All In by Simona Ahrnstedt

Author:Simona Ahrnstedt [Ahrnstedt, Simona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2016-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

30

If J-O’s Thursday party was the most festive and extravagant of Båstad week, then the De la Grip family’s customary Friday barbecue was the most traditional. The average age of the guests was somewhat higher and the snoot factor, based purely on the number of royal and titled attendees, a notch greater. Natalia’s father socialized with a group of men who knew the king, and Natalia’s mother cultivated those connections carefully. No detail could be off; no one was permitted to deviate from the code of conduct when the royal couple was expected.

The party was held at her parents’ villa. Somber music filled the air. The black-and-white-clad wait staff worked efficiently. The wine being served came from the De la Grip family’s vineyard in France. Linen tablecloths and the silver table service were family heirlooms, and everything that could be polished gleamed. The refrigerators were filled with midnight snacks. The aroma of the food wafted over the grounds—the same menu every year, tables heaping with meat and game. Classic, Swedish dishes.

Natalia scanned the room where the guests were quietly mingling. French doors opened out to the garden; door attendants made sure the right people got in and that everyone else was kept outside. Natalia saw Louise chatting with her mother by the antique credenza. They wore nearly identical dresses and similar jewelry and gesticulated in the same feminine way. Louise was actually more like the daughter Natalia suspected her mother had always wanted, blond, interested in interior design, art, and genealogy. And just like her mother, Louise mostly communicated through subtle digs and pregnant sighs. With her arrogant ways and her blond French twist, Louise actually resembled the rest of the De la Grip family more than Natalia ever had. She turned away. Uncle Eugene, with two cut-crystal vodka glasses in his hands, was heading her way.

“Natalia, darling,” he said effusively, handing her one of the glasses. He took a swig of his own drink and then looked over at his sister Ebba with a slightly curled lip. He shook his head and then said to Natalia, “Things haven’t been easy for you, milochka.”

Natalia tasted the vodka. She’d always wondered why Eugene looked down on his own sister so much, but she’d never dared ask.

“It’s always the same people who come to all the parties,” she said instead. All these cookie-cutter people, she thought gloomily, men in identical suits, women with their discreet little dresses and even more discreet plastic surgeries. Somehow it felt more stifling than usual. “Don’t you think it’s depressing?” she asked, taking another sip. Maybe she should just get a bottle of vodka and sit down by herself in a corner somewhere?

Eugene studied her closely. “Are you missing someone in particular?” he asked casually.

Natalia looked away and took another little sip of the cold liquor. “Who is that Alexander’s talking to?” she asked, skirting her uncle’s far too insightful question. Apparently she hadn’t been as careful with David as she’d thought.

David.

Just thinking his name quietly to herself set her heart aflutter.

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