Royal Affair. Laurie Paige

seat for you. And alerting Ned to pack a bag.”

      Max exhaled heavily. “Are you coming, too?”

      “If you like. Someone has to, but it can be another security agent, if you prefer.”

      Max laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’ll do. Who, besides Ned, knows me better?”

      “Are we going as prince and bodyguard?”

      “This isn’t an official visit, else I’d have to contact the White House, then the press would be all over us. Let’s go as Max Hughes and Chuck Curland. We’re consultants on the educational system Crosby is planning for the country.”

      “Fine by me.”

      Another worry came to Max. “I’ve never investigated a woman with an eye toward her being my queen. You have any suggestions?”

      Chuck stared at him for a full fifteen seconds, then burst into guffaws.

      “If you weren’t my friend and security advisor, I’d have you thrown in irons for that,” Max told him, becoming somewhat irritated at the joke he didn’t get.

      Chuck laughed harder. Finally he clamped an arm around Max’s shoulders and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Try flowers. That usually works when courting a woman.”

      “This is not a courtship,” Max informed the American coolly. “This is business.”