A Royal Entanglement: The Young Royals Book 2 (7 page)

He let go of Alex’s hand and turned to me.

“Mr Corsair,” he said, his eyes hard and his smile brittle, “I hope you slept well.”

I hadn’t intended to enter the room, I’d just wanted to stand outside the door and listen to what was being said.
 
I knew it was tacky, but I really didn’t want to leave Alex alone in there with him.
 
I didn’t like him and didn’t trust him, but that could just be because his being here was threatening to take Alex away and I couldn’t allow that to happen.
 
Not for me, of course, but for the Queen’s sake.
 
She would be lost without Alex.

I was sitting in the breakfast room when the butler had come in to inform me of her arrival and order the tea trolley.
 
I’d been enjoying a nice breakfast of croissants and coffee and had been reading the paper which, for once, had been praising the Queen and the royal family on the spectacular coronation.
 
It seemed that Alyssa had managed to charm even the most jaded of the press corps and he was glad that something had finally been going her way.
 
When I’d heard Alex’s name, I hadn’t been able to stop myself from rising to go to her.
 
I knew she wasn’t here to see me, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to see her.

So I’d stood outside the parlour and listened in on their conversation.
 
When I’d heard him say that he wanted her back, my feet seemed to have a mind of their own and I was through the doors before I could stop myself.
 
My first glimpse of Alex had almost made speaking impossible; she looked poised and elegant sitting in my mother’s chair and every inch the Lady.
 
My mother joked that it was her seat of power and chose to sit in it whenever she was entertaining difficult guests.
 
It seemed Alex had had the same thought.

I walked over to her as she stood and curtsied to me.
 
We had long ago forgone the formalities of our peerage, but I understood immediately the game she was playing and I wanted to cheer for her.
 
She was a formidable woman and Bradley would be a fool to underestimate her.
 
I took her hand and kissed her knuckles and noticed the weariness around her eyes that nobody else would even notice.
 
To the world she was perfectly put together and not at all affected by the rigours of the coronation, but I knew better.

I also saw the relief and then irritation the crossed her face and had to hold back my own grin.
 
She was relieved I was here, but irritated that she was relieved.
 
Alex hated accepting help from anybody and the fact that she felt the need for my help this morning was enough for me to want to dance a jig.
 
But I kept it together, kept my face impassive and only let a tiny, mischievous smile tilt one side of my mouth.
 
She saw and rolled her eyes and I again had to hold back a chuckle.
 
This woman was a delight and teasing her was too much fun.

I eventually let her hand go and turned to the man who had brought trouble into her life, wanting to lay him out with a single punch.
 
I could do it too, if it wouldn’t have been unseemly to assault a guest in my parent’s home.
 
We were fairly matched in height and weight and, by the way his t-shirt fitted him, I suspected that he worked out.
 
I wouldn’t mind sparring with him, although I doubted he could keep up with me, I trained with the best, after all.

“Mr Corsair,” I said, a small, unfriendly smile on my face, “I hope you slept well.”

He regarded me cooly before dipping his head in assent.
 
“I did, thank you,” he replied, his American accent clanging discordantly around the elegant room.
 
“It’s quite a place you have here.”

I helped myself to the tea trolley, pouring a cup of black coffee and sipping it delicately before replying.
 
“It’s home,” I said with a shrug.

“Shall we sit,” Alex asked, her voice imperious.
 
I liked this side of her, very much.

“Yes, let’s,” I replied taking one of the other single chairs in the room.
 
“So, Bradley,” I paused, “You don’t mind if I call you Bradley do you?” He shook his head.
 
“So, Bradley, what brings you to our fair country?”

Alex raised an eyebrow at him and his lips thinned.
 
“I have some business to discuss with Alex,” he replied, “Personal business.”

“You’ve come at an especially busy time,” I said, sipping my coffee again.

“The coronation is done,” he said, “Alex has done her bit, surely she’s entitled to some time off.”

I saw Alex’s lips thin and her eyes flash.

I jumped in before she could say anything.
 
“You think that little ceremony is all there is to the coronation?” I asked, raising my eyebrows in disbelief.
 
“That was only the beginning.
 
There is a whole slew of formal gatherings planned for the next month and then there are the wedding preparations for the Queen and Lord Darkly.
 
I don’t think Alex will be having any time off in the next, oh, six months or so.”

Alex turned her flashing eyes on me, telling me in no uncertain terms to shut up.
 
I sipped my coffee.
 
She turned back to Bradley and smiled.

“How about we take a walk,” she said, “Château de Monterey is famous for its gardens.”

I suppressed a shiver at the way the French pronunciation of the castle fell from her lips.
 
I hadn’t noticed before now, but she didn’t have a hint of an American accent, despite having grown up in the States, and her grasp of the French, Italian and German that we spoke in Merveille was perfect.
 
Just another reason why she should stay here and not go back with her gauche American fiancé, she was much too good for him.

I stood with them and watched as she led him from the room, her head held high.
 
She was all class and I couldn’t understand what she had ever seen in the American.
 
Hopefully he wouldn’t be able to charm her away from me, I mean, from Merveille and the Queen.

I kept my head high and my posture stiff as I led Brad out of the castle and into the grounds.
 
I had no idea where I was going, but thankfully the path was wide and the direction to the gardens obvious.
 
I’d needed to get out of the room that had quickly become suffocating with both Brad and Freddie occupying the small space.

I was thankful that Freddie had come in when he did, and annoyed that he’d felt the need to interfere.
 
Bradley Corsair was my mess to clean up, even though I had no clue how to do it.
 
Having Freddie so close while I was trying to get my head around Brad’s appearance was too much for my nerves, especially when I felt as tired as I did.

“Are you and Lord Bingham close?” Brad asked, breaking into the nervous rambling in my head.

“We’ve been working closely together on the Queen’s coronation,” I replied cautiously.
 
How could I explain the relationship I had with Freddie without revealing my real feelings towards him?

“He seems very protective of you.”

I laughed.
 
Freddie?
 
Protective?
 
No, that was just male posturing, but I couldn’t say that either.

“I think he feels a certain responsibility towards me because of the position I hold in the Palace,” I said instead.

Brad didn’t comment as we rounded a corner and Lac Merveilleux filled the vista.
 
I sighed and came to a stop as I gazed out over the mirror-like finish of the lake reflecting the snow-capped mountains in the distance.
 
It was beautiful and standing in the midst of, what was left of the summer blooms, I knew I would never be happy anywhere else.

I turned to Bradley.
 
“I’m not going back with you,” I said, “I can’t marry you.”

I turned to walk away, but he reached out and grabbed hold of my arm, forcing me to stop.
 
He took a step closer to me, his body against my back as he whispered in my ear.

“Give me a second chance, Alex,” he said, “We were good together, surely you’re not going to deny that?”

“No,” I said, my voice catching annoyingly, “I can’t deny that.
 
But I need more than that.
 
I want more than a partnership.”

“You want the fairytale?” he asked with a scoff, “You never struck me as the fairytale type.”

I turned to him and looked up into the blue eyes that had so captured me the first time we met searching for something, anything that would tell me that he was in love with me.
 
But I couldn’t find it, I couldn’t see anything there except determination, a look I knew well.
 
I sighed, I was a business deal for him, one that he had lost and was determined to get back.
 
I turned away from him and began walking back along the path.

“Go home Bradley,” I said over my shoulder.

“Alex, please.”

I ignored him and kept walking.
 
Brad wasn’t known for his tenacity and more than likely his visit here was more because of his pride than any real want to have me back.
 
He would give up eventually if I kept ignoring him.

I rounded the corner back towards the front entrance and looked up to see Freddie watching me from the stairs.
 
He looked at me with such intensity that I couldn’t help the shiver that skated over my skin.
 
Bradley was good-looking, movie star good looking in the vein of Ryan Gosling or Stephen Arnell, with his dark blonde hair and deep blue eyes, but Freddie?
 
Freddie had something more.
 
Yes, he was good-looking, but there was a depth to him that most people didn’t see.
 
He portrayed the part of the rich, playboy prince, but there was more to him.
 
In the hours of meetings we had attended together, I'd discovered that he was intelligent and focussed with a razor wit.
 
At the risk of sounding like an animated ogre, Freddie had layers and I was just starting to enjoy peeling those layers back to discover the man underneath.