A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (4 page)

I watched Alex surreptitiously as the service progressed.
 
It was long, with many parts and traditional readings and speeches and oaths, but I couldn’t help the way my eyes were drawn to her.
 
Alex played the part of the puppet master, but to everyone else, she was merely part of the Queen’s entourage.
 
I knew better.
 
Like a really good puppeteer, she made you forget about all the strings she was manipulating and drew you into the action on the stage.
 
But I knew how hard she worked to pull all this together, and I was impressed.
 
The woman was amazing.

And she looked breathtaking.
 
Alexandra was a gorgeous woman, petite, blonde hair, big blue eyes and full lips.
 
Her gown was a pale blue and strapless, leaving the creamy skin of her shoulders bare.
 
The skirt was long and full and the side was swept up to reveal an underskirt embroidered with flowers.
 
It suited her, the gracious and stately outer shell that had a hidden depth.
 
I really wanted to peel back her layers and find the woman underneath.

By the time the last oath had been spoken, and the Queen had been crowned, Alex looked exhausted and a little shell-shocked, but there was still a whole lot more to go before the day was over.
 
We made our way to the carriage which had been changed while we were inside the cathedral and was now an open air carriage.
 
Will helped Alyssa to climb in and
 
I climbed in after them and sat beside the Queen with a grin.
 
It was a little squashed, but it was tradition.
 
Alyssa wore the crown and her crimson robes had been changed to the royal purple of her station.

Will stole a quick kiss and I pecked her on the cheek.
 
I could only imagine how she must be feeling.

“You doing okay?” I asked as the carriage began to move.

She huffed and laughed, “Yeah,” she said, squeezing my hand.

“Big day,” I said and she nodded.

I shared a look with Will.
 
Alyssa was never this reticent.

“You okay Princess?” Will asked.

“You can’t call me that anymore,” she said and I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding.

“I will not call you Queen,” Will said with a laugh.

She smiled and I further relaxed.
 
I know the journey for her to get here had been a hard one.
 
Not only losing her brother and father but the fight she’d had with Parliament over her right to ascend and then the trauma of being kidnapped by someone she’d thought was a friend.
 
But through it all she had held strong and had made us all proud.

“Okay,” she said, “You can still call me Princess, but not in public.
 
I have a rep to protect.”

I snorted.
 
There she was, the Alyssa we had all grown to know and love.

The carriage wove through the streets and we waved at the happy smiling people lining the roads.
 
There had been initial backlash to the thought of having a female Head of State, but as the people had gotten to know Alyssa, she had slowly won them over, especially the female half of the population.
 
Her initiatives to give women the equality that their foreign counterparts had been enjoying for years had won her some very avid supporters.

“I miss Jacob,” she said, suddenly serious again.

Will took one of her hands and I took the other and squeezed gently.

“He would be so proud of you,” I said and Will nodded.

“You know he would,” he said.

She sighed, “I know,” she said, “I just would’ve loved to have his counsel over the last few months.
 
You two have been wonderful, but he’d been living in my father’s shadow and he would’ve had so much more insight into things.”

We were silent for a while as we each got lost in our thoughts about the late Prince.
 
He and Alyssa were different and would have ruled with very different styles, not that one was better than the other, just that they were different.

“Okay, enough sadness,” she said, “Today is a good day.”

I grinned at her.
 
I’d been working closely with Alyssa as she prepared to take the crown and she constantly surprised me with the way she could cope with the pressures that surrounded her on a day-to-day basis.
 
I think Will had a lot to do with keeping her grounded and he had become a friend too.

“So what is the first thing the Queen will do as Head of State?” I asked cheekily.

“Did you know that Queen Victoria’s first decree was to demand an hour completely alone?”

“What?” I laughed.

“Apparently she had been constantly surrounded her entire life.
 
She had never ever been left alone and so when she was crowned, the first thing she demanded was an hour of absolute solitude.”

“Is that what you want Princess?” Will asked gently.

She shook her head and smiled, “No,” she said, “I’ve become very good at demanding alone time.”

“So what is the one thing you want?” I asked.

“Chocolate,” she said, and I laughed and shook my head.

“Your fiancé has a contract with the best chocolatier in the world and you feel deprived of the stuff?” I asked.

“I’ve been on a diet,” she said, “I had to look my best for the coronation.
 
The camera adds ten pounds don’t you know.”

“Jonathon sent you a very special box especially for your coronation,” Will said and she glared at him.

“And you’re only telling me this now?” she asked.

He shrugged, “It was giving up chocolate or giving up cheese and since your consumption of Pemberton Cheese is what keeps the business afloat, I had to deny you the chocolate.”

“I do not eat that much cheese,” she said, horrified.

Will just raised an eyebrow at her and I shook my head with a smile.

“Okay, maybe I do,” she said sulkily, “But Jonathon sent the chocolates to me, for me.
 
I demand you produce them right now.”

“Ah, we’re in a carriage,” I said, but Will just smiled and slipped his hand under the seat producing a single wrapped chocolate.
 
He presented it to her on a flat palm and she smiled adoringly at him.

“Okay, you can stay,” she said before taking the chocolate, unwrapping it and popping it in her mouth.
 
The smile she gave Will was
 
full of affection and I wondered if anyone would ever look at me like that.

The coronation banquet was over, the guests had either gone home or had been safely tucked away in their assigned rooms and there was nothing left for me to do.
 
Except meet Freddie in the Rose Room.

I was tired and really didn’t want to tangle with Freddie right now.
 
He was exhausting.
 
Trying to keep myself in control of my emotions when I was around him was hard work and right now, at nearly midnight on one of the busiest days of my life, I just didn’t think I had enough reserves left to go toe to toe with him.

But I said I’d meet him and I was not one to go back on a promise.
 
I gave a few last-minute instructions to the staff who would be cleaning up the banquet hall and then slipped off my shoes.
 
I scrunched my toes and wiggled them relishing in the freedom of being barefoot.
 
I loved high heels, loved how they made me feel when I was wearing them, but the were killer on the toes and feet.
 
Taking them off at the end of a long day was a strange sort of pleasure.

I closed my eyes for a moment and breathed deeply.
 
Today had been long and my nerves had been stretched to their absolute limit.
 
Thankfully nothing had gone wrong and all the many hours of preparation and planning had paid off.
 
The rush I got from the execution of a well-developed plan would probably strike some people as a little odd, but I was easy to please.
 
I liked order, I liked precision, I liked things to work like a well-oiled machine.
 
And I liked to be in control.
 
Today had ticked all my boxes and despite feeling like I could go to sleep and never wake up again, I was happy.

I sighed as I opened my eyes and bent to pick up my shoes.
 
I waved good night to the remaining staff and walked out of the banquet hall, turning towards the Rose Room.
 
I took my time, rolling my head and shoulders as I walked to ease the tension in them.
 
Thank goodness tomorrow was an official day off for all the Queen’s key staff.
 
I intended to sleep late and not change out of my pyjamas all day.
 
I had a book lined up on my iPad ready to go and my lady’s maids were prepped with my food requests for the day and the times they should be delivered to my room.

I pushed open the door for the Rose Room and stepped across the threshold.
 
The room was dimly lit, a banked fire in the hearth providing the most light and one wall sconce providing the rest.
 
The room was empty, Freddie not having yet arrived, and I walked across the room and sunk down into the overstuffed sofa.
 
The soft cushions drew me in and I laid my head back against the seat back and closed my eyes.

The warmth of the room, the quietness, the soft lighting combined to make me feel drowsy, not that I wasn’t already half way to being dead on my feet.
 
I allowed my mind to wander while I waited for Freddie, wondering what was so important that he needed to see me tonight.
 
My thoughts automatically went to remembering how he’d looked today dressed in all his finery.
 
The man would look good in a burlap sack, but dressed in his tux and coronet and sash, I shivered, it was a sight to behold.

I loved the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled and the mischievous glint that he sometimes got in the gorgeous blue depths.
 
His eyes were unique, darker blue around the edges and lightening towards the centre to a pale denim blue.
 
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t spent hours staring into them while he was working with me and Alyssa.
 
They were the type of eyes that were always changing and I could get lost in them, cataloguing all the different variations.
 
I could use a colour-coded spreadsheet to chart them.

I smiled at my own private joke.
 
My colour-coded spreadsheets had become somewhat of an urban legend around the palace and new staff were always warned about them.
 
I didn’t care what people thought about them, they helped me do my job and that’s all that mattered, besides, I liked the colours, it wasn’t just practical but pretty as well.

I had really come to enjoy my job at the palace, even if the only reason I’d taken it was because I was running away.
 
My job in the States had fulfilled me and my boss hadn’t been too bad to work for, certainly nothing like some of the other investment bankers I’d heard about, but being the Queen’s private secretary was so much more.
 
I was never bored, that’s for sure, and I could only imagine that things would be getting even busier as Alyssa took on her role.
 
An uninvolved monarch she was not, which is one of the things that I loved about her.

“What are you smiling about?” a soft, rough voice said in my ear and I dragged in a breath.
 
Freddie’s aftershave filled my senses and it took a moment to get myself under control before I could open my eyes and look at him.

He was leaning over the back of the sofa, looking intently at me in the soft light.
 
He wasn’t wearing his jacket and the top buttons of his dress shirt were undone.
 
His bow tie hung loosely around his neck, the untied ends framing the open v of his shirt.

“Freddie,” I breathed as I looked up at him, my mind stuttering as I took in how close his lips were to mine.

“Alex,” he said and my name on his lips skittered over my skin leaving goosebumps in its wake.