Beating the System

by E V Darcy

  ‘Why are you here, Tori?’ she finally asked when Victoria refused to divert her gaze from Roman’s back. Hattie had zero intention of making the introductions.

  ‘Don’t call me that,’ Victoria chided as she turned back to Hattie. ‘And I could ask you the same thing.’

  Hattie frowned. ‘What do you mean? I thought you asked Alexi to come find me because of… the situation?’

  Victoria returned her sister’s expression. ‘I spoke to Alexi because your call freaked me out and I knew she was up in Wessex.’

  ‘Yeah, and we’ll get back to that—it’s not exactly the party scene Alexi’s known for. So, you don’t know…?’

  ‘I’ve been here most of the afternoon. We were on our way when you called me. What am I supposed to know?’

  Hattie’s frown deepened. ‘Why I’m here?’

  Victoria opened her mouth to reply before she closed it again as she slowly shook her head. ‘I’ve been focused on Cormac.’ She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder to where her husband stood. ‘You know how nervous he gets for these things and he’s got to get everything perfect. Of course, he’s freaking out just a tad.’

  ‘What’s he—’ No, wait, she had to remain focused. ‘Never mind. So, you didn’t tell Alexi I was pregnant? She worked that out all on her own?’

  ‘Preg—’ Victoria’s eyes went wide, her brows shot so far up her head Hattie wanted to push them back down again. Victoria’s gaze dropped to Hattie’s stomach and a flicker of something—longing? Jealousy? Hattie couldn’t tell—flashed in her eyes. ‘You’re pregnant?’ she whispered. Victoria’s hand reached up and began to nervously play with her necklace, tugging at the pendant and moving it back and forth along its chain.

  The eldest Snape glanced back to Roman, and Hattie could see the calculations going on behind her eyes. She just wished she knew what her sister was trying to fathom, exactly.

  Someone walked from behind Victoria and into Hattie’s line of sight and she turned to see her brother-in-law, Cormac Blake. He walked past her, heading straight for Roman, without even glancing her way.

  He probably knew she wanted to leap out in front of him and shout stop! To grab his arm as he brushed by and demand that he stay clear of her fiancé. It was an open secret that Hattie and Cormac did not get on. Their relationship had started out poorly after she’d called him a prostitute for agreeing to marry Victoria for money. And while she had begrudgingly accepted that perhaps he could bring her sister happiness and had tried to get along with him after their wedding, when it transpired he’d actually betrayed Victoria by working with O’Malley—even if he didn’t follow through—and consequently endangered her life… Well, a lot of people would have sold their souls to the devil himself for the chance to have been a fly on their wall.

  Of course, she’d forgiven him slightly when she’d found out he’d saved her sister and confessed his love. But it didn’t mean that she liked or trusted him. And from the look Victoria gave her, her eldest sister knew exactly what she wanted to do and was daring her to even try.

  ‘I’m barely pregnant. I only found out on Tuesday when the doctors did my discharge check-up. My bloodwork showed it. I’m only a few weeks along.’

  ‘Hi, I’m Cormac,’ she heard her brother-in-law introduce himself. ‘Cormac Blake.’

  ‘Pleasure, Roman Tyrrell.’

  Victoria’s eyes grew wide again as Hattie closed hers tightly. Her sister would definitely know his name if she hadn’t managed to glance his face right away.

  ‘I thought he was engaged,’ Victoria hissed as she took Hattie by the elbow and guided her away from the two men who were chatting far more amicably than she knew she and Victoria were going to.

  Of course, her sister would know that he was engaged… or had been. His and Fiona’s engagement had been a big thing over the New Year. The counterpoint to Victoria’s moment of terror. The papers had rotated between the sad story of the royal newlyweds nearly killed in a home invasion gone wrong, and the joyous news of one of Avalone’s most glamours couples finally getting engaged.

  There would be a picture of Victoria, looking worn and tired as she travelled from home to hospital, one day and the next was Fiona, beaming widely as she flashed the giant diamond ring off. Victoria’s lonely figure dropping James at school, then Fiona lunching with friends as the papers speculated which of the group would make the cut to be bridesmaids.

  ‘You’re right, he was.’

  ‘Don’t play the semantics game with me. Tell me everything.’ Victoria pulled Hattie down next to her on an uncomfortable antique sofa and stared at her imploringly. Hattie sighed and told her the same version of events she’d revealed to their baby sister.

  ‘…it’s all over the internet. Almost as soon as we finished watching the video, the guards were knocking.’

  ‘Bloody hell, he worked fast. So that’s what your call was about earlier, you were dropping the news on him…’ Victoria said as she sat back and stared across the room as her mind raced to process everything Hattie had told her. Before Hattie could answer, Victoria quickly sat up, her back ramrod straight as she turned wide eyes on her younger sister. Hattie watched a myriad of emotions flicker over Victoria’s face before she quickly gathered Hattie into her arms for a hug.

  Hattie was about to push her away—they were not a hugging family—when Victoria’s hushed voice spoke in her ear. ‘Who knows the truth?’

  ‘What?’ the word fell from Hattie’s lips in a rush of breath.

  ‘About the father?’ Victoria might be the less qualified of all the Snape siblings on paper, she’d been utterly terrible at school, but when it came to how to work an angle, she was the best person to go to after the amount of low-level espionage she’d done for their father. It shouldn’t have surprised Hattie she’d be the one to put all the pieces of the puzzle together correctly. She just hadn’t expected her to do it so quickly.

  ‘Me, Roman, and now you.’

  ‘Keep it that way,’ Victoria advised before giving her a quick proper squeeze and releasing her again. The two sat back and stared at one another as silence stretched between them. It wasn’t as if they had anything to speak about.

  ‘So,’ Hattie said as she glanced to where Roman and Cormac stood, speaking in low voices, far more easily than she and her own sister. ‘Why exactly are you two here then if not because of the public spectacle I’ve made? What’s he nervous about?’

  Victoria’s cheeks flushed, and she cast her eyes down, a guilty smile touching her lips. Hattie raised her brow at that.

  ‘Grandfather’s giving Cormac a title. He’ll be the lord to my lady.’

  Hattie blinked. No. That couldn’t be what Victoria had said. Victoria was getting out of the family. She was finally free. And Cormac… Cormac was the last person on earth who’d accept a title! He hadn’t wanted anything to do with the royal side of things, and one of the main points of him agreeing to marry her sister was Victoria’s desire to give up her royal title.

  ‘But you… You said you wanted out?’ Victoria nodded her head, but still didn’t meet her gaze. ‘Tori?’

  ‘Don’t call me that.’ Her sister glared at Hattie, but at least she’d finally looked at her again. She heaved a deep sigh at the challenge in Hattie’s eyes. ‘After O’Malley’s attack and the fact the’—her voice dropped a whisper—‘bastard got away with it, we realised that private security, even Daddy’s, could be bought. The only real security is the Royal Guard…’

  Hattie’s brow creased at her comment. ‘So?’

  Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes at her younger sister’s cluelessness. ‘So, the only way to have the Royal Guard is to be Royal… If I gave up my title I wouldn’t be entitled to the protection and after the attack, I only felt safe with Guardsmen around.

  ‘I had Marcus put them, rather than the police, on Cormac’s room and stationed at the hotel and at the house. But’—another big sigh—‘he told me that if I gave up my title as I was supposed to at t
he end of February, I wouldn’t be able to use them anymore. I’d have to rely on private security and the police—who would no longer guard Cormac as the threat had been caught. Ha!’ Victoria barked out the laugh with derision as she shook her head.

  ‘So, you’re staying in the family?’ Hattie asked. Victoria nodded.

  ‘I have to,’ she whispered, almost a plea for her sister to understand her choice. ‘To keep them safe. They didn’t ask for this life and it’s only because of me they got caught up with O’Malley.’

  Hattie didn’t think that exactly true. After all, Cormac had worked in one of O’Malley’s clubs. Although, she supposed, if he hadn’t saved Victoria from the date from hell, he’d probably have never had any dealings with the other man.

  She looked towards where her brother-in-law was still engaged in conversation with Roman, surprised her fiancé had managed to remain interested for quite so long. Whenever she’d seen him at events, he hardly spoke to anyone. When he did, it was one or two sentences and then he excused himself and moved on.

  ‘I didn’t think he’d accept a title no matter what,’ she mused aloud, watching her brother-in-law standing to attention before moving into a perfect bow for the King.

  ‘He didn’t want to,’ Victoria admitted, as Roman began to mimic him. ‘But when Grandfather wants something…’

  ‘Ugh!’ Hattie groaned, leaning forward and running her fingers through her hair. Victoria didn’t have to finish that sentence; it was a well-known fact that what Grandfather wanted, Grandfather got. ‘Ol’ Dick is not going to bully me,’ she said as she sat back up.

  ‘Don’t call him that, not here.’ Hattie bit back a growl of annoyance, but she knew her sister was right.

  ‘I guess we kind of gate-crashed your ceremony?’

  Victoria shrugged. ‘It’s nice to have you here.’ Hattie glanced at her from the side of her eye. ‘I mean it. Cormac didn’t want a big deal making of it. No one but the two of us, he said. Not even James. He doesn’t want to make his time at school even more difficult. We’ll be keeping this as quiet as possible.’

  ‘Won’t he have to work though? With having a title and getting royal protection?’

  ‘No.’ Her sister shook her head. ‘It was the one piece of bargaining I actually did. Cormac isn’t to be a working royal. He’s got his degree to start in September and after that, he wants to be a legal advocate for those struggling with debts due to fraud.’

  Hattie found herself rather impressed by that little titbit. Fraud or unscrupulous practices in the finance world could destroy economies and send the world into recession again. Anyone wanting to fight that from the bottom up—there was far too much media attention on it in big business over little she thought—was fine in her book.

  ‘I should probably apologise to him,’ Hattie said as she considered her brother-in-law in a new light. ‘Again.’

  Victoria snorted.

  ‘Wait until he finds out why you’re here.’

  Hattie stared at her in incredulity, her heart jumping into her mouth. ‘You’re not going to tell him’—she dropped her voice to a whisper—‘the truth, are you?’

  Victoria looked confused, as if she’d just spoken in a completely different language. ‘Cormac and I don’t keep secrets from one another—’

  ‘Oh, because his being blackmailed by O’Malley wasn’t a secret?’ Hattie scoffed. Victoria narrowed her eyes at her sister, her fingers curling into the hem of the skirt she wore. Hattie was sure her sister would like to put them around her throat. O’Malley was still very much a sore spot with her.

  ‘And it’s exactly because of that reason we don’t keep secrets from one another anymore.’ Hattie bit her lip and glanced to the two men still stood in conversation. Roman burst out laughing. He actually laughed at whatever it was Cormac had told him.

  Her brain itched, and her eye twitched again. She needed to know what they were talking about. What was it Cormac was saying that had Roman so engaged?

  She stood up without a word to her sister and strode across the room to the men.

  ‘Care to share?’ she demanded, her hands on her hips as she looked between the pair, glaring. Cormac looked taken aback by her hostility, but Roman’s expression of merriment didn’t change. If anything, her sudden interruption only looked to amuse him more. ‘What?’

  ‘Your brother here—’

  ‘In-law. My brother-in-law,’ she corrected through clenched teeth.

  ‘Yes, well,’ he said, biting back what looked like a smirk. ‘Cormac here was just regaling me with his first experience meeting the King… I have to say, I hope my own isn’t quite so colourful.’ Hattie looked befuddled. Their audience with Dick was going to be marred by the fact she was pregnant whilst unmarried. How wasn’t it going to be colourful?

  Hattie’s eyes moved between Cormac and Victoria, and her sister rolled her head in exasperation at her sister.

  ‘When he charged His Majesty.’

  Ah. Hattie’s eyes slid back to her brother-in-law. That had been when she’d decided that perhaps he wasn’t all bad.

  ‘Just don’t try and make any sudden movements around Di- the King and you’ll be fine.’

  ‘Duly noted.’ Roman nodded. ‘Cormac has explained to me the process of actually meeting His Majesty. I hadn’t realised the bow had to be so precise.’

  ‘I’m surprised you didn’t explain it already,’ Cormac finally pipped up.

  Hattie’s mouth grimaced in guilt. She should have, but she’d been so angry, so hurt and upset. And when she got like that, she just closed herself off. And who could blame her this time?

  She flicked her gaze towards Roman, who stood there, a smile upon his lips as he watched her interactions with her family. His eyes held hers; amusement and warmth clearly within them, but there was a burning intensity underneath that only she could see. He hadn’t looked at her in such a way in years, and it stole her breath. Her stomach fluttered, her heart pounded, and her knees went slightly weak.

  If he kissed her now, she knew she’d be lost. This was the man she’d loved for more than half her life, the man she’d dreamt of, wished for… The man who had broken her heart now had the chance to smash it to smithereens if she wasn’t careful. And he’d already started cracking it in just a few hours.

  Oh, God. What had she let herself in for?

  She took a huge gulping breath as the realisation hit her and turned away. Her chest tightened and it almost hurt to breathe. She wanted to double over, hunch down and curl up into a ball—

  ‘Hey,’ Roman’s voice was low in her ear his hand on the small of her back, gently rubbing small circles as he came before her. He pulled her to him with his free hand and she went willingly despite her brain screaming she shouldn’t. But it was her heart running the show now, and it knew that she not only wanted this, she needed it. Longed for it. This was the piece she’d been missing all her life… It was like going home.

  She hadn’t had so much as a friend like the man before her since he’d stormed out all those years ago, jeans slung low on his hips, his shirt open, and shoes and socks clutched in his hands, never mind a lover. She’d never been in a committed relationship before, and now…

  Now they’d have no one but themselves, trapped in a sham of a marriage. And while they both knew it was a sham, he was a master at manipulation, at making people believe he was x when really he was y. After all, he’d conned her into believing they were the best of friends just to get into her knickers; he’d convinced the world he was in a loving, committed relationship with Fiona for years…

  He was going to play Hattie like a fiddle, and she knew she was going to fall for him all over again. She was going to be totally taken in by him and when it came for them to part ways, when she was safe with her inheritance in full, when there was no way for anyone to even consider the child might not be Roman’s, she was going to be utterly destroyed. And this time there wouldn’t be Jensen to help her smile afterwards, to help her pick
up the pieces as he had so long ago.

  A sob bubbled up from her chest.

  ‘Hey, hey,’ Roman murmured in her ear, holding her tighter. She burrowed into his chest more and clung to him. Her hands gripping his shirt, hanging on for dear life.

  Her carefully constructed life had been blown to pieces over the past five weeks, and it looked as if her future wasn’t going to be any better.

  ‘Come on, Henrietta. You can do this. Pull yourself together so we can face the King. You can fall apart afterwards,’ Roman whispered, his breath tickling her ear. ‘I’ll be there for you,’ he murmured, pressing a kiss to her sensitive skin just behind her ear. ‘I’ll take care of you.’

  God, it sounded so wonderful. She wanted it, wanted it so much, but he didn’t understand, this wasn’t about her grandfather—

  Good grief! She still had to face him!

  ‘Hattie, do you want me to come in with you?’ Victoria’s gentle voice asked from somewhere just behind her. She shook her head, rubbing it along Roman’s chest as she did. His hands gripped her tighter, pulling her closer to him. His hard body against hers, reminded her how strong he was. A rock for her to hold on to in the midst of a raging sea.

  ‘Okay, but I’m here if you need me.’ Hattie nodded and Victoria retreated; her soft footsteps disappearing across the room, followed by a pair she assumed belonged to Cormac.

  ‘We can do this, Henrietta,’ Roman confided in a hushed tone. ‘We can do this together.’

  And so the manipulation begins, her mind whispered.

  A soft swishing sound caught her ear, and someone cleared their throat after a moment of silence.

  ‘His Majesty will see you now, Lady Henrietta, Mr Tyrrell.’

  They were led from the room via a different door, taking even more twisting corridors. Although these hallways were wider and brighter than the previous, more modern and homely, and Hattie knew them to signify the private suite of her grandparents.