Secondly, what would Maddie say? Vivian had spent decades keeping her dating life separate from her life with Maddie, and this would destroy all of that! Yes, fine, she’d invited Malcolm to Christmas Eve dinner, but she would pretend to Maddie that was Julia’s idea. There was no way she could pin an extra few days with him in London on Julia!

But most importantly, she barely knew this man! Why the hell had she even considered being alone in a foreign country with a stranger? He’d mentioned staying with him—stay with a stranger, in his home? What if he was some sort of ax murderer or something? Maybe no one would ever see her again!

No, she couldn’t do this. She wouldn’t stay.

Yes, that was it. When he came for dinner tonight, she’d tell him she was sorry, but there was no way she could stay; she’d had a lovely time with him, but that was it, and Merry Christmas.

Or Happy Christmas, whatever it was they said here.

Okay. Good. That was the plan.

Granted . . . she did have so much fun with him. And so what if it was just that vacation kind of fun, where they didn’t really know each other or need to fit into each other’s lives and nothing was at stake—it was only a few more days! They’d keep having vacation kind of fun—maybe even the better kind of fun—and then she’d go home and everything would go back to normal. Shouldn’t she be in favor of having more fun in her life? Especially since she wouldn’t have the opportunity to do something spontaneous like this again once she took the new job?

And he probably wasn’t an ax murderer. Wouldn’t she have read something about an epidemic of women in England being murdered via ax if that was the case? He did work for the Queen, after all—not that people who worked for royalty were automatically model citizens; historically, it seemed like it was very much the opposite. But she didn’t really think people with those jobs got carte blanche to go around committing crimes.

She got out of bed, plucked a notebook out of her purse, and got back in bed. She needed a pro/con list, that’s what she needed.

She spent ten minutes scrawling down everything she could think of on both sides of the list.

PROS

 

CONS

 

I have so much fun with him

 

So much to do at home

 

New job will mean a lot more work; last chance to do something like this for a while!

 

Maddie will freak out

 

Probably not a murderer

 

But he could be a murderer!

 

Sex! (hopefully)

 

Sex??? I barely know him!

 

She tried to come up with a fifth bullet point on either side to break the tie, but everything she thought of seemed very clearly like a secondary point to one of the eight bullet points she already had.

She shook her head and got out of bed. She needed to sit on this for a while. She should take a shower, go downstairs and drink some of Julia’s delicious tea and eat some of those glorious scones she’d been stuffing herself with for days, and put this whole decision out of her mind for now.

She hadn’t dated anyone in a few years, which was probably why a few kisses had gotten her so giddy about a ridiculous idea like staying with Malcolm in England after Maddie left.

Fine, that last point in the pro list was a significant one.

Maddie was busy doing final fittings with the Duchess for the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day outfits, and Julia was occupied in the kitchen, prepping for the holiday meals, so Vivian spent most of the day curled up on her favorite chair in the sitting room, reading and drinking tea and eating whatever snacks James periodically set in front of her. She hadn’t had a day where she had literally nothing to do but relax in a long time, and instead of being able to take advantage of it, she kept thinking about Malcolm Hudson.

She’d sort of expected to get a note from him that day, but one didn’t come. Maybe he’d changed his mind, too. Maybe he’d realized spontaneity wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and thought of all the work he had to do, and remembered he barely knew her.

Yes, that was it. He’d decided she shouldn’t stay, either. Maybe they could just both pretend he’d never said anything about it the day before, so they wouldn’t have to talk about it, and they’d just never speak of it tonight, then never see each other again.

Okay, well, that last part was depressing. Plus, avoiding a conversation like that wasn’t really her style. She had to tell him something.

“What do you think, Mom? Isn’t she stunning?”

Vivian looked up at Maddie’s voice and saw the Duchess standing there in front of her in the emerald-green sequined dress. Vivian rose from her chair.

“Wow. Oh wow.” Vivian walked around the Duchess to see her from all sides. Her hair was up in a loose, off-center bun, with long tendrils around her face, she had huge diamond studs in her ears, and she was wearing a diamond bracelet that probably cost twice as much money as Vivian’s car.

Maybe her house.

“You look incredible,” Vivian said.

“She does, doesn’t she?” The Duke came into the room in his tux and smiled first at his wife, then at Maddie and Vivian. “Thank you both, for making my wife so happy.”

The Duchess kissed him on the cheek.

“At first I wasn’t sure about this color, but—”

“It’s perfect,” both Vivian and the Duke said in unison. They grinned at each other.

“Who am I to argue with these two?” the Duchess said to Maddie.

James pulled the car up to the house, and after another flurry of good-byes, they got in to drive the few minutes over to Sandringham House.

“That’s our cue to get ourselves ready for dinner,” Vivian said.

Maddie nudged her on their way up the stairs.

“Speaking of dinner, a little birdie told me that Malcolm Hudson is coming for dinner, too. How did that happen?”

Oops. In the aftermath of Malcolm’s invitation, she’d forgotten to find a way to mention to Maddie that he was coming tonight.

“Oh, I think Julia wanted to—”

Maddie rolled her eyes.

“Mom, stop. You wanted to spend a little more time with the very attractive and accomplished man who introduced you to the Queen. You don’t need to make up a story about this on my account.”

Now might be a good opportunity to tell Maddie that she was thinking about spending even more time with the very attractive and accomplished man who introduced her to the Queen.

No, she’d decided that wasn’t going to happen, hadn’t she?

“Plus”—Maddie grinned at her—“I heard him talking the other day when he dropped you back off here—my goodness, that accent. If I wasn’t already taken, I’d swoon for it a little bit, too.”

He really did have an incredible voice. It wasn’t just the accent, though that was great, too. It was something about the timbre of his voice: low, but not too deep; warm and soothing, like drinking a cup of hot chocolate with a shot of whiskey.

Should his voice be a pro on her list?

No, no, be real with yourself, Vivian.

She needed to change the subject before Maddie kept talking about Malcolm.

“How did everything go with the Duchess? She looked great, but I know these past few days have been busier than you expected.”