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walked.
    â€œNo.” Alex laughed. “I’m talking about theisland. It’s a separate principality right off the coast of France.”
    Despite the cold, Julianne felt heat fan across her cheeks. Even though she felt silly and decidedly uncultured, like an uneducated geography failure—his voice was a soothing rich mellow timbre with the tones of a well-played cello.
    â€œDon’t worry, many people have never heard of it” he said. “We don’t hold a major car race like Monte Carlo does to attract tourists. I’m from St. Michel originally. My brother is the state’s minister of arts and culture.”
    â€œSt. Michel. Of course,” she said, suddenly remembering. “Last year an American woman made headlines when she discovered she was the long-lost heir to the throne.”
    Alex nodded. “But I’ll bet you didn’t know that that woman, Sophie Baldwin Lejardin—the queen of St. Michel—is my sister-in-law.”
    Julianne stopped in her tracks. “Are you kidding?”
    Alex shook his head. “Why would I kid about something like that? She married my brother, Luc.”
    â€œThe minister of arts and culture?”
    â€œNo. Luc was formerly the minister of protocol.Now he is the prince consort. My middle brother, Henri, is in charge of arts and culture.”
    Â 
    Julianne stared at him with eyes so large and blue that for a fleeting moment he wanted to swim in them. Until he remembered himself, and the sobering fact that she was Liam’s aunt, Marissa’s sister. Not a woman to be trifled with. Perhaps rather than acting like an imbecile and making faces at her in the glass to hear her laugh, it would be best to direct his gaze straight ahead.
    Not at her.
    Not at her blue eyes.
    Perhaps at his son sleeping in the carriage.
    He also decided that it would be a good time to begin easing into the fact that she undoubtedly did see the security agents who were following her. Given the dangerous nature of his job of fighting human rights violators—who were another breed of terrorist—coupled with the fact that Liam was related to the royal family of St. Michel, Secret Service agents would now be a permanent presence in her and Liam’s lives.
    Arranging for Julianne and Liam to be guarded was among the first things he’d done once Julianne’s story checked out.
    The last thing he wanted was Liam or Julianneto be used as a pawn in the sick game of world politics. Of course, that posed another problem: Liam would be much safer in St. Michel rather than in the States with his aunt.
    Funny, twenty-four hours ago, the last thing he would’ve wanted was to be saddled with a child. Now, the thought of protecting his son was his greatest priority.
    He simply needed to figure out how to let Julianne know the magnitude of the situation without scaring her.
    Â 
    â€œHow long have you been with the orchestra?” Alex asked
    â€œThree years.” Inwardly she cringed at her short, closed answer. Really she needed to make a better effort at keeping up her end of the conversation.
    â€œWhere else did you perform on this tour?”
    â€œRome, Milan, Barcelona, Madrid, Nice and now Paris.” She checked off the cities on her fingers as she named them. “Actually, it’s my first time out of the U.S. Marissa was the adventurous traveler in the family.”
    They strolled silently for a few moments, Marissa’s memory walking between them like a silent ghost.
    There were so many questions she wanted toask him about his relationship with her sister: How did he and Marissa meet? What had they meant to each other—or what had she meant to him? She’d already heard Marissa’s side of the story, but Alex had been a bit closed about his relationship with her sister, saying only that they were “good friends.”
    Good friends who had a baby?
    The thought knocked the breath out of her. Before