A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (42 page)

“Come on Dom,” he said, “Life can’t be all work and no play.
 
It was a beautiful day and we were surrounded by beautiful women.
 
How could you not look?”

“I was more focussed on doing my job,” I said, “Than looking at the women who had attended.”

“Then you missed out,” he said, “Because the one I spied across the patio was divine and she had the most glorious head of red hair that I have ever seen.”

There were two women that I knew of that had red hair and neither of them would fall for Louis’ charm.

I scoffed, “Good luck,” I said, “If it was Meredith you were looking at, then you had better wear body armour if you try to seduce her.
 
The woman is one of the Queen’s bodyguards and more than proficient in the discipline of martial arts.
 
The only other red head that I am aware of is Priscilla and she has claws, her bite is definitely worse than her bark, so I would advise you to steer clear.”

“A pity,” he said as he unbuttoned his suit coat and sat in the chair opposite me.
 
“She looked interested.
 
The other two young women she was sitting with were just as beautiful, but there was something intriguing about the red head.”

I thought back over the afternoon in the garden.
 
The three youngest women in attendance were Will’s sister Georgina, a blonde, Alex’s sister Lily, another blonde, and Priscilla’s sister, who I hadn’t met.
 
But perhaps she was a red head like Priscilla?
 
Regardless, I couldn’t imagine Priscilla letting her sister have anything to do with Louis and no doubt her sister would be just as shrewish as she was.

“Do you think you could get me an introduction?” he asked.

“I don’t even know the young woman in question,” I said, “What makes you think I would be able to get you an introduction.”

“Pfft,” Louis waved my objection away, “Dom, you know everyone and I know you can get things done.
 
I have complete confidence that you could find out who the intriguing young woman is and arrange for me to meet her.”

I sat back in my chair and eyed my brother over the desk.
 
“And if I do this for you, what do I get in return?”

He smiled at me, knowing he’d won.
 
“I will be your servant for the time I’m here,” he said, “Whatever you need me to do, I will do.”

I growled softly under my breath.
 
That was why he was here in the first place, to shadow me and learn the ropes.
 
My father had been Lord Chancellor before me and, due to my not having yet produced an heir, Louis was to be apprenticed into the position to take over from me.
 
But if I could make my job easier by agreeing to his demands, then I would be the winner in the long run.

“Fine,’ I said with a resigned sigh, “I will find out who the mystery red head is and I will organise an introduction, but you must also hold up your end of the bargain.
 
No more slacking off.
 
The wedding is in a month and there is far too much to do.”

Louis grinned at me and stood to his feet.
 
I had the sudden feeling that I had been played.
 
“You’re the man, Dom,” he said, and I rolled my eyes.
 
His colloquial Americanisms were going to be the death of me.

He left the office and I turned my eyes back to the spreadsheet in front of me.
 
Priscilla had flagged a potential issue with Lady Poppy and Lady Isabella, one I had completely overlooked.
 
I grit my teeth, I hated it when she got one over me.
 
The woman was maddening, brilliant, but maddening all the same.

Her face flashed in front of my eyes and her magnificent red hair and clear blue eyes sparked a flash of adrenalin in me.
 
Whenever we spent time together, she irritated me, grated against my skin like a burr.
 
But I couldn’t deny that she was striking.
 
She was so serious and put together but her flamboyant red hair seemed to fly in the face of that very poise.
 
Her red hair screamed wild, but she had tamed it and when I looked at her, I couldn’t see anything but a very conservative professional.
 
And that did things to me that I didn’t want to analyse.
 
I liked her mastery of control, more than I was willing to admit.

My email beeped, breaking into my dangerous train of thought.
 
It was Priscilla, and I felt my irritation rise as I read her succinct criticism of my preliminary seating chart.
 
Had I thought her beautiful?
 
It must have been a momentary lapse in
 
judgement.

Sneak Peek at Next Book

The Queen is getting married and Priscilla is required to work alongside the Lord Chancellor, Dominique, to ensure that the whole affair goes off without a hitch and that they don’t, unwittingly, start World War Three.
 
The only problem is that Priscilla finds Dominique insufferable and Dom isn’t all that enamoured with Priscilla either.

When Priscilla’s sister, Bianca, falls for Dominique’s brother, Louis, the two young lovers hatch a plot to ensure that they can spend time together, but it means that Dom has to pretend to be interested in Priscilla and get her to date him.

The more time they spend together, the more Dom and Priscilla start to like each other, except that now Dom is caught in a difficult spot…should he tell Priscilla that he only asked her out because his brother wanted to date her sister, or should he keep quiet and hope she doesn’t find out?

“Why am I here again?” Bianca pouted as we waited in the outer office of Dominique Furore, Lord Chancellor, and kind of my boss… sort of.

“We’re here because I need to see the Lord Chancellor and since you are supposed to be interning with me, you have to be here too.”

“I thought working in the Palace would be more exciting.”

I sighed.
 
It was bad enough that Bianca had to shadow me, but to have to meet with Dominique while she was glued to my side was worse.
 
Unfortunately with the wedding barely six weeks away, I needed all the help I could get.

“What did you expect?
 
That we sat around drinking champagne, snacking on caviar, wearing the crown jewels and counting the Queen’s money all day long?”

“No,” she huffed out and I wondered how much of that statement she had actually expected to be true.
 
“I just thought, you know, that there would be less sitting around and more—”

But she didn’t get to finish her sentence because the doors opened and Dominique stood there, his raven-dark hair gleaming with the sunlight from the window and his green eyes flashing.
 
I could tell by the set of his mouth that he was perturbed by something, but he quickly shuttered his expression as his eyes caught mine.
 
I stood quickly and walked towards him, pushing down my anxiety at being in his presence with my sister in tow.

“My Lord Chancellor—”

“What are you doing here Lady Beaumonde?”

Really?
 
He’d forgotten?

“We had an appointment,” I said, my displeasure apparent.

His eyes widened imperceptibly and if I hadn’t been watching for it, I wouldn’t have noticed.
 
Dom never forgot anything, his mind was like a steel trap.
 
Something must have happened to get him this flustered.

His eyes flicked to my sister and one of his thick, dark eyebrows lifted.

“And who is this?”

“This is my sister Bianca, she is interning with me.”

“Dom—” another voice came from behind me.
 
“Well, hello there ladies.”

I watched Dom’s face redden slightly as he looked over my shoulder and then I turned slowly and caught my breath.
 
They had to be related, that was the only explanation for how similar they looked, although the interloper was younger and not quite so serious.

“This is Lady Priscilla Beaumonde and her sister Bianca,” Dom said and his voice dripped with displeasure.

The younger man stepped forward and took my hand bowing over it and brushing his lips on the back of my knuckles before letting go and taking my sister’s hand to do the same, only he took a little longer to complete the greeting.

“It is such a pleasure to meet you both,” he said, but his eyes didn’t leave Bianca’s.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
 
It was always the same, the men went gaga over my sister and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why, not that I wanted them to go gaga over me, not in the slightest.
 
I just found it tiring and I knew that I would spend the next four hours listening to her babble on about whoever this man turned out to be.

“Lady Beaumonde, Bianca, this is my brother Louis.”

“Yes, well,” I said, “As I said earlier, we had an appointment.”
 
I looked at my wrist where I wore a classic timepiece, antique in fact, given to me by my mother.
 
It probably wasn’t worth the amount I spent on it to keep it running, but I was yet to discover another watch that felt right on my arm.

“I’m afraid I am going to have to reschedule,” Dom said and my eyes snapped to his.

“You couldn’t have told me this earlier before I made my way over here?”

Dom’s jaw hardened and I watched, fascinated, as the muscles under his dark whiskers rippled.
 
I had become adept at reading his moods and his body language for my own preservation.
 
I tended to let my mouth run away from me at times, but I knew I could only push him so far before he would push back.
 
That was not all that fun to deal with.

“It was a last minute situation that I need to deal with post-haste.
 
I’ll let you know when I can reschedule.
 
Come along Louis.”

Dom took Louis’ arm roughly and stalked from the room leaving me to gape after him.
 
I had never seen him so ruffled by anything and the look in his eye when he glared at his brother was enough for me to be thankful I was not in Louis’ shoes.

“That’s him,” Bianca whispered excitedly beside me.

“What?” I turned to look at her, not comprehending what she was blabbering about.

“The guy from the garden party.
 
You know the one that I told you about, the one who looked at me and we had a moment.”
 
She sighed dreamily and I tried really hard not to roll my eyes, but failed.

“Dom or Louis?”

“Louis, of course,” she said like I was a simpleton, “Dom is far too old for me.
 
He’s hot, but yeah, too old.”

“Louis is the guy that you are in love with?” I asked to clarify.

“Didn’t you feel it?” she said, looking towards the door where the two men had exited, “The sparks between us were off the charts.”

“The only sparks I saw were the ones between the two brothers.
 
Louis has obviously done something that Dom didn’t like, there is no other explanation for him forgetting our appointment.”

“Maybe he’s just as uptight as you are,” Bianca mumbled.

I turned to her, wanting to rip shreds off her.
 
The lazy little beggar did nothing all day long and had the nerve to call me uptight?
 
Instead I counted to ten.
 
It wasn’t worth getting into it with her, she was blithely unaware of her spoilt behaviour and nothing I said to her would ever get through to her.