The Serenade: The Prince and the Siren [Daughters of the Empire 2] (BookStrand Publishing Romance) by Suzette Hollingsworth Page A

and pants indicated great distress. Alejandro knew Pancho did not fear his employer. He was the most devoted of servants and was merely mortified at not giving satisfaction.
    “There, there, Pancho, we shall make it right.” He forced himself to turn and bestow a smile upon him. It was his own fault that his manservant was too familiar. “But I shall ask the questions, and you shall answer them henceforth, are we agreed?”
    “Yes, Your Highness, but may I just say that—”
    “And you will tell me who she is by tomorrow morning.”
    “Your Highness, I—”
    “Understood?” Alejandro frowned. This was getting ridiculous.
    Pancho’s lips quivered as if wishing desperately to speak but unable to form the words. His long curled moustache bounced up and down as they walked, as did the blue silk handkerchief in his pocket more befitting of a gentleman, both of which waved at him in unison.
    “Not another word, my friend. Tomorrow morning.”
    Pancho shook his head violently, turning red, his cheeks wobbling like turkey wattles—as if he were afraid to make a sound and yet thought it his duty to do so. There was a sort of “gobble, gobble” emanating from his tightly closed lips.
    He had known Pancho to exhibit self-importance, but he had never before thought him strange . Ah well, he was a good and loyal servant.
    They proceeded up the Grand Staircase, some twenty-five feet wide, until it separated into two diverging stairwells surrounded everywhere by crystal chandeliers, huge marble columns, torch lighting, and gold-leaf sconces. Reaching Apollo’s lyre, they hastened to their opera box.
    Each private box held six to ten people in spacious accommodations and could be decorated according to the patron’s taste. This was a grandiose mistake on a scale with the grandeur of the Palais Garnier to allow le comte de Saint-Cyr free reign in decorating.
    To be sure, the Palais Garnier Opera House seated nineteen hundred people and was five stories high. The private opera boxes next to the stage comprised four stories alone. An exquisite three-tier crystal chandelier hung from a domed ceiling painted by the artist Chagall, inspired by nine musical geniuses : balle t dancers dressed in yellow pirouetted to scenes from Giselle and Swan Lake while Stravinsky’s passion was portrayed in shades of red in Firebird .
    No one but Saint-Cyr would have attempted to compete with these opulent surroundings, but the count met that challenge with the fervor of the peasants who stormed the Bastille. Just as the citizens loved France so much they were willing to destroy Her, so did Saint-Cyr regard the Palais Garnier.
    Only to rebuild from the ground up.
    As Alejandro looked about him, the similarity was striking. Le comte de Saint-Cyr’s opera box was completely lined in blood-red velvet from floor to ceiling. Flowers, satin pillows, and velvet cushions were in periwinkle blue, deep purples, silver, and gold—most in a disturbing striped pattern. The addition of Louis XVI antique furniture emphasized the fact that, if Maximilien Robespierre and Marie Antoinette’s ghosts were still in residence, they were letting their presence be known at the Palais Garnier.
    Or, at least, in the count of Saint-Cyr’s box.
    Vive la France! Vive la République! Vive la Résistance!
    Situated in the red velvet-lined opera box, Alejandro searched the other elite boxes in vain for the woman in black. She was not one to blend into the background.
    It was as if she had disappeared into thin air .
    “Who are you looking for, Alejandro? Play a round of cards with us,” Valentinois insisted, his dark, melancholy looks adding an obsessive tone to his intensity.
    “Excuse me? No one. Oh, yes, why not.”
    Seated with him in the private box, his friends of many years chatted amiably, insisting on drawing him into the conversation. Out of duty, habit, or a failed attempt at the social graces, he knew not which, he acquiesced.
    “Although this is her debut,