“Dinner will be served in five minutes, Miss Andrews.”

“What?” I turned around in a panic and saw a stout woman with curly gray hair and a pleasant smile at the door. “Did you say five minutes?”

“Yes, miss.”

Oh god. Someone had shown me to my room a little while ago, but instead of unpacking or exploring my new living quarters, I’d spent the time desperately trying to get a signal on my phone. For one thing, I couldn’t wait to tell my sister who my new employer was. Yes, the agency had emphasized the need to protect the privacy of their clients, but Autumn could keep a secret. I’d certainly kept quite a few of hers. Besides, she’d be visiting here in a few months and would find out anyway.

But my need for information about my situation had taken precedence over my desire to talk to my sister. My guidebook had said very little about the royal family, and I’d already embarrassed myself in front of the prince once today.

Every time I thought about that, I cringed. I couldn’t believe I’d referred to him as handsome in the car. Why had I assumed he didn’t speak much English? There was no doubt he’d understood every word I said since his English had been flawless once we reached the castle.

My face flushed. I’d practically drooled over a man who’d turned out to be sitting right in front of me. No way was I doing anything that stupid again.

A small sound from the doorway reminded me that I wasn’t alone. Maybe this woman could help me find out more info. After all, she lived here—Google didn’t.

“Please call me Cara,” I said, walking over and shaking her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too, miss. I’m Gretchen.”

“That’s a lovely name, Gretchen.” She smiled, and I continued on. “Can you please tell me about dinner? Will it just be with the children? I haven’t met them yet.”

“Oh, you’ll like them, miss. Darling little things. Very smart and polite.”

There was still so much I needed to know. “They’re twins, right? A boy and a girl?”

“Yes, Prince Derrick and Princess Elyse. They’re seven. Or, as they like to say, seven and a half.” Wow, that was young to have already lost a parent. My heart went out to the young prince and princess. I’d been eleven when I lost my mom.

“I can’t wait to meet them,” I said sincerely. “Will it just be the three of us at dinner?”

“Prince Nickolaus always eats with them, but there is no need to dress up. Dinner with the prince is an informal affair.”

That seemed like an oxymoron to me—an informal dinner with royalty—but a sigh of relief escaped my lips. I’d only brought a few dresses, so it was good to know that dinner wasn’t formal. Still, it was my first night here, so I hastily dug around for something appropriate in my suitcase. “Thank you for the information, Gretchen. I’ve never had dinner with a royal family before.”

“They are a very dear family, miss.” Gretchen’s English was accented, but I didn’t have much trouble understanding her, which was fortunate since she was my only source of information at the moment. “The children feel like my own grandchildren some days.”

I smiled. What a sweet woman. But that brought up another thought. “And their actual grandmother, the queen? Will I see her tonight?”

“Oh no, miss. She almost never leaves her chambers on the other side of the castle. She has her own staff, kitchen, and dining room.”

Whew. That was a relief. Meeting a prince and his children was daunting enough for one day.

Promising Gretchen that I’d be ready in a few minutes, I dashed to the attached bathroom and threw on a pink dress. Peering into the mirror, I attacked my hair, debating on whether to leave it down or not. But she’d said dinner was informal, so I neatened it a bit and left it cascading over my shoulders.

While I touched up my makeup in front of a mirror with an ornate gold frame, it hit me all over again that I was staying in an actual palace. Unbelievable. My room looked fairly modern. When I’d followed the steward up here, we’d walked up a grand staircase made out of stone, and passed through many hallways with historic paintings and suits of armor. But this part of the castle seemed to have been updated. Except for the huge four-poster bed and antique furniture, my room wouldn’t have looked out of place in a nice hotel.

I’d been shivering since I’d set foot in the place, so I finished my outfit with a scarf, tights, and tan boots with a medium heel. I was only five foot four, so most of my shoes had heels.

“Please, miss, they’ll be waiting for us,” Gretchen called. I started toward the doorway, but then I remembered something. Before I’d left, I’d spent many hours debating what to bring as a present. For the children, I had a variety of games and books. But for my new unknown employer, I’d finally decided on a nice bottle of wine. My brother-in-law had helped me choose one of the best vintages that California vineyards had to offer.

As I peeled off the layers of padding from around the bottle, I hesitated. Could I really give a bottle of wine to a prince? Should I? Clearly, I needed to brush up on royal etiquette. But the prince had seemed rather down-to-earth on the car ride here. Of course, I hadn’t known it was him, but he’d seemed to have a smile playing about his lips a few times. Or a smirk. In retrospect, it was obvious that he’d been amused hearing me rambling on, not knowing who he was. The thought made me blush.

But I couldn’t second-guess myself forever. I’d brought this present for my new employer. It wasn’t like I could get something else at this point. Dusting off the bottle, I joined Gretchen in the hall.

There wasn’t a lock on my door, so I just closed it and hurried after the older woman. She led me down several long hallways, down a staircase, around several corners, and then up a different staircase. I could already tell that I was going to spend a lot of time getting lost around here.

“Gretchen,” I called as I tried to keep up.

She slowed, for which I was grateful.

“Do you know if there’s Wi-Fi here?”

“Is that like the internet, miss? Prince Nickolaus had a very good system installed. He uses the internet for his business.”

That was news to me. I didn’t know what kind of business dealings the average prince had, but it was good to know there was some way to get a signal here.

A delicious scent filled the air as we walked. It smelled like well-prepared beef, perhaps. It reminded me that I hadn’t eaten since… actually, I didn’t know how long it had been. I’d flown into Frankfurt this morning and then gotten right on a train. There’d been a few snacks here and there, but I was famished.

“It smells really good. Do you think that after dinner you could find out how I can get online? I’d like to send a quick note to my sister and let her know I’m here.”

Gretchen nodded, rounded one last corner, and led me into a small room that seemed to be right outside the kitchen. Several people sat at a large wooden table, but before I could get a proper look at them, Gretchen stopped dead in front of me. “Oh! Good evening, Your Majesty.”

Clearly, Gretchen’s idea of an informal meal and mine were quite different. Was I going to have to refer to Prince Nickolaus that way every time I saw him, too? If so, I supposed now was as good of a time as any to start doing so.

Stepping around Gretchen, I started toward the table. But then I stopped dead, too. Several servers stood ramrod straight, and the prince and his children were rising to their feet. The reason for this behavior entered the room from a doorway opposite the one I’d used. She was a tall, stately woman in her early sixties, wearing a dark green suit made of some kind of rich, heavily embroidered material. Her dark brown hair curled under the heavy gold circlet on top of her head.

“Mother, I didn’t know you’d be joining us tonight.” Prince Nickolaus moved forward, took the queen’s hand, and brought it to his lips briefly. Outside of the theater, I’d never seen any man do that before—let alone to his mother.

His mother, the queen. An actual queen of an entire nation. Somehow, she was more intimidating than the prince, his children, and the massive castle put together. I was frozen in place, completely flummoxed for what to do besides stand there like a deer in the headlights. And oh god—now the queen was looking my way with one eyebrow raised. Should I bow? Or say something to her?

Fortunately, the prince moved to my side. “Mother, I’d like you to meet Miss Cara Andrews. Miss Andrews, this is Queen Margrit.”

I dipped into the second real curtsy in my life and rose to find her eyes still on me. Outside of that move, I didn’t have the slightest clue what to do. Then a phrase from a play I’d been in sprang to my lips. “It’s a great honor, Your Majesty.” And it was a great honor—but also a really scary one. While Nickolaus looked like a modern prince and a man of the people, the woman in front of me looked like old-school royalty who might call for my beheading at any moment.

Hopefully not in front of the children.

Unsure what to say, I looked down and was momentarily surprised to see the wine bottle in my hands. Unfortunately, the queen seemed to have followed my gaze. Should I give it to her? Did people give wine to a monarch? But what else could I do? It was obvious it was a gift. There wasn’t any other reason to be wandering the halls with a bottle. “Umm… this is for you, Your Majesty, from a winery in California.”

The queen was silent for at least ten seconds as I awkwardly held the bottle out to her. “California wine,” she finally said, as if it were as unheard of as platypus steak or broccoli ice cream. “I’m sure it will be… of interest to the royal vintner.”

The silence returned as I continued to hold out the bottle. Finally, the prince took it from me and set it on the table. “Thank you, Miss Andrews,” he said. “Mother, will you be dining with us?”

Please say no. Please say no. I was already nervous enough about meeting the children. Please say no.

“No,” she said. “But I will have some tea.”

“Of course.” Prince Nickolaus glanced at a server, who turned on his heel and exited the room. The prince held out a chair for his mother and she sat down at the head of the table.

Next, the prince pulled a chair out for me across from the children. His move disconcerted me. He was a member of the royal family. Shouldn’t I be holding his chair for him?

The warmth of his body behind mine triggered a pleasant but poorly-timed memory—the way he’d caught me earlier and held me as if I were weightless. The way his lips had twitched upward in amusement. My face heated as I tried to push those thoughts away. I was in the presence of a queen, a princess, and two princes. This was definitely not the time to get distracted by the fact that one of them was devastatingly handsome.

To get my mind in a safer place, I smiled at the children as the prince pushed my chair in. Both of them had dark brown hair like their father and grandmother. Derrick’s was short and a bit on the unruly side, sticking up in a couple of places. Elyse’s was long and luxurious, twisted into elaborate braids. Her head was bowed, but her brother was watching me. When I caught his eye, he answered my smile with a shy one in return.

The prince returned to his seat across from the queen and everything got quiet. And nerve-racking. What the hell was I doing having dinner with a royal family? Talk about a high-pressure situation in terms of table manners, though none of us actually had anything to eat at the moment. Apparently, the queen was the highest priority because two uniformed servers brought a tray with a teapot, cups, cookies, doilies, and several bud vases with white roses.

While the servers were fussing over her, the prince introduced me to my new charges. “Children, this is Miss Andrews. Remember what we talked about—please only speak English when she’s with you. Miss Andrews, this is my son Derrick and my daughter Elyse.”

Derrick nodded at me. Though he was nicely dressed in a crisp white short-sleeve shirt, he looked like a regular kid. Elyse’s head remained bowed, but with her gorgeous hairstyle and the lace-covered ivory dress she wore, she looked like the princess she was. All that was missing was a tiara.

Smiling, I tried to catch her eye, but she wouldn’t look up. I couldn’t quite tell if she was shy or upset. Hopefully I’d be able to get a better sense of her in a less formal setting, if such a thing existed in a castle. “It’s very nice to meet you, Derrick and Elyse.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Miss Andrews.” Derrick’s gaze moved from me to his sister, as if he was trying to include her in his greeting.

To my left, the queen picked up her teacup. “It’s Prince Derrick and Princess Elyse.”

Color rose to my cheeks. “My apologies, Your Majesties.”

“No need for formality in the family quarters,” Nickolaus said, waving my words away.

The queen took a small sip as if not having heard her son. Was now a good time to ask him to call me Cara? No, it was probably best to wait until the queen was safely ensconced in her chambers. Gretchen had said that she rarely emerged from there—hopefully that was true. Not that it wasn’t fascinating to meet a head of state, but it was extremely daunting.

Now that the queen had been served, the rest of us were brought soup. It smelled delicious, but my earlier hunger was all but forgotten. More than anything, I wanted time to process everything that had happened today. Every time I thought about the things I’d said in the car, my face flushed. Why hadn’t the prince identified himself? Had he been messing with me? Did princes do that sort of thing?

I couldn’t get a read on him. As he ate his soup, the prince kept glancing over at me. If he were any other man, I might interpret the look in his eyes as one of appreciation of me in my dress. It was one of my favorites… a soft material in pale rose that I thought looked good with my blonde hair. It had a low—but not too low—scoop neck and was pulled in at the waist. Then it flared out in a way that usually made me want to spin around just for the pleasure of seeing it spread out. My sister said I looked like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music when I did that.

Currently I didn’t have a boyfriend, but I’d seen men checking me out when I’d worn this dress before. But the prince wasn’t a regular man, and his reactions weren’t anything like what I was used to. Plus, they seemed to change from moment to moment. He was looking at me again, and this time it didn’t seem to be with appreciation. His expression was more like his mother’s when I’d offered her the bottle of wine.

That didn’t bode well. But with the queen in the room, I likely wasn’t going to get a very accurate sense of him or the children.

Eventually, I tried the soup, and while I was too preoccupied to focus on the taste, I was grateful for its warmth. If it was always this cold here, I was going to need a lot more winter wear. Luckily, my sister was always knitting scarves and hats even though they weren’t often needed where we lived. I wondered how long it would take for a care package to get to me.

The prince finished his soup and set his spoon down. A server sprang to his side, taking the bowl from him. I was done with mine, too, but I hadn’t eaten very much. My hand wavered as I debated whether to put the spoon down or not. Would I insult the royal family if I didn’t eat much of my dinner? Or would it be a worse crime to keep the prince from his next course?

Nickolaus caught me looking his way and smiled in what seemed like an attempt to dispel my unease. Suddenly, doing something else embarrassing in front of him didn’t seem so bad. But I really didn’t want to do so in front of the queen again. Note to self: never attempt to hand a bottle of American wine to a European monarch.

A server whisked away our soup bowls while others placed plates of steak and roasted vegetables in front of us. After the prince dug in, I cut a small piece of steak and brought it to my lips. It was delicious, but I was too distracted to truly enjoy it. After my third bite, I realized that Elyse was surreptitiously sneaking peeks at me. Maybe she’d been too shy before, but now wanted to check out the new nanny?

I smiled and tried to catch her eye, but after a few moments, I realized she was looking lower—at my plate, in fact. Was I doing something wrong?

It was my turn to peek surreptitiously around me, and I saw that the prince was raising a mushroom to his mouth, the fork upside down to my way of thinking. Elyse was using her knife to push a slice of cooked carrot onto the back of her fork.

Oh, right. I forgot that Europeans had a different way of eating. One that, unfortunately, I’d never quite mastered. Trying to remember what little I knew about the Continental style of eating, I used my knife to push a piece of potato onto the back of my fork. It felt wrong to use my left hand to lift the fork to my mouth, but that was what the others were doing.

Carefully, I tried it, managing to successfully balance a bite of meat on the tip of my upside-down fork. When that worked, I took a few more tentative bites, trying to copy Elyse, who was sitting directly across from me. Since she seemed too shy to look directly at me, it was unlikely she noticed how much worse I was at it than her.

But it was possible someone else noticed, because a minute later, the queen said, “My dear Elyse, you have such lovely table manners, just like your mother.”

The young princess looked up at the queen and hesitated for a brief moment. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet I could barely hear her. “Thank you, Grandmother.”

Studying the little girl, I tried to decide if her grandmother’s compliment had pleased her or not. It was hard to tell. Still, most children enjoyed being told they did something well, so I decided to add my praise. “I was just admiring your manners too, Princess Elyse. I’m not very familiar with the Continental style of eating, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.”

To demonstrate, I used my knife to push a small piece of potato onto the back of my fork and carefully lifted it. Just before I opened my mouth to take a bite, I glanced over at Prince Nickolaus. My breath hitched for a moment. With those hazel eyes surrounded by dark lashes and brows, he really did look like a fairy-tale prince. It was mesmerizing.

And distracting.

When I finally tore my gaze away, my hand wobbled and the potato began to slide off the edge of the fork. Hastily, I tried to get it into my mouth, but almost in slow motion the small chunk of potato fell, bounced off my chin, landed on the top of my chest… and then slid down the front of my dress, coming to a rest between my breasts.

There was horrified silence as everyone in the room stared at the spot where the piece of potato had disappeared from view. Then Derrick burst into laughter, and Elyse’s hand flew to her mouth to cover a small giggle. Looking to the right, I saw the prince’s mouth twitch as he struggled not to smile. And to the left, the queen looked disapproving.

My mind and my tongue, apparently, were frozen. Should I apologize? Should I excuse myself from the table and extract the potato? That last thought caused me to look down at the small morsel nestled at the bottom of my bra. I opened my mouth to apologize to the queen, to the prince, and to the still-giggling children… but no words came out.

Instead, I closed my eyes, shook my head, and laughed.