The Royals Series

by Bay, Louise

  Maybe I was spending too much time trying to be the perfect hostess, looking after Woolton, doing things I was supposed to do. Perhaps I should have a little more fun. It wasn’t as if I was about to marry Logan. But kissing him had been…nice, and doing it again would be nicer. Sleeping with him might be even better. It was just sex. Exercise. Endorphins. It wasn’t like I was going to fall for him.

  Everyone began to arrive and I went out into the kitchen to top up the cordial.

  “Darcy won’t be happy,” I heard as I nudged the door open with the tray of drinks that I’d brought through from the kitchen.

  “What won’t I be happy about?” I set down the tray and scanned the faces looking at me.

  “It’s about Logan,” Aurora said.

  Oh God, was he married? Gay? A serial killer?

  “You haven’t seen the plans he’s submitted, I assume?” Mrs. Lonsdale asked.

  “Plans?” I frowned.

  “He wants to open a nightclub in the village.”

  I burst out laughing. That couldn’t be true. We were a sleepy village in Chilternshire. It wasn’t a nightclub-going sort of place.

  “Well, not quite a nightclub,” Aurora said. “More of a private members’ club. A country retreat for people in the city who don’t have a place in the country.”

  Were they serious? This didn’t make any sense to me. “What do you mean?” Someone must have crossed wires. Why would he want to ruin his grandmother’s family home? The village where she’d clearly wanted to come back to?

  “He’s submitted plans to the local council to build on Badsley land,” Freida said. “Wants to create a bar and restaurant and some rooms—a small hotel complex for members.”

  My head spinning with a combination of disbelief and disappointment, I fell into one of the chairs. “But this is Woolton. He’ll ruin the place. What was he thinking?”

  “I don’t know,” Mrs. Lonsdale said. “Some people are saying it will be good to bring jobs to the area.”

  “How can you say that?” Freida puffed out a breath. “This is the beginning of the end. If the Council allows this, then what next? Look at Kingsley. That used to be a beautiful village before they relaxed the planning laws.” Murmurings of agreement rumbled through the women. Kingsley had been almost as pretty as Woolton but now most of the locals had moved out as developers swooped in and bought up the village houses, ready to rent them out to tourists. A huge supermarket had opened just on the outskirts, attracting other chain stores in to replace the locally owned boutique stores. The soul of the place had been lost.

  “And what about the years of disruption before it opens?” Freida asked. “Have people forgotten how the Thompsons took three years to develop their place and that was just a house?”

  “And that beautiful countryside that he wants to build on. They’ll have to bring down trees that are hundreds of years old.” My childhood had been all about getting lost in Badsley’s woods all day with my brother, coming back with scraped knees and matted hair. Those adventures that Ryder and I had together had allowed us to be children, to live without worries. We built up our confidence after bearing the scars of our parents not wanting us during those days. And our grandparents let us play without concern. They knew we were safe. We didn’t have to worry about running into strangers. We knew everyone who lived locally. Would the children of Woolton have to be confined to their backyards?

  If the plans were in then Logan had been thinking about this since before he’d moved here. You couldn’t just shit out blueprints, they took time and planning. He clearly wasn’t just some nice guy who bought his grandmother’s childhood home so she could relive her memories. It had been far more calculated. Badsley was a business opportunity for him. Every time I thought I had him figured out, he fooled me again. No more. “Well, there’s no way the Parish Council will allow it. They have to preserve the village. They’ve learned their lesson from Kingsley,” I said.

  Mrs. Lonsdale raised her eyebrows. “From what I hear, Mr. Steele has been on a charm offensive. He’s been doing his best to tell Parish Council members all the benefits of the scheme. Employment. Putting Woolton on the map in a sophisticated way—”

  “We’re already on the map.”

  “We’ll have to band together. Form an opposition group,” Freida said. She was right. We would have to get organized if we were going to go against Logan who would have the best lawyers and consultants helping him. But right at that moment, it was as if I was paralyzed by disappointment. In him and in myself for kissing him. The fight had left me.

  “Darcy Westbury?” A tall woman in her thirties who looked as if she’d just stepped out of the city stood at the entrance.

  Swallowing down my sadness and frustration, I introduced myself to the evening’s speaker. “Yes. You must be Constance Reed. Welcome.” I smiled tightly. I’d never been very good at faking pleasantries. I took a deep breath, pushed down my devastation and tried for a more genuine smile. “We’re all very excited to have you here.”

  She looked slightly out of place with her blue skirt suit, patent heels and carefully made-up face, and exactly like the sort of sophisticated woman who’d look good with Logan Steele. I gritted my teeth at the thought of him and tried to distract myself as I ushered everyone to their seats.

  As much as world economics interested me, the only thing I could think about was how just a few minutes ago Logan had been a man I hoped might become my lover and now was someone who was set on destroying the place I cherished most in the world.

  Chapter Ten

  Logan

  As the sounds of the helicopter drew closer, I grabbed my jacket and keys. One of the perks of commuting this way was I could stay in the country on a Sunday night and still get into the office early on Monday. I glanced at my watch. I had an important call with China at ten, but I should just make it. I pulled the door shut behind me and headed toward the helicopter that had just landed.

  I ducked beneath the still-rotating blades and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a figure approaching over the lawns. I squinted through the wind and realized it was Darcy. I took a few steps toward her, the artificial breeze relenting slightly.

  I hadn’t seen her since our kiss last week. I supposed a part of me had wanted to run into her this weekend, but another part had been relieved I hadn’t. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d kissed a woman without fucking her. And although I knew that I shouldn’t be fucking Darcy, there had been something about our kiss that had left me far from satiated. I was used to deciding what I wanted and following through. But I couldn’t want Darcy. It just wasn’t practical. But something about that fact had rankled and left me irritated.

  I waved. “Hi,” I bellowed.

  As she marched toward me, her furious eyes came into focus. In one hand she gripped some papers, the other was fisted by her side.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she screamed. She didn’t slow down as she neared me. When she reached me, she shoved at my chest and I had to step back to stop myself from falling. What the hell was her problem?

  “What’s the matter?” I asked, completely confused.

  “What’s the matter? Are you serious?” she shouted, making herself heard above the noise of the helicopter. “You’re about to ruin this village and you ask me what’s the matter? You know full well what you’ve done.”

  I tried to focus on what she was saying rather than the way her hair lifted in the breeze, or the smear of mud on her left cheek. Neither one was adorable. I liked disciplined, glamorous women. Not screaming banshees.

  “Darcy, I really don’t have time for this.” I glanced toward the helicopter.

  “I bet you don’t. You don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself or anything but money.”

  What the hell had her knickers in a knot? I didn’t have time to stop and talk to her. I had a meeting as soon as I landed followed by a jam-packed calendar, but I couldn’t leave her so…unhinged.

>   She waved the papers in the air and shouted some more about how selfish I was, but I still had no idea what she was talking about and I wasn’t about to be late. Darcy Westbury would just have to come with me, but there was no way she’d agree to that.

  There was only one thing to do.

  Before she could ask me what the hell I was doing, I bent and tossed her over my shoulder. I kept my grip tight around her legs as I strode toward the waiting helicopter, Darcy kicking and screaming all the way. I tipped her into the interior of the Sikorsky, and followed as she scrambled to her feet and tried to open the door on the other side. “What are you doing, you maniac? You can’t kidnap me.”

  I pulled her away from the door and placed her into one of the eight seats. She continued to struggle until we started to take off and then she grabbed my arm, fear in her eyes, which at least meant I got the opportunity to fix her belt and mine.

  “Just calm down,” I said, sitting back in my chair.

  She narrowed her eyes. “I’m being kidnapped. Why would I be calm?”

  I gripped the armrests of my seat, trying not to laugh. “I’m not kidnapping you, for crying out loud. I just don’t have the time for you to shout at me in Woolton. You’ll have to yell while I go to the office. I have a meeting.”

  “Oh, you have a meeting. What if I have a meeting?”

  I sighed. “I thought you wanted to speak to me?”

  For the next few minutes I got the silent treatment.

  “I can’t believe you kissed me,” she mumbled.

  I was totally confused. “You’re angry because I kissed you?”

  “Given the circumstances, I want to cut your bollocks off.”

  “Have I missed something?” This girl was making my head spin, and not for the first time. “What circumstances? I thought we’d had a nice evening.” Kissing her had been phenomenal. The way she’d gasped as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was feeling. The way her smart mouth had yielded under my tongue. It hadn’t been an ordinary kiss. It was the kind you carried with you your whole life, trying to find another that lived up to such promise.

  “But it was all a sham. You were just using me.”

  “It was a kiss. Using you, how?”

  “Just trying to soften me up before you dropped this fucking bomb.” She tossed the few remaining papers she had in her hand at me.

  I scooped the crumpled white sheets from my feet and recognized the planning application for the private members’ club I’d lodged. I’d planned to bring the glamour of London to the country and provide a country retreat for people in the city who didn’t want the responsibility of a second home. It would be the first business I’d ever started. The first one that I’d built myself.

  It was small but personal, and hopefully wouldn’t be too distracting from my day job. I needed this to prove to myself I could build something. The scale wasn’t important. And Manor House Club had been percolating in my mind for ten years. I’d seen how wealth and opportunity was concentrated in London—that’s where people who could provide opportunities and had wealth spent their time. My idea was to attract these people outside of London in the hopes that their wealth would seep into the community. That they would find and provide opportunity outside the city.

  “What has Manor House Club got to do with me kissing you?” I asked.

  “Well, presumably you were hoping to make sure I didn’t object to the planning. Otherwise, why wouldn’t you tell me? Especially when I was talking about how passionate I was about Woolton.”

  “Did it work?” I asked. I was being deliberately provocative, but this woman? She was equal parts beautiful and crazy.

  She just glared at me.

  “Look, I didn’t realize I had to give you a rundown of my five-year plan in order to kiss you.”

  “You’re an arsehole.”

  “Darcy, kissing you had nothing to do with these plans. Running into you was a complete accident.”

  “Was it?”

  “As much as I might have made the effort to do it on purpose, I can promise you that it was a coincidence.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me? I’d never have kissed you had I known.”

  A dull ache gnawed at my stomach as she confessed her regret. “It didn’t come up. Manor House Club will be a phenomenal thing. It’s going to attract all the best people, have them experience a beautiful place, provide employment in the area, customers for the shops in the village. Why would you be devastated?”

  She folded her arms as she stared straight ahead. “It will completely ruin village life as we know it. Think of all the pollution from the visitors, all those trees you’ll have to chop down, plus all the building works that will make our lives a misery for years. Not to mention the way the community will be watered down with tourists who think they’re better than the rest of us.” She blew out a breath as if she was trying to stop herself from crying. “We’ve seen this before. We’ve had outsiders come in and tell us how they will improve things, only for the village to suffer. The Thompsons’ renovations lasted three years. And then they just flipped the house—it was just an investment for them. Woolton is special.”

  “I can promise you that the works won’t take three years. I want the place open and making money within twelve months.” I’d expected some local opposition to my plans. There were people against change whenever you tried to make improvements—I came across it all the time in business. I’d move into a new company, start asking questions about their processes and come across the phrase, “because that’s how we do it” too often for me to even be surprised anymore. Most people’s automatic reaction to change was to assume it was bad rather than to embrace the opportunity it brought.

  “You see? It’s just about money for you. You don’t care about the impact you’ll have on the rest of us. You won’t get away with it—there’s no way those plans will get through the Parish Council.”

  “You want to ban any building works in the village? What about when Woolton Hall needs a new roof or—”

  “Don’t twist my words. That’s not what I’m saying, I just want to be respectful of our way of life, of our history.”

  It was my job to sell people on a brighter future and that was what I’d planned to do with Manor House Club. I was pretty sure I could convince the Parish Council that it would be a great thing for Woolton. “Well, I guess we’ll see. Some people have broader minds than you might imagine,” I replied.

  “What does that mean?” she asked, shifting next to me so she could look at me. “Are you planning to try and bribe people?”

  I chuckled. “Are you drunk? Of course I’m not going to bribe anyone.” I might have a reputation for doing whatever it took to succeed, but I never broke the law, let alone did anything my grandmother would be ashamed of me for.

  She sighed and sat back in her seat. “That’s not what it sounded like to me. You seem too sure to be leaving anything to chance.”

  “I think that says more about your Parish Council members than it does about me. Do they take bribes often?”

  “How dare you!” she snapped. “The Parish Council would never succumb to such dirty tricks.”

  “Then why would you assume I’d been successful in bribing them?”

  “What? Don’t twist my words again.”

  “I’m not. I’m following their logical conclusion.”

  “Whatever.”

  “Which I interpret as ‘You’re quite correct, Logan. I accept that our kiss had nothing to do with your plans for Manor House Club and that you’re not committing criminal offenses by bribing public officials’.”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head. Darcy seemed clever and running the Woolton estate took a great deal of skill, but this girl was acting as if she’d lost her mind.

  “Can’t you drop it?” Her tone lowered.

  “Drop what?”

  “Your plans. They would ruin everything I worked so hard for.”

  I didn’t see how Manor
House Club would ruin anything for the Woolton estate, and it would breathe fresh life into the village, bring opportunities to those who weren’t as lucky as Darcy. “It’s important to me, Darcy. Try to look at all the positive things it will bring to the village.” As much as I liked and respected her, and as much as I’d enjoyed kissing her, I wasn’t about to abandon Manor House Club just because she wanted to remain in a time warp.

  “Is that a no?” she asked.

  “I’m afraid so,” I replied. “Once I’m committed to something, I follow through. It’s how I’m built.”

  “Then game fucking on,” she said lightly, her tone not matching her words at all.

  I wanted to ask what she meant, but the helicopter began to descend and I needed to focus on my meeting rather than whatever trouble Darcy might be planning to stir up.

  “I’m sure we can work together to make it a great opportunity for the village.”

  “How am I getting back to Woolton?” she asked, ignoring my attempt to move forward on a positive note.

  “The helicopter will take you back.”

  “You see? You don’t even realize what a scourge on the village you helicoptering in and out is. It’s deafening. It scares the horses, tears the leaves from the trees. We all hate it.”

  No one had said anything to me. “You can’t make time stand still. Why do you want to put obstacles in the way of progress, Darcy?” What made her want to live in the past?

  She didn’t respond, didn’t look at me. She just stared ahead, her eyebrows pinched together in a determined scowl.

  “Let me take you through the plans next weekend,” I said as we landed. “I can show you how beautiful it’s going to be. How it will be in keeping with the surrounding areas. You’re assuming the worst, but when you have all the facts, you might find you like it.”

  I sighed when she didn’t respond. It was like dealing with a toddler that I couldn’t put on a naughty step.

  “I have to go,” I said as the door opened. “I’ll be back in Woolton on Friday. Let’s talk then.”