Stephanie Laurens Read Online Free PDF Page B

into lungs suddenly tight, he refocused on Nell.
    To discover her looking at him quizzically.
    His mind caught up with her words; he nodded. “We can arrange most of that, and yes, I think we should.” Rising, he crossed to the desk, found a sheet of paper and a pencil, picked up a ledger for her to use as a support, and returned to her. He handed her the items. “Let’s make a list.”
    While she settled the ledger on the chair arm, smoothed out the paper and lifted the pencil, he sat, and ruthlessly forced his mind to the matter at hand. “Let’s do it day by day, and crowd as much into each day as we can.”
    Eyes on her list, she nodded. “So—tomorrow.”
    “W ell!” Nell let herself fall into the armchair in Robert’s study. “That went better than I’d dared hope. One attack only, and that relatively minor—and I have to compliment you. Whatever you told Frederick, however you phrased it, must have been exactly right. He came up trumps, and you may pass on from me that he isn’t doing himself any harm at all in Frances’s eyes.”
    Smiling, Robert came to sit in the other armchair. “I’ll let him know. He was quite nervous, although I know it didn’t show. But he did, indeed, hold the line admirably.”
    He’d brought their list of events, now superimposed on the affianced couple’s official schedule. It was presently mid afternoon, and he’d suggested they seize the half an hour between their last event—a viewing of the castle’s stables and kennels—and a formal afternoon tea to be attended by all the young ladies of the court to review their upcoming arrangements. He perused the revised schedule. “After this tea—and if Frances is immersed and entertained, we can extend the event until half an hour before the dressing gong—then we have the formal drawing room and dinner with all the ambassadors.” He glanced at Nell. “I’ll do my best to keep the ambassadors and envoys circling, but several are pompous old windbags, so be prepared to step in and divert any who linger too long. A few—the Russian envoy, for one, and the French ambassador almost certainly—will attempt to monopolize our pair. While Frederick won’t need to leave Frances’s side, it would be best if between us, we—you and I, because your parents will be fully engaged themselves—try to ensure one of us is there to back Frederick up at any time.”
    He grimaced. “I have this persistent vision of one of the ambassadors deciding to buttonhole Frederick and draw him aside while I’m not by to stop it, effectively forcing Frederick to leave Frances standing there alone.”
    Nell frowned. “What about the wives? They’ll be there, won’t they?”
    “Yes, but they don’t generally come forward. At these sort of events they usually gather like a flock of geese and sit and cackle at one end of the room.”
    “With a new and shiny princess-to-be in their midst?” Nell threw him a look. “Leave it to me—and Mama. We’ll have them with their gloved hands on their husbands’ arms, sticking like glue to get as much time as they can with Frances. As they’ll be intent on her and Frederick in a personal sense, and not interested in anything political, I should think their presence will restrict their spouses’ ability to turn the conversation to political affairs.”
    He widened his eyes. “I hadn’t thought of that, but you might well be right.” He nodded. “I’ll leave the wives to you.”
    Raising the schedule, he studied the following events. “After dinner, there’ll be dancing in the ballroom.”
    “That will be no problem at all—Frances loves to dance, and as I recall so does Frederick.”
    Robert nodded. “So with luck we’ll weather tonight well enough, and then tomorrow we have the visit to the orphanage, and then the guilds’ luncheon at the Rathaus, and after that we’ve slotted in visits to a weaving factory, then the silk merchants’ warehouse, and last but not least, to the crown