Winning the Queen's Heart: Contemporary Christian Romance (The Brides of Belles Montagnes Book 2) (28 page)

The meal passed quickly, and they didn’t talk about much. Alex said he didn’t want to talk about the police station. They had been separated for about half an hour, and she wanted to make sure he was okay, but all he’d say is they let him play games on the computer.

As darkness fell, they followed the lighted path back to the hotel. She tucked her son into bed and pulled out her tablet. Time to work on their new plan some more.

* * *

Alexander didn’t want to be at church. In fact, he’d rather be just about anywhere else. Since Christiana hadn’t been up to going, he’d stayed home with her, choosing to watch a service online. But when she insisted on going to the Saturday evening service, he knew he would go with her. Not for appearances’ sake, or not only for them, but because she wouldn’t go anywhere without him except maybe the bathroom until they figured out what to do about her uncle.

As the service was about to start, they pulled up to a side entrance. Someone he didn’t recognize opened the car door. He slid out and turned, holding a hand out to help his wife. She emerged, looking as elegant as always. When they entered, the pastor was there to greet him. Alexander helped her with her coat while they exchanged pleasantries. With both of their overcoats over his arm, he rested his other hand on the small of Christiana’s back, following her into the door near the front of the sanctuary. Given the three empty buffer rows, someone had planned ahead for them. He knew she wouldn’t like being so “isolated”, but security was right. For now, it needed to be that way.

He heard the hushed whispers in the seconds before the music started playing. Christiana wasn’t the head of a church the way the Queen of England was, but if a church knew she was coming, they waited for her arrival to signal the beginning of the service. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the pointing, especially from the women. He knew why, and, despite recent revelations, he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with him.

Instead, it was likely due to the baby bump his wife was sporting. She’d been showing a little bit for a while, but it was like someone had thrown a switch and suddenly she went from “maybe she could possibly be pregnant and not just too many donuts” to “definitely having a baby.” Not that he’d ever thought she looked like she’d eaten a few too many donuts. He thought she still looked a bit gaunt. Giving a small smile to the people three rows behind them, he turned and did his best to pay attention to the service.

The pastor spoke on God ordaining the path of kings. It seemed to be a continuation of the previous week’s lesson so not specifically tailored for his wife, but in the lessons about how God ordained the footsteps of David to lead him to such a place where he could be the king Israel needed when Israel needed him.

Back in the apartment, Alexander stared out the window, always looking for some danger.

“Do you suppose God has a hand in all of this?”

Christiana’s quiet voice made him turn. “Pardon?”

“What on earth could God use everything in my past for? My parents and brother dying so young. My uncle’s plots and betrayal and now potential release. My fiancé, the one man I
should
have been able to trust beyond a shadow of a doubt, planning my murder and to take my crown.”

He turned back to his window. “Marrying a man you barely know and don’t love? Carrying his child?”

“All of that. What possible plan could God have in it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s not you God has a plan for. I mean He does, of course, but maybe it’s one of our descendants who will do great things. The story of Rahab is a good one, and she certainly did her share of helping God’s people, but it was her son who was Boaz, Ruth’s second husband. Both were ancestors of David and, eventually, Christ. Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed.” He’d read about this recently, or he never would have remembered. “Obed was Jesse’s father and David’s grandfather. Does the Bible ever mention Obed’s wife? Jesse’s mom? Not that I recall. But without her, there would be no David. No Christ. At least not through the same lineage.”

He fiddled with a button on his coat. “So were the parents and grandparents and great-grandparents of Mrs. Obed any less important to Jesse’s birth? I doubt it. The sequence of events had to happen to get to David. So maybe it’s not you, or me, or even the baby that this set of events influences. Maybe it’s our grandchild who will grow up to be a force to stop another Hitler or Stalin. Or, given our geography, a Mussolini or Napoleon, even. That doesn’t mean what happened to you in the past doesn’t have meaning, just that it led you to where you are today. To
this
child who would be that child’s grandparent.” He turned to her. “Does that make sense?”

She nodded but didn’t look at him. “I suppose, but I wish there were some meaning, in the here and now.” Christiana laced her fingers together. “Do you think we’d be married now if my parents had lived?”

There was a loaded question if he’d ever heard one. “For starters, your brother would be helping plan Yvette’s wedding with her. But I don’t know. I think it’s probably unlikely. They probably would have married you off to some duke or something. Or you wouldn’t be married yet. Playing the field.” He tried to add a teasing note but it fell flat.

She didn’t respond.

“Sorry. Even if your parents had lived, you wouldn’t be like that.”

“I know there is a plan. Sometimes I just wish I knew what it was.”

That made two of them.

* * *

Christiana did not sleep a wink. If Alexander had been there perhaps they could have talked, he could have alleviated her fears, or faced them together. Instead, as he had since his return, he slept in the other bedroom.

By the time dawn broke, she was showered, dressed, and eating breakfast. She was nearly finished when Alexander walked in. He wore a suit, complete with silk tie and jacket already on.

“Are you going to the hearing?” she asked, not looking at him.

“Yes. As the one who obtained the first key piece of information, they asked me to be there.” Paul handed him a plate of bacon and eggs. His favorite. “Will you be?”

“No.” She had no inclination to be there and was not required to be. Despite being the focus of his crimes, her presence had not been requested.

He sat next to her and covered her hand with his own. “I know they usually rubber stamp these pardons, but there’s a chance it’ll go the other way.”

She slid her hand from underneath his and used her cloth napkin to wipe her mouth. “It will not. As much as we would like to believe they will do the right thing and leave him in prison, this has been part of his grand back-up plan all along. I do not know what his next move is, but I guarantee you there is one. He will try something to remove me and take the throne himself. He’ll try to find a way, even though the agreement with the Commonwealth countries has been in the news lately.”

“Won’t the baby be the next in line for the throne?”

She shook her head. “If he succeeds in removing me, any child born after my ouster is not in line for the crown. The throne would either go to Yvette or the country split in two.”

“I see.”

“If he does not succeed in killing me and the baby, he only has a few months to make his move. I would imagine his preference would have been to take his time. But since his plot to take me out on my honeymoon failed, this was his plan B. He never expected for me to get married anyway, much less for me to get pregnant.”

Alexander took a bit of his eggs and thought on that. “You’re right. If we hadn’t married, and especially if you weren’t pregnant, he’d have unlimited time to carry out whatever the next step of plan B is. At least until he gets rearrested.”

Christiana sat up straighter. “Is that the answer?”

“What?”

“Tony said he was never charged with high treason though we know he was committing it, correct?”

“Yes, but that’s because the evidence wasn’t there. Believe me, if he could have been charged with it, he would have been. But this seemed like the most expedient way to get what everyone wanted. Your uncle behind bars for life. Quietly. None of us dreamed he’d be able to do something like this.”

“Can he not be arrested on suspicion of something else as soon as he is released?”

“I’ll talk to Tony about it. Someone will be watching him 24/7. If he so much as jaywalks, he’ll be in cuffs so fast his head will spin.”

“That is a small comfort.”

He took the last bite of his breakfast. How did he eat so fast? “I know.” It surprised her when he leaned over and kissed her head, right along her hairline. “We’ll figure something out. If I’m going to talk to Tony, I’ve got to go.”

Maybe she would be able to watch on closed circuit television. Sometimes she could.

But then Alexander pointed a finger at her and told her not to do that. “It will just stress you and the baby out. It won’t change anything. I know you’ll be stressed anyway, but seeing him, seeing the proceedings will make it worse.”

He had a point, though she did not want to tell him that. Squeezing her shoulder, he went on. “I’ll call you as soon as it’s over.”

“Thank you.”

An hour later, she was in her office arguing with Diana. “I do not want to watch the whole thing. Tony said his case will be last. I want to see the other three.”

“And I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Diana argued back, putting her foot down for the first time, really, in ever. “The Duke told me as much before he left. No television feed for you.”

The proceedings were closed to the public. The names would not be released until after the hearing ended, though there seemed to be some sort of word leaking out. A few minutes earlier, she had heard Diana telling Charlyn there would be no comment until at least this evening.

Doing her best to put it out of her mind, she tried to get down to work. It had been scheduled to be a check-signing day anyway. Something that required just enough of her attention but not so much she would not be able to focus. Ninety minutes after the hearing was to have started, Diana buzzed and told her the first three cases had been heard and pardons given. They were taking a mid-morning break before anything else was done. Her stomach tied in knots when, after another two hours, there had been no word. She walked back to the apartment, a security guard flanking her. He would be either with her or right outside her office/bedroom door at all times.

No one had asked her about it.

When she finally reached the apartment, Christiana wanted nothing more than to lie down for an hour. Lunch held no appeal, though she knew she needed to eat. As she walked into the living area, she sensed more than saw another presence in the room. She stopped short until the man with his back to her stood and turned around.

Christiana nearly collapsed onto the floor in relief. “Poppo,” she whispered as he came toward her. He held her in his arms as the tears began to fall. “Poppo, I’m so scared.”

He rested his hand on her head as he tightened his hold. “I know, sweet girl. I know.”

Chapter 30

Alexander hadn’t bitten his tongue so much in a very long time.

The appeals board had recessed to discuss their decision and would be back shortly. They
could
decide to deliberate overnight, but he didn’t think they would. Not starting this early in the afternoon.

He spent the deliberations with Tony in a conference room. All of the top secret files were pulled up on his laptop. He’d put them on an external hard drive which would be erased and destroyed before he left. No changes would be made and only cryptic hand-written notes would leave the room. Only the two of them knew what Tony had on that drive. The decision to bring it all had been made less than twenty minutes before departuring for the hearing.

“Is there anything in there?” Alexander ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

Tony leaned back in his chair, with his fingers laced behind his head and his eyes closed. “There’s something here. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. Like when you wake up and try to remember what your dream was but it’s just out of reach.” He sat forward and started scrolling again. “It’s not clear enough to even give me a direction.” A few clicks. “I don’t know where to look. Suspects. Witnesses. Evidence. Interviews. Photographs. It’s there
somewhere
.”

Alexander paced around the table. “How do we find it?”

“I don’t know. Can we prove a connection between the two men? No one ever saw them together.” He looked up. The look in his eyes stopped Alexander in his tracks. “There’s one person we’ve never talked to.”

Alexander read Tony’s mind. “No. Absolutely not.”

“We never had to talk to her before,” Tony pointed out. “There was enough evidence of the death plot last fall without needing to. Even with talking to her it was unlikely we’d get the evidence needed to keep this all out of the press with her uncle. We took the plea. There was no way he’d ever get parole. Or a pardon.”

“Except this way.”

“Right. And no one had any idea he’d have a man on his side who would rise to such a place and pardon him.”

Something else occurred to Alexander. “What if he doesn’t?”