He fiddled with a button on his coat. “So were the parents and grandparents and great-grandparents of Mrs. Obed any less important to Jesse’s birth? I doubt it. The sequence of events had to happen to get to David. So maybe it’s not you, or me, or even the baby that this set of events influences. Maybe it’s our grandchild who will grow up to be a force to stop another Hitler or Stalin. Or, given our geography, a Mussolini or Napoleon, even. That doesn’t mean what happened to you in the past doesn’t have meaning, just that it led you to where you are today. To this child who would be that child’s grandparent.” He turned to her. “Does that make sense?”
She nodded but didn’t look at him. “I suppose, but I wish there were some meaning, in the here and now.” Christiana laced her fingers together. “Do you think we’d be married now if my parents had lived?”
There was a loaded question if he’d ever heard one. “For starters, your brother would be helping plan Yvette’s wedding with her. But I don’t know. I think it’s probably unlikely. They probably would have married you off to some duke or something. Or you wouldn’t be married yet. Playing the field.” He tried to add a teasing note but it fell flat.
She didn’t respond.
“Sorry. Even if your parents had lived, you wouldn’t be like that.”
“I know there is a plan. Sometimes I just wish I knew what it was.”
That made two of them.
* * *
Christiana did not sleep a wink. If Alexander had been there perhaps they could have talked, he could have alleviated her fears, or faced them together. Instead, as he had since his return, he slept in the other bedroom.
By the time dawn broke, she was showered, dressed, and eating breakfast. She was nearly finished when Alexander walked in. He wore a suit, complete with silk tie and jacket already on.
“Are you going to the hearing?” she asked, not looking at him.
“Yes. As the one who obtained the first key piece of information, they asked me to be there.” Paul handed him a plate of bacon and eggs. His favorite. “Will you be?”
“No.” She had no inclination to be there and was not required to be. Despite being the focus of his crimes, her presence had not been requested.
He sat next to her and covered her hand with his own. “I know they usually rubber stamp these pardons, but there’s a chance it’ll go the other way.”
She slid her hand from underneath his and used her cloth napkin to wipe her mouth. “It will not. As much as we would like to believe they will do the right thing and leave him in prison, this has been part of his grand back-up plan all along. I do not know what his next move is, but I guarantee you there is one. He will try something to remove me and take the throne himself. He’ll try to find a way, even though the agreement with the Commonwealth countries has been in the news lately.”
“Won’t the baby be the next in line for the throne?”
She shook her head. “If he succeeds in removing me, any child born after my ouster is not in line for the crown. The throne would either go to Yvette or the country split in two.”
“I see.”
“If he does not succeed in killing me and the baby, he only has a few months to make his move. I would imagine his preference would have been to take his time. But since his plot to take me out on my honeymoon failed, this was his plan B. He never expected for me to get married anyway, much less for me to get pregnant.”
Alexander took a bit of his eggs and thought on that. “You’re right. If we hadn’t married, and especially if you weren’t pregnant, he’d have unlimited time to carry out whatever the next step of plan B is. At least until he gets rearrested.”
Christiana sat up straighter. “Is that the answer?”
“What?”
“Tony said he was never charged with high treason though we know he was committing it, correct?”
“Yes, but that’s because the evidence wasn’t there. Believe me, if he could have been charged with it, he would have been. But this seemed like the most expedient way to get what everyone wanted. Your uncle behind bars for life. Quietly. None of us dreamed he’d be able to do something like this.”
“Can he not be arrested on suspicion of something else as soon as he is released?”
“I’ll talk to Tony about it. Someone will be watching him 24/7. If he so much as jaywalks, he’ll be in cuffs so fast his head will spin.”
“That is a small comfort.”
He took the last bite of his breakfast. How did he eat so fast? “I know.” It surprised her when he leaned over and kissed her head, right along her hairline. “We’ll figure something out. If I’m going to talk to Tony, I’ve got to go.”
Maybe she would be able to watch on closed circuit television. Sometimes she could.
But then Alexander pointed a finger at her and told her not to do that. “It will just stress you and the baby out. It won’t change anything. I know you’ll be stressed anyway, but seeing him, seeing the proceedings will make it worse.”
He had a point, though she did not want to tell him that. Squeezing her shoulder, he went on. “I’ll call you as soon as it’s over.”
“Thank you.”
An hour later, she was in her office arguing with Diana. “I do not want to watch the whole thing. Tony said his case will be last. I want to see the other three.”
“And I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Diana argued back, putting her foot down for the first time, really, in ever. “The Duke told me as much before he left. No television feed for you.”
The proceedings were closed to the public. The names would not be released until after the hearing ended, though there seemed to be some sort of word leaking out. A few minutes earlier, she had heard Diana telling Charlyn there would be no comment until at least this evening.
Doing her best to put it out of her mind, she tried to get down to work. It had been scheduled to be a check-signing day anyway. Something that required just enough of her attention but not so much she would not be able to focus. Ninety minutes after the hearing was to have started, Diana buzzed and told her the first three cases had been heard and pardons given. They were taking a mid-morning break before anything else was done. Her stomach tied in knots when, after another two hours, there had been no word. She walked back to the apartment, a security guard flanking her. He would be either with her or right outside her office/bedroom door at all times.
No one had asked her about it.
When she finally reached the apartment, Christiana wanted nothing more than to lie down for an hour. Lunch held no appeal, though she knew she needed to eat. As she walked into the living area, she sensed more than saw another presence in the room. She stopped short until the man with his back to her stood and turned around.
Christiana nearly collapsed onto the floor in relief. “Poppo,” she whispered as he came toward her. He held her in his arms as the tears began to fall. “Poppo, I’m so scared.”
He rested his hand on her head as he tightened his hold. “I know, sweet girl. I know.”
Chapter 30
Alexander hadn’t bitten his tongue so much in a very long time.
The appeals board had recessed to discuss their decision and would be back shortly. They could decide to deliberate overnight, but he didn’t think they would. Not starting this early in the afternoon.
He spent the deliberations with Tony in a conference room. All of the top secret files were pulled up on his laptop. He’d put them on an external hard drive which would be erased and destroyed before he left. No changes would be made and only cryptic hand-written notes would leave the room. Only the two of them knew what Tony had on that drive. The decision to bring it all had been made less than twenty minutes before departuring for the hearing.
“Is there anything in there?” Alexander ran a frustrated hand through his hair.
Tony leaned back in his chair, with his fingers laced behind his head and his eyes closed. “There’s something here. Something I can’t quite put my f
inger on. Like when you wake up and try to remember what your dream was but it’s just out of reach.” He sat forward and started scrolling again. “It’s not clear enough to even give me a direction.” A few clicks. “I don’t know where to look. Suspects. Witnesses. Evidence. Interviews. Photographs. It’s there somewhere.”
Alexander paced around the table. “How do we find it?”
“I don’t know. Can we prove a connection between the two men? No one ever saw them together.” He looked up. The look in his eyes stopped Alexander in his tracks. “There’s one person we’ve never talked to.”
Alexander read Tony’s mind. “No. Absolutely not.”
“We never had to talk to her before,” Tony pointed out. “There was enough evidence of the death plot last fall without needing to. Even with talking to her it was unlikely we’d get the evidence needed to keep this all out of the press with her uncle. We took the plea. There was no way he’d ever get parole. Or a pardon.”
“Except this way.”
“Right. And no one had any idea he’d have a man on his side who would rise to such a place and pardon him.”
Something else occurred to Alexander. “What if he doesn’t?”
Tony leaned back again. “Go on.”
“What if this guy really believes this is all it is? What if he doesn’t know about the unprovable high treason? Face it. For the charges he actually confessed to, life in solitary is a bit extreme. Given the other circumstances, not at all, but for someone who doesn’t know other facts...” Alexander sat next to Tony. “Can he pull the pardon petition? Postpone it somehow? I’ve met the man. He seems like a genuinely good guy, and he wasn’t in office to get the briefings when this all went down.”
“As long as he does it before the decision. It’s worth a shot.” He called to one of his officers outside, and they waited. Twenty minutes passed before the minority leader walked in.
“I’m not changing my mind, gentlemen.” He didn’t say hello or anything. Just cut to the chase. “The penalties for accessory to a bunch of charges shouldn’t be so much worse than for those who actually committed the crimes.”
“Which crimes?” Alexander crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look intimidating.
The man didn’t back down. “Conspiracy to defraud the crown was the worst one, wasn’t it?” He glanced at Tony then back at Alexander. “Look. The guy’s slimy. Even I can admit there’s something not quite right, but life in prison when the worst sentence anyone else got was twenty years? I don’t like it.”
Tony spread a file folder out on the table. “This is only some of the documents. There’s more safely stored at the palace. It wasn’t conspiracy to defraud, Mr. Michaels. It was attempting to kill the queen. And he was the ringleader.”
Michaels’s face turned white as the implications settled over him. “What?”
* * *
Christiana knew the hearing was over, but after six o’clock, she still had not heard the verdict. Poppo sat on the next couch over. His wife was not feeling well and could not make the trip with him, but when Alexander called and told him Christiana needed him, he had come anyway.
The door to the apartment opened. Christiana looked up to see a disheveled Alexander walk in.
“Well?” Had he found a way to stop it? Why had he not called?
“We tried everything we could.” He sank into the chair across from her. “We even got Michaels to agree to withdraw the petition, but it was too late. The decision had already been sealed.” Alexander leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees, clasping his hands together in front of him. “They read it in the chamber today but everyone is under a gag order until morning. He won’t be released until noon.”
She slumped into her chair like a rag doll. “Is there no way to keep him in prison? Nothing else he can be charged with?”
Alexander told her about Tony’s feeling that something existed just beyond his reach that would prove the high treason, but neither one of them had come up with anything.
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. One of the maids, one Christiana did not know well and she suspected truly worked for Tony, answered it. She stepped to the side and allowed Prime Minister Caruso and Minority Leader Michaels to enter.
The last man she wanted to see.
Both men bowed from the waist but she did not have the energy to stand in greeting. “Good evening, gentlemen. How may I help you?” The polite words forced their way out.
Michaels spoke first. “Your Majesty, I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am. I had no idea.”
Alexander did not let her ask her question. “Why did you do it in the first place?”
“I wanted to right a wrong with this pardon. I spent my career in law defending those who had the odds stacked against them. It might be the only one I get, you know, so I asked my staff to find instances where the sentences didn’t fit the crimes. There were a number of others brought to my attention. Long sentences for a first offense when most second or third offenders got less. Things like that. But, on the surface, this was by far the most egregious. I couldn’t see more than ten years, maybe fifteen, for the crimes he pled guilty to. If I knew I’d get more chances, I would have waited. Let him serve some of the time. But we all know I lucked into this job and it may not stick the next time around.” He bowed again. “If I had any idea of the real crimes that couldn’t be proved, you have my word, Your Majesty, I never would have considered it.”
“Why didn’t you ask someone about it?” Alexander nodded to the Prime Minister. “Caruso knew everything. If it seemed so outrageous, wouldn’t you think maybe there was more to the story, and you should find out?”
“Perhaps.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “I knew the Prime Minister and anyone else I talked to would try to talk me out of it. I thought it was just sour grapes. The two of them never got along and everyone knew it. In retrospect...” He sighed. “Everything is 20/20 in hindsight. I don’t know what I can do to make it right, but if there’s anything, I will be happy to. I’m sorry, ma’am. I don’t know what else to say.”
Christiana nodded her head once to accept his apology. “I have no idea what you might be able to do to help fix things, Mr. Michaels, but I would appreciate your cooperation with the head of palace security and my husband. Perhaps, somewhere in the paperwork you received with this information or somewhere else is some tidbit that will help prove high treason. There is no statute of limitations, of course, on such a crime, but I fear if we do not find something quickly, he will act again, and this time he will be much more careful.”
“We’re much more careful, too, Christiana.” The grim set of Alexander’s mouth and the clenched jaw told her exactly how he felt. “The only ones allowed around you are the ones personally vetted by myself and Tony.”
“No one can absolutely guarantee my safety.” Weariness overwhelmed her.
“True,” Alexander acknowledged. “But we’re going to do everything in our power to make it so.”
Minority Leader Michaels shifted from one foot to the other. “I will have all of the paperwork sent over first thing in the morning.”
Alexander shook his head. “No. Tony will go with you tonight and collect it, including all of the other cases you looked at. There may be a clue in one of them somewhere.”
A clue to what? She did not ask, but what sort of clue would be in files that did not pertain to her uncle?
The men moved to the door where Alexander shook their hands. Without waiting for him to return, she went straight through her bedroom and into the luxurious bathroom that did not offer nearly enough sanctuary. A long, hot shower was just what she needed at least for the time being. When she emerged, back into the living room and clad in her favorite pajamas, she just thanked God they still fit. The only person left was Alexander. He did not look up from the manila folder he held.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes.” Physically she felt better. Emotionally? Not clos
e. Anger. Fear. Anxiety. Nausea. All of those things and more flitted through her mind.
He glanced up. “Is there anything else you need from me?”
“No.” Yes! Her mind screamed the answer. She needed his strength. His arms around her. Comforting her. Reassuring her. Promising her without words that it would all work out. Protecting her.
She continued on, through to the kitchen. A glass of milk, brushing her teeth, and bed. It was all she could handle.
* * *
Alexander stared at the papers in front of him as Christiana closed the door to her bedroom. He knew he should follow her in there, make sure she really was okay. He didn’t believe her words when she said she was. But what could he do?
Just be there for her.
How could he do that? He needed to do something. Find a way to keep Henry from being released. To have him rearrested immediately. Something. His time would be more productively spent stopping this... He stopped his thoughts before they went there. He’d found himself cursing entirely too much lately, even if most of it was internal, under his breath, or arguably justified. But still...
A soft knock on the apartment door caught his attention. Tossing the folder onto the table, he stood and walked to answer it. Before it was completely open, his brother pushed past.
“I ran into your security guy on my way in. He’ll be here in a minute.” Christopher went straight to the kitchen and emerged a minute later with a Dr Pepper. “I put the coffee on. We’ll keep looking for something as soon as he gets here.” He sat down and propped his feet up on the coffee table. “How’s Christiana taking it?”
Alexander went back to his seat on the sofa and picked the folder up. “She says she’s doing okay, but I think she’s lying.”
“Is she getting any sleep? Is she still sick?”
“She’s over the bug, but I’m not sure how well she’s been sleeping.” His absent-minded answer wouldn’t appease his brother, but right now the folder held his interest. Tony was right. The answer was here. Somewhere.
Winning the Queen's Heart: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 2) Page 21