Royal Watch

by Stacey Marie Brown

  “Oh, poor baby. You will be living in a castle someday, wanting for nothing!” He flung his hand toward the palace. “And it wasn’t all on me. As if your father would have done anything!” Fredrick moved to me, his face streaked with fury. “He may not have been the one making the bets, but his impassiveness, doing nothing to keep us from sliding further into the red, was just as bad. And your mother and my wife just continue to spend money we don’t have to keep up appearances. At least I tried to save this family!” He plunged his finger into his chest.

  The prickles of ire and shame told me he was semi right. My father was sweet and kind, but not good at dealing with problems. Neither was my mother, which made everything important fall to Fredrick. Not that he didn’t fully take on his position and like everyone looking to him, but my parents didn’t help by letting him because they didn’t want to deal with it.

  “I will find a way,” he huffed, tugging at his cuffs. “All I ask is you do not tell anyone about this.”

  My mouth parted.

  “No. One,” he ordered. “Your father, the prince, your mother, or Landen. They don’t need to know.”

  “This involves them too.”

  “Spencer, promise me.” He tilted his head with authority. “Give me a chance before you drag the whole family in. You know it will only cause more stress and drama. How do you think your mother or aunt will respond to knowing we are completely broke?”

  Not well. They were not built to handle crises or being penniless.

  “I will figure it out. I will visit Lord William and speak to him.”

  “You think he will help?”

  “He might give us a little more loan to pay off the debt collectors.”

  Wow… we were in deep. “A loan for a loan we already can’t pay back to him.” I have the means and the money to protect you, Spencer, or destroy you.

  “Let me.” My throat closed, barely getting it out. My chest ached with the thought of going to him, but I knew I was the only hope for my family. Fredrick would just make it worse. William wanted me to beg.

  “What?” He jolted back, his head shaking. “No!”

  “Uncle—”

  “I said no, Spencer. This is an adult problem. I will not send my niece to handle my problems. How would that look?”

  “We’re past that. Believe me. I don’t want to go. But…” I took a deep breath. “It’s the only way. This is exactly what he wants.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Just trust me.”

  “Trust you?” he sputtered. “You are a child!”

  Funny, he was always nagging Landen, saying, “You’re not a child anymore. Start acting like it.” But me, I was still a little girl.

  “You are young and naïve. You do not understand what that man wants. He is a snake. He will try to take advantage.”

  “I’m not naive, Uncle Fredrick.” I stepped up to him, tilting my neck to look up at him. Confident. Controlled. “I know exactly what he wants. I’m not unaware of Lord William’s reputation. Nor am I a fool. I won’t let him touch me. But I’m probably the only one that can possibly get us out of this.”

  He stared down at me as if he had never really seen me before.

  “I’m not asking. I’m telling you,” I said, holding his befuddled gaze. “Go home. Figure out what we can sell or do to keep us afloat. But I will handle Lord William.”

  He blinked several times at me. It was a full minute before he nodded, silently backing away.

  “Be safe. He is a conniving man.” He gave me a look over his shoulder, a thread of awe in it, before he dipped his head and strolled out of the garden.

  Not wanting to reconsider, I pulled my mobile out of my pocket, finding Lord William’s contact info online and pushing the call button.

  “My dear Ms. Sutton, I had a feeling you might call me today.” His voice purred into the line, condescending, causing chills to hack at my skin. “You ready to repent on your knees? Embarrassingly refute something you said you would never do?”

  I bit back all the cross words I wanted to tell him, my mouth pinching together to keep them in.

  He only laughed at my silence. “Without even a word, I can feel that fire in you simmering.”

  “This is purely business,” I stated.

  He laughed, full and loud. “Sure, my dear. Business. Whatever you want to call it. Tomorrow. My office. Noon.”

  “But—”

  “Find a way,” he spoke over me, his tone twisting with cruelty. “Whatever you have to do, Spencer. Because if you don’t make it, try and go around me, or tell your fiancé, I will not only tell the press about your family woes, and let me say not all your family’s actions were legal, but also about your affair with your bodyguard.”

  “There is no affair!”

  “Maybe. It doesn’t matter. The claim is enough for the press to twist the most insignificant touch into a seedy love,” he responded with sureness. He was right. The media craved sordid stories, even if they had to make nothing into something because the public loved drama. “Even Theo won’t be able to brush it aside because this video I have of your bodyguard going into your bedroom that night after he attacked me? Mmmm… definitely suggests something else. So much heat between you two, no one really watching you two could deny it.”

  Bloody hell. Lord William followed us? Took video?

  “You are despicable.”

  “Thank you.” It was like I could feel his grin over the phone. “See you soon, my dear. If you are on your best behavior, I might suddenly have great sympathy for your family’s predicament. I can be very kind and forgiving to those who prove themselves to me.”

  He hung up.

  The mobile slipped from my ear, my chest heaving with fear and disgust. I watched the fog curl around my ankles, a few drops of rain tapping at my cheek. But I felt no cold over my skin.

  It was all on the inside. The implications of this meeting, the trouble my family was in, froze my soul into ice bricks of terror, sorrow, revulsion, and despair.

  What the hell had I just done?

  Chapter 25

  “Landen… pick up. Pick up,” I hissed into the mobile, my feet moving back and forth, indenting the same ten meters as I paced over the wet grass, my brain rolling over and over what just happened. I needed to hear his voice. His advice.

  His cell continued to ring, going to voicemail. Since I knew he never listened to messages, I hung up, texting him to call me. My uncle might want to keep this a secret, but Landen and I shared everything. We always had each other’s backs. He and I had a promise since we were kids. Above our parents, our loyalty to each other came first.

  At least it used to.

  Guilt coated my throat, sliding down into my stomach. Since moving here, my relationship with both him and Mina had ebbed. Life here had taken over everything. I had yet to get my feet steady on the ground. The flat I wanted to get, the clothes more in my style? Somewhere I stopped asking and just wore what they told me, staying where they told me.

  Dialing another number, I waited.

  “Hello?” my friend clipped out over the line, sounding slightly out of breath.

  “Mina…” My hand went to my chest, emotion flooding the back of my eyes at hearing her voice.

  “Spencer?” Her voice went soft for a beat before she cleared her throat. “Wow. Wasn’t expecting to get a call from you. It must be my lucky day.” Every syllable dripped with resentment. “What do I owe the honor of our future princess?”

  “Excuse me?” My brows furrowed. I had witnessed her attitude turned on others, but never me. She and I were always on the same page. Snarky to the rest of the world.

  “Sorry, but kind of in a hurry right now.” The sound of a deep clock bell tolled from somewhere behind her.

  “Well, sorry I bothered you.” My defense slammed back. “I’ll call back when things aren’t so busy for you.”

  “Oh, that’s ironic.” She laughed dryly. “Spencer.” She exhaled
, tiny edges smoothing out. “I’m sorry. But honestly, I had kind of given up hearing from you. Your life is not even remotely in the same realm mine is.”

  “What does that mean? We can’t be friends because I’m with Theo?”

  “You’re not just with Theo, the casual guy in school. You are with the Prince of Great Victoria. The future king. I get it. Your world has changed. But… I used to be your best friend, your first call. Now I know more about you from social media than I actually know from you.” The sounds of people bustling around her muted her slightly. “Or you know about me. You know the world doesn’t revolve around the royals.”

  “I know that,” I snapped.

  “Do you? I know everything there must seem far more important than us commoners.”

  “You are hardly common. You’re father’s an earl.”

  Mina went silent for a moment. “When was the last time you rang me? We saw each other?” Crap. I couldn’t recall the last time I actually spoke with her on the phone. I thought about it all the time, but something always pushed it down on the list. Event. PR. Interview. Something always came up. “Did you even know that I got into the University of Victoria?”

  “What?” I gasped. That was the school she always dreamed about going to but didn’t think she had the grades to get in. “Mina, that’s amazing.”

  “I tried to call you a dozen times. Even texted to tell you the news.”

  “I never got them.” A burning of guilt zinged up between my eyes. “I was given a new phone by RH PR.” Months ago. “And my assistant takes it from me whenever she can.”

  “Assistants. Royal House PR.” She clicked her tongue. “I remember when you hated all that stuff. When you and I used to make fun of them. Now you are one of them.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are, Spencer. No matter what you think. The moment you stepped into the palace and became Theo’s official girlfriend, you accepted it. Now the news feed is filled with your new best friends, Princess Eloise and Hazel. Events where you and Theo look like you’re cut out of catalogues with perfect smiles and outfits. The girl I knew who wore chucks and rode horses through the mud is no longer. This is who you are now. And I understand. That’s your world. Theo. Royal events and charities, what you wear, what you say, how you wave, smile. But I can’t deny I miss my friend who used to wrinkle her nose to all that stuff. Who used to be so passionate about animals and guilted the rest of us to become vegans. Protested, volunteered, or fundraised every weekend. Who dreamed of saving animals, traveling to Africa, going to vet school.”

  “I’m still her,” I refuted, defensive anger boiling under my skin.

  “Are you?

  “Are you?” I slapped back. “We all change and grow up, Mina. Life doesn’t always turn out how we plan. I love Theo and being with him comes with sacrifices. I still love animals and will do all I can, but I don’t think that makes me less of a person.”

  “No.” She blew out. “But it makes you less of the Spencer I thought I knew.”

  My mouth dropped, tears sizzling the back of my lids.

  “Look, I need to get to class. I am happy for you, and I will always want the best for you. I just don’t know if I can be okay with being a sometime friend. I think I need to take a step back for a moment.”

  “Mina…”

  “Between losing you and Landen, I just can’t right now.”

  “Landen? What do you mean by losing?”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Know what?” I growled.

  “Your uncle sent him off early to military school. He’s been there four weeks now.”

  I stared at a bit of frost melting under my feet, shock stilling me. I had just seen my uncle, and he had said nothing. Neither did my mother or dad.

  “Landen tried to call you over and over to tell you.”

  I locked down my jaw, trying to hold back the rush of grief. He needed me, and I wasn’t there.

  “He’s in training, and I guess can’t talk right now, but he said he’d be back for Christmas.”

  I couldn’t speak, my words bunching up in my throat.

  “I’ve gotta go.” Mina’s voice went soft, sounding like my friend. “I’m sorry, Spence. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

  “Okay,” I croaked.

  “Bye.” Mina hung up before I could respond.

  Tears of anger, guilt, and stress curved my spine as emotion slid down my face. Everything weighed down on my shoulders. I had lost my best friend, my family, my house, my dreams, my independence.

  Loving Theo came with a huge price tag. At one time, I thought no matter what it would be worth the cost, but now I was wondering how much I’d have to lose before I completely lost myself.

  Wiping the tears, I gathered myself together, shoving back my emotions. It terrified me how quickly I regained my composure, a little voice asking how long it would be until I turned into Catherine or the dowager queen, Anne. When I would become so good at hiding me, I actually never felt anything anymore.

  Patting my hair down and straightening my sweater, I started to stroll for the door, my feet stumbling at the sight of a figure leaning on a tree nearby, holding a mug in his hand.

  Oh, hell no.

  I was in no way ready to deal with him.

  “Go away, Lennox.” I gritted my teeth, continuing to walk. Thoughts of him and Hazel together dug my nails into my palms, filling my belly with bile. “You are not needed right now.”

  “Even if I provide coffee?” He lifted his eyebrow, stretching out his arm with the cup. Dressed in his fitted suit, his hair damp from a shower, my chest fluttered, my eyes curving over the area I knew a tattoo was hidden underneath. Flashes of his taut rear licked at my mind, heating every inch of my skin.

  “Thought you might need it after last night.”

  “Don’t you need the extra caffeine this morning?” My tongue lashed out. Stepping up to him, his clean and warm scent washed over me. “I would think you’d be exhausted.”

  He straightened off the tree, peering down at me, his jaw setting.

  “I mean… pursuing us all night. Must have been strenuous.” I couldn’t seem to stop, my tone bitter, implying, and condescending. “Though it seems Hazel got the most benefit.” I tilted my head, my chest almost brushing his torso. “Sleep well?”

  His gaze went back and forth between mine. “I did. But I do after vigorous nights… of work.” A hint of ire brushed over him. “Did you, Duchess? I hope you weren’t kept awake by loud noises.”

  Fuck him. Shoving past him, fury ignited in my gut, spreading like wildfire.

  “You’re welcome, by the way,” he shot after me, spinning me around.

  “What the hell do I have to thank you for?”

  “You girls were so high you missed that the press had found you out as well. Guess your identities, even in that place, couldn’t go unnoticed. You would have woken up to your photos smeared across the papers and social media. And you do not hide drunk and high well.” He ambled up to me, forcing my head to go back. He leaned in, hitching my lungs, his mouth brushing by my ear. “What do you remember about last night, Duchess?”

  “Everything.” Lie. “I was in complete control.”

  “Oh, you recall me putting you to bed? Though you were more determined to give me a striptease than sleep.”

  “I did not!” I jerked back, my cheeks heating with a sudden blurry inkling of me using the bedframe like a stripper pole.

  Oh. Holy. Fuck.

  His lips tightened into a thin smile. “Needs work, but if this gig ever falls through, you could probably make a mediocre living at it.”

  “Mediocre?” The word stabbed me like a dagger. What? Was I not sexy enough to strip? Jesus, Spence, listen to yourself…

  “You need a lot more training.” He set the coffee in my hand and moved by me. I couldn’t stop myself from watching his backside walk toward the house.

  “Oh, and Duchess, you are needed in the breakfast room
,” he said before he slipped inside.

  My skin sticky and heated, my body already exhausted by the ups and downs of the morning, it took me a moment to get my breath. Only an hour in and this day had been a bitch, and for some reason, I had this feeling in my gut it was only going to get worse.

  Chapter 26

  “Spencer.” The king greeted me first, glancing up from his spot at the head of the table. Dressed in a nice three-piece suit, the jacket on the back of his chair, he tipped his cup of tea into his mouth, reading over the paper. What was left of his breakfast was pushed off to the side. “I heard you skipped your detail last night, leaving the event, along with my daughter.”

  “Your Majesty.” I dipped into a small curtsy, my eyes darting over to Theo. He had yet to look at me, sawing into his bacon and eggs from the middle of the long table, his shoulders stiff. It was only the two of them, making it even more tense. “I apologize.”

  “I understand you are still learning our ways here, but don’t ever do that again. Eloise doing it is bad enough, though she would be forgiven. But if the media had found out you had walked out on Theo…” He wiped his mouth with a serviette, pushing back the chair. “No matter what the truth is, the press will twist it to fit what they want. And with the mishaps before and the public not responding to you like we hoped…”

  The implication drilled right through my chest. I had been kept away from social media as much as they could, but no one could escape it entirely. And I seemed to be front and center… mainly being criticized and torn apart. It added more pressure down on me. Like if I was hated enough, Theo would relent and choose again, like this was some reality TV game. Even the most spirited person would be broken after a while.

  Alexander fixed his cuffs as a footman helped him put on his jacket.