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‘Oh, a prince will do, Elsie.’

‘Why do you think I married your mother?’

Elsie’s eyes warmed as she remembered their pa’s response. Her parents’ marriage set the bar impossibly high and if she couldn’t find what they had, she had decided she would not bother to settle for a pale imitation.

She was philosophical about never finding a soulmate, she felt pretty complete most days, but it seemed a cruel and unusual punishment if she was destined to never get to experience head-banging sex—and things were not looking promising on that front.

She might not be a very sexual person, but she was curious. One of these days, she was going to find someone nice and discover the reality of what her twin and friends were raving about… Though she privately suspected that sex might be a bit like the holidays that people waxed lyrical about, while missing out the bad bits like flight delays, mosquito bites and food poisoning.

Her romantic sister, who not only believed in love at first sight but also believed there was someone out there for everyone, told her, with the superiority of someone who was dating a man she had discussed marriage with at eight years old, the magical it would happen.

Elsie had found her knowing smile in response to her demand to define the magical it intensely irritating.

Elsie was a realist. She was twenty now and she’d met lots of interesting men, many good-looking men, but she’d never met one that made her want to rip off her clothes or, for that matter, his and she was starting to feel a bit of a freak.

‘What is tonight about then, other than forcing my feet into these ridiculous heels?’ she grumbled, extending one foot to expose her slender ankles and narrow feet encased in bejewelled shoes attached to spiky heels.

‘You mean other than money being raised for good causes?’

‘All right, I know—networking and contacts.’ The one natural resource their mountainous impoverished kingdom of Quindara possessed was water.

Their parents, the Grand Duke and Duchess, the hereditary rulers of the tiny country, were searching for backers for the new hydroelectric scheme that would provide the Grand Duchy with cheap energy and enough to export.

There were potential investors here tonight that her parents had already reached out to.

‘Mum and Pa don’t ask much of us.’

Elsie felt a fresh stab of guilt. It was true. They were lucky—they had enjoyed far more freedom than was normal for royalty, even minor royalty of a tiny country no one had heard of, which, in her view, more than compensated for the fact that their clothes were not this year’s, or even last year’s.

They had grown up seeing their parents put the needs of the citizens of their small Grand Duchy before their own. The Grand Duke and Duchess of Quindara were very much hands-on rulers, the hands-on including the plumbing upon occasion.

Her eyes slipped across the room. Their mother was not wearing her boilersuit tonight. She was looking elegant and beautiful, flashing her charm the birds out of the trees smile at someone she was in conversation with.

‘Are you trying to guilt trip me?’

‘Yes. Is it working?’

‘It is,’ Elsie sighed out. ‘Sometimes our parents are a hard act to live up to.’

‘They are.’

The twins shared a proud smile.

‘Fine. I’ll have a great time.’ Elsie shook her head and rolled her eyes as she glanced around the opulent ballroom with the monumental staircase they had floated down earlier.

There were another twenty-five debutantes present, along with parents and an assortment of eligible males, representing the youth of high society. Some of that youth were, by this point, seriously wasted. Hence the loud voices and the stumbling waltzes.

‘You promised he would be here.’

The sulky voice drifted their way and the twins exchanged glances. They did not need to be psychic to know the he being referred to.

One of the big selling points of tonight had been the rumoured presence of Leandro Soares, the Crown Prince of Santagostino, an island state with a perfect climate and natural resources, that was neither small nor impoverished.

‘She’s got a point,’ Emily said under her breath. ‘I, for one, feel cheated. I have missed the chance of saying that I was in the same room as a sex god,’ she mocked, pressing a dramatic hand to her heart.

Her twin joined in her laughter.

‘I did want to see if he is as gorgeous as he looks on the screen,’ Emily admitted.