Chapter Five
"I knew I'd find you here."
Prince Alejandro scowled. "Go away."
Instead, Prince Luis drew up a burgundy leather chair beside his brother. "I thought perhaps my invitation to your pity party got lost in the inter-palace mail." He looked around the deserted library, his eyes lingering a moment on the closed curtains before finally resting on the near empty brandy decanter and single crystal snifter beside it. "I see that all the other invitations must have been misdirected as well."
"Very funny. Now go away."
Luis settled himself into the chair and began to drum his fingers on its arms. "I'm good. I'll just wait here."
Alejandro raised a suspicious eyebrow. "For what, pray tell?"
His brother gave an elegant shrug. "For you to quit acting like a petulant child. Any idea how long my wait might be?"
"Bugger off." Alejandro knew he sounded ill-tempered, something he wasn't especially proud of, but he was tired. He hadn't slept three straight minutes last night and he didn't hold out much hope for this evening either. 'I'm moving to California'. He could hear Graciela's words play over and over in his mind. Each time it felt as if he was being sucker punched. He wasn't proud of giving in to the misery enveloping him, but it was hard to care about anything else.
Luis shook his head. "How exactly do you think that sitting in here sulking is going to help you win over Graciela?"
Alejandro tossed back the last of the brandy in his snifter and then set his glass down with a bit more force than necessary. "I'm not going to try to win her over."
"What? Why not?"
"Because she has every right to take that job with Ashton's vineyard. I can see why she's flattered by his offer. And his attentions, for that matter."
"Of course, she has the right to take the job. But that doesn't mean it's the right thing for her to do. You do realize that she has no romantic interest in Ashton, don't you?" Luis asked.
Alejandro closed his eyes against a vision in his mind's eye of Graciela in Ashton's arms. The mere thought was like salt on a raw wound. "For now, perhaps not. But in time, she might well fall in love with him. Or one of his rich American friends."
Luis groaned. "You're either being insanely stupid or...no, wait, that's it. You're being insanely stupid. Graciela is in love with you, Alejandro. I think everyone in Santa Rosa knows that except you. Surely you trust me enough to know that I wouldn't lie to you."
Alejandro looked up from his empty glass and stared at his brother. "I trust you."
"But?" Luis prodded him. "If you know she loves you, why aren't you going to be with her right now?"
Alejandro didn't answer right away. He did trust Luis, and if anyone would understand, it would be his brother. He took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Because Graciela's too good for me."
Luis stared at him. "You can't really believe that?"
He looked away. However surprised Luis was to hear it, Alejandro knew what he said was true. He wasn't the man for Graciela. She deserved only the very best. And he wanted her to have it, even if it meant that he had to face the dismal prospect of forever without her by his side. "I do believe it."
"Surely that's her decision to make?"
Alejandro searched his brother's eyes. There he saw uncertainty and confusion, not understanding. But it didn't matter. He knew he was right. "Luis, if I were the right man for her, if I were her true love, how could I have lived and worked beside her for years and remained completely clueless as to how she felt? How I felt?" He rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. "If I couldn't see it, I don't deserve it."
Luis reached over and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Sometimes love rushes in and shakes up your world. But other times, love can grow quietly, gently, and you don't see it coming until it surrounds you, which is what has happened between you and Graciela. The important thing to know is that one kind of love isn't any less precious than the other."
Alejandro stood. "Precious is the key-word, you're right."
Luis got to his feet. His smile was wide and more than a bit relieved. "So you're going to go find her now and tell her how you feel?"
"No." Alejandro's heart hurt. If only things were as easy as his brother seemed to think they were, but they weren't. "I love Graciela and I'm going to do right by her, but I don't think that involves a future with me."
***
"But why do you have to go?" Serafina frowned at the luggage on Graciela's bed. "Can't you at least stay for Christmas?"
Graciela smiled indulgently as she folded a cashmere sweater and tucked it into her open suitcase. She sat down on the bed. "Trust me, I wish I could stay, but I can't. Just like here, the palace in Santa Rosa gets very busy and there are some important things going on between Christmas and New Year."
"Can't Prince Alejandro do without you?"
Graciela winced. However innocent, the little girl's words were an arrow that hit their mark. "Yes, I rather think he can." In fact, she knew he could. Ultimately, she was dispensable. His life would go on just fine without her. She got to her feet. Packing was far preferable to sitting and thinking. And feeling. She opened the wardrobe doors and pulled out two pairs of slacks. "But even so, there's plenty of work to be done and I've promised to help do it, so I have to go back, don't I?"
"I guess so."
Graciela continued packing while Serafina looked through her jewelry box. Their companionable silence was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.
Serafina jumped off the bed. "I'll get it. It's probably my mom wondering if I'm being a pest."
But it wasn't the queen. Graciela looked up in surprise when she heard Alejandro's voice.
"Hello, Serafina." He looked over the little girl's head and met Graciela's eyes. "Graciela."
She nodded, unable to say anything.
"I was hoping I might have a word with you." His glance in Serafina's direction was pointed. "Alone."
Serafina narrowed her eyes. "Unsupervised?"
Alejandro's eyebrows rose. "Speaking of supervision..." he let his voice trail off but his meaning wasn't lost on Nico's little sister.
"Okay, I'm going." She ran over and threw her arms around Graciela. "Please don't leave without saying goodbye."
Graciela hugged her tightly. "I promise that I won't."
Once they were alone, silence stretched between them for several long minutes. There was so much she longed to say, thoughts that she'd spent the entire night thinking.
"I'm sorry about last night," Alejandro said. "You caught me so off guard with your news that I couldn't find the words to wish you well."
Or stop her. Those were the words she desperately wanted to hear, not well wishes. "I understand." But of course, she didn't. Why couldn't he love her the way she loved him?
He took several steps into the room. "Do you have a moment for me?"
"Of course." She refolded a blouse that she'd just folded a moment ago so that he wouldn't see her hands shake.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the same jeweler's box that he'd offered her last night.
"Alejandro, I can't-"
"Please," he interrupted her refusal. "Maybe this will say what I'm unable to." He placed the box in her hands.
The warmth of his touch sent a shiver through her. She stared down at the leather box because it was easier than looking into his eyes.
"Open it," he urged her.
She lifted the lid and gasped. "Oh, Alejandro, it's magnificent." Nestled against the black velvet was a gold pendant encrusted with emeralds and sapphires laid out to represent the world's land formations and oceans. She'd never seen anything like it. "It's beautiful."
He reached out and covered her hands with his. "I wanted you to know that I'd give you the world if it was mine to give."
She didn't for a moment doubt the sincerity in his voice but it wasn't the world she wanted from him. She wanted his love.