Joan had earned enough miles through rewards programs to fly her to China and back. With the license she’d found in her camera case, she could manage to get a ticket to Los Angeles. The sooner Joan got out the better. If she saw him again, she’d do something stupid like breakdown and ask him why he’d led her on like that when all along Tom had known he’d be getting rid of her at the first available moment. To make matters even worse, he hadn’t actually led her on. A little hand-‐-holding did not a great romance make. It had all been in her mind. She’d let the fantasy run away with her. Now it was time to get back to reality.
She stepped into the hallway and couldn’t resist a quick look around hoping for one last glimpse of the man. She was so pathetic.
Fortune was on her side and all the doors were closed so she couldn’t determine which one he occupied much less suffer the embarrassment of his seeing her pathetic last attempt to connect. It was time for her to get out of there. The faster the better.
It took quite a bit of patience and concentration, but at last she had a one way ticket to Los Angeles in her hand for nothing out of pocket. The coupon queen in her was thrilled at the success. The rest of her was still just numb.
When she got to the gate, she noticed lots of people gathered around one of the TV monitors which was tuned to a news channel.
She almost strolled on past, but the appearance of Tom’s face stopped her in her tracks. She eased closer to see what was going on and tried not to dwell on how pathetic she was being.
On the television, Tom smiled at the throng of reporters that surrounded him. It was impossible to count how many microphones were held his way so she didn’t even try. Jai stood behind Tom’s left shoulder, his eyes covered by large dark sunglasses. Joan shivered. She didn’t remember him looking quite so scary. But then Tom didn’t look like the man she knew either.
He was perfectly coiffed. Not a single hair was out of place on his head. The suit he’d purchased in the shop was perfect on camera. He appeared quite dashing. So royal. Like a man who would soon become king.
Questions were shouted at him from every direction, but he held up his hands in a settling gesture. To Joan’s amazement, they did. He played them as well as he’d played her.
“I don’t have a prepared statement to give you, but I’m sure I know what’s on all of your minds.” He took a moment to look around the crowd. Joan could almost swear all the reporters leaned forward in anticipation of what he was about to say. The same went for the crowd she stood among. It seemed everyone held their breath. Everyone except her. She pretty much knew what he was going to say.
He didn’t disappoint. At first. She listened while he recounted for the press corps how he’d had to flee California in an effort to elude a corrupt bank employee who was trying to do him harm. He talked about trying to go to the authorities, but being accused of trying to rob the bank instead. At that point, he’d decided to contact his security team and resolve the situation through diplomatic channels. Joan kept listening for any mention of her part in the whole affair, but to hear him tell it, he’d gone through this horrible ordeal alone. Everything was “I” or “me”.
“Can you believe what that poor man went through?” Joan tore her attention away from the television screen to look at the middle-‐-aged woman who’d stopped beside her. “And to think, he’s right outside. Giving this press conference from the tarmac. Isn’t it exciting? We’re inches from a major news story.”
The smile Joan forced to her lips was tight. “Yes. Exciting.”
“And look at him. He’s so adorable I could eat him up. What country did they say he’s the prince of? Raffer-‐-something?”
“Rafferstonia,” Joan supplied without a second thought.
“Are you sure? That doesn’t sound right.” The woman frowned, but Joan shrugged and returned her attention to the television. Tom was looking at someone in the crowd. The question wasn’t quite loud enough to be broadcast, but whatever it was it made his back tense.
“Yes, there was a woman traveling with me. We were separated when the police questioned us and don’t know where she is now or expect our paths to cross again. I do wish her the best, however.”
Joan’s chest tightened and her throat closed under the threat of tears. If she had any doubts how he felt about her before, she didn’t any longer. She’d been dismissed. She was inconsequential.
“Can you tell us more about her?” A reporter shouted out loud enough for the broadcast to pick up his question.
Tom gave them a sheepish smile and shook his head. “I’m afraid there’s not much to tell. We met a short time before needing to flee. Our time on the run together was focused on staying alive, not niceties like our favorite colors and the like.”
Green, Joan thought. His favorite color was green. She shook her head. Joan couldn’t take anymore. Besides, she had a plane to catch. Joan inched her way out of the still gathering crowd.
A line to board her flight had formed at the gate. She joined the other passengers, more than eager to get out of there. Still, it didn’t stop her from keeping an eye on the television and Tom’s interview while the line inched forward. She was several people from the gate when Jai stepped forward with raised hands putting an end to the questioning. While he did that, Tom boarded the waiting jet which had been parked behind them during the interview. An elaborate green and gold RS were painted on the side on the front of a crest.
The screen split so one half was filled with a reporter in the studio who was talking about what they’d learned from Tom. On the other side, Tom disappeared inside the plane’s cabin followed by Jai. Joan shook her head and glanced at the person holding up the line she was in to board her own plane. She hadn’t even been allowed the courtesy of being the first to leave. Somehow, that made her feel more pathetic.
While she walked down the jet way, she gave herself a pep talk. There was no need for her to get all upset over this. She’d wanted this whole ordeal to be over from the very start. It was stupid of her to go changing her mind now. Would she rather still be out in the desert where very little separated her from a bullet and certain death. She was going to buck up and enjoy the fact she was now free to get her life back on track. With a fortifying breath, she started paying more attention to the numbers above the rows.
When she located her assigned seat, a skinny young woman who could’ve been the Goth clerk’s twin was already in it. She was snuggled up with a preppy looking twenty-‐-something dude and giggling. Joan bit back her sigh. This was all she needed. Her heart had been broken and now she was sentenced to share a row with Anthony and Cleopatra.
“Excuse me; I think you’re in my seat.” Joan was surprised at how civil she was able to keep her tone.
The guy leveled and irritated look on her. “We’d like this whole row.” He thrust another ticket at her. “Here. Take my seat in first class.”
Joan was about to lose it at his imperious tone until the words ‘first class’ dawned on her. She snatched the ticket out of his hand and turned to fight her way back to the front of the plane. The unexpected seat change was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The tears started streaming down her cheeks when it was beyond silly to be crying over something so insignificant.
On the other hand, the tears made people eager to get out of her path. She found her new seat in first class and sank into the big chair by the window. She strapped herself in and stared out the window keeping her face averted from prying eyes.
By the time they were in the air and the attendants were coming around to take dinner orders, Joan was all cried out. The tears stopped and she felt numb and exhausted. She didn’t think she was hungry, but ended up eating every bite of the meal the attendant placed before her. The woman was full of kind smiles and extra portions for Joan which she appreciated. If she’d been a cashier at her favorite store, Joan would have rewarded her by purchasing the products that would give her a bonus. At last, she drifted off to sleep and d
idn’t wake up again until they’d landed at LAX.
Chapter Twenty
Tom tossed his pen down on his solid oak desk with its intricate carvings and sighed. He kept his smile in place while yet another timid young lady with a straight back and proper breeding was escorted from his office. The smile fell away when the door closed behind her and he plopped down in his executive chair. He was exhausted. His coronation was less than a week away and he’d been interviewing potential queens around the clock. When he could take time out from negotiating a settlement between the embittered merchants and the suppliers who pretended they had no other choice but to charge them the high prices, that is.
Jai opened the door and strode inside. Once he closed the door behind him, he dropped his formal posture and flopped on the couch. Tom could almost feel his penetrating gaze cut through his barely held together facade.
“I take it she’s a ‘no’,” Jai remarked and crossed his legs at the ankles making himself at home.
“You’re the trained security operative.” Tom’s reply came out with a lot more snark than he intended. He sighed and met his friend’s gaze. He could see Jai didn’t take it personally, but still he needed to apologize. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t your fault.”
“Nope. It’s yours.” Jai pointed out causing Tom’s annoyance to spike again.
“I thought I could count on you for support. Not to make thing worse and point out every one of my failings.”
“I’m not pointing out every one. Just this one.” Jai tossed an envelope at Tom who caught it mid-‐-air despite being surprised.
“What’s this?” He eyed Jai with a wary gaze.
Jai swung his legs to the floor and stood. “A final vetting.”
Tom frowned, puzzled. “A final vetting? There’s no one left to vet.” But his protest met an empty room. Jai was already out the door, pulling it closed behind him.
Tom stared at the envelope he held in his hands with a ginger touch. He was sure Jai couldn’t mean who he thought he meant. That ship had sailed over two months ago. Two months, one week, and four days to be exact. When he’d walked out on Joan without so much as a backward glance. He knew she wouldn’t understand and hoped to have a chance to explain it to her when they got a moment alone outside all the chaos surrounding the arrest. He should have known she’d be too proud to sit around and wait. He wasn’t sure how she’d done it, but the woman had managed to get herself a ticket back to Los Angeles despite the fact that all the money they still had between them had been nestled in his pocket.
Tom opened the middle drawer in his desk and stared down at the tiny wad of American currency. Three dollars and forty two cents. It had been arrogant of him to assume she would be stranded there in Dallas without his help which would give them the opportunity to make things right. Except, he’d underestimated her resourcefulness which amounted to a serious rookie mistake after all they’d gone through together. By the time he’d realized she was gone, he’d been waylaid by the press. The only way to end their questioning and protect her identity was to board the jet and fly away. Truth be told, he hadn’t felt like dealing with them anyway.
When their questions got around to Joan, there was no way he was going to give them anything to chew on.
But it still hadn’t stopped them from finding her. His chest swelled with pride when he thought of the masterful way she’d handled the reporters. She’d must have seen his interview at some point and downplayed their relationship in much the same way he had. The one difference was she’d looked like she believed the nonsense they were barely more than acquaintances thrown together in an unfortunate circumstance. And that was why he’d stayed away from her these last two months.
He brushed his fingers over the envelope Jai had given him.
His head of security had done a good job of keeping Tom apprised of what was going on in Joan’s life since she’d returned home.
Good in the sense that Jai had been thorough. Bad because Tom hadn’t wanted to know. The updates had just fed his obsession with her and made it more difficult to find a queen to his liking. He kept comparing them to Joan, and every single one of them had come up lacking.
He flipped the envelope over and loosened the string holding the flap down. With any luck, Joan had some massive skeleton in her closet that would take her out of the running once and for all. Even while the notion was still surfacing, Tom shook it away. He knew her pretty well. Tom couldn’t imagine her having done anything his royal PR machine couldn’t spin in a favorable manner. Not when they’d had years of practice spinning his own exploits.
Tom freed the sheaf of paper from its confines and read the contents. The further he read, the more dismayed he became.
Outside of a few indiscretions which weren’t even close to the level of the blunders he’d made, Joan had passed the evaluation with flying colors. In fact, she’d scored higher than the candidate who’d just left his office. He blew out a breath in frustration. What was he going to do? He needed to get married soon. Leave it to him to be the first monarch to fall in love with the perfect woman before he got married but still not be able to seal the deal.
“Darling, I just walked Caterina to her car. She seems quite distressed. What did you do to her?” His mother, Queen Tabitha Josephina du Bacoeur, swept into his office and closed the door.
The skirt of her dress filled almost half of the large space while her presence filled the rest, leaving him precious little room to breathe.
“Nothing, Mother. She just wasn’t right. The fact she came crying to you about the meeting proves my point rather nicely.”
Tom straightened Joan’s vetting information and placed it back inside the envelope. He made sure his movements were neither too fast nor too slow. The last thing he wanted was to tip his mother off to the contents. She’d already interrogated him at every turn about the young woman who’d shared his company during what she now called his “American Ordeal”. Her incessant questioning had him on the verge of demanding that Jai hire her so she could put her interrogation skills to good use on the criminal element.
“All it proves, darling, is your heart isn’t in this.” She swept one manicured hand toward the shelf where the crown newly designed for his wife rested. In keeping with Rafferstonian tradition, he would place it on her head during the wedding ceremony. Also in keeping with tradition, the coronation would take place after the wedding since it would be for his wife and for him. He was fast running out of time for both.
His mother whirled around and pinned him with her gaze.
He hated when she did that. Ever since he could remember, she’d use that look on him and he’d confess his deepest secrets within moments. Well not this time.
“Mother, I really need to get back to work here.”
“Where is your heart, dear boy?” she asked like he hadn’t spoken.
“Mother, I—”
“If it isn’t here, it must be somewhere.” She stepped closer to the desk. She had on her ‘you can tell me anything I’m your mother’ smile, but it did nothing to comfort him. If anything, it made him want to duck under his desk and hide until she was gone. How was that for the future King? He stood, hoping to wrestle the upper hand away from her. Even towering over her the way he did, it didn’t work.
“My heart is irrelevant. The simple fact is, I must be married in two weeks’ time and I’m running out of suitable women.”
Her smile became wistful and her gaze softened. He didn’t think she was seeing him anymore, but taking a trip down memory lane instead. She shook it off and her eyes refocused on his chest.
She straightened the lapel on his suit then gazed up at him. “Your father refused to follow his heart, too. At least until after we were married. Then he followed it quite a bit.” She gave him a smile which didn’t conceal the bitterness in her eyes then gathered her massive skirts to turn around.
Tom stood there in silence when she opened the door. She paused to give him a smile. “I love you,
dear boy. I imagine that this ‘traveling companion’ of yours whom you go out of your way to never mention is positively lovely.” She winked at him. “You got your great taste from me.”
He was stunned for a moment. Just long enough for Queen Tabitha to sweep out the door and close it. Then he laughed. What was wrong with him? So what if Joan had left him high and dry at the airport? She must have had her reasons. He’d never know for sure unless he asked her. He was about to be crowned King. He couldn’t afford to be too much of a coward to have a conversation.
He’d feel her out on the queen thing and, oh yeah, loving, honoring, and cherishing him for the rest of her life. Heck, he’d settle for the queen thing. He’d have plenty of time to seduce her into loving him later.
Spurred on by the beginnings of a plan, he hurried around his desk and picked up the phone. He wanted to get this ball rolling. He just hoped it wasn’t too late. Jai had kept him up to speed on her life. The charges against them had been dropped and she’d gotten a job teaching couponing, of all things, at a local college. He could just imagine how much she loved that. She seemed to have picked up her life right where she’d left off and kept moving forward. Almost like he hadn’t mattered at all.
Tom shook his head. He wasn’t going to engage in any negative speculation. He was going to let her tell him ‘no’ if, indeed, that was the answer. The phone was answered on the sixth ring. “Hanger.”
“This is Tomas. How soon can you have the jet ready?”
“Within the hour, sir. The destination, sir?”
“The United States. Santa Monica, actually.”
Chapter Twenty-‐-One
Joan stood to the side of the Walgreen’s checkout counter and monitored the cashier while she rang up George’s purchases.
He balanced his three-‐-year-‐-old on one hip while trying to keep track of what items to put on the counter for the woman to ring up next. His other two children were running around the store somewhere while she guided him through his first attempt at rolling register rewards. She’d tried to get him to do this first run while the kids were in school and day care, but he’d insisted they wouldn’t be a problem.
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