Sheikh's Stand In (6 page)

"That's an odd thing," Mikal said with a frown, but Viviana was already slipping off of his lap.

"You should get that," she said drily. "I'll bet our siblings just got the news."

"Ah, yes, they have internet in Venice, as well."

What are you doing?! Are you seriously going to marry Mikal?

Viviana laughed quietly to herself as she shot off a quick reply.

I know you have a thing about guys not being good enough for me, but don't you think your standards are a bit too high?

Charlotte's response was crisp and to the point.

You could get engaged to a hot dog salesman, and I wouldn't care if he treated you with love and respect. Of course I would expect you to know that salesman for more than a handful of days though. My daughter is older than your relationship. What are you doing?

That one required a little more thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Mikal texting his brother, a smile on his face. He was doing what he was doing for the best of reasons, but she could tell that there was a fair amount of pleasure in getting his brother's reaction. It was a younger sibling thing, she thought. She was getting some fun out of Charlotte's shock as well.

I know what I'm doing,
she texted back.
Mikal is a perfect gentleman, and no matter how long this lasts, we're going into it with open eyes. Don't worry, big Sis. Enjoy your honeymoon. We'll be fine, and we'll see you when you get back. All my love to Aladdin and Annika.

Charlotte's response took such a long time to come that she thought it wasn't coming at all.

You don't have a successful relationship by looking at its end.

 After that Charlotte fell silent, and Viviana decided to keep her mouth shut. She wasn't sure what her sister and her brother-in-law would think about this sham engagement, but it would likely be better for all concerned if she kept everything as simple as she could.

When she looked up, Mikal was just putting down his phone.

"Well, I suppose you've been read the riot act as well?"

Viviana giggled. "Well, Charlotte knows she can't stop me when my mind's made up. I hope your brother knows something similar?"

"Well, he's not going to fly back here to try to straighten us out." Mikal hesitated for a moment. "I didn't tell him that this is just something we're doing for the good press. I had a feeling that the less people that know that, the better. Did you tell Charlotte?"

Viviana felt a strange twinge inside her. She hadn't told her sister either, and for similar reasons, but there was something a little strange about keeping it a secret.

"No, I didn't. I mean, I suppose we'll tell them after it's done, but right now, there's just so much going on."

"Yes, that was my thought as well. All right, so let's go over some of the appearances that we'll be making in the next few days …"

They compared phones, got on each other's calendars, and even as they talked, Viviana knew that something was changing. She was a woman who took risks, jumping in as soon as she got a good feeling about things. It was an instinct that had served her quite well in the past, even though it had also gotten her into her fair share of trouble.

Right now, she couldn't tell if she was jumping into a good thing or not. All she knew was that it was a new thing and one that might change everything.

It'll be fine,
she told herself.
I'm a smart girl who always lands on her feet. This is going to be fun, and at the very least, hopefully, I will be able to do some good in this world.

 She looked at Mikal, who looked so very handsome peering down at something on his phone, and without thinking, she reached over to touch his cheek.

This time, there was no sensuous kiss. Instead, he merely smiled at her warmly before continuing on with his task. For some reason, that warmed her as well, that little brush of normality in what was a very abnormal situation.

What in the world am I getting in to?
Viviana wondered, and for once, she had no smart answer for herself.

CHAPTER FOUR

Viviana had been smiling so long that she thought that her face was going to crack. The scarf that she had pinned so carefully to her hair in the morning was slipping, and if she had to listen to one more pompous blowhard talk about how women were naturally more inclined to stay at home than work, she thought that she was going to throw up.

She was dressed to the nines, though not in a style that she was used to. That morning Mikal had sent her two women who brought with them a wide variety of robes and wraps and set about garbing her as soon as she opened the door. She felt a little like a doll as they tried different fabrics and colors on, but there was no denying that they were effective at what they did. 

In the end, she had been dressed in a lovely white linen set, and over that was thrown a beautifully embroidered green wrap of the sheerest silk. Pins and tucks held it in place, and then, much to her relief, they had shown her how to move in it.

Her inexperienced eye had been quite impressed with their work, but more than that, it was impressive to the people who were hosting the luncheon. This was the first of Mikal's events leading up to the vote on his legislation, and she was impressed by how effectively he was working it.

Right now, she could see him earnestly expounding his case to a pair of older men who watched him with increasing interest. She knew that just ten minutes ago, they had been wary and scornful of his work, so that was impressive progress.

Of course, that left her alone with the big man with the florid face, the one who was stepping too close to her, who had had too much to drink, and who had not stopped making insinuations about her since the beginning of the evening.

"But what does he expect?" the man was saying. "Women aren't going to welcome his liberties. Why even my own wife says that they are foolish. I take good care of her, and my children as well. Why do they need his protection and the protection of the law, eh?"

There were a dozen arguments that she wanted to fling at his head, but instead, she took a deep breath and smiled. She knew about the power of her smile, and she knew that it was working.

"Well, unfortunately, not all men are as good or as kind as you," she said looking up at him. "We sometimes make the mistake of saying that the law is for all people, when the truth is it is for the ones who need it the most. I mean, you are a man of wealth and power, but you surely understand that there are those who are cruel or unkind? They might take it out on women as helpless as your wife or your daughters. This is what this law is meant to do, to protect those who can't help themselves."

She could see him nodding, and with any luck, he would claim the view as his own when he went on to speak of it with his friends.

After a few more words with this man, he wandered off.

Rinse and repeat, Viviana thought. And if that man's wife and daughters decide that this law should work for them as well, so be it.

The event was being held at a gorgeous museum opening, one for women artists of Khutal through the centuries. If she hadn't been
working'
she would have enjoyed it quite a bit. As a matter of fact, even being on the lookout for people susceptible to Mikal's message didn't deter her enjoyment. She had met women at the event who were campaigning for the same thing, and she was warmed in a way she hadn't been in a while.

For her work, she was, by necessity, something of a loner. Now she was working for a cause with others who she quite liked, and the difference was remarkable.

"So how is it going with you?"

Long practice kept her from yelping; instead she only turned to Mikal with a small grin on her face. "You are surprisingly sneaky for a prince," she said, "and fairly well. I only want to scream at about half of the men here."

"Ah, that's how I can tell that this is going well for you. At a bad event, you'll want to strangle them all. I wanted to tell you good job. I can scream my views from the tallest tower, and they won't listen to me. Then, I look around and they're quoting bits of my legislation back to me as if they had written it. I imagine that is your doing?"

Viviana grinned, stroking her finger tip along the buttons of his traditional tunic. "That's the problem with men. You have a good idea, and you want to make sure that everyone knows it’s your good idea. I just care about making them see what a good idea it is in the beginning."

Mikal snorted. "So you don't care if people don't know that Midnight Blue and Carolyn's Closet were your brain children?"

She laughed with delight. The two fashion brands were her babies, in many ways. They were designed to offer fashion at a lower cost, and in some ways, she was fairly certain that they were the most important work that she had ever done.

"Impressive," she said. "You've done your homework. All right, I'm a little guilty then. I definitely want people to know that those are mine. I'm proud of them. And I hope that people remember that this is yours too. You can change a lot with this, and a lot of the women I have spoken to think that this will be something that their daughters and granddaughters will remember as being historic."

Mikal glowed with pride.

"If I can't leave my mark as my brother's second-in-command, then I can do it like this."

Viviana started to answer, but then she realized that a man was trying to make eye contact with her across the room.

"Oh god, oh no," she moaned quietly.

She had talked with him for twenty minutes at the beginning of the evening, and though he seemed interested enough, she realized that his eyes were locked firmly on the region of her chest. Some part of her was amused to realize that it didn't matter what women wore, men would find ways to be creeps about it. The rest of her was just irritated and tired of dealing with it all.

"Ah, him," Mikal said with disgust. "There's one that won't change his mind for love or money."

"I can't loose any more brain cells in talking to him," she begged. "I need to get out of here."

"All right, come along then, beloved, we have a gallery to see."

To her surprise, Mikal swept her away, blowing past the man with a casual wave and an insincere apology.

"I thought we wanted to convince as many people to our side as we can?"

"Well, you don't win fights by exhausting your tools as soon as you get them on the field," he said peaceably. 

"So I'm a tool?" Viviana said, amused.

Mikal had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "That came out terribly, didn't it?"

"It kind of did, yeah."

"My apologies. Perhaps you will forgive me if I take you around and show you all the beautiful art?"

"Hmm, I'm still convincible. Let's see."

The art exhibit was a gorgeous collection of art, and a part of Viviana thrilled to see women just like her making their way through the centuries. These women had been the tastemakers and fashion icons of their times, and seeing what remained of their life's work was both breathtaking and humbling.

They paused, touched, in front of a series of miniatures painted by a woman who hadn't seen the outside of her house for twenty years before her death. Despite that, she still used ink that she had made herself to create amazingly delicate works of animals, buildings, and plants that she had never been allowed to see. There was a slightly fevered, dreamlike quality to her work one that struck a chord inside Viviana.

"This is the work of an artist known only as Safir," Mikal read from the small card mounted next to the art. "She was infirm for most of her life, but she still created so much beautiful art."

"She wanted to see the outside world so much," Viviana murmured, looking at one exquisite drawing of a leafy fern. "She never wanted to be so apart from the world."

Without thinking of what she was doing, she stood closer to Mikal, feeling strangely melancholy. If he was surprised by her reaction, he hid it well and instead only wrapped his arm around her.

"That will never be your fate," he said softly. "You are a wild one, and your wings are strong enough to take you wherever you want. Your life will never be so small."

"But if it ever becomes like that, I hope I have the bravery to do as she did and to make art no matter what."

She looked up into Mikal's eyes, and for a moment, she was simply stunned by the green of them, and the beauty that this man carried with him as if it were an everyday thing. Suddenly, she hoped that if her life ever did shrink, this color would be one of the things that she took away with her.

Mikal leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. It was, she knew, a daring thing to do in the circumstances. There was still a great deal of disapproval of public displays of affection, but something so mild between a man and the woman he was meant to marry would only garner a few gasps, not outright anger.

"I'm being silly, aren't I?" she asked, shaking her head. "I think I'm tired and a bit hungry."

"Not silly at all," he said. "The things we fear should be confronted, or they will end up controlling us. What can I do to help you open up your world a little?"

Viviana laughed, shaking her head.

"Do you think you can get me out of here? I was joking when I said it, but now that I am thinking about it, I would really like to grab some food before I snap and devour the next man who tells me why women don't need free prenatal care."

"Now that I can do," Mikal said with a grin.

***

Just twenty minutes later, they were in Mikal's limousine. Viviana slipped out of her heels, tucking her feet underneath her. The leather seats were buttery soft, and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to slump against Mikal. For his part, he draped his arm over the back of the seat so he could hold her more securely, something that touched her in a way she didn't quite understand.

"So how do you think we did?" she asked. "Was I properly besotted? Do you think people took away what we wanted them to take away?"