One Night with Prince Charming (Aristocratic Grooms #2)(31)
Author: Anna DePalo

“I’ll leave it with you so you can take your time going through it,” she added as Lucy opened the book. “You’ll see that some brides like more elaborate floral arrangements, and others prefer a simpler concept. Next time we talk, let’s discuss what you’re looking for before we meet with the florist.”

Lucy nodded as she flipped through the scrapbook. “This is helpful.” She looked up. “You’re so organized, Pia.”

“Thank you.”

Pia smiled to herself because wedding planners received few acknowledgments of their work. Many brides were too consumed by preparations for their big event to thank the paid help, at least until the wedding was over.

“The other item on our agenda that you should be thinking about now,” Pia went on crisply, “is the music that you’d like to be played at the reception.”

“Definitely Broadway show tunes,” Lucy said with a laugh. “Can I enter on the theme song from Phantom of the Opera?”

“You can do whatever you like,” Pia responded before a thought intruded that she decided to query about delicately. “Has your mother voiced any opinions?”

In her experience, weddings were fraught with family negotiations, and often no one had more of an opinion than the mother of the bride. Pia had been called on to referee in more than one instance.

Lucy sighed at Pia’s words and sat back, letting the book of photographs fall closed. “Mother means well, but she can be a bit of a dragon, unfortunately.”

Pia raised her eyebrows.

“But Hawk doesn’t let her have complete free rein.” Lucy grinned suddenly. “Of course, it helps that the wedding is happening in New York, thousands of miles from Silderly Park and Mother’s back lawn.”

In the past, Pia had studiously avoided probing Lucy for more information than she volunteered about her brother. But Lucy had just reminded her of who Pia’s de facto employer was, and, as the current duke and head of the family, Hawk undoubtedly had some say in keeping his mother from overriding Lucy’s wishes.

In any case, it was a revealing remark on Lucy’s part about Carsdale family dynamics.

“Well, it was a deft maneuver to have the wedding here,” Pia conceded, “if your intention was to keep interference at a minimum.”

Lucy looked sly. “Thank you. It was Derek’s idea.”

“Ah, right.” Pia’s lips curved. “He also had the idea of a New Year’s wedding, didn’t he?”

“Brilliant, isn’t it?”

“It’s certainly an unorthodox choice.”

“I know.” Lucy laughed. “I’m sure Mother went absolutely wild. I can picture her pruning her garden with a vengeance after she found out.”

A picture popped into Pia’s head from Lucy’s description, though she’d never met Hawk’s mother. She fought an involuntary smile.

“You do have a flair for the dramatic visual, Lucy,” she teased. “Anyone would think you should be on the stage.”

Lucy gave another laugh. “My first act of rebellion.”

“Your family objected?” Pia asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

Lucy’s eyes twinkled. “Of course! Mother is well aware that the only actresses in the family tree were all born on the wrong side of the blanket.”

Pia was tempted to ask flippantly whether any Carsdale ancestor had kept a wedding planner as a mistress, but she clamped her mouth shut. She wondered, though, how much Lucy knew or suspected about her relationship with Hawk, and what the other woman would say if she knew she was talking to a current lover of the present Duke of Hawkshire.

“Hawk was supportive of me, however,” Lucy went on, seemingly oblivious to Pia’s reticence. “He’s the reason I’m in New York, frankly.”

Pia gave a small smile. Lucy clearly thought the world of her brother.

“Speaking of Hawk,” Lucy said, “he mentioned you’ll be in Oxford and visiting Silderly Park.”

Pia hesitated. Just what had Hawk said to Lucy? Did Lucy believe she simply had an incidental interest in touring Silderly Park while she was visiting England, if only because she was planning the wedding of the Duke of Hawkshire’s sister?

She had been careful not to discuss Hawk with Lucy because, at first, she hadn’t trusted herself to be less than withering in her opinion. And afterward, well, it had become problematic to speak about Hawk…

And, of course, now… Pia heated to think of all the things she couldn’t bring up with Lucy about how she and Hawk passed the time.

She bit her lip. “Yes, I’m, um, planning to stay at Silderly Park for a few days to fish and ride.”

As the words left her mouth, Pia felt a flush crawl up her neck. Drat—would she ever be able to talk about fishing or riding again without blushing?

“Please say you’ll stay in Oxford until the first of December then,” Lucy pleaded. “It would be so wonderful if you could attend the small engagement party that my mother insisted on hosting at Silderly Park.”

“I—”

Pia had never been invited as a guest to a client’s wedding function.

“In fact, it would be so nice to have you there.”

Pia searched the younger woman’s expression, but all she saw there was pure, unguarded appeal.

“I—” Pia cleared her throat and gave a helpless smile. “Okay.”

Lucy returned her smile with a grateful one of her own.

Pia wondered whether all the Carsdales were so adamantly persuasive.

Lucy either had no clue about the current state of affairs between her brother and her wedding planner, or, well, she was a very good actress.

In her gossip column, Mrs. Hollings had twice referenced her and Hawk—once right after Belinda’s almost-wedding, and more recently, when she’d hinted at a warming of their relationship after Hawk had unexpectedly played her assistant. But Mrs. Hollings had stopped short of naming them as lovers.

And, what’s more, Pia wasn’t sure if Lucy even paid attention to Mrs. Hollings’s column. True, the column included a fair amount of society gossip, but Lucy was immersed in the theater world rather than in the social whirl, and Mrs. Hollings’s column focused on New York rather than Britain.

Pia pushed those thoughts aside. “Thank you for the invitation.”

Lucy laughed. “Don’t be silly. I should be thanking you because you’ll be putting up with my mother and my brother.”