"I must admit," Stefan Cassadine said, "that I was quite impressed with the restraint you showed Helena's manservant. Your reaction was not what I expected."
Faith Ward smiled at just how well he knew her. "I like to do the unexpected," she shrugged, "every now and then. Beside, I really could not take offense. Andreas was perhaps a bit premature, but he was correct nonetheless."
Faith picked up the simple, engraved wedding invitation and read it once more.
When Helena's personal servant had materialized in the study of Wyndemere to deliver Stavros' wedding invitation, Faith remained in the background. She watched her fiancé gracefully accept the square white envelope.
His control was impressive. Upon reading the unexpected announcement, Stefan's features had become undecipherable and still. Until the moment the handsome servant had made it his business to inform Faith that as 'consort' to the Prince's younger brother, she was also required to attend the nuptials.
Stefan's eyes had flown to hers. Faith gave him a quiet smile, accepted the invitation from Andreas, and softly thanked him.
Now they sat awaiting the results of numerous phone calls that Stefan had made all across Europe. Making use of his vast network of contacts, the Cassadine Regent tried to ascertain the particulars of this wedding that had caught him so by surprise.
The chime of his internet mail program signaled a response to one of Stefan's many feelers. Curious, Faith joined her fiancé at the desk. Together they watched the photograph appear pixel by pixel on the laptop's screen. "She's a young woman of color," Faith proclaimed with some small degree of surprise.
"As are you."
"How beautifully you state the obvious," Faith retorted. "What I meant was..."
"You find my brother's choice of a bride surprising." Stefan had heard the note of surprise in Faith's voice when Alexandra DiMera's photograph appeared on the screen. "Beloved, my brother - the entire Cassadine family, for that matter - may be many things. But racist is not one of them. To put it crassly, we are financially and socially so far removed from ninety-nine percent of the world's population that everyone is beneath us." Stefan smiled sardonically. "We need not limit our superiority to simple matters of race."
