A Royal Elopement

by Emma Lea

  The crowd cheered and my heart lightened just a bit under their encouragement. I knew I would have detractors and that even though the people cheered for me now, they may curse me tomorrow. I let myself be led away, touching the envelope in my pocket once more. My other hand was in my pocket and I fingered my phone, wanting to call her. I wanted to hear her voice. With a sigh, I withdrew my hand and waved to the crowd before slipping into the dark interior of the waiting car. I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes. One hurdle completed. Just about another five thousand and forty-two to go.

  Meredith

  I woke up feeling almost normal for the first time since I had been told the news that I was to leave the guard. It probably helped that my sleep had been undisturbed - something I couldn’t remember happening for a long time. It may have been the alcohol, but I was more inclined to believe that it was reconnecting with my friends. When I finally crawled into bed last night, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The six of us had talked long into the night, staying up even after the men had retired for the evening.

  I headed downstairs in search of breakfast and stopped when I heard the television on in the media room. I poked my head in to see Freddie sitting there watching a press conference. I joined him on the couch and he put his arm around me companionably.

  “Look at him,” Freddie said with a proud smile.

  I turned my attention to the screen and saw Jamie standing there, speaking to the assembled press.

  “Parliament just had his coronation and crowned him king. It looks good on him, don’t you think?”

  My throat was too tight to talk so I just nodded. My eyes were glued to the screen and the man who had been haunting my dreams and every waking thought. My husband, who was now the king. I swallowed thickly.

  He did look good, if a little tired around the eyes. He didn’t smile, but he didn’t scowl either. He was in a suit that fit him to perfection. The only other time I had seen him in a suit was at Freddie’s wedding. Except that wasn’t true now. He had worn a suit when he was impersonating Will, although that was different. He hadn’t been Jamie then. The royal guard didn’t wear suits like some other countries’ secret service did. The royal guard dressed like soldiers, albeit all in black. Black cargo pants, black shirts and black boots. Jamie looked good in a suit.

  “I knew that one day he would be king. He doubted it, you know. We had a lot of conversations about it and about his doubts that he would ever make it back to Kalopsia.”

  I listened as Freddie talked. He had never spoken to me about Jamie and the friendship they shared. I suppose the giant secret they had been keeping meant that it was more prudent for Freddie not to mention him at all. I had even forgotten how close they had been until Freddie had asked Jamie to be in his wedding party.

  The press conference on the television finished and Jamie stepped down from the podium. He was now the king. My husband was the king. What did that make me?

  I laid my head on Freddie’s shoulder. I felt like weeping. Jamie looked so lonely. He had no one in his inner circle that he could really trust. He couldn’t even call Freddie or Alyssa without causing an international incident. I didn’t know how long it would be before he could be seen to have connections with Merveille, but until then, did he have anyone he could truly rely on?

  He had called me yesterday and I had ignored his call. Was he reaching out to me because he needed a friend? Or was it simply because he needed to have our marriage annulled? I couldn’t imagine the scandal that would arise if it was found out that we were married. The press would use it as ammunition against him.

  “So what’s going on between the two of you?” Freddie asked, turning to me and shifting so he could see my face.

  I looked away and wiped the unshed tears from my eyes before looking back at him. “Nothing.” Now.

  Freddie searched my eyes and I knew he didn’t believe me, but what could I say? I didn’t know how Freddie would take the news of the elopement. It would come as a shock, that was for sure. Jamie and I hadn’t been dating publicly so no one had any reason to suspect that there was anything going on between us.

  “You two used to spend a lot of time together.”

  “Yeah, because we worked together.”

  “No, but, you also trained together, outside normal training hours, I mean.”

  I shrugged. “I had to work harder than everyone else,” I said, looking down at my lap and playing with a loose thread in my jeans. “He was helping me.”

  “So you were friends, too?” Freddie looked at me curiously and I was afraid he was seeing far more than I wanted him to see.

  “Of course we were friends,” I said, and then stood. “I’m starving. Have you had breakfast yet?”

  Freddie held my gaze for a moment longer and I wasn’t sure he was going to let the conversation go, but then he sighed and stood. “Not yet,” he said. “I was waiting for Alex but someone kept her up way too late last night and she was still comatose when I came down earlier.”

  “Well, come on then,” I said, “let’s see what the kitchen has prepared for us.”

  I led Freddie from the room and I knew that I couldn’t leave this thing with Jamie hanging in limbo. The thirty days was up and we both needed to get on with our lives. The sooner we could get the marriage dissolved, the better for both of us. The only problem was that I would need to see Alyssa and tell her the truth. She was the only one that had the wherewithal to get the marriage annulled quickly and quietly.

  I knocked on Alyssa’s door after breakfast and waited for her permission to enter. Freddie, Will, Dom and Drew had headed out on horseback to look over the grounds. The other ladies in waiting were either still at breakfast or not out of bed yet. Alyssa had come down to breakfast with Will but had come back to her room after he’d left. I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans as I waited.

  The door opened and Bridgette blinked at me before stepping aside and letting me in.

  “Would you like me to ring for tea?” she asked.

  “No, I’m good,” I replied.

  Alyssa looked up from a document in her hand and smiled at me. “Come and sit,” she said. “Thanks Bridgette, we’ll be fine now.”

  I waited for Bridgette to leave and then took a seat opposite Alyssa. I don’t think I had ever been this nervous about talking to her. Even when I went to her to intervene on my behalf so that I wouldn’t be kicked out of the guard, I hadn’t felt so sick to my stomach with apprehension.

  Alyssa’s eyebrows puckered as she frowned at me. “Are you alright?”

  I swallowed and shook my head. “I - ah - have something of a delicate nature to talk to you about.”

  She put the papers she had been reading down on the coffee table and gave me her full attention. “Is this a friend thing or a queen thing?’ she asked.

  I huffed out a small, humourless laugh. “A little of both.”

  She nodded and folded her hands in her lap. “Okay. Lay it on me.”

  I took a breath. “Something happened when we were on Le Beau,” I said. “Something I need help with undoing.”

  “O-kay,” she said slowly. “You didn’t get arrested or anything did you?’

  “No, worse,” I said. “I got married.”

  It was a credit to all the training Alyssa had had in maintaining her composure that she sat there and barely reacted at all. Her eyes widened and her nostrils flared as she breathed in deeply. I held my own breath as I waited for her to say something, anything.

  “Who?”

  It wasn’t the question I expected, but it was a valid one.

  I dropped my head and felt the tears fill my eyes. When I looked back at her, all my walls were stripped away and my pain was on full display. “Jamie,” I whispered. Fat tears rolled down my cheeks.

  I didn’t think Alyssa’s eyes could get any wider. “Wow,” she breathed. “Just…wow.”

  “We were both a little under the influence and a lot annoyed with what
was happening in our lives. I was upset with my mother and her machinations and Jamie was upset about…well, I didn’t know at the time but I suppose in hindsight, he was upset about the whole Kalopsia thing.”

  “No wonder you were mad when you found out.”

  I sighed and looked down at my hands. “The thing is, he did try and tell me. That night, the night we got married. He told me he was a prince in exile and that I was rescuing him. I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just being romantic.”

  Alyssa stood and began to pace. “Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Okay. This is okay. This is something we can work with. This is good. We just—”

  “No, no, no,” I said, standing too. “You don’t understand. I want to get this annulled. Quietly.”

  Alyssa stopped pacing and looked at me. “What? You don’t want to be with him?”

  “No. Well, yes, but no. I’m not queen material. He needs someone beside him who has been raised to be a queen.”

  “You were raised by a duchess and you’re my best friend. That makes you perfect queen material.”

  I shook my head and moved away from her, walking over to the window and looking out over the estate that was now mine. “The last thing Jamie - King Christophe - needs right now is to deal with me and our elopement. We need to get this annulled before the press get wind of it and cause a media storm. He is in a precarious position right now and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardise that.”

  “Standing beside him as his wife is the best thing you can do right now,” Alyssa said, her voice taking on the tone of authority that only a queen could have, proving once again that I was just not cut out for the role. “He needs you. He needs someone who has no stake in the politics of Kalopsia.”

  I turned to her, upset that she wouldn’t do this for me. Upset that I couldn’t do what she wanted me to do. “Look at me, Lys. I am the last person he needs standing beside him. I am a body guard, not a queen.”

  “You are a countess, but more than that, you are a wonderful, loyal, beautiful woman.” She took a breath and her gaze drilled into me. “Do you love him?”

  I collapsed onto the couch. “Yes. God so help me, I do.”

  Alyssa sat beside me and took my hands in hers. “Then go to him. Tell him.”

  I searched her eyes, a little ray of hope birthing inside me and then I thought of what would happen if I were to announce to the world that Jamie and I were married. I dropped my head and shook it.

  “I can’t,” I breathed. “I can’t do that to him.” I looked up at her again. “Please,” I said, “can you do this for me?”

  She stared back at me for so long I didn’t think she was going to answer and then she sighed. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  I nodded. It wasn’t what I wanted but it was what I thought was best.

  “Okay,” she said.

  Chapter 20

  Jamie

  “Lord Frédéric Bingham is here to see you, Your Royal Highness,” Fenton said.

  I looked up at the man who had once served my father as his butler and smiled for what felt like the first time in days.

  “Thank you, Fenton,” I replied. “Show him in.”

  I stood from my desk and stretched. Freddie being here must mean that the embargo between Kalopsia and Merveille was at an end. I walked around the other side of the desk and eagerly waited for Fenton to bring Freddie in. The door opened and I strode eagerly forward, hand out-stretched. Freddie shook my hand but he did not return my smile. I frowned.

  “Welcome to Kalopsia,” I said. I turned to Fenton. “Thank you Fenton. I will call if we need anything.”

  The butler nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

  “Thank you for seeing me, Your Royal Highness.”

  “Freddie,” I said with a shake of my head. “Come on. Let’s not stand on formalities.”

  Freddie frowned further. “Fine,” he said. “Then tell me what the hell is going on between you and my sister?”

  I took a step back from him, shocked.

  “And don’t try to lie to me. Tell me the truth - all of it.”

  I took a deep breath and indicated that we should sit in the over-stuffed leather couches. He took a seat and I poured us some drinks. This discussion needed alcohol. I handed him a tumbler of whiskey and then sat opposite him, taking a sip before I started.

  “I fell in love with her,” I said, not hiding anything from the one man who had known everything about me since the moment we met. “It started out as just an innocent flirtation and then along the way I fell for her. I wanted to explain everything to her, and I finally did, only she didn’t believe me. She thought I was spinning some romantic fairytale.” I looked down at the glass in my hands remembering the night we had ridden around in the limo. It had felt so natural to have her in my arms. My wife.

  “There’s more,” Freddie said, his voice gentler than it was when he first entered the room.

  I nodded. “One night on Le Beau, Meredith was upset and she took off. I found her in a bar drowning her sorrows. We were both feeling pretty low about what was going on individually in our personal lives. Meredith was having a hard time coming to grips with leaving the guard and taking up the countess title and I had just had some bad news about Kalopsia. We ended up having a few drinks together and I proposed to her. She said yes.” Freddie hadn’t said a word and didn’t look particularly shocked at what I was saying. “We got a license and got married in a little open-air chapel on a hill overlooking the island. But you already know this.”

  He nodded.

  “Meredith told you?”

  He shook his head. “No,” he said and sighed. “Alyssa told me. Meredith went to her and asked her to organise an annulment.”

  I gripped the glass in my hand until my knuckles turned white. “She wants it annulled?” Of course she did. She had from the moment we had woken up and she had realised what we had done. I was kidding myself to think that she had changed her mind, especially after her ignoring all my calls. Somehow I had still held on to hope that she would eventually want me and what we could have together. Obviously I was wrong.

  Freddie took a sip of his drink and then placed it on the side table. He pulled out an official looking envelope and laid it on the low coffee table between us. “Alyssa tells me that Meredith is in love with you and after seeing the way she has been moping around the place since she got back from Barcelona, I tend to agree. Alyssa thinks that Meredith is doing this because she thinks it’s what you want. She doesn’t think she is cut out to be your wife or the queen of your country. This is her way of giving you an escape clause.”

  I looked down at the envelope but didn’t reach for it. Inside held the dissolution of my marriage. The end of a relationship that we had only just begun to explore. I wasn’t ready for it to be over, but I didn’t want to force Meredith into something she didn’t want.

  “The ball is in your court now, Jamie,” Freddie said, picking up his drink and sitting back. “What are you going to do?”

  “How do you feel about Meredith and me as a couple?” he asked. “I know there is some sort of rule about friends dating their friend’s sister.”

  Freddie smirked. “I’ll admit I was a little peeved when I found out. Not that you two were an item, but that I wasn’t in the loop. Neither of you came to me and told me. I was prepared to come in here and box your ears over it, but then you had to go and tell me you were in love with her. That’s all I want for my baby sister. Someone who will love her for who she is, not who my mother is trying to turn her into. Meredith is prickly and ornery and tough. If you can see past all that and love her anyway, then who am I to stand in your way?”

  “How long are you here for?” I asked.

  “As long as you need me.”

  “Is Alex here too?”

  Freddie smiled. “Of course. We’re still newlyweds. I wasn’t going to spend any more time away from her than I absolutely had to.”

  “Please
stay here in the palace with me.”

  Freddie cocked an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

  “As long as it won’t impact Merveille negatively. I have missed having people around that I can trust.”

  Freddie nodded and stood. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll go and get Alex from the hotel.”

  I stood too and pulled the bell for Fenton to show Freddie out.

  “Lord Bingham and his wife will be staying with us for a few days,” I said to the butler when he arrived. “Please see that a suite is prepared for them.”

  “Very good, Your Highness.”

  I paced the office after Freddie left, avoiding the coffee table that held my execution - annulment - papers. The ball was in my court but I had no idea what was the best way to proceed.

  Alex had hugged me tightly when she saw me. I hadn’t expected it. I thought she would be mad at me first for the deception, and then again for what had transpired between Meredith and me. Instead she whispered in my ear, “She needs you.” If only that were true. Meredith was an amazing woman who didn’t need anyone. I wished she needed me; it would make this decision a whole lot easier. I was in love with her and I just couldn’t imagine feeling this way about anyone else. But that wasn’t enough. She had to be in love with me too. She had to want to be with me too. Her sending the annulment papers was a big red flag.

  I paced the terrace outside my bedroom and breathed in the salty air. Living in Merveille, away from the ocean, had made me forget what it was like to hear the constant susurration of the waves on the shore and the tang of salt in the air. I hadn’t realised how much I missed it until I was back here. The night was cool with a hint of autumn in the air. And it was late. Dinner with Alex and Freddie had been long but enjoyable. I felt I could relax for the first time in what seemed like years but was in fact only a couple of months. I seemed to be always on edge lately, waiting for the next blow to come. Having friends, close friends, who I could just be myself with, was a relief.