Claim Me

by Geneva Lee

  “Are you certain?” he asked.

  I shoved his shoulder, beaming up at him. “I’m fine. They’ll look after me.”

  He kissed my forehead, but as he turned, I caught an unspoken command pass between him and Georgia. I was being passed off. Now I was her responsibility.

  “Do you need anything?” she asked.

  “Water?” Everyone around me was drinking, but I’d yet to see anything nonalcoholic pass on a tray. It seemed unlikely that it would.

  “Wait here,” she ordered.

  When she left, Belle moved closer, dropping her voice, which seemed wholly unnecessary given the music. “Did you see Philip?”

  My eyes flashed through the crowd in alarm. I’d okayed this guest list. Edward had created it. How on earth had we allowed Philip Abernathy, Belle’s cheating ex-fiancé on to it?

  “I’m sorry,” I said anxiously, gripping her arm. “I can have someone kick him out. I have no idea how he got on the list.”

  She pried my fingers free, giggling a bit too maniacally for a woman on the verge of running into the man she’d almost married. “Are you kidding? I put him on the list. He knows all these people, so I was sure he’d come. He’s never missed an opportunity to kiss ass before.”

  “Why?” I couldn’t understand why she’d do anything nice for the man who had screwed Pepper Lockwood for most of their engagement.

  “This is better than a school reunion,” she said, like this was perfectly obvious. “I’m hot.” She gestured to her dress for confirmation and I nodded. The brilliant blue made her stand out and her gown clung to her body in all the right places, including her baby bump. “I’m pregnant.” She flashed her right hand. “And happily married.”

  “Revenge is sweet.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “It’s terribly shallow of me, but I don’t care,” she admitted with a smirk.

  Philip deserved having his nose rubbed in her happiness. Actually, he deserved a lot more than that, but since as far as I could tell, he had two emotions—bored and boring—he might not even notice.

  “What does Smith think?” I asked. I couldn’t imagine what Alexander would do if my ex-lover showed up.

  “See for yourself.” Belle raised her club soda in the direction of the bar. Smith was leaning against it, sipping a drink, and watching Philip like a hawk. “I think he wants Philip to come over to me, so he has an excuse to punch him.”

  “Doesn’t he know you can handle that yourself?” I asked dryly. I would never forget the night that Belle had caught Philip in the act.

  “He does,” she said with a shrug, “but why should I have all the fun? Now if Pepper steps out of line…” She rubbed her fist with her left hand.

  “You will walk away because you’re pregnant,” I said firmly. “No drama tonight. I need a break.”

  “We do, too. Smith was supposed to close on the house in—” she cut off suddenly.

  “What is it? What house?” I demanded.

  “It’s nothing.”

  But it wasn’t, and I could tell. “Let’s get some air,” I suggested.

  The garden was far enough away from the actual event that few people had straggled out that direction. It was a bit of a shame since even the lights illuminating the reflection pool and the ellipse of jets had been tinted violet. The effect was other-worldly but chill, and I instantly relaxed.

  “Feeling okay?” Belle asked as I kicked off my heels to enjoy a moment without their constant pinch. She scooped down to pick them up.

  “Thanks,” I said, hooking my fingers around them. “Honestly? I always feel out of place at these things.”

  “You planned it,” she pointed out.

  “I know.” It was hard to explain that even after a few years of time spent with London’s most powerful and elite, I still didn’t feel like one, particularly because I’d been crowned Queen Consort alongside Alexander.

  “No, I mean you planned it,” she repeated. “Clara, there was a time when you would fade into the wallpaper at a party. You never would have planned one.”

  “I’m hiding now.”

  “You’re taking a breather,” she corrected me, turning to face me. “After which, you will return and make small talk and nod graciously and walk hand-in-hand with your husband.”

  “I know that, but I still feel like an outsider.”

  “Because you are,” Belle scoffed. “You’re the Queen. You basically went from party flunky—I love you but it’s true—to above everyone. You don’t belong because you were always meant to stand out.”

  “When did you become so wise?” I asked her, narrowing my eyes.

  “Love does funny things to people. I promise not to let it go to my head,” she said.

  I was incredibly blessed to have my friends, because they were real. Status, money, power—none of that mattered to them. They didn’t see me as an outsider. They saw me as Clara. I didn’t know what I would do without them, which was the real reason that I’d dragged her outside. “Spill. What’s this about a house? Are you moving? I thought you loved Holland Park.”

  There was enough house for a baby or two and then some, but I’d gotten the impression for months that Smith Price had plans to whisk her away.

  “It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “Not since…”

  “Since?” I pressed as my heart pounded a little harder. Her evasion was only more worrying.

  “We’re buying an estate in Scotland,” she blurted out, hurrying on when she saw my face fall, “or we were. I think we still are, but it’s not permanent.”

  “You’re temporarily moving to Scotland?” I asked faintly.

  “It’s not far. Only a couple of hours by car and less by helicopter and you know someone who flies those,” she teased, but her heart wasn’t in it.

  “That’s why you keep going out of town. I wondered.”

  I recalled how much Smith had enjoyed Christmas at Balmoral. They’d returned to Scotland soon after, which had been my first clue that they were plotting betrayal. “How can you leave me here? When will I see my god baby?”

  “Your god baby, huh?” Her eyebrow arched like this was in question.

  “It better be.”

  “She,” Belle said softly, the ghost of a smile flitting over her mouth.

  “She?” I repeated. “It’s a she?”

  I forgot about being mad at her and pulled her into a hug. Belle laughed, squeezing me as we squealed. “Don’t make me cry. I’ll ruin my make-up.”

  “Sod your make-up,” I said, drawing back, I glared at her. “You can’t take away my god baby and Elizabeth’s best friend.”

  “Best friend, huh?”

  “Or maybe Alice’s best friend.” I patted my stomach.

  “Or William’s future girlfriend?” she suggested.

  I grabbed her hands and pleaded, “You can’t move.”

  “It wouldn’t be all the time. Hear me out.”

  I listened as she explained that Smith wanted the baby to have plenty of room and less stress for Belle. “The company doesn’t need me in the office every day and we’ll have a nanny to help. I can take meetings online and Lola can run things here.”

  “Lola might be busy,” I reminded her.

  “Anders won’t need that much help.” Belle dismissed this issue too easily.

  “So what went wrong?” I asked.

  “Smith went to a meeting with Alexander the other day. He didn’t go into detail but I think it had to do with Jacobson.” She paused, biting her lip. “Did he tell you about it?”

  “A little.” Alexander had told me that he was taking Smith to a meeting regarding the Jacobson’s release. Considering the men’s shared interest in bringing him to justice, I hadn’t found it strange. “He seemed shaken when he came home. He didn’t really want to talk about it.”

  “I didn’t want to get him in trouble. Of course, he probably doesn’t want to stress you out. I shouldn’t even be talking about it.”

  Now I wa
s the one who felt guilty. “I haven’t told him,” I confessed. “I started to the other day and then there was the whole mess with Anders. We were distracted.”

  “And you’re avoiding telling him,” she accused.

  “Avoiding telling him what?” a sharp voice cut into the conversation. She held out a water bottle and I grimaced.

  I’d forgotten to stay put, but Georgia hadn’t missed my exit from the party, even if I hadn’t seen her follow. This was why I hadn’t realized that I was constantly being surrounded. I strained my eyes around the dark courtyard looking for others but all I saw were drunken aristocrats who didn’t look like they’d be much use in a crisis. But Georgia would always be nearby and I should have remembered that.

  It helped that she’d worn a jet black evening gown with sleeves that hugged her slender arms to the wrists. It might have been modest camouflage, except for the neckline, which cut so low that it revealed her navel. She blended well into the night while standing out. Much like Georgia, it was the perfect contradiction.

  “Eavesdropping?” Belle asked, obviously trying to distract her from what she’d heard.

  “Catching up with friends.” Georgia’s crimson smile was wolfish. “And you two are loud, anyone can hear you.”

  My eyes flickered around the garden wondering who had heard what. I twisted the cap off the bottle and drank it quickly.

  “We’re talking about baby stuff,” Belle said. “No one cares.”

  We both gave her an incredulous look and she backtracked immediately. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Okay, I guess they do, but it wasn’t interesting pregnancy stuff.”

  The other day, there’d been ten stories about what antacids Georgia had been spotted buying me in a pharmacy. This was much more interesting.

  “Are we being watched right now?” I asked Georgia.

  She gave me an are-you-stupid look.

  “Can we go somewhere that we aren’t being watched?”

  “I think that’s the loo and your bedroom,” she said flatly.

  I was glad some things were still sacred. If I had to pick, those would be the two exceptions I’d ask for. “The loo, it is.”

  Using the loo for a clandestine conversation turned out to involve clearing out the entire bathroom first, which made me feel horrible, and then planting guards in front of the door.

  “Happy?” Georgia asked after she’d checked the stalls one final time. “Now out with it.”

  “It’s nothing.” I silently begged Belle to save me. She was usually good for a quick lie, but she shook her head.

  “You might as well practice. Georgia is almost as scary as Alexander is,” Belle said, crossing her arms as she leaned against a sink.

  “I promise you that I am much scarier.”

  “Not helping,” I told her. I pretended to study myself in the mirror, but since we’d been at the party for all of an hour, there was nothing to fix.

  “You can’t keep it from him. The doctor’s going to be doing house calls soon and he’s going to say something,” Belle argued.

  “He can’t,” I reminded her. “If I tell him not to.”

  Belle’s lips tugged down at the edges. The look of disappointment made me feel worse.

  “What’s going on?” Georgia asked in a low voice.

  I’d nearly forgotten she was here, but when our eyes met I realized I wasn’t walking out of this room without coming clean.

  “What’s going on?” she repeated, edging closer to me, until she’d backed me against the wall. “You’re keeping something from Alexander that has to do with a doctor—are you sick?”

  It took me a moment to process her sudden anger. She had me against a wall—literally. “I actually believed you when you said we were friends.”

  “We are,” she informed me. “She’s the one who takes you shopping and helps you match your purse with your shoes. I’m the one who loses sleep when you’re on the outs with Alexander and walks behind you to watch your back.”

  Belle’s eyes had rounded to full moons, and she took a small step towards us. “You should tell her. It’s not going away.”

  And that was the problem. It wasn’t going away. I couldn’t cover it up or ignore it. I would have to face this—all of us would—and the moment of reckoning was nearly here.

  “Pretend that she’s Alexander,” Belle suggested. “It will be practice.”

  Georgia looked as though she hated this idea, but she didn’t contradict her.

  “Tell me,” her voice softened but the command was still implicit.

  “There’s a problem.” I sniffled, trying to keep myself from crying. If I was going to break down telling Georgia how would I ever get through telling Alexander? I set my shoulders and willed myself to be calm, reminding myself that everything would turn out well. “The baby’s heart isn’t right. He’s going to need surgery when he’s born.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” Georgia shook her head, her mouth open. “How could you keep this a secret?”

  “We weren’t sure. I had to see a specialist.”

  “When did you find out there might be a problem?” She asked.

  “A couple of—”

  “I really hope you’re about to say minutes,” she hissed. “You’ve known for days?”

  “Weeks,” I said weakly.

  “What were you thinking?” she demanded.

  “You do a really good impression of Alexander,” Belle said, “but I think she needs our support not our—”

  “That’s how you do friendship.” Georgia spun to face her. “My version has slightly more accountability.”

  “I know I should have told him.” Her reaction had shocked the tears from me. Now I was starting to feel angry.

  “Even if you couldn’t tell him, I needed to know. Your team needed to know.”

  “You answer to Alexander—” I began.

  “And you,” she added. “We keep secrets for a living and if the Queen has a secret, we will keep it. Do you understand? When you wanted to go to Windsor, I didn’t call him. I don’t repeat our conversations. But I needed to know this. How can I protect you if I don’t know that there’s a serious health concern with the baby? What if there was an accident and no one knew?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said softly. It hasn’t occurred to me that my team needed to know. It had felt like a private matter, but there was no real privacy in my life anymore. Why couldn’t I accept that?

  “It was stupid and reckless.” She shook her head. “I expected better of you. You’re usually the smart one.”

  She stormed toward the door and Belle and I looked at each other.

  “Give me a moment,” I called to Georgia as she opened the door.

  “There’s an entire squad of fools drooling to throw themselves between you and a bullet. I need to think.” She paused as she stepped out of the door. “Clara, tell him or I will.”

  It wasn’t an empty threat, and I knew it.

  “That went well,” Belle muttered.

  I slumped against the tiled wall, cradling the baby growing inside me. “She’s right. I didn’t want to deal with it, so I tried to ignore it. I made excuses for why it was okay to keep it a secret. The whole time I’ve been putting the baby in danger.”

  “You’ve been going to your appointments. You’re taking care of yourself,” Belle said firmly. “Maybe you should have told them, but there’s no use hating yourself for the past.”

  “I have to tell him,” I said, “as soon we get home.”

  I wouldn’t ruin Sarah’s birthday by springing this on her brother. Georgia knew now, so in the unlikely event the information was needed, she could pass it along.

  Was that how I wanted Alexander to find out? In an emergency?

  “Come on, let’s find your husband. You’ll feel better around him.” Belle urged me back onto my feet and kept me steady as I slipped my heels on.

  But I wouldn’t feel better. Not until this had been dealt with.

&n
bsp; * * *

  It took Belle two passes to fix my smeared mascara. I didn’t mind. I’d rather be stuck in a restroom than smiling and pretending everything was fine.

  “Ready to enter the fray?” Belle asked when I’d run out of ways to stall us.

  I shook my head and she smiled sympathetically. We both knew that there was only one way out of here and it meant going back to the party.

  Outside the door, I paused to thank the guards, who’d begun to look a little nervous. We’d only made it a few steps toward the hall that led to The Raphael Gallery when a simpering voice said, “About time,” a bit too loudly.

  I closed my eyes and grabbed Belle’s arm before she could confront Pepper. This night just kept getting better and better. But Pepper, ever the sadist, wasn’t about to let us off the hook so easily.

  “It’s really rude to make everyone wait out here so you two can attempt to apply make-up. Accept a lost cause when you see it, ladies,” Pepper called over, but none of the women waiting around her laughed. Not even Sarah, who’d been stuck waiting out here with her friend. There wasn’t so much as a nervous titter among the lot of them. Pepper frowned.

  “Feeling unappreciated?” I asked her coldly. I wanted to tell her that no one wanted her here, but tonight was about Sarah and I wasn’t going to ruin it for her. Even if her best friend was a twat.

  “I don’t know,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “How does that feel? I’m sure you have experience.”

  “Stop,” Sarah said, dragging her to the loo as others filed in, eager to get away from the catfight.

  Next to me, Belle dropped her voice, “I know what you said, but—”

  “No,” I said firmly. I wasn’t going to let my pregnant best friend take a swing at Pepper, even if I would have paid to see Pepper’s reaction.

  “Please,” she whined.

  “What’s the matter?” Pepper called as Sarah tried to hustle her past the door. “Clara got you on the short leash?”

  My hands let go of Belle voluntarily, unable to hold her back anymore, because sometimes a cat fight was in order.

  Before Belle could reach her, Sarah stepped between them and rounded on her friend. “You’re her guest.”

  “I’m your guest.” Pepper’s lower lip stuck out a little as she battled her shock over Sarah’s reaction. “I told you that these two are trash.”