Unsettled by the look, Raoul decided he needed sustenance after all and poured himself what his father was drinking.

“You obviously have something serious to discuss. What is so urgent you couldn’t wait until tomorrow to tell me?”

His father shook his head. His hands were clasped in front of him. He rubbed his thumbs together in an attitude of reflection.

“You’re familiar with the phrase, ‘God’s errand’?”

Raoul didn’t move a muscle, but something unpleasant twisted in his gut-some premonition of dread. He’d experienced it on several occasions climbing in the Alps during army maneuvers. The sudden crack of sound-then avalanche. Lines darkened his features.

“Say what you have to say, Father,” Raoul said with an uncustomary show of impatience. His parent’s comment had begun to alarm him.

“This concerns you and the Princess Sophie.”

A pregnant silence invaded the booklined room with its ornate hand-carved furniture and inlaid floors. Raoul felt as if someone had put a fist to his abdomen, dead center. He ran long, tanned fingers through his dark blond hair, a trait passed down from his mother.

“I thought we had an understanding that until I turned thirty-six she was a closed subject.”

“I’m afraid her father opened it when I received a call from him earlier this evening. He feels Sophie has reached the age where it has become an embarrassment for her to still be single. It seems he insists that the date of your wedding be moved up.”

Henri’s words extinguished any light coming from his son’s piercing blue eyes.

“How soon?”

After a tension-filled pause, “Two months.”

The wineglass slipped from Raoul’s fingers and shattered against the parquetry. All color drained from his face, leaving his lips whitened. He stood there clenching and unclenching his fists.

Henri’s heart went out to Raoul. If anyone understood how his son felt, Henri did. Thirty-five years ago he’d married Raoul’s mother, Princess Louise de Bergeret. They had been betrothed from infancy. Fortunately there’d been an initial attraction on both sides and their marriage grew into a love match.