A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (24 page)

“Is it true?” Meredith asked.

I looked up at her with irritation, “Of course it’s not true,” I seethed, “I hadn’t even met Alex before that first day I came to the Palace after I arrived back in Merveille.”

She flashed a smile at me.
 
“I didn’t think so, but I just wanted to check.”
 
She narrowed her eyes.
 
“So what are you going to do about it?”

What I’d like to do was to beat Bradley to a pulp and then chain him up, indefinitely, in the dungeons below my parents estate.

“What can I do?” I asked.

Meredith stood and paced.
 
“I don’t trust him and I don’t trust her parents either.
 
Her mother kept telling her to go back to Bradley and then all their problems would be over.
 
What does that even mean?
 
How much do we really know about this Bradley guy anyway?
 
Why did Alex run from him?
 
She must have doubted him in some way to run off right before her wedding.”

“They looked pretty cosy at lunch yesterday,” I said gruffly.

Meredith whirled around and stared at me. “You’re jealous.”

“What?
 
No I’m not.”

She grinned triumphantly.
 
“Yes, you are.
 
She’s your girlfriend and you find her having lunch with her ex.
 
Of course you’re jealous.”

“I don’t like the man,” I said, trying to concentrate on the work in front of me, but Meredith had struck a nerve.
 
“It doesn’t mean I’m jealous.”

“Oh my God,” Meredith said, sitting back in the chair, “You really like her.
 
She isn’t like any of your other so-called girlfriends.
 
Alex makes you work for it and now you have to compete against someone else and you’re having a tantrum.”
 
She laughed and the noise grated down my spine.
 
“Everything has always come so easily to you and now that it isn’t just falling at your feet, you don’t know what to do.”

I pushed away from the desk and stood.
 
She was right and it annoyed me that she was right.
 
I expected Alex to fall for me, I expected our fake relationship to grow into something else, only she was resisting at every turn and now Bradley and her family had become a complication.
 
I had never had to put any effort into getting the girl before, normally I was turning them away.
 
The one woman I did want didn’t seem to want me and I didn’t like it.

“So tell me what to do,” I said, looking at Meredith, “How do I win?”

Is that what I wanted?
 
Alex wasn’t the short-term relationship type and I had never had any desire to have anything else.
 
Except when I’m with Alex, I can see us together, for real.
 
Had I found the one woman who could change my mind about marriage?
 
Was that woman Alex?

“You need to be by her side, you need to be her greatest supporter.
 
The two of you need to show the world a united front.
 
Alex needs someone in her corner.
 
Her whole family are horrible and mean to her and still she goes out of her way to look after them, but who looks after Alex?
 
And you need to find out the real reason Bradley wants her back because I don’t think for a minute it’s because he loves her.”
 
Meredith got up from her seat and pressed a kiss to my cheek.
 
“If you really care for her,” she said softly, “Then you need to make sure she knows.”

I sat back in my chair and contemplated the conversation as Meredith waved goodbye.
 
I did care about Alex, more than I had ever intended to.
 
The question was, how much more and what did that mean?

“Benjamin, it’s Freddie,” I said into the phone a couple of hours later.

“Lord Bingham, what can I do for you?”

“I have a concern about someone close to the Palace and I was wondering if you were the right person to speak to about it.”

“Does it have anything to do with the Queen,” he asked, his voice darkening.
 
After the recent kidnapping attempt on Alyssa, her security team seemed to be always be on higher alert.

“Indirectly,” I said, “It’s to do with someone connected to Alex.”

“Is she in danger?”

“I don’t know,” I said, exasperated, “To be honest, I have no evidence that anything is wrong, just a hunch.
 
The man that turned up on Coronation day, Bradley Corsair?”

“What about him?”

“He is Alex’s ex-fiancé and he is trying to get her to return to the States with him, says he wants to reconcile.”

“Lord Bingham, if you and Alex are having a lover’s spat—“

“No, stop, just listen.”

“All right,” he said with a sigh.

“Alex doesn’t want to go with him, but he doesn’t seem to be getting the message and there’s something not quite right about the whole situation.
 
Why did he wait six months to come and find her and why hasn’t he gone home yet, despite her telling him she doesn’t want to rekindle the relationship?”

“It’s a blow to man’s pride to have his bride walk out on him on their wedding day—“

“Right, I get that, what I don’t get is why he is trying so hard to get her back and why her family is pressuring her to accept.
 
Something else has to be going on.”

He was silent for a moment and I thought he might hang up on me, but then I heard him clicking a few keys on his computer and then he spoke.
 
“I have a guy,” he said, “An investigator.
 
Call him, see if he can dig up some information on this Bradley guy.
 
Maybe if you know more about him, you’ll find out why he’s here.”

He rattled off the information and then rang off.
 
I stared down at the phone number I had written down and wondered if I was doing the right thing.
 
Would Alex be mad if she found out that I was having her ex investigated?
 
Probably, but it was more important to find out what was going on.
 
Something just didn’t sit right with me and hadn’t since the first time I had laid eyes on the man.

I picked up the phone and dialled the number Benjamin had given me.
 
“Hatfield Investigations,
 
Lydia speaking.”

“Hello, I was wondering if I could speak to Jeremy Hatfield?”

“Mr Hatfield is with a client at the moment, can I take a message and get him to call you back?”

“Sure,” I said, “My name is Freddie Bingham and he can contact me on this number,” I gave her my personal cell phone number, “There’s about a nine hour time difference, but tell him to call anytime.”

“Okay, no problem,” she said before hanging up the phone.
 
It was a bit of an anti climax for me and I still felt unsettled.
 
I picked up the phone again and dialled.

“Brooks Barry.”

“Brooks, it’s Freddie.”

“Wow, two phone calls in a week, what’s going on?”

I chuckled, “Can’t I just call to say I miss your voice?”

“Now come on Freddie,” he said with amusement, “I don’t know what goes on in that small country where you live, but you know I don’t swing that way.”

“I’m too good for you anyway,” I said, “Actually, I was wondering if you knew anything more about Bradley Corsair?”

“What do you want to know?” he asked cautiously.

“He’s here, in Merveille.”

“Interesting,” he said, “Do you know why?
 
Could he be the source of our leak?”

“No,” I said with a shake of my head even though I knew he couldn’t see me, “He’s here because of Alex.”

“Alex?
 
Oh, your girlfriend.
 
He’s her ex?”

“Yeah, says he wants her back, but I think there’s something else going on.”

“His grandfather died recently,” Brooks said, “I heard he was to inherit.
 
The old man didn’t like his son very much and was rumoured to be giving the whole kit and caboodle to his grandson.”

“Well that explains why Kiki wants Alex to get back with him.”

“Kiki?”

“Kiki Fornette, her mother.”

Brooks laughed.
 
Not a gentle chuckle but a full on belly laugh that echoed down the line.

“Oh man,” he said when he could finally speak again, “Watch out for that one.
 
I’m surprised she’s not all over you, you’re just the sort she would like to pair up with one of her daughters.”

“I’ve only met her once,” I said distractedly, “She didn’t seem to warm to me.”

“Then she mustn’t know what you’re worth,” he said, “Kiki would know just how much Bradley is worth down to the last dime and I know for a fact that you could buy and sell him.
 
If she is pushing for Alex to reunite with her ex then it is because there is a payout for her, I guarantee it.”

“But if Bradley has just come into all that money, then why is he pursuing Alex.
 
Surely there are other women who would gladly become the next Mrs Bradley Corsair and they probably don’t have mother’s like Alex.
 
Why her?”

“Maybe he’s in love with her,” Brooks said.

Now it was Freddie’s turn to laugh, “I doubt that very much.”
 
My cell phone rang.
 
“Hey, I have another call coming in, talk soon?”

We said goodbye and I picked up the other phone and pressed the accept button.

“Freddie Bingham.”

“Mr Bingham, this is Jeremy Hatfield.
 
I believe you called and left a message?”

When I arrived at the Palace later that night, it was in a far better frame of mind.
   
Jeremy Hatfield had promised to do a background check on Bradley and to let me know what he found out.
 
But that wasn’t the only reason I was in a good mood.
 
I had made a decision about my relationship with Alex and I was ready to talk to her about it.

I greeted Percy as I entered the foyer and headed towards Alex’s suite.
 
My appearances here had become a regular occurrence and the staff didn’t even raise an eyebrow in my direction as I passed them in the halls.
 
If I was to ask them what they thought of my dating Alex, I would say that they were in favour of it.
 
The staff liked Alex, a lot, and I liked to think they liked me too.
 
Why wouldn’t they want to see us together?

I knocked on her door and waited for her permission to enter.
 
She sat in her favourite chair, a novel in her lap and a glass of wine in her hand.
 
The day’s tabloids were neatly stacked on the coffee table in front of her and folded in such a way so as to hide the front-page picture of her and Brad holding hands.

I walked over to her and pressed a soft kiss to her cheek before sitting down on the coffee table and taking the wine and book out of her hands.
 
I placed them on the side table and then took her hands and searched her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said and her eyes widened slightly.
 
“I’m sorry for getting so angry and for not going with you to meet with your family.”

She sighed and tried to pull her hands out of mine, but I wouldn’t let go.
 
She gave up the tug-of-war and stared back at me coolly.

“It’s fine,” she said, “It wasn’t your problem to deal with.
 
Your obligations to me as far as our fake relationship go do not include running interference with my family.”

“See that’s the thing,” I said, “I don’t want to be in a fake relationship with you any more.”

She tugged her hands out of my grasp and stood, wrapping her arms around herself and turning her back on me.

“Okay,” she said, softly, “I suppose I can understand that.
 
You didn’t sign up for this farce after all.”

I stood and went to her, standing behind her and resting my hands on her waist.
 
“That’s not what I mean,” I said softly, “I don’t want a fake relationship with you—”

She moved out of my grasp and, keeping her back to me, walked further away from me.
 
“Yes, you already said that and I said it was fine.”

“Alex,” I said, but she ignored me.
 
“Alex, please look at me.”

I waited for a beat and held my breath thinking that she wouldn't turn around and then she did.
 
Her eyes were downcast and they were glassy, but her shoulders were stiff and she unwrapped her hands so that they hung down at her sides.

“The reason I no longer want a fake relationship is that I’ve found someone I want a real relationship with.”

She looked up at me and hurt flitted across her face before she could school her reaction.

“It’s fine, Freddie,” she said, “I can do this on my own.
 
It’s okay, I don’t need you any more.”