by Leslie North
Rafael rubbed his hands over his face, looking so human it made her heart twist. “I’m not sure I can plan our day off in a timely fashion,” he said. “With the referendum coming up, I’m just not sure that—” He took his hands away from his face and smiled. “I’m not sure that I should be scheduling private days. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a break.”
Excitement fluttered in her chest. “A girls’ night, then?”
“I thought you and Joy could have an evening out. I’ll invite some others, too, make it something of a party.”
Rafael kept his word. Two days later, a car equipped to handle Joy’s wheelchair pulled up in front of the Stolvenian capital’s fanciest restaurant. The sun had set, and the front of the restaurant glowed with gas lamps. A valet stood waiting to take the car—not that it would be needed, with a private driver—and other uniformed staff waited. The velvet ropes lining the entrance were beginning to look rather comforting. Three security guards flanked the ropes.
Joy reached over and squeezed her hand. “This is exciting. Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” Felicity lied. She was. The more Rafael had told her about the guest list, the more she’d known that this was another way for the nation to get to know her. It wasn’t what she’d asked for at all.
Inside, a long table was surrounded by women all dressed beautifully, all talking to each other as if they’d known each other for years. That was because they had. Rafael had invited distant cousins from the royal family, famous Stolvenian artists and artisans, and businesswomen from all over the capital.
It was only a matter of moments before they noticed Felicity and Joy, pulling the women into their circle. One woman, Marta, told Felicity with a breathless excitement that she was foremost in the wedding invitation business in Stolvenia and, in fact, couldn’t wait for wedding planning to go full-steam ahead.
“Yes,” answered Felicity. “I’m excited, too. Also a little nervous. There’s so much to do, and I want to do it well.”
“You can do it well,” Joy said from beside her. “King Rafael is lucky to have you. As queen, you’ll be able to take your HR skills to a new level and get things done on a large scale.”
Marta blinked, still smiling as another woman stepped to her side. “A large scale?” the second woman said, extending her hand for Felicity to shake before turning to Joy. “I’m Oksana, and I’m curious to hear what you’re hoping your sister will tackle when all the dust from the wedding has settled.” She looked so familiar, but Felicity couldn’t place her—not exactly.
“There’s a lot of good to be done, I think.” Joy was in her element.
Marta laughed. “What kind of good?”
“Oh, I just think—” Joy didn’t hesitate. “I think there’s room in Stolvenia for a little more focus on women’s rights. I think the healthcare system could stand to be more universal, covering more of what women need. I was talking with some of our staff the other day, and I learned that women have to pay out of pocket for maternity insurance to cover extra costs. And I’m not satisfied that women are paid equally with men.” Joy laughed. “I could go on forever, but now’s probably not the time.
“That’s quite a lot,” the second woman said, and reached for her purse, tugging something out from inside.
“Wait,” said Felicity. “Are you—”
“Oksana Orlov.” She was scribbling on a notepad now. “The Capital Daily.” She finished writing and slipped the pen and notebook back into her purse. “We’ve heard from your sister,” she said, flicking her eyes back toward Felicity. “What are your thoughts on the matter?” She chuckled softly. “I suppose more than one thing has been brought up, but they all fall under the umbrella of women’s rights.”
Felicity swallowed hard. This was the kind of thing that Rafael always wanted her to steer clear of. It was not her job to wade into controversy, but that didn’t seem to matter. The controversy found her anyway.
Everyone was waiting for her to speak, not least of all Joy.
There was a choice to be made here, and Felicity knew it. She could be political—be the princess—or she could be truthful and stand up for what she believed in.
“I agree with my sister,” she said firmly, even though her heart was racing. Then she clapped her hands. “Now, who’s ready for dinner?”
* * *
Rafael had never been so proud of himself.
He’d given Sara the evening off, and he’d handled things remarkably well with Hope. They had already read five books together, one of them twice at Hope’s insistence. Rafael had done some research on his own about child development, and the studies showed that reading three books a day to your child would give them a big head start when it came to learning to read.
He was rocking this.
“The witch came back again,” he read from the toddler version of Snow White while Hope cuddled against his side, stroking the ribbon around Mr. Bear’s neck. “Now. This witch has come back three times,” Rafael said softly. “Snow White should stand strong and send her away, since she has a bad feeling about her. You should follow your instincts, Hope. It’s part of being a good leader, and a good leader is a strong ruler.”
Hope smiled at him as if she understood. “Ruler,” she said, and smiled wider. The expression on her face melted his heart. He thought it couldn’t melt any further, but then the little girl yawned, leaning her head against his arm.
“You’re right,” he said, closing the book. “It’s time for bed.”
He’d successfully tucked her in, and Hope was asleep when he came back out into the hallway…and found Felicity there, waiting. She opened the door to her own bedroom and dropped her purse inside.
“How did it go?” she whispered. Felicity’s eyes were bright, but there was a pinch of worry in her forehead. He leaned down and kissed her there, willing it away.
“It was wonderful.” He told her about the books they’d read, and the games they’d played, and how easily Hope had gone to sleep for him. “How was dinner?”
“Oh, it was…” Felicity followed him out to the living room, and the two of them sat down on the couch together. “It was very interesting. I met…well, I met a woman who I couldn’t quite place at first, and then Joy—”
Rafael’s phone buzzed in his pocket. “It’s all right. It can wait.” He reached in and pressed the button to dismiss the notification. But the phone only buzzed again, and again.
“Rafael, I think you should know—”
The buzzing was incessant. “I’m sorry about this.” He took the phone from his pocket and looked at the screen. Then he looked back up at Felicity. She was staring down at his phone, too.
“Oh, it’s already out,” she breathed.
“Felicity, what am I looking at?”
She sat back against the couch. “You might as well read it for yourself.”
Felicity stared down at her hands as Rafael pulled up the first available link. It was one from the Capital Daily.
The words screamed out of the page at him. FUTURE QUEEN’S SISTER and LIBERAL and COUNTRY READY FOR CHANGE?
The article was glowing, breathless, exciting. But Rafael felt like his chest was in a vise.
He’d wanted things to stay the way they were. He’d wanted a steady ship, on still waters. That was his role, that was what everyone expected of him—that he would maintain the status quo. That was the point of winning the referendum.
But now Joy had upended that. Rafael was used to being the one to steer the debate, to put people’s focus where he wanted it to be, but a wild card had been played.
He clicked back to the first page. Every time he refreshed his phone, another article took its place. The internet was buzzing with Joy’s words, and opinions were flying. There was no way he could stop it now.
Worse yet? Felicity had fanned the flames.
“So you gave an interview,” he said, struggling to keep his voice neutral.
“I didn’t know she
was a reporter when Joy started saying all those things,” Felicity said quickly. “It wasn’t until she pulled out her notepad that I realized—”
“And you still went so far as to endorse your sister’s position?”
Felicity raised her eyebrows. “Yes, I—I did. I agreed with what she said.” Her voice rose defiantly, but then she turned away from Rafael. “I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear, but I do agree with her. I was blindsided as much as you are right now. I didn’t know a reporter would be at the dinner, and—”
Rafael put his hand over hers, his mind reeling. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.” He left no room for argument.
11
“I need to understand exactly how it happened.”
Rafael sat at his desk in the royal offices, with Felicity on the other side. The sturdy piece of mahogany between them felt massive, like a wall, and Felicity did not look comfortable. She looked good—even now, he had to admit that the charcoal gray dress suited her—but she wore it like armor, her hands neatly folded in her lap.
She looked Rafael in the eye. “This isn’t what I thought you meant when you said we’d talk about it tomorrow.”
He shifted in his seat. “It’s what’s best,” he said definitively, though he wasn’t altogether sure that it was. “This is a matter of royal importance. It will, in the end, involve more than the two of us.”
Felicity frowned. “It was one interview. The more time we spend—”
“I need to know what happened,” he said again. “In order to meet this head-on, I’m going to need all the relevant details.
“All right.” There was only the barest hint of irritation in Felicity’s voice. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me everything. You arrived at the restaurant on time, and went into the restaurant.”
“Yes. Marta—I’m assuming you know who Marta is, because you created the guest list.”
He gave her a crisp nod, pulling a pen from his desk and letting it hover over the notepad he’d set out before Felicity had arrived. “I know Marta.”
He had her go through the rest of the events, step by step. She complied, but he could tell she was getting irritated, especially when he pressed for more details as to what exactly Joy had said.
“I didn’t write down everything she said,” Felicity retorted. “Oksana was the one to do that.”
He put down his pen. “This is important for me to know in my royal capacity.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why is that? Do you intend to do something about the things Joy mentioned? Because no matter how you feel about the press coverage, these are serious issues.”
“They’re issues that can be dealt with after the referendum.”
Felicity let out a short laugh. “Why on earth would you kneecap yourself like that?”
“Kneecap myself?” Rafael had only heard Felicity get this heated over matters involving her family.
“My sister is right, you know. Stolvenia needs to do something about these issues other than pushing them to the backburner.” Felicity shrugged her shoulders. “Why aren’t you the one leading the discussion? Is your only plan to coast through the referendum based on the strength of my press appearances?” She let out a short burst of laughter. “I wouldn’t rely on that, if I were you.”
“It’s better not to upset the way of things at such a delicate time,” Rafael protested.
“How would you know?” Felicity raised her eyebrows. “Honestly, how do you know? Have you ever tried? Why wouldn’t you try now, when you have the perfect opening, when everyone wants to know why they should support you?”
Rafael wanted to know what she had to say about this almost as much as he wanted her to stop. This was maddeningly uncomfortable. He opened his mouth to say as much, but Felicity wasn’t done speaking.
“For better or worse, you have a wife…a fiancée…who has opinions. I don’t see myself holding another press conference to walk that back, because I do believe in what Joy said. And furthermore, I have a daughter.” Felicity’s eyes blazed. “She’s going to be a future ruler of this country, but only if you win the referendum. Frankly, I think you’d have a better shot if you addressed the concerns of half the country.”
“Who knows what half the country thinks?” Rafael raised his hands in the air. “I haven’t had my staff do polling on this yet, and—”
“And that’s just an excuse.” Felicity squared her shoulders. “I don’t want to fight with you about this, but really, Rafael, that’s an excuse. You have a daughter now, too. Hope, along with every other girl in Stolvenia, needs a better world than the one we have on offer. They need a better world than the one I grew up in. We all need to do better.”
Once again, Rafael felt himself slipping back into a defensive posture. Of course he wanted to help the women of Stolvenia with health coverage and pay equity. But it could wait until after the referendum. It was just too risky to potentially alienate anyone right now. The reasons not to respond to Joy’s interview flew through his mind in a whirlwind. He studied Felicity across the table. Why was she so fervent about this? And why now?
He had a flash of her little apartment back in the United States, and one thing came back to him: the little stack of bills on the corner of the counter.
Felicity had been a single mother with two dependents. She had worked herself to the bone trying to ensure excellent care for Joy while balancing the needs of her daughter. She had done all of it, he reminded himself, on her own, thanks to his mother’s actions.
He wanted to wipe away the difficulties of the past for her, and that want made his throat tighten.
“What can I do for you, Felicity?” The problems that Joy had raised in her interview—equal pay, a reformation of the health care system already in place in Stolvenia—they loomed like massive dark clouds in his mind. Those weren’t issues that could be solved in a single meeting, let alone a single day. It would take tens of people and weeks of work even to come to a possible solution, and then there would be the matter of implementing it.
In the midst of all this, they’d be having a referendum on whether the monarchy should stay in power at all. What was the point of starting such an involved discussion when Rafael could be removed from power in the middle of it? Where would that leave anyone then? His heart pounded in his ears, and he took a series of deep breaths in and let them out slowly. He had long ago had to learn to deal with stress like this. It just had never seemed so dire.
“Tell me,” he said, urging her to speak. “What can I do for you and Joy, in this moment, to make things run more smoothly for you?”
Felicity shook her head. “It’s not just me who needs help and support. All women need more help and support. Even as the future queen, I’d love to live in a country that offered the kinds of things Joy brought up. And don’t think I’m attacking Stolvenia—the situation is even tougher in the United States.” She leaned in, eyes brightening. “But here, you have a lot more power to deal with it yourself.”
“If you need extra support, I’ll move mountains to get it for you,” said Rafael. “You need only to name it.”
“I feel like we keep having this same conversation,” Felicity said, her exasperation showing frustration couched in kindness. “But that’s the thing. I think maybe you’re the one who could use more support.”
Rafael felt the pull to debate with her, to figure this out between the two of them. That’s how it would be if they were really getting married in more than just name, wouldn’t it? He’d have someone else to lean on.
But that wasn’t the case today, and his schedule was packed. “You’ve brought up some good points,” he said.
Felicity shot him a look. “It sounds like you’re dismissing me.”
“I’m not,” he assured her. “I’m only…getting some space to turn this all over in my mind. It’s not something I was prepared to confront this early on.” The referendum was still hanging over his head. The referendum, which
was on the same day as their wedding. It was all culminating in one big day. Why couldn’t she see that? “However, I think we could both agree on one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s time for that vacation you wanted.”
Felicity’s face lit up. “You’d go on vacation?”
“No.” Rafael did feel the sting of disappointment, even though he’d known when he said the words that he couldn’t step away from his post at a time like this. “But I can arrange for a few days out of the spotlight for you. Maybe at one of the royal vacation residences. There are some lovely properties where—”
“I don’t want it,” Felicity said flatly. “I appreciate the offer…” Her voice quieted. “I appreciate the offer, but the point of taking a vacation was to spend time as a family. If you’re going to be here, working, I’m going to be here supporting you, while I tend to my other responsibilities. It’s the right thing to do.”
“But I know it’s been hard,” Rafael insisted. “You could use a few days to rest and recharge.”
“If you aren’t taking time to rest and recharge, then I don’t need it. It seems there’s a lot to be addressed before the referendum, and even if you don’t want to talk about it with me, there’s no reason for me to be off relaxing while you push through this yourself.”
“You’d be within your rights to look after yourself without worrying about me.” Rafael felt the weight of his kingship on his shoulders, and it was heavier than ever. “You know what we agreed to.” He didn’t have to say the words a public relationship only.
Felicity looked at him steadily across the table, a glint in her eyes. “I do know.” She stood gracefully from her seat and came around the table to kiss his temple. “I’ve got to be getting back—Hope is hosting another tea party.”
She was halfway to the door by the time he could get the words out. “You’re sure you wouldn’t rather have a tea party at one of our private homes?”
“I’m sure.” Felicity went out, her head held high, and Rafael had the distinct sensation that he was watching a queen.