourteen hundreds and anything written in the ancient language would have been handwritten. Certainly, there are some documents, but they’re all in museums or private collections. I’m not opposed to anybody wanting to start up a private association for the purposes of keeping the heritage alive, but it certainly won’t be a national endeavor sponsored by the royal house on the purposes of educating the people of Monaco.”

We’d started walking, and I noted the ever-growing crowds and couldn’t ignore the occasional look being cast my way. I was glad I’d pulled on an oversized pair of sunglasses and had weaved my hair into a braid. The large-brimmed hat doubled as both protection from the sun and to shield my face, but still, I felt exposed, and all the attention made me nervous. “Are we going to end up on the front page of a newspaper, Aeric?”

He didn’t answer right away, and I looked up to see him looking around, a pensive frown on his face. “I hadn’t even considered it. It’s a possibility. Does it bother you?”

“I…” Blowing out a sigh, I shrugged. “Not really. It’s not like anybody here knows me, and it’s unlikely they’ll be connecting me to American financing magnate Wade Harden III…unless you go dropping my full name.”

“I told you I wouldn’t.” He sounded annoyed but had a smile on his face. “You know, sooner or later, you’ll have to stop worrying about the shadow cast by your parents and live your own life.”

“Ha.” I poked him in the ribs, earning a smothered yelp and a hard look.

And around us, more than a few people stared.

---