A Royally Beautiful Mess

by Carol Moncado

  “Hey, Star,” he called to Esther who still sat in the chair. “I need your help really quick.”

  She sighed but came to his aid. “What’s the issue?”

  He told her.

  “I got it.” She pulled her own wallet out of her bag and handed over some cash.

  Darius suspected she didn’t want to use a card for the same reason. “Thank you,” he told both Esther and the clerk as he took the plastic bag from her.

  The clerk’s eyes seemed to narrow at them just a little bit as she told them to have a nice day.

  “Are we done?” she asked as they left the store.

  “I want a snack.” Actually, he hadn’t eaten since he got off the plane. “But first I need cash.” An ATM nearby would charge him a fee to get money from his bank in Eyjania, but that didn’t matter.

  But instead of money, he got a slip of paper saying his card had been inactivated.

  “What is it?” Esther asked as he read it again.

  “My brother, or more likely my uncle, has cut me off.” He showed her the paper. “Good thing I already paid for our return flight.” He’d used that card, too. Hopefully, it wouldn’t screw things up.

  Esther used a card of her own to get money out of the machine. She handed it to him. “Here. It’s from my personal account, an inheritance from my great-grandmother outside of the family’s money. It’s not much, but it’s mine.”

  He sensed it was important to her to have something that wasn’t hers because of the monarchy in some form. There had been no queens in San Majoria’s recent past, so her great-grandmother had to have married into the family. Her great-grandmother’s family of origin likely came from money because that’s the way things were done in royal families, even a couple of generations ago. She could also be Queen Miriam’s grandmother, but either way, it meant something to Esther that it was separate.

  And she’d given it to him.

  “I’ll pay you back.” Once he talked to Benjamin and convinced him to unfreeze whatever accounts had been frozen.

  Esther just gave him a single shoulder shrug. “Whatever.”

  He’d planned to buy her something to eat, but it didn’t seem quite the same when the money was hers to start with. “Why don’t we just go back to your place?” He couldn’t call it the palace in case one of the nearby shoppers overheard. “There’s food there, right?”

  She nodded and pulled out her phone to send a text then motioned to the guard who’d been following them around. In a few minutes, they were seated on opposite sides of the car as it drove back toward the palace. Esther had finally removed her sunglasses, but still stared at her phone.

  “Here.” He handed the bills back to her. “I don’t need them after all.”

  Esther stared at his offering then shook her head. “I don’t want it.”

  That didn’t make any sense. Darius would hold onto it and give it back to her later. It mattered to her. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t take it back, but he did know it mattered.

  With her new nephew snuggled in her arms, Esther struggled to keep her happy face on. After a few minutes of rocking and letting the conversation flow around her, she handed Prince David Edward Marcus to Anabelle saying she didn’t want to hog his time.

  Anabelle carried him to a nearby sofa while Kensington sat next to Esther.

  “I heard something,” he told her.

  “What’s that?”

  “Voices in your apartment.”

  “Probably the television.” She didn’t look at him but stared at his wife and the new baby.

  “One voice was definitely yours, and you were arguing with someone. A man.”

  The concern in his voice was enough to bring tears to her eyes, if they weren’t already filled to the brim. She didn’t respond.

  “Who’s in there?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “Does Father know?”

  Esther snorted. “Does anything go on in this building that Father doesn’t know?”

  “If I ask him about the man in your quarters?”

  “He’ll tell you to mind your own business.” Maybe. “How’s Gracie?”

  At least she’d finally figured out one reason why the match between herself and Darius had been made. Anabelle was to have married Benjamin before her brother ran off and eloped with her. Instead someone, likely Anabelle’s grandfather, had kidnapped Anabelle’s much younger sister Gracie and kept her captive for a couple of months before she was rescued.

  “She’s great. Excited about being a big sister. Loving having a mama and daddy. Wishing she could get to know her other aunt.”

  The barb stung as he’d intended it to. Gracie couldn’t care less about getting to know Esther, but Kensington wanted her to know her absence had been noticed.

  “There was nothing I could have done,” she told him, crossing her arms over herself. “If I’d shown up, I would have distracted from the search.” A consequence of already being gone for several months at the time. Instead she texted Kensington her support often. Sometimes he responded.

  More often he didn’t.

  She’d read between the lines. Not only was he busy with planning the Games of the Sargasso Sea that had occurred in July, but he was annoyed with her for being absent and not telling him why.

  Their father took a seat on the other side of her.

  “I was just telling Esther something,” Kensington started.

  She should get up and walk away, but she kind of wanted to see what her father said.

  “I heard her arguing with a man late last night, in her quarters.”

  Her father shrugged and took a sip of his drink. “I don’t see how that’s any business of yours.”

  “So you know there’s a man staying with her.”

  “You don’t know he’s staying,” her father pointed out. “All you heard was a man’s voice. For all you know, he was on speaker phone or a video conference.”

  Of course, he wasn’t on speaker phone. Kensington would know the difference between an electronically transmitted argument and an in-person one.

  This one had most definitely been in person.

  One that started after Darius decided he should sleep in her bed with her, and she’d tried to kick him out.

  By the time it was all said and done, he’d kissed her - or she’d kissed him, she wasn’t really sure which - and that was the end of that. For the second morning in a row, she’d woken up next to Darius, wearing far fewer clothes than she should have been.

  Her father looked straight at her. “I’ll be down later to talk to you before you go back to University.”

  Esther nodded. “I’ll be leaving later tonight. I have class Monday morning and some homework to do that I forgot to bring with me so I need to get back.” She pushed up out of the rocking chair. “I need to go home so I can do it.” And tell Darius they were leaving a day earlier than expected.

  “I think I’ll come with you and have this discussion now.” His arm went sort of around her until his hand could rest on her shoulder. “No time like the present.”

  She didn’t say good-bye to her other siblings, just sort of nodded in their general direction. She doubted she’d see them again before leaving, but it was for the best. Her disappearance and sudden reappearance had been the elephant in the room all weekend. Saying good-bye would just invite questions she didn’t want to deal with.

  Back in her quarters, Darius was nowhere to be seen.

  “I’m in here,” he answered when she called for him.

  Her room. No way she was going in there with her father.

  “My father wants to talk to us,” she hollered at him. At least everyone else was upstairs.

  Darius emerged from her room wearing shorts and a shirt he’d bought the day before. It was neat and tucked in, so he must not have dressed in a hurry. Which meant he hadn’t been in there waiting for her to come back.

  “Darius,” her father said.

  Darius inclined
his head toward them. “Your Majesty.”

  Her father waved toward the sofas. “Have a seat. Both of you.” That he hadn’t told Darius to call him Edward meant they were still in trouble. She’d noticed both Anabelle and Jordan called her father by his name when they weren’t in public.

  She chose a chair only big enough for her. Darius sat on one sofa, her father on the other.

  “I’ve heard about your lives in Serenity Landing, and things are about to change. A lot.”

  That didn’t sound good. Esther glanced at Darius who was staring at his clasped hands.

  “Neither one of you are equipped to deal with the real world. Darius, your father died when you were young, and your mother had so many other things on her plate, I suppose it’s not surprising a few things have fallen through the cracks. But there’s no excuse for why I haven’t made sure Esther knew how to live outside these walls.”

  “What exactly does that mean, sir?” Darius asked quietly.

  “For starters, you’re going to learn how to drive. You’re going to do laundry. Clean your house. Make your meals.” He paused then went on. “I don’t much care what you do or don’t do in there, but you’re going to start sharing a bedroom like a married couple.”

  Esther felt heat rush to her face. What you do or don’t do could only mean one thing. Having her father discuss that with her and the man she’d been with when she shouldn’t have, even in the vaguest terms, was too much.

  “You will have minimal security with you, but you will continue to pursue your education and learn to act like adults and be a family at the same time. Do I make myself clear?”

  Esther nodded as she heard Darius’s answer.

  “Yes, sir.”

  6

  Darius sat in the executive jet and stared at Esther as she typed away on her laptop. She’d chosen to leave a day earlier than originally planned. The issue with his card hadn’t mattered to the private plane company either since he’d already paid for the round trip. He’d called Benjamin but had to leave a voice mail on his brother’s office phone. The cell phone didn’t even have that option. If he didn’t hear back in the next day or so, he’d call Mother.

  It wouldn’t surprise him if Isaiah was screening Benjamin’s calls. Darius hadn’t said what it was about, though, just that he wanted to talk to Benjamin. If Isaiah was the one who blocked the card, he’d know that’s what Darius wanted to discuss.

  “Do you have homework?” she asked without looking up.

  “Just that sociology assignment.” The only class they had together. His degree in international relations probably wouldn’t amount to much in the rest of his life, but he hadn’t known what else to choose. If his brother ever let Isaiah’s influence wane, Darius might use it. Otherwise, even given the strained relationship with his in-laws, it seemed more likely that he’d use the degree on behalf of San Majoria than Eyjania.

  “That’s the only one I have done.”

  “What are you working on?”

  Esther closed her laptop. “Nothing. I should be, but I’m not.”

  He swiveled his seat until he could prop his feet up on another one. “What do you make of all of this stuff your father said?”

  “You mean about how we have to fend for ourselves?”

  Darius nodded.

  “He’s not wrong. I have no idea how to make dinner or clean house or any of that stuff.” She shrugged. “Why would I? We always had staff to do those things.”

  “And drivers.”

  “Exactly.”

  A grin crossed his face. “You know, I’ve seen pictures of Richard from Montevaro in his cars. He’s got a couple of sports cars that look like they’d be a blast to drive through the mountains.”

  “We don’t have mountains in San Majoria.”

  “We have enough in Eyjania to be worthwhile.”

  “Can’t we just use virtual reality? It’s a lot easier.”

  He chuckled. “But not nearly as much fun as the real thing.”

  “Maybe. I’m not sure it’s worth putting your life in my hands if I’m driving.”

  He leaned back and closed his eyes. “Can I tell you something no one else knows?”

  “Sure.”

  “I know how to drive. Not officially or legally, but I do.” It had been a while, but it was like learning to ride a bike, wasn’t it?

  “How’d you learn?”

  With one eye partially opened, he could see and hear her curiosity. “I got my security team to teach me a couple years ago. Isaiah thought learning was unnecessary, even beneath us, so officially we didn’t. Then I saw this story online about Queen Elizabeth when she drove the Saudi king around Balmoral a while back. Women couldn’t drive in Saudi Arabia, but she drove him around the estate. She learned as a princess during World War II and is apparently still quite proud of her driving skills. If she could do it, why couldn’t I?”

  “So you learned enough to be proficient?”

  “I could pass the test, but never did. Isaiah would have found out.” Maybe he should have talked to his father-in-law about getting a driver’s license in San Majoria that would be legal in the States. Would he need to move his legal residence to San Majoria for that, or could he get a special dispensation of some kind?

  He’d send an email to the king and see what could be worked out. Darius opened his mouth to say something else to Esther, though he wasn’t really sure what, only to find that she’d pulled a blanket up over her shoulders and turned her head against the seat. Given how well he’d slept the night before, he knew she hadn’t slept well at all. They both tried to be quiet and still so as to not disturb the other one, but it hadn’t worked. He knew she was awake. She likely knew he was.

  But neither one of them rolled over to try to fix what was wrong between them.

  Several hours later, they arrived back at the house just south of Serenity Landing. Neither of them had spoken, so he went straight to his room. The whole “living like a married couple” could wait a night.

  As soon as he walked in, he realized the decision had been made for him. His things had already been moved. If he didn’t need to brush his teeth it wouldn’t have been too bad to sleep in there anyway, giving them both one more night before this became more real.

  Her door stood open, so Darius just sort of knocked as he walked in. He could hear her moving around in the bathroom. A second later, she walked out, pulling her light brown hair up into a ponytail as she did.

  “Your things are already in the bathroom and closet. Go ahead and get ready for bed if you want. I’m going to do some homework.” Before he could respond, she was out the door.

  A tactic she used to avoid him. Darius knew she was much more of an early bird that he was, generally going to bed by ten at the latest and waking up sometime before seven. He only knew that because he stumbled downstairs about 7:30, and she always looked put together as she drank her second cup of coffee.

  He had a feeling he was about to get a crash course in a night owl living with an early bird.

  In just a few minutes, he was ready for bed, complete with pajama pants, though he tossed a t-shirt over the side table rather than put it on. He found the remote controls and turned on an American sit-com rerun, letting his mind wander when he realized he’d already seen the episode.

  Just over a year. That’s how long they had until they both finished university. Whatever happened here in Serenity Landing would have to be the foundation for both their personal and professional lives.

  In both of their families, divorce was frowned on. They were both far enough down their respective lines of succession that it wouldn’t affect their claims to the throne or force their families to disown them like it would if they were further up. But Darius knew the look his father would have given him - first for sleeping with a woman who wasn’t his wife and getting her pregnant, and second for not giving his marriage his best effort.

  If they didn’t learn to make this marriage work, it was going to be a
very long life.

  By midnight, Esther could barely keep her eyes open, but decided instead of going upstairs, she’d just sort of fall sideways on the sofa and “accidentally” fall asleep in the living room.

  She didn’t want to be that close to him, to the warmth his body practically radiated. The warmth that made her want to snuggle close to him and never leave. Since moving to Serenity Landing, she’d noticed she was much more cold-natured than she’d ever realized. San Majoria didn’t have winter as such, but a Missouri September cold snap left her wondering how she was going to survive an actual one.

  At least the house was equipped with one wood-burning fireplace and several gas ones. She’d tested the one in her room during a late spring winter weather watch, and it did an excellent job of warming up the room.

  Darius would do a better job of keeping her warm.

  Pulling a blanket over her shoulders, Esther succumbed to the call of the sandman.

  Troubled dreams haunted her sleep until someone started shaking her.

  “Hey.” A voice finally broke through.

  “What?” she muttered, propping herself up on an elbow, but keeping her eyes closed against the light spilling in the windows. “What time is it?”

  Darius crouched in front of her. “Almost eight. I thought you might want to go to bed upstairs.” He hesitated. “Or maybe go to church with me.”

  “Church?” They hadn’t attended since moving to Serenity Landing. She wasn’t sure his family ever did, though vague comments made her think they were Christians. Being royal made it hard to attend without distracting everyone from the reason they were really there.